I cannot help but think that the Leader of the Opposition (such as it is) is in a similar position, with her attack on Siouxsie Wiles, as Cersei Lannister would have been had she entered a popularity contest with Margery Tyrel. Absent a significant alchemical stockpile, there is no way for an embittered and essentially useless rule breaker to land a criticism on a useful and broadly popular expert.
If Winston Peters attempts a Lazarus-like rise from the dead with dog-whistling public remarks and /or stunts over the coming months, & Seymour carries on doing the same thing, the Trumpian Territory will be very crowded & the right wing & redneck votes could well be so split they're not a serious challenge to this government.
Please don't use that elitist putdown to denote bigotry.
“Redneck” is the contemptuous term for working people used by Democratic Party mandarins in the 1970s to condemn the minority of working people who voted for Nixon. It’s been thoughtlessly recycled over the years, and was enthusiastically used by Clintonistas and Hopey-Changey cultists to besmirch white working people who they believed should vote for them by divine right.
Think about who the most bigoted, racist, outrageous hatemongers in this country are: Don Brash, Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte, Mike Hosking, David Seymour, Cameron “Whalefat” Slater, John Ansell, Garth “The Knife” McVicar. Only the last-named qualifies as a redneck, as he has actually done some physical work in his life.
My grandfathers and my uncles all worked hard on farms and in factories, and they often got sunburned, including on their necks. They were and are rednecks, just like the hardworking men and women in the United States are. But I’ve never, ever heard any of them utter the brutal and heartless and ignorant rhetoric that we are inflicted with every day from comfortable, sedentary, white-collared, white-necked people like Brash and co.
These hate-filled right wingers are not rednecks, they are bigots.
Thanks Andre. As your link shows, the elitist contempt for poor people certainly goes back a long way. It became particularly nasty after the Nixon election, though. The anger and bewilderment of the East Coast elite is evident in any issue of Time or Newsweek or the Village Voice from the 1970s.
The anger at poor and ignorant whites got even crazier and more unhinged during Trump’s clownish four years.
How am I "unreliable", exactly?
Oh that's right. I didn't buy in to the Russia conspiracy nonsense that you and some others pushed for the last four years. How is that going by the way? How did that Mueller Report go?
Andre. Yes I've noted Morrissey's robust style & views & might not always agree or engage with his comments. But in this case, it reminded me that I have actually heard & seen the same explanation of the origin of rednecks before.
It's an American derogatory term that doesn't really have a traditional equivalent in NZ. I have decided to not use it again in any context.
Randy Newman's contemptuous and unfunny song "Rednecks" was a catalyst in the use of the term. Newman was a guest on Kim Hill's show a while ago: he was a dyed-in-the-wool Russiagate conspiracy theorist.
I like a lot of Randy Newman's songs, & his piano & vocal style. I've always perceived them as loaded with tongue-in-cheek irony & lyrics thus never to be taken at face value.
I am surprised to hear he's a Russiagate conspiracy theorist, but he's not alone there. She's a hard road finding the perfect human being, M.
His 1974 release Good Old Boys was a set of songs about the American South. "Rednecks" began with a description of segregationist Lester Maddox pitted against a "smart-ass New York Jew" on a TV show (this was a joke, because the "Jew" was Dick Cavett), in a song that criticizes both southern racism and the complacent bigotry of Americans outside of the south who stereotype all southerners as racist yet ignore racism in northern and midwestern states and large cities.
This ambiguity was also apparent on "Kingfish" and "Every Man A King" the former a paen to Huey King the assassinated former Governor and US senator from Louisiana, the other a campaign song written by Long himself. An album that received lavish critical praise, Good Old Boys also became a commercial breakthrough for Newman, peaking at No. 36 on Billboard 200, spending 21 weeks there.
But I’ve never, ever heard any of them utter the brutal and heartless and ignorant rhetoric that we are inflicted with every day from comfortable, sedentary, white-collared, white-necked people like Brash and co.
Don Brash I personally think is a little different from the others you mention. Yes he's certainly a class of racist as the term is not singularly applied to people who hate others of another skin colour or culture.
Whenever I've watched or listened to him, my impression is that My-wife-is-from-Singapore-Don (subtext, so I can't be racist) has as his main thesis that "We are One people" & that Maori actually did sign up to surrender their tino rangatiratanga in Te Tiriti in their own nga rohe.
The Kiwi Not Iwi campaign certainly was aimed directly at racists & those who feel threatened or angered by the resurgence of Maori cultural & political awareness & believe they are not owed anything. Even in the face of the obvious fact that the treaty was almost immediately abrogated by settler governments, & that they were ripped off, tricked, ruthlessly warred on & dispossessed nationwide of huge tracts of land there was never any doubt they hadn't legally sold, for legitimately resisting. And further that treaty settlements don't go anywhere near recompensing them for the real economic & social costs of their subjugation.
Don, to me is a racist who is so blinkered he doesn't know he's a racist. He's permanently resistant to education on the matter because he can't comprehend that is. A sad figure.
But I believe (or perhaps hope might be a better word) that by now most people in NZ, and certainly I wish those younger, who have been taught or have themselves just google-researched the history of the treaty & the settlement of New Zealand by Maori & Pakeha (even Wikipedia these days is getting to be very comprehensive & balanced) now see people like Don as a rather doddery old man whose attitude is myopically ill informed and well out of date.
The media have of course focused on the word "fat" and used that to turn it against Judith and you have taken the bait 'hook, line and sinker'. If Judith had not used the word 'fat', the media would have emphasised the word 'big'. OMG….Judith called Siousxie big! Judith needs to be more careful with the language she uses.
Seymour was smarter when he called James Shaw "a complete hypocrite".
Given that you are apparently incapable of providing links; Jester (it's the button that looks like a chainlink – just paste the URL), I fosacked this out of RNZ's archive.
Shaw may be a bit of a grey suit man, but he's far less of a hypocrite than Seymour or Collins.
"We don't have the option of a virtual COP. It's not been made available to us," he said.
"There are negotiations that are happening online but the United Kingdom and the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) feel that we're not going to be able to make the kind of progress that we need to make without some portion of it happening in person."…
"I would prefer not to go, to tell you the honest truth. If I thought that I had some way to influence that, then I would. But I don't. It's not up to me .. also Glasgow in winter? Who needs that."
"David Seymour and Judith Collins had the option of a virtual Parliament … they rejected that option because they wanted to be able to have in-person conferences like this one. Media conferences,"
"The United Nations development agency says Afghanistan is teetering on the brink of “universal poverty” which could become a reality in the middle of next year unless urgent efforts are made to bolster local communities and their economies. It said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has put 20 years of steady economic gains at risk.
…
“Afghanistan pretty much faces universal poverty by the middle of next year,” Kanni Wignaraja, UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Director, told a news conference Thursday launching its 28-page assessment. “That’s where we’re heading — it’s 97-98% (poverty rate) no matter how you work these projections.”
Currently, the poverty rate is 72% and Wignaraja pointed to many development gains after the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001: Per capita income more than doubled in the last 20 years, life expectancy at birth was extended by about nine years, the number of years of schooling rose from six to 10, “and we got women into university.”
"The Taliban have issued an ominous warning to the United States after backlash from the international community surrounding the appointment of its interim Afghanistan "terrorist" government.
…
"…in a statement on Thursday night obtained by news.com.au, Mujahid slammed US officials for calling out cabinet members of the "Islamic State" – aka Afghanistan – and claimed they were in violation of the Doha agreement.
"Pentagon officials have remarked that some cabinet members of the Islamic Emirate or family members of late Haqqani Sahib – may Allah be pleased with him – are on the US blacklists and still targets," the statement reads.
… the group claimed any leaders in the new government under the Doha agreement meant any "blacklists" should have been wiped.
…"all officials of the Islamic Emirate without any exception were part of interaction with the US and should have been removed from the UN and US blacklists, a demand which still remains valid.
"That America and other countries are making such provocative statements and trying to meddle the internal affairs of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate condemns it in the strongest terms. "Such remarks by US officials are a repetition of past failed experiments and such positions detrimental for America.
Yes Gezza, it is indeed a hopeless situation for the Afghans. The USA is not finished with interfering in Afghanistan. They will foment ( and fund and militarily support) as much trouble as they can to bring unwanted problems to both Russia and China because that is all they are interested in to try and prove they are "exceptional and the indispensable nation”. They don't give a damn about the people of Afghanistan and they never have. Same same as Vietnam and all their other "conquests”. I will go so far as to say they would rather destroy the world than lose their "anglo/american " empire. Such is the madness and nature of their military /industrial complex.
