Interesting article about real estate agents who I have no doubt, from experience from the houses we were (and other friends have been) shown and the surprise at where we wanted to buy, operate exactly the same way here.
"One obvious way is through race. Real estate agents steer white homebuyers to white neighborhoods and homebuyers of color to nonwhite neighborhoods, and I think it’s imperative to stress that this is a contemporary practice. Just last year, Newsdaydocumented rampant racial discrimination by real estate agents on Long Island."
"When we think about neighborhood inequality, we should absolutely pay attention to housing prices. Not only do these prices matter for the intergenerational transmission of wealth, housing prices are highly correlated with the quality and robustness of local institutions and amenities."
"Meanwhile, Labour has ruled out a wealth tax, a capital gains tax, or any increase in taxation beyond their derisory re-imposition of a (low) top tax rate on people who earn more than backbench Labour MP's. The message is clear: their "kindness" extends only to rich people, who will be exempted from paying their fair share of the costs of the pandemic (or society in general). As for poor kids, they can keep on starving. Which once again invites the question: what is Labour for, exactly, if they're not going to ever deliver anything?"
My bold.
Already, after a mere few weeks with an overwhelming mandate, this Labour government is shaping up to massively under-whelm us on the left.
they said what they were gonna do and not do, and now they are following through. People should have been underwhelmed before the election and thus maybe have gotten some crumbs thrown their way, but everyone was to busy being scared of Judith Collins. Thus any discussion of what Labour actually said it was gonna do was verboten, and now they don't need the voter anymore. They are elected. Now watch that kindness and gentleness be delivered.
Thank you Rosemary for posting this link last night, the most enlightening explanation of the Labour Party mindset I've read. They're as delusional and brainwashed as any Tories. What a waste.
The Labour MPs aren't delusional Kay. They mostly realise that they are among the rich of this country and they appear to be only too happy to defend their privileges.
Do you think that the PM is going to attempt to bring down house prices? Of course she isn't. After all she has almost certainly achieved a gain of at least a million dollars in the last two and a half years since she bought a property on Sandringham in Auckland that was then worth a couple of million dollars.. Is she going to risk that? Of course not. Is she going to open herself up to a wealth tax on the house? Of course not. Is she going to risk a capital gains tax on the place? Of course not.
She isn't part of the working class. She is one of the better off members of the bourgeoisie. She certainly isn't one of the proletariat. So are most of the other members of the Government and they aren't, at least as I see it, going to risk any of their wealth and status.
Remember that the greens wealth tax was to pay for the changes in benefits and to implement universal allowance. The 2 go hand in hand, so IMO we need to be careful not to frame this as a tax grab. That there is an offset to addressing inadequacies within the current "support" system. This measure appears to get lost in commentary 😉 https://www.greens.org.nz/progressive_tax_reform
It'll need a combination of sad MAGAmorons too discouraged to vote given the imminent eviction of their Spraytan Stalin from the White Supremacist House, together with energised Dems eager to give Biden and Harris an actual chance to get something done turning out in massive numbers.
This essay looks at the 23 types of election fraud in the US, looks at some statistical anomalies in this election and then looks at each of the five most affected states and some specifics of what the Trump campaign are doing.
His capsule descriptions of each type are worth a read, so here's a few examples:
1. Throwing away Trump ballots: These actions are alleged to have been undertaken by either postal workers or polling clerks at polling stations. Some have bragging videos on social media.
2. Legitimately registered voters who voted on election day, were properly verified and ID checked and yet their ballots are not showing up on the electronic vote tracking website as having been counted. This allegation only exists in states that bar code every ballot and offer an online vote tracking system. I have friends in Arizona who say there is no official record of their vote despite doing all that is required to vote.
4. ‘Losing’ ballots that were favourable to Trump or Trump friendly military ballots found in a