Yes, I agree. One of the good things about Trump, I thought, was that he was such an outrageously gung ho "America First, Everywhere" Amerika uber alles ultra-nationalist bully, he made it abundantly clear that nobody else anywhere registers on the minds of so many America's politicians & voters as having any worth beyond what they can do for Americans.
And he publicly abandoned the claim to be "leader of the free world". I thought it woke a few people up.
Biden has gone back to the old script of claiming that title.
Interesting Pakistani expert/intellectual on Kim Hill (RNZ) right now saying the USA was doing well in Afghanistan until it invaded Iraq, then they lost focus and support and it all fell apart.
Of course it doesn't help that the regime they installed was corrupt.
You could at least warn us of the long Fox intro, then the Tucker Carlson intro, before you get to words out of Mr Greenwald that are so predictable that they come out as a set of Leftie Grump Hallmark Cards.
For real 20-year-hindsight analysis from the people who made the decisions on the day and in the weeks afterwards, try this long form interview piece:
– Ambassador John Negroponte, General Richard Myers, Frances Townsend, Admiral James Stafridis, Douglas Feith, John McLaughlin, General David Petraeus, Michael Chertoff, Andrew Card, Senator Tom Daschle, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Joshua Bolten, Paul Wolfowitz, Senator Trent Lott, Ambassador Paul Bremer, Dan Bartlett, and Senator Joseph Liebermann.
But that fact has often been used as a blanket justification for many of the most far-reaching, controversial and even harmful decisions made in the aftermath of the attacks — the vast expansion of the surveillance state; covert operations to kill or capture suspected terrorists, and in some cases torture them; and the invasion first of Afghanistan, where the attacks were planned, and then Iraq, where they were not.
It's been said that the Americans believe that if something is worth doing it's always worth overdoing. Well after 20yrs in Afghanistan – that benighted land that God uses to teach the powerful some humility – maybe it's time they learned this was never more than a dangerous hubris.
And that perhaps moderation is the smartest strategy in the room after all.
PS on scrolling down – it looks like required reading.
For real 20-year-hindsight analysis from the people who made the decisions…
Thanks for that Ad. What a collection of ghouls. Most of them are criminals, who should be behind bars, not enjoying sinecures at universities and extremist "think tanks", but a few of them come across as simply pathetic—like Tom Daschle, who admits to being browbeaten into supporting the aggression, Paul Bremer, who seems to be genuinely delusional, and Joe Lieberman who, as always, just seems sad.
It's a horrible article, a PR puff piece, but it's also darkly funny, and a perfect example of the way these crooks are packaged and presented by their media accomplices. Each one of them has been beautifully photographed in striking black and white. The pictures are similar in style to Annie Leibowitz's shots of celebrities for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. They have the effect of making these people appear sober, respectable, and serious.
I'm sure that I'm not the only person to be offended that the author of this shambles calls these monsters "architects of the post-9/11 world", as if they had built something instead of conspiring to destroy a country and kill millions of people. My favourite quotes are…
“Nations are like people. They get some things right, they get some things wrong.” — Admiral Stavridis
"Once you get into nation-building, you get into pacification….We thought it was going to be a cakewalk and it turned out to be a pretty nasty fight when we got in there."–John Negroponte.
“Over the years, we just took out leader after leader and some of these that are overlooked were vastly more important than people realize…. The agency and JSOC responded incredibly and carried out just innumerable operations. The problem is that so much of this is colored because of the enhanced interrogation techniques usage that was part and parcel of that CIA effort.”—Gen. Petraeus
“We should have not authorized the use of military force but we did. The administration was really pressing us to get it done before the [2002] election. I have regrets about how that was done. I think many, if not most people, share those regrets today. The costs in lives and treasure that we have experienced both in Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of those actions are ones that we all have to take some responsibility for.”— Sen. Tom Daschle
“I think we should have asked more about, ‘OK, where are these weapons of mass destruction? How can we deal with that? How can we destroy them?’ I’ve always felt like I didn’t raise enough questions about the intelligence. … I hope that in the future our leaders will be aggressive in dealing with the administration, with the presidents. Don’t just take their word for it. Try to have more input.” —Senator Trent Lott
<<“I am very happy the American forces have finally left Afghanistan, and very grateful to Allah for making this happen. At last I feel safe.”
Those murders were perhaps the most high-profile civilian deaths of the war. But it was not the only time foreign forces killed large numbers of women, children and non-combatant men, in just this one corner of a single district of Afghanistan.
Five men from Zangabad who spoke to the Guardian said they lost 49 relatives between them in airstrikes and the massacre, bloodshed spanning nearly a decade. These terrible losses, repeated in many parts of Afghanistan, would prove powerful recruiting tools for the Taliban, as they slowly gathered their forces to retake the country. >>
Thanks for that Morrissey…always good to have a bit clear eyed analysis run over these propaganda pieces…you would think these guys would be able to see through such obvious nonsense, but I guess you see what you want to see…
"“Overreach” is a word they use often to describe a nation-building effort that notched tactical and even historic successes — like empowering women in Afghanistan"…I mean come on..really?
Bang on, BG. Wherever they've invaded countries or got involved in their wars since 9/11 (and before) to "save" the local people from their "dreadful" rulers & bring the light of American culture & democracy & technology & corporations to rescue them from their "backwardness", they've slaughtered thousands of ordinary troops legitimately defending their country – & killed more innocent civilians in the local populations [directly or indirectly, thru the aftermaths, like Islamic State] than their despotic rulers ever did.
They've utterly stuffed their economies, ramped up sectarianism, installed incompetent or incoherent governments rife with corruption & instability, changed the balance of power, & in the Middle East either directly or indirectly been responsible for the total or near total destruction of whole cities & towns & their infrastructure.
And they remain blithely unconcerned & seemingly convinced they did them all a favour.
Taliban releases statement saying United States is in 'clear violation' over terrorist comments
[and they are]
Matt Young – news.com.au, 10 Sep, 2021
"That America and other countries are making such provocative statements and trying to meddle the internal affairs of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate condemns it in the strongest terms. "Such remarks by US officials are a repetition of past failed experiments and such positions detrimental for America."
In contrast to the above, the Taliban have praised New Zealand by name for continuing our aid to the Afghan people.
The Biden administration and the Western Alliance are continuing the war by other means.
New Zealand should refuse to take part.
The Biden administration's vindictive, (and pointless), war by other means, inevitably resulting in economic collapse and mass famine in Afghanistan, cannot but help foster political instability across the region and fuel terrorist reprisals against the West.
New Zealand must have no part in the US war by other means, and continue our humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.
Taliban heaps praise on New Zealand over $3 million humanitarian donation
"New Zealand has been the first, the leading country, as it has always been during humanitarian causes, has been the leading country to announce humanitarian aid to the Afghan people."…
…."I would like to say as a representative of the people of Afghanistan, I would like to immensely thank the people of New Zealand and the Government of New Zealand for showing empathy with their fellow human beings,"
I watch Aljazeera tv news daily. It's an excellent global news media service that covers events happening all over the world, covering countless daily events in counries we never see even mentioned in NZ msm online & tv media.
Charlotte has built personal connections wirh the Taliban leadership, and when she is accosted or insulted by the Kabul footsoldiers who are brutally suppressing women protesting [the Taliban have banned protests & inappropriate reporting], or they refuse to talk to her because she is a woman and is "inapproriately dressed" she complains to them & they usually apologise, she reports.
Cameron Slater posts some surveillance footage of Siouxsie Wiles on The BFD, makes extravagant claims and accusations and what appear to be false claims, but gets no traction.
So he passes the DP baton to David Farrar who repeats and tries to give the story some semblance of reasonable analysis that appears tainted by taking Slater at his word. And there's the expected pile on on Kiwiblog.
There's two attack lines – the alleged hypocrisy of Wiles (Slater accusing someone of hypocrisy is rather cute), and blasting the media for not repeating and amplifying Slater's 'scoop'.
Someone in the media does ask questions at the high profile daily Covid media presentation, and Wiles generally does a good job of explaining that she was more or less abiding by the rules but concedes her companion breached rules by going for a swim – if that was a general member of the public it's unlikely anyone would have noticed let alone cared, but those preach strict compliance should be held to account when they don't do what they implore of others.
Then Judith Collins joins the fray, seemingly already well versed in the Slater attack and making intemperate and tone deaf comments about Wiles. I can only guess that this was a deliberate approach by Collins, but it re-emphasises her unsuitability as a leader of a party that needs mainstream support.
And it realigns her with Slater and Dirty Politics, something that will likely not work out well for her.
And back to the original source this morning it's obviously not just Slater involved. The 'editor' of The BFD, Juana Atkins, has carried on with the smearing of Wiles. Atkins has long been as complicit as Slater in the dirty BFD tactics – in fact it seems likely it only continues now due to her efforts to keep it going.
But bringing Farrar into the mix and then Collins piling in as well has effectively dragged the National Party back into the centre of Dirty Politics, something they could ill afford to happen given their deteriorating situation.
Our politics is the poorer for a dysfunctional ex-major party and for the resurrection of Dirty Politics.
Hi Pete. Missing your blog & hope you're enjoying doing the other things you wanted to get on with.
Good summary.
I can't access the BFD on this iPad2; it's too "busy" & continually crashes once I open more than one article there. Just as well though. The BFD's just a parody. Have they even got much of an audience these days?
I sometimes read Kiwiblog but note that it seems to be mainly disgruntled National commenters & the slinging off at “Cindy” & “Jacinderella” etc lowers the tone too much for my taste. It crashes a lot on this iPad2 as well, as the comments start to build up.
Serious National party people will be shaking their heads that Collins is prepared to get into the sewer with Slater and Atkins. Collins will need to try to scrape the mess off the bottom of her shoes but the smell that had subsided is back.
The most pertinent aspect of the incident is that it shows in full flourish who and what Collins is. The age old-timers will be asking, "How did it get to this? Is this who we are? Is this as good as it gets?"
Finlayson seems deadly serious in his contempt for the current management of his old firm. Whether he still counts as a Nat is another matter, but he'll always be a Tory to me.
“Political parties have to feel the cold blast of opposition before they acquire the humility to be in government again. But if you're asking me to express sympathy for them, forget it.”
He's a bright and amusing commentator. I was wrong to suggest that they're all hopeless–they're not. And after they leave parliament, they're often very nice.
Finlayson's version of treaty settlements (for which he has nothing but praise for himself) has largely delivered a very, very narrow Maori middle class based on property rights. If all you want out of a Settlement is to mirror the worst of capitalism, then all you want is the National Party.
Covid is a very tricky virus – the Gnats seem to be less evolved – more primitive – an ancient species that has outlived its time and is now chiefly of interest to paleontologists and cryptozoologists.
DP was always a bit like a 4-wheel drive in wet mud with all wheels spinning fast until one of them got some traction. It was never pretty and it was always dirty. Lately, the Leaders of the National and ACT Parties, the Crusher turned La Cheffe Fatale and the Dancer turned Cockwomble, respectively, have been hustling for the driver’s seat and the media love nothing better than a reality demolition derby. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the NZ political scene at its finest.
Biden withdraws pick to run firearms agency after NRA pressure
NRA hails withdrawal of nomination as ‘critical win’
Richard Luscombe – The Guardian, 9 Sep. 2021
…..The gun reform group Brady says Biden’s decision to bow to National Rifle Association (NRA) pressure and withdraw his nominee, a strong gun control advocate, to lead the agency enforcing federal firearms laws is “a shameful day for our country”.
…..“He would have been an exemplary director of the ATF and would have redoubled its efforts to crack down on illegal firearms traffickers and help keep our communities safe from gun violence,” Biden’s statement said.
…..In its own statement, the NRA hailed it as “a critical win”, claiming that Chipman’s work with Giffords seeking to tighten gun laws “posed a grave threat to the second amendment”.
As we all know or at least are lead to believe if you listen or watch any western media, white western lives and most especially white American lives have a lot more value than any other lives around the world….so as we are force feed a serious amount of air time around the USA's 9/11, for a bit of balance here is a bit of historical context as to why most of the world see the USA as the biggest threat to world peace….here is Chile's own 9/11 which through direct US intervention brought in a reign of terror, death, torture, rape ..which of course is never remembered by western media…but as I said they are not white westerners..so who cares.
Chile’s🇨🇱 9/11: The Augusto Pinochet Coup- How The USA Brought Neoliberal Fascism To Chile
A little of respect for nature, and to see how wonderful and enterprising Bruce is. Brought a smile in this current time when a smile can make wonders to someones state of mind.
"Just months earlier, Shaakir drove to the maximum-security Auckland Prison. After weaving through a labyrinth of guard posts and gates, he was led into a special unit for prisoners of “extreme risk” – a unit originally built to house the gunman behind the Christchurch terror attack.
In a secure meeting room, Shaakir sat face-to-face with [the Lynnmall attacker], a 31-year-old obsessed with violent, terror-inspired content. From behind a solid pane of glass, Shaakir tried to make a connection.
“Although he didn’t know me from a bar of soap, he was really excited to sit with me. He was very calm, and we had a good discussion. I tried to get inside his mind to understand how he had been radicalised, and how I could assist and rehabilitate him.”
Shaakir wasn’t the only Muslim leader who believed [S] needed help to rewrite his radical beliefs. Three years earlier, Auckland barrister Aarif Rasheed tried to persuade authorities to do exactly that.
“They had characterised [S] as a terrorist sympathiser,” says Rasheed. “However, he was the first to admit his lack of Islamic knowledge, and he was willing to learn. With the right support, we had the chance to get this guy on the right path.”
… https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126332093/the-makings-of-a-terrorist–and-the-people-who-tried-to-help-him
…
Superb article, & lots of information about the LynnMall attacker & his situation. One hopes the latest teenager who's been charged with making statements about wanting to kill non-Muslims can be assisted by Imam Shakir & that work can be done to develop and integrate a proper personal plan for de-radicalisation with the Courts, Corrections, Police & Muslim community working together.
This sounds like a lot of submissions – something like 2% of the population. Though a lot of them may be cut and paste sock puppets. Anyone here know the usual amount of submissions to an NZ government ?
The Government is considering over 100,000 submissions on a prohibition of conversion therapy bill
The NZ Christian Network was urging its members to respond in their own words, not copy and paste. This concern about government overreach was widespread among the churches of Aotearoa. The Govt is seeking to privilege one particular ethic above others and enforce its view. It is antithetical to a secular, tolerant society.
The dreary ritual of politicians and media figures looking and sounding sad about the attacks on 11 Sept. 2001, and ignoring any political explanations for them, began in earnest yesterday morning. On TVNZ1, John Campbell interviewed an ex-Clinton staffer who looked mournful and said that today she would be reflecting on the power of memory. Campbell mirrored her sad expression and thanked her profusely for talking to him.
On TV3, the special guests were two former New York firefighters, Captain Peter Hayden and his deputy Jay Jones. Following are the highlights of Ryan Bridge's interview with them—if "highlights" is the word for such a dire few minutes.
Along the bottom of the screen the chyron informs viewers: "PETER AND JAY WALKED OUT OF THE RUBBLE TOGETHER."
DEPUTY CHIEF JAY JONAS: Today is always going to be tied to, uh, ahhh, grief and bereavement.
(Almost instantaneously the chyron at the bottom of the screen changes. "JONAS: TODAY IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE TIED TO GRIEF AND BEREAVEMENT.")
The two ex-firefighters speak at length about the horror they experienced. Then it's time for Ryan Bridge to move the interview along a bit…
RYAN BRIDGE: Jay, I just wanna talk about the response to the attacks, the War on Terror and that kind of stuff. How do you feel about the response George Bush made?
DEPUTY CHIEF JAY JONAS: Uh, I don't know that I'm qualified to comment on that. I'm a firefighter. But I was happy to see the aggressive response to this horrible event.
……
RYAN BRIDGE: It was incredible, absolutely incredible. I was thirteen at the time and I don't have much to say.
(Twenty minutes later, it's time to ask another guest to reflect on the events of Sept. 11th.)
RYAN BRIDGE: It's one of those occasions isn't it where you always remember where you were. Helen Clark joins us for her take next…
(A commercial break ensues, and then the screen is filled with the grave mien of the former prime minister, beaming in via Skype from Paeroa.)
RYAN BRIDGE: It's the evilness you feel, isn't it.
HELEN CLARK: Yes, and evil is the appropriate word.
RYAN BRIDGE: And of course the world changed forever. How do you feel about the response, Helen?
HELEN CLARK:[pause] I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing. …. Iraq distracted attention away from Afghanistan, which needed long term investment. There was some indication that the Taliban were amenable to a political solution, but this was completely rejected by the Americans. [snickers]
(Then the sports guy decides, unwisely, to speak.)
MARK RICHARDSON: There have been no more attacks on American soil by Islamic militants. So the Americans would say it was a success. Do you agree?
HELEN CLARK: No. No I don't.
(Ryan Bridge and Amanda Gillies visibly squirm in embarrassment.)
ad nauseam….
"Ryan is a truly exciting broadcaster who is perfectly suited to a dynamic morning show. He flawlessly pivots from conducting hard-hitting interviews to sharing engaging and entertaining anecdotes, driven by his innate curiosity and genuine desire to connect with his audiences."—SARAH BRISTOW, Newshub "Director of News"
Your transcript, as ever, demonstrates how ill-informed significant sections of our media are.
By comparison, Double Down News actually adds context to the event.
In this 12 minute clip ‘ The One Thing They Don’t Tell You About Terrorism’ Mark Curtis provides the context that we rarely hear. The video refers to the US and the UK’s actions in Iran and Egypt back in the 1950s.
Best of all is Adam Curtis’s ‘The Power of Nightmares.’ if you have the time. Brilliant documentary with an outstanding soundtrack and amazing footage.
Interesting & very good. I know all this stuff already. It hasn't really dawned on me how important it is that most people, and politicians, in NZ don't.
Even when we get an ideal opportunity for the media here – like the 9/11 anniversary, the Lynnmall attack, & the stunning but potentially catastrophic victory of the Taliban – to post that video in an in-depth news article, or show something like that documentary on the Sunday tv1 programme, (which is about the only documentary programme we seem to have that takes offshore media content of any length) instead our media are focussed on often comparatively trivial, magazine-style content & purely local issues.
It's a good way of instructing the wider population where these these attacks have come from & why their aftermaths really happen. We need to steer clear of engaging with these kinds of enterprises.
This covert & sometimes overt US & NATO support for certain Islamic extremist or fundamentalist groups against others, or less than wholesome regimes expriencing insurrections that could undermine US & EU investments, I believe is still going on in places like Libya & other countries.
Our MSM media have been exceptionally restrained on 9/11 today.
Agreed. Although, unfortunately for aficionados of the bizarre, Ryan Bridge's dullness and Mark Richardson's stupidity are no substitute for the full-blown madness of the Saatchi headman Kevin Roberts when he made his notorious appearance on a TV3 chat show twenty years ago.
Quite right Morrisey. One right wing Puppet walks away from the am show, and the the bloke who takes his place is, and you've guessed it is. just another right wing Puppet. Newshub the voice of the National Party.
It will be interesting to see the direction Queensland go in, because they experienced their Delta spike around a month before us. They have a population around 3x the size of Auckland, have had lower daily case numbers than Auckland over the spike, and their current daily numbers are lower.
Queensland has used the same elimination techniques as NZ for each Covid outbreak to date, including the 2 recent Delta outbreaks. (so did Victoria and ACT, but lockdown weariness/lack of compliance has affected Victoria much more than Qld). So far, so good, but Qld has a long border with NSW which is intent on "living with Covid" at levels of vaccination, the wisdom of which is disputed by different "experts." Its hard to see how Qld can keep Delta out for much longer and as elsewhere the race is on to vaccinate as many people as possible and do what can be done to control any leakages.
Possibly a seasonal thing. Our warm damp Autumn wiped my total crop out in less than a week, probably wasn,t the only one. Also guess what same thing happened in Switzerland this year – most of the early summer commercial tomato crops wipe out by fungus too !
…What are 'unlinked sub-clusters', and should we be concerned about them?
Katie Kenny – Stuff.co.nz, Sep 11 2021
….Unfortunately, unlinked sub-clusters and mystery cases make it hard for the Government to be able to confidently lower alert levels without compromising the goal of eliminating Covid-19 from the community.
Experts agree the missing links could mean the difference between Auckland remaining at level 4 lockdown or shifting to level 3 next week….
Lockdown a 'small taste' of World War II hardship, Auckland Mayor says
Kendall Hutt and Josephine Franks – Stuff.co.nz, Apr 02 2020
"We're getting a small taste of what our grandparents and parents went through during World War II and the Depression, so try not to just complain.
"We need to say 'Hey, this is what it is and if we work together we will get through it'."
….there were people doing it harder than others: pregnant women and new mums, people grieving for loved ones, families living in overcrowded conditions.
"It's about thinking of all those people," he said.
Auckland's Mayor is right to invoke the memory of the Great Depression and the World War.
The government is spilling red ink all over the place, record numbers of Auckland families are queuing for food parcels. In the midst of this crisis, the banksters are still transfering hundreds of millions out of our pockets, and out of the country in the form of mortgage payments. (We all pay mortgages, renters are just paying someone else's).
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff compares the experience of our Grandparents generation during the World War and the Great Depression to the current crisis and hardship being experienced by this generation due to the Covid crisis.
Of course there are many differences, one of the biggest difference between then and now, is how little of the current hardship is being shouldered by the top end of town. During the war, in line with the Labour Government policy of conscripting wealth as well as Labour, the top tax rate on the richest New Zealanders was set at 90%.
During the Great Depression, to ease the burden of the crisis on ordinary New Zealanders, a moratorium on mortgages was enacted.
To ease the burden of the lockdown on ordinary New Zealanders, (especially if it neccessary to go on for much longer) the Current Labour Government can look back to the precedents of the past and declare a nationwide Mortgage Moratorium. (We all pay mortgages, renters just pay someone else's). Just as it was in the pass the Mortgage Moratorium legislation would be mandated, that landlords pass on mortgage relief to their tenants.
If there was anything could earn this goverrnment the love of farmers, and undercut farmers support for the right wing Groundswell movement, and the National Party, it would be mortgage relief.
…..by 1931, it was clear that further intervention was necessary to prevent widespread foreclosures and mortgagee sales. Although some of the measures taken applied to all mortgagors, this paper is concerned only with those that were of direct concern to farmers. Mortgage relief for farmers was explicit or implicit in more than a dozen pieces of legislation passed between 1931 and 1936 as successive governments tried to cope with the worsening crisis…..
…..The modification of mortgage conditions was not new in New Zealand. A 'mortgage moratorium' had been imposed as a war measure in 1914
….Although mortgage relief was frequently discussed at some length by
contemporary commentators, and by some historians in the 1950s and
1960s, it has been relegated to a few lines at most in more recent works.'
The Mortgagors and Tenants Further Relief Act, 1932, gave new rights to mortgagors. Whereas, previously, mortgagors could seek relief only when they were directly threatened by mortgagee action, they could now apply for relief independently of any action taken by a mortgagee.
This Act also extended to lessees the same protection
that had been granted to mortgagors,
This last ammendment to the Mortgage Moratorium, that it be extended to lessees, (tenants), may have been due to the work of the powerful 'Anti Eviction Committee'.
A Mortgage Moratorium, to make Auckland's level 4 lockdown bearable until there are Zero community transmission of untraceable infections.
It is not like our big foreign owned banks can't afford it, they take $3.5 billion off shore from us every year.
If the banksters dare bitch and moan, we need to quote Mayor Goff's words at them.
“We're getting a small taste of what our grandparents and parents went through during World War II and the Depression, so try not to just complain…..
this is what it is and if we work together we will get through it.” Auckland Mayor, Phil Goff.
Let us beat this pandemic.
Let's do all it takes.
The alternative is the needless deaths, and an overwhelmed public health system.
Jesus – front, side, and backward effects, huh. The poor bastards have me surrounded!
edit: I have a certain shocked admiration for the idea the vaccine causes infections in the unvaccinated. So getting covid would be the result of exposure to vaccinated people, not actually covid.
As of September 11, Savor Group has been paid $226,856.00 in wage subsidy for August 2021.
Newshub spoke to four employees who say they are among many left desperate to receive the full amounts of the wage subsidies after the company had made applications under their names, but were only paid based on their minimum contracted hours of three hours each.
[…]
When New Zealand went into lockdown, she expected to qualify for the 'part-time' wage subsidy at the very least – but instead, Davison has been receiving just $40 weekly for her contracted three hours work.
This is despite Savor Group applying for a wage subsidy under 'part-time' work in her name for $359, a Ministry of Social Development (MSD) document sent to Newshub confirms.
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
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It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
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David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
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Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
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The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
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New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
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Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
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Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
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The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
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The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
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Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
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I cannot help but think that the Leader of the Opposition (such as it is) is in a similar position, with her attack on Siouxsie Wiles, as Cersei Lannister would have been had she entered a popularity contest with Margery Tyrel. Absent a significant alchemical stockpile, there is no way for an embittered and essentially useless rule breaker to land a criticism on a useful and broadly popular expert.
If Winston Peters attempts a Lazarus-like rise from the dead with dog-whistling public remarks and /or stunts over the coming months, & Seymour carries on doing the same thing, the Trumpian Territory will be very crowded & the right wing & redneck votes could well be so split they're not a serious challenge to this government.
…the right wing & redneck votes…
Please don't use that elitist putdown to denote bigotry.
“Redneck” is the contemptuous term for working people used by Democratic Party mandarins in the 1970s to condemn the minority of working people who voted for Nixon. It’s been thoughtlessly recycled over the years, and was enthusiastically used by Clintonistas and Hopey-Changey cultists to besmirch white working people who they believed should vote for them by divine right.
Think about who the most bigoted, racist, outrageous hatemongers in this country are: Don Brash, Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte, Mike Hosking, David Seymour, Cameron “Whalefat” Slater, John Ansell, Garth “The Knife” McVicar. Only the last-named qualifies as a redneck, as he has actually done some physical work in his life.
My grandfathers and my uncles all worked hard on farms and in factories, and they often got sunburned, including on their necks. They were and are rednecks, just like the hardworking men and women in the United States are. But I’ve never, ever heard any of them utter the brutal and heartless and ignorant rhetoric that we are inflicted with every day from comfortable, sedentary, white-collared, white-necked people like Brash and co.
These hate-filled right wingers are not rednecks, they are bigots.
Good call. Sorry M. Thank you for the education & clarity about rednecks. The word will disappear from any future comments by me.
Good on you Gezza, yoo're a champion.
I recommend thoroughly checking any assertions made by Morrissey that might influence you. His reliability isn't the greatest.
For instance, here's just one of the first hits on looking for the origin of the term "redneck":
https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/redneck-origin-definition-union-uprising-south.html
Thanks Andre. As your link shows, the elitist contempt for poor people certainly goes back a long way. It became particularly nasty after the Nixon election, though. The anger and bewilderment of the East Coast elite is evident in any issue of Time or Newsweek or the Village Voice from the 1970s.
The anger at poor and ignorant whites got even crazier and more unhinged during Trump’s clownish four years.
How am I "unreliable", exactly?
Oh that's right. I didn't buy in to the Russia conspiracy nonsense that you and some others pushed for the last four years. How is that going by the way? How did that Mueller Report go?
Andre. Yes I've noted Morrissey's robust style & views & might not always agree or engage with his comments. But in this case, it reminded me that I have actually heard & seen the same explanation of the origin of rednecks before.
It's an American derogatory term that doesn't really have a traditional equivalent in NZ. I have decided to not use it again in any context.
Randy Newman's contemptuous and unfunny song "Rednecks" was a catalyst in the use of the term. Newman was a guest on Kim Hill's show a while ago: he was a dyed-in-the-wool Russiagate conspiracy theorist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLHxpUQ_B8
Ha! I thought that song was unfunny and unlistenable as well.
The only song of his I like is "Baltimore."
I do enjoy some of his songs, but I just don't have a lot of respect for someone who endorsed Barack Obama in 2012.
I like a lot of Randy Newman's songs, & his piano & vocal style. I've always perceived them as loaded with tongue-in-cheek irony & lyrics thus never to be taken at face value.
I am surprised to hear he's a Russiagate conspiracy theorist, but he's not alone there. She's a hard road finding the perfect human being, M.
His 1974 release Good Old Boys was a set of songs about the American South. "Rednecks" began with a description of segregationist Lester Maddox pitted against a "smart-ass New York Jew" on a TV show (this was a joke, because the "Jew" was Dick Cavett), in a song that criticizes both southern racism and the complacent bigotry of Americans outside of the south who stereotype all southerners as racist yet ignore racism in northern and midwestern states and large cities.
This ambiguity was also apparent on "Kingfish" and "Every Man A King" the former a paen to Huey King the assassinated former Governor and US senator from Louisiana, the other a campaign song written by Long himself. An album that received lavish critical praise, Good Old Boys also became a commercial breakthrough for Newman, peaking at No. 36 on Billboard 200, spending 21 weeks there.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Newman
I like his song Birmingham, among others.
Being a working class "redneck" and an ex "Westie" myself, that is appreciated.
Don Brash I personally think is a little different from the others you mention. Yes he's certainly a class of racist as the term is not singularly applied to people who hate others of another skin colour or culture.
Whenever I've watched or listened to him, my impression is that My-wife-is-from-Singapore-Don (subtext, so I can't be racist) has as his main thesis that "We are One people" & that Maori actually did sign up to surrender their tino rangatiratanga in Te Tiriti in their own nga rohe.
The Kiwi Not Iwi campaign certainly was aimed directly at racists & those who feel threatened or angered by the resurgence of Maori cultural & political awareness & believe they are not owed anything. Even in the face of the obvious fact that the treaty was almost immediately abrogated by settler governments, & that they were ripped off, tricked, ruthlessly warred on & dispossessed nationwide of huge tracts of land there was never any doubt they hadn't legally sold, for legitimately resisting. And further that treaty settlements don't go anywhere near recompensing them for the real economic & social costs of their subjugation.
Don, to me is a racist who is so blinkered he doesn't know he's a racist. He's permanently resistant to education on the matter because he can't comprehend that is. A sad figure.
But I believe (or perhaps hope might be a better word) that by now most people in NZ, and certainly I wish those younger, who have been taught or have themselves just google-researched the history of the treaty & the settlement of New Zealand by Maori & Pakeha (even Wikipedia these days is getting to be very comprehensive & balanced) now see people like Don as a rather doddery old man whose attitude is myopically ill informed and well out of date.
Judith “pot calling the kettle black” with regards to comments about Souxie’s weight issues, Judith is not exactly an A List Model IMHO ?
The media have of course focused on the word "fat" and used that to turn it against Judith and you have taken the bait 'hook, line and sinker'. If Judith had not used the word 'fat', the media would have emphasised the word 'big'. OMG….Judith called Siousxie big! Judith needs to be more careful with the language she uses.
Seymour was smarter when he called James Shaw "a complete hypocrite".
Seymour was smarter…
Wrong. Seymour is not fit to talk about hypocrisy, or anything else for that matter.
Neither of them are particularly smart especially when they open their mouths when the brain is not engaged.
That goes for all politicians from all sides of the house.
Given that you are apparently incapable of providing links; Jester (it's the button that looks like a chainlink – just paste the URL), I fosacked this out of RNZ's archive.
Shaw may be a bit of a grey suit man, but he's far less of a hypocrite than Seymour or Collins.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.rnz.co.nz/article/52655a9d-7a34-4b39-bd83-8abf45abf697
"The United Nations development agency says Afghanistan is teetering on the brink of “universal poverty” which could become a reality in the middle of next year unless urgent efforts are made to bolster local communities and their economies. It said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has put 20 years of steady economic gains at risk.
…
“Afghanistan pretty much faces universal poverty by the middle of next year,” Kanni Wignaraja, UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Director, told a news conference Thursday launching its 28-page assessment. “That’s where we’re heading — it’s 97-98% (poverty rate) no matter how you work these projections.”
Currently, the poverty rate is 72% and Wignaraja pointed to many development gains after the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001: Per capita income more than doubled in the last 20 years, life expectancy at birth was extended by about nine years, the number of years of schooling rose from six to 10, “and we got women into university.”
But she said Afghanistan now faces “a humanitarian and development disaster” resulting from political instability, frozen foreign reserves, a collapsed public finance system, “a crush on local banking because of this,” as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."
…
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-pakistan-afghanistan-islamabad-qatar-d35bb246ad1db460b2a2e8d24c77f99d
…
And
"The Taliban have issued an ominous warning to the United States after backlash from the international community surrounding the appointment of its interim Afghanistan "terrorist" government.
…
"…in a statement on Thursday night obtained by news.com.au, Mujahid slammed US officials for calling out cabinet members of the "Islamic State" – aka Afghanistan – and claimed they were in violation of the Doha agreement.
"Pentagon officials have remarked that some cabinet members of the Islamic Emirate or family members of late Haqqani Sahib – may Allah be pleased with him – are on the US blacklists and still targets," the statement reads.
… the group claimed any leaders in the new government under the Doha agreement meant any "blacklists" should have been wiped.
…"all officials of the Islamic Emirate without any exception were part of interaction with the US and should have been removed from the UN and US blacklists, a demand which still remains valid.
"That America and other countries are making such provocative statements and trying to meddle the internal affairs of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate condemns it in the strongest terms. "Such remarks by US officials are a repetition of past failed experiments and such positions detrimental for America.
"We urge that these incorrect policies be immediately reversed through diplomatic interactions."
…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/taliban-releases-statement-saying-united-states-is-in-clear-violation-over-terrorist-comments/Y5QEQXEITJO5TKBDFCAA2MOT64/
It's like some tragic, truly awful black comedy unfolding. Just seems like a hopeless situation for the Afghan population.
Yes Gezza, it is indeed a hopeless situation for the Afghans. The USA is not finished with interfering in Afghanistan. They will foment ( and fund and militarily support) as much trouble as they can to bring unwanted problems to both Russia and China because that is all they are interested in to try and prove they are "exceptional and the indispensable nation”. They don't give a damn about the people of Afghanistan and they never have. Same same as Vietnam and all their other "conquests”. I will go so far as to say they would rather destroy the world than lose their "anglo/american " empire. Such is the madness and nature of their military /industrial complex.
Yes, I agree. One of the good things about Trump, I thought, was that he was such an outrageously gung ho "America First, Everywhere" Amerika uber alles ultra-nationalist bully, he made it abundantly clear that nobody else anywhere registers on the minds of so many America's politicians & voters as having any worth beyond what they can do for Americans.
And he publicly abandoned the claim to be "leader of the free world". I thought it woke a few people up.
Biden has gone back to the old script of claiming that title.
Interesting Pakistani expert/intellectual on Kim Hill (RNZ) right now saying the USA was doing well in Afghanistan until it invaded Iraq, then they lost focus and support and it all fell apart.
Of course it doesn't help that the regime they installed was corrupt.
The idea they were "doing well" in Afghanistan is as fraudulent as the rationale for attacking it in the first place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-kpdXCYY80
You could at least warn us of the long Fox intro, then the Tucker Carlson intro, before you get to words out of Mr Greenwald that are so predictable that they come out as a set of Leftie Grump Hallmark Cards.
For real 20-year-hindsight analysis from the people who made the decisions on the day and in the weeks afterwards, try this long form interview piece:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/09/10/9-11-attacks-20th-anniversary-reassessing-20-years-of-war-506924
It covers:
– Ambassador John Negroponte, General Richard Myers, Frances Townsend, Admiral James Stafridis, Douglas Feith, John McLaughlin, General David Petraeus, Michael Chertoff, Andrew Card, Senator Tom Daschle, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Joshua Bolten, Paul Wolfowitz, Senator Trent Lott, Ambassador Paul Bremer, Dan Bartlett, and Senator Joseph Liebermann.
Good looking link. Thanks.
At about the fifth para in we get this:
It's been said that the Americans believe that if something is worth doing it's always worth overdoing. Well after 20yrs in Afghanistan – that benighted land that God uses to teach the powerful some humility – maybe it's time they learned this was never more than a dangerous hubris.
And that perhaps moderation is the smartest strategy in the room after all.
PS on scrolling down – it looks like required reading.
For real 20-year-hindsight analysis from the people who made the decisions…
Thanks for that Ad. What a collection of ghouls. Most of them are criminals, who should be behind bars, not enjoying sinecures at universities and extremist "think tanks", but a few of them come across as simply pathetic—like Tom Daschle, who admits to being browbeaten into supporting the aggression, Paul Bremer, who seems to be genuinely delusional, and Joe Lieberman who, as always, just seems sad.
It's a horrible article, a PR puff piece, but it's also darkly funny, and a perfect example of the way these crooks are packaged and presented by their media accomplices. Each one of them has been beautifully photographed in striking black and white. The pictures are similar in style to Annie Leibowitz's shots of celebrities for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. They have the effect of making these people appear sober, respectable, and serious.
I'm sure that I'm not the only person to be offended that the author of this shambles calls these monsters "architects of the post-9/11 world", as if they had built something instead of conspiring to destroy a country and kill millions of people. My favourite quotes are…
How mass killings by US forces after 9/11 boosted support for the Taliban | Afghanistan | The Guardian
<<“I am very happy the American forces have finally left Afghanistan, and very grateful to Allah for making this happen. At last I feel safe.”
Those murders were perhaps the most high-profile civilian deaths of the war. But it was not the only time foreign forces killed large numbers of women, children and non-combatant men, in just this one corner of a single district of Afghanistan.
Five men from Zangabad who spoke to the Guardian said they lost 49 relatives between them in airstrikes and the massacre, bloodshed spanning nearly a decade. These terrible losses, repeated in many parts of Afghanistan, would prove powerful recruiting tools for the Taliban, as they slowly gathered their forces to retake the country. >>
Thanks for that Morrissey…always good to have a bit clear eyed analysis run over these propaganda pieces…you would think these guys would be able to see through such obvious nonsense, but I guess you see what you want to see…
"“Overreach” is a word they use often to describe a nation-building effort that notched tactical and even historic successes — like empowering women in Afghanistan"…I mean come on..really?
"Overreach"—isn't that what got Mayor Cuomo into trouble?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHN9b6mLJlo
Bang on, BG. Wherever they've invaded countries or got involved in their wars since 9/11 (and before) to "save" the local people from their "dreadful" rulers & bring the light of American culture & democracy & technology & corporations to rescue them from their "backwardness", they've slaughtered thousands of ordinary troops legitimately defending their country – & killed more innocent civilians in the local populations [directly or indirectly, thru the aftermaths, like Islamic State] than their despotic rulers ever did.
They've utterly stuffed their economies, ramped up sectarianism, installed incompetent or incoherent governments rife with corruption & instability, changed the balance of power, & in the Middle East either directly or indirectly been responsible for the total or near total destruction of whole cities & towns & their infrastructure.
And they remain blithely unconcerned & seemingly convinced they did them all a favour.
In contrast to the above, the Taliban have praised New Zealand by name for continuing our aid to the Afghan people.
The Biden administration and the Western Alliance are continuing the war by other means.
New Zealand should refuse to take part.
The Biden administration's vindictive, (and pointless), war by other means, inevitably resulting in economic collapse and mass famine in Afghanistan, cannot but help foster political instability across the region and fuel terrorist reprisals against the West.
New Zealand must have no part in the US war by other means, and continue our humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.
I watch Aljazeera tv news daily. It's an excellent global news media service that covers events happening all over the world, covering countless daily events in counries we never see even mentioned in NZ msm online & tv media.
Charlotte has built personal connections wirh the Taliban leadership, and when she is accosted or insulted by the Kabul footsoldiers who are brutally suppressing women protesting [the Taliban have banned protests & inappropriate reporting], or they refuse to talk to her because she is a woman and is "inapproriately dressed" she complains to them & they usually apologise, she reports.
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/afghan-journalists-were-beaten-taliban-155623974.html
So it's Dirty Politics deja vu.
Cameron Slater posts some surveillance footage of Siouxsie Wiles on The BFD, makes extravagant claims and accusations and what appear to be false claims, but gets no traction.
So he passes the DP baton to David Farrar who repeats and tries to give the story some semblance of reasonable analysis that appears tainted by taking Slater at his word. And there's the expected pile on on Kiwiblog.
There's two attack lines – the alleged hypocrisy of Wiles (Slater accusing someone of hypocrisy is rather cute), and blasting the media for not repeating and amplifying Slater's 'scoop'.
Someone in the media does ask questions at the high profile daily Covid media presentation, and Wiles generally does a good job of explaining that she was more or less abiding by the rules but concedes her companion breached rules by going for a swim – if that was a general member of the public it's unlikely anyone would have noticed let alone cared, but those preach strict compliance should be held to account when they don't do what they implore of others.
Then Judith Collins joins the fray, seemingly already well versed in the Slater attack and making intemperate and tone deaf comments about Wiles. I can only guess that this was a deliberate approach by Collins, but it re-emphasises her unsuitability as a leader of a party that needs mainstream support.
And it realigns her with Slater and Dirty Politics, something that will likely not work out well for her.
And back to the original source this morning it's obviously not just Slater involved. The 'editor' of The BFD, Juana Atkins, has carried on with the smearing of Wiles. Atkins has long been as complicit as Slater in the dirty BFD tactics – in fact it seems likely it only continues now due to her efforts to keep it going.
But bringing Farrar into the mix and then Collins piling in as well has effectively dragged the National Party back into the centre of Dirty Politics, something they could ill afford to happen given their deteriorating situation.
Our politics is the poorer for a dysfunctional ex-major party and for the resurrection of Dirty Politics.
Hi Pete. Missing your blog & hope you're enjoying doing the other things you wanted to get on with.
Good summary.
I can't access the BFD on this iPad2; it's too "busy" & continually crashes once I open more than one article there. Just as well though. The BFD's just a parody. Have they even got much of an audience these days?
I sometimes read Kiwiblog but note that it seems to be mainly disgruntled National commenters & the slinging off at “Cindy” & “Jacinderella” etc lowers the tone too much for my taste. It crashes a lot on this iPad2 as well, as the comments start to build up.
We must not forget what Collins said about Wiles
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/collins-calls-dr-siouxsie-wiles-big-fat-hypocrite
And remember who traveled to wellington from lev 4 Auckland because she was/is (HUH) an ‘essential worker.
Serious National party people will be shaking their heads that Collins is prepared to get into the sewer with Slater and Atkins. Collins will need to try to scrape the mess off the bottom of her shoes but the smell that had subsided is back.
The most pertinent aspect of the incident is that it shows in full flourish who and what Collins is. The age old-timers will be asking, "How did it get to this? Is this who we are? Is this as good as it gets?"
Serious National party people will be shaking their heads…
?????
Could you provide us with one example of a "serious National party" person?
Finlayson seems deadly serious in his contempt for the current management of his old firm. Whether he still counts as a Nat is another matter, but he'll always be a Tory to me.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300345221/national-party-is-selfdestructing-former-minister-says
He's a bright and amusing commentator. I was wrong to suggest that they're all hopeless–they're not. And after they leave parliament, they're often very nice.
Finlayson's version of treaty settlements (for which he has nothing but praise for himself) has largely delivered a very, very narrow Maori middle class based on property rights. If all you want out of a Settlement is to mirror the worst of capitalism, then all you want is the National Party.
It was telling that he considers "Property Rights" are second only to the "right to life".
As we have seen many times, "Property Rights" are most often the rights of the "overlords' to hang onto the commons they originally stole.
Rather Ironic when we are talking about Maori land rights.
It worked to get the Maori "elite" invested in supporting a capitalist ruling class however.
Brian Easton makes the same point today in his column.
Yes every time Finlayson is on The Panel (RNZ) he appears to be a legend in his own mind.
I think the stages of National Party people go something like:
minor, mild, moderate, serious, acute, and morbid.
They have a bit of a surplus on the extreme right atm – goes with the territory.
Stuart Munro.. A bit like covid then?
Covid is a very tricky virus – the Gnats seem to be less evolved – more primitive – an ancient species that has outlived its time and is now chiefly of interest to paleontologists and cryptozoologists.
DP was always a bit like a 4-wheel drive in wet mud with all wheels spinning fast until one of them got some traction. It was never pretty and it was always dirty. Lately, the Leaders of the National and ACT Parties, the Crusher turned La Cheffe Fatale and the Dancer turned Cockwomble, respectively, have been hustling for the driver’s seat and the media love nothing better than a reality demolition derby. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the NZ political scene at its finest.
'
All politics is pressure:
Sadly, guns are there to stay in the US. The gun lobby owns too many politicians in both the Democrat & Republican parties.
As we all know or at least are lead to believe if you listen or watch any western media, white western lives and most especially white American lives have a lot more value than any other lives around the world….so as we are force feed a serious amount of air time around the USA's 9/11, for a bit of balance here is a bit of historical context as to why most of the world see the USA as the biggest threat to world peace….here is Chile's own 9/11 which through direct US intervention brought in a reign of terror, death, torture, rape ..which of course is never remembered by western media…but as I said they are not white westerners..so who cares.
Chile’s🇨🇱 9/11: The Augusto Pinochet Coup- How The USA Brought Neoliberal Fascism To Chile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NP0mmEbQk0
A little of respect for nature, and to see how wonderful and enterprising Bruce is. Brought a smile in this current time when a smile can make wonders to someones state of mind.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/disabled-kea-at-willowbank-wildlife-reserve-uses-stone-to-preen-himself/V6A24KRMK6ZZE7SA3ZQMVOR5GE/
"Just months earlier, Shaakir drove to the maximum-security Auckland Prison. After weaving through a labyrinth of guard posts and gates, he was led into a special unit for prisoners of “extreme risk” – a unit originally built to house the gunman behind the Christchurch terror attack.
In a secure meeting room, Shaakir sat face-to-face with [the Lynnmall attacker], a 31-year-old obsessed with violent, terror-inspired content. From behind a solid pane of glass, Shaakir tried to make a connection.
“Although he didn’t know me from a bar of soap, he was really excited to sit with me. He was very calm, and we had a good discussion. I tried to get inside his mind to understand how he had been radicalised, and how I could assist and rehabilitate him.”
Shaakir wasn’t the only Muslim leader who believed [S] needed help to rewrite his radical beliefs. Three years earlier, Auckland barrister Aarif Rasheed tried to persuade authorities to do exactly that.
“They had characterised [S] as a terrorist sympathiser,” says Rasheed. “However, he was the first to admit his lack of Islamic knowledge, and he was willing to learn. With the right support, we had the chance to get this guy on the right path.”
…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126332093/the-makings-of-a-terrorist–and-the-people-who-tried-to-help-him
…
Superb article, & lots of information about the LynnMall attacker & his situation. One hopes the latest teenager who's been charged with making statements about wanting to kill non-Muslims can be assisted by Imam Shakir & that work can be done to develop and integrate a proper personal plan for de-radicalisation with the Courts, Corrections, Police & Muslim community working together.
interesting read, for sure
This sounds like a lot of submissions – something like 2% of the population. Though a lot of them may be cut and paste sock puppets. Anyone here know the usual amount of submissions to an NZ government ?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/300403159/hate-shame-and-redemption-the-road-back-from-conversion-therapy
That seems to me to be a lot. The abortion law reform bill got around 25,000. The same sex marriage bill got about 22,000.
I would think they would have been among the higher numbers, considering their contentiousness
The NZ Christian Network was urging its members to respond in their own words, not copy and paste. This concern about government overreach was widespread among the churches of Aotearoa. The Govt is seeking to privilege one particular ethic above others and enforce its view. It is antithetical to a secular, tolerant society.
https://amongtraditions.wordpress.com/2021/09/02/recognising-the-hostility-of-the-powers/
Bomber’s rant was good too
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/09/10/mediawatch-faafoi-ardern-hate-speech-burn-so-bad-it-sizzles/
"I just wanna talk about the response to the attacks, the War on Terror and that kind of stuff."
A.M. Show, Newshub, TV3, Friday 10 September 2021, 7:15 a.m.
Ryan Bridge, Amanda Gillies, Mark Richardson
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2021/09/9-11-anniversary-new-york-firefighters-describe-moment-towers-collapsed-impact-of-attacks-20-years-on.html
The dreary ritual of politicians and media figures looking and sounding sad about the attacks on 11 Sept. 2001, and ignoring any political explanations for them, began in earnest yesterday morning. On TVNZ1, John Campbell interviewed an ex-Clinton staffer who looked mournful and said that today she would be reflecting on the power of memory. Campbell mirrored her sad expression and thanked her profusely for talking to him.
On TV3, the special guests were two former New York firefighters, Captain Peter Hayden and his deputy Jay Jones. Following are the highlights of Ryan Bridge's interview with them—if "highlights" is the word for such a dire few minutes.
Along the bottom of the screen the chyron informs viewers: "PETER AND JAY WALKED OUT OF THE RUBBLE TOGETHER."
DEPUTY CHIEF JAY JONAS: Today is always going to be tied to, uh, ahhh, grief and bereavement.
(Almost instantaneously the chyron at the bottom of the screen changes. "JONAS: TODAY IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE TIED TO GRIEF AND BEREAVEMENT.")
The two ex-firefighters speak at length about the horror they experienced. Then it's time for Ryan Bridge to move the interview along a bit…
RYAN BRIDGE: Jay, I just wanna talk about the response to the attacks, the War on Terror and that kind of stuff. How do you feel about the response George Bush made?
DEPUTY CHIEF JAY JONAS: Uh, I don't know that I'm qualified to comment on that. I'm a firefighter. But I was happy to see the aggressive response to this horrible event.
……
RYAN BRIDGE: It was incredible, absolutely incredible. I was thirteen at the time and I don't have much to say.
(Twenty minutes later, it's time to ask another guest to reflect on the events of Sept. 11th.)
RYAN BRIDGE: It's one of those occasions isn't it where you always remember where you were. Helen Clark joins us for her take next…
(A commercial break ensues, and then the screen is filled with the grave mien of the former prime minister, beaming in via Skype from Paeroa.)
RYAN BRIDGE: It's the evilness you feel, isn't it.
HELEN CLARK: Yes, and evil is the appropriate word.
RYAN BRIDGE: And of course the world changed forever. How do you feel about the response, Helen?
HELEN CLARK: [pause] I guess hindsight is a wonderful thing. …. Iraq distracted attention away from Afghanistan, which needed long term investment. There was some indication that the Taliban were amenable to a political solution, but this was completely rejected by the Americans. [snickers]
(Then the sports guy decides, unwisely, to speak.)
MARK RICHARDSON: There have been no more attacks on American soil by Islamic militants. So the Americans would say it was a success. Do you agree?
HELEN CLARK: No. No I don't.
(Ryan Bridge and Amanda Gillies visibly squirm in embarrassment.)
ad nauseam….
"Ryan is a truly exciting broadcaster who is perfectly suited to a dynamic morning show. He flawlessly pivots from conducting hard-hitting interviews to sharing engaging and entertaining anecdotes, driven by his innate curiosity and genuine desire to connect with his audiences."—SARAH BRISTOW, Newshub "Director of News"
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2021/09/ryan-bridge-confirmed-as-new-host-of-the-am-show.html
Do you have a point you want to make? Spit it out.
Sure. The point is that Ryan Bridge is a shallow and ill-informed person and is not fit to front a television discussion about such a serious event.
In other words, he's almost a carbon copy of his horrible predecessor, Duncan "Vyshinsky" Garner.
Agreed, Morrissey.
Your transcript, as ever, demonstrates how ill-informed significant sections of our media are.
By comparison, Double Down News actually adds context to the event.
In this 12 minute clip ‘ The One Thing They Don’t Tell You About Terrorism’ Mark Curtis provides the context that we rarely hear. The video refers to the US and the UK’s actions in Iran and Egypt back in the 1950s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0lRwxHvGWQ
Best of all is Adam Curtis’s ‘The Power of Nightmares.’ if you have the time. Brilliant documentary with an outstanding soundtrack and amazing footage.
Thank you for that, Ed. I endorse your opinion of that excellent site.
Another superb analyst of contemporary politics is Mark Curtis. Interestingly, he is rigorously excluded from British state media.
http://markcurtis.info/
The DDN news reporter is Mark Curtis.
I suggest you will have to look and hard in the official narratives from New Zealand, the US and the UK to hear about World Trade Centre 7 Building.
It is predictable to see what detail is omitted in the reporting.
Interesting & very good. I know all this stuff already. It hasn't really dawned on me how important it is that most people, and politicians, in NZ don't.
Even when we get an ideal opportunity for the media here – like the 9/11 anniversary, the Lynnmall attack, & the stunning but potentially catastrophic victory of the Taliban – to post that video in an in-depth news article, or show something like that documentary on the Sunday tv1 programme, (which is about the only documentary programme we seem to have that takes offshore media content of any length) instead our media are focussed on often comparatively trivial, magazine-style content & purely local issues.
It's a good way of instructing the wider population where these these attacks have come from & why their aftermaths really happen. We need to steer clear of engaging with these kinds of enterprises.
This covert & sometimes overt US & NATO support for certain Islamic extremist or fundamentalist groups against others, or less than wholesome regimes expriencing insurrections that could undermine US & EU investments, I believe is still going on in places like Libya & other countries.
Our MSM media have been exceptionally restrained on 9/11 today.
New Zealand certainly does have specific commentary to add on terrorist acts within our country. If it felt inclined to do so.
ATM they are largely confining themselves to the Christchurch ceremony with our firefighters that helped in the recovery effort.
Our MSM media have been exceptionally restrained on 9/11 today.
Agreed. Although, unfortunately for aficionados of the bizarre, Ryan Bridge's dullness and Mark Richardson's stupidity are no substitute for the full-blown madness of the Saatchi headman Kevin Roberts when he made his notorious appearance on a TV3 chat show twenty years ago.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04122016/#comment-1269709
Quite right Morrisey. One right wing Puppet walks away from the am show, and the the bloke who takes his place is, and you've guessed it is. just another right wing Puppet. Newshub the voice of the National Party.
And for today's good news story
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2021/09/stan-walker-shares-emotional-look-at-his-wedding-day-in-music-video-for-new-te-reo-m-ori-song-matemateaone.html
All the best to them. Stan has fought some fights in his young life – I truly hope he has found happiness.
New Covid-19 community cases reported today in New Zealand and Australia.
Auckland: 23
NSW: 1,599
Victoria: 450
ACT: 15
Queensland: 5
Tasmania: 0
SA and WA not yet reported.
It will be interesting to see the direction Queensland go in, because they experienced their Delta spike around a month before us. They have a population around 3x the size of Auckland, have had lower daily case numbers than Auckland over the spike, and their current daily numbers are lower.
Queensland has used the same elimination techniques as NZ for each Covid outbreak to date, including the 2 recent Delta outbreaks. (so did Victoria and ACT, but lockdown weariness/lack of compliance has affected Victoria much more than Qld). So far, so good, but Qld has a long border with NSW which is intent on "living with Covid" at levels of vaccination, the wisdom of which is disputed by different "experts." Its hard to see how Qld can keep Delta out for much longer and as elsewhere the race is on to vaccinate as many people as possible and do what can be done to control any leakages.
Sorry for the odd post. But it has defuddled me a bit, as still don't quite believe it.
I was in the supermarket yesterday. Was looking at tomatoes.
You know those plastic tray things you buy with about 8 in for $3.99 ish?
$10 *****ing dollars. I mean WTF?
Possibly a seasonal thing. Our warm damp Autumn wiped my total crop out in less than a week, probably wasn,t the only one. Also guess what same thing happened in Switzerland this year – most of the early summer commercial tomato crops wipe out by fungus too !
Will Auckland stay at level 4 for another week?
The answer; 'Unfortunately' is, Yes.*
*(That is if the government doesn't abandon their elimination strategy. And I can't see that happening.)
This unfortunately will mean more hardship for many small businesses and retailers and householders.
Let us hope that at Monday’s presser the PM will be able to announce some new relief strategies.
I am hoping for a rent and mortgage moratorium. (Let the banksters share some of the pain).
Correction; I should have said "weeks" not "week".
Auckland's Mayor is right to invoke the memory of the Great Depression and the World War.
The government is spilling red ink all over the place, record numbers of Auckland families are queuing for food parcels. In the midst of this crisis, the banksters are still transfering hundreds of millions out of our pockets, and out of the country in the form of mortgage payments. (We all pay mortgages, renters are just paying someone else's).
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff compares the experience of our Grandparents generation during the World War and the Great Depression to the current crisis and hardship being experienced by this generation due to the Covid crisis.
Of course there are many differences, one of the biggest difference between then and now, is how little of the current hardship is being shouldered by the top end of town. During the war, in line with the Labour Government policy of conscripting wealth as well as Labour, the top tax rate on the richest New Zealanders was set at 90%.
During the Great Depression, to ease the burden of the crisis on ordinary New Zealanders, a moratorium on mortgages was enacted.
To ease the burden of the lockdown on ordinary New Zealanders, (especially if it neccessary to go on for much longer) the Current Labour Government can look back to the precedents of the past and declare a nationwide Mortgage Moratorium. (We all pay mortgages, renters just pay someone else's). Just as it was in the pass the Mortgage Moratorium legislation would be mandated, that landlords pass on mortgage relief to their tenants.
If there was anything could earn this goverrnment the love of farmers, and undercut farmers support for the right wing Groundswell movement, and the National Party, it would be mortgage relief.
All politics is pressure.
This last ammendment to the Mortgage Moratorium, that it be extended to lessees, (tenants), may have been due to the work of the powerful 'Anti Eviction Committee'.
A Mortgage Moratorium, to make Auckland's level 4 lockdown bearable until there are Zero community transmission of untraceable infections.
It is not like our big foreign owned banks can't afford it, they take $3.5 billion off shore from us every year.
If the banksters dare bitch and moan, we need to quote Mayor Goff's words at them.
“We're getting a small taste of what our grandparents and parents went through during World War II and the Depression, so try not to just complain…..
this is what it is and if we work together we will get through it.” Auckland Mayor, Phil Goff.
Let us beat this pandemic.
Let's do all it takes.
The alternative is the needless deaths, and an overwhelmed public health system.
10 minutes says the manor in question is likely connected to a dement[ed] unit.
https://twitter.com/nz_voter/status/1436529365030821890
Jesus – front, side, and backward effects, huh. The poor bastards have me surrounded!
edit: I have a certain shocked admiration for the idea the vaccine causes infections in the unvaccinated. So getting covid would be the result of exposure to vaccinated people, not actually covid.
They've checked themselves with their own lunacy and now it's double down on the absurd, or bust.
Lock the pricks up.
As of September 11, Savor Group has been paid $226,856.00 in wage subsidy for August 2021.
Newshub spoke to four employees who say they are among many left desperate to receive the full amounts of the wage subsidies after the company had made applications under their names, but were only paid based on their minimum contracted hours of three hours each.
[…]
When New Zealand went into lockdown, she expected to qualify for the 'part-time' wage subsidy at the very least – but instead, Davison has been receiving just $40 weekly for her contracted three hours work.
This is despite Savor Group applying for a wage subsidy under 'part-time' work in her name for $359, a Ministry of Social Development (MSD) document sent to Newshub confirms.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/09/savor-group-staff-paid-3-hours-a-week-in-lockdown-despite-bosses-claiming-wage-subsidies-upwards-of-20-hours-work.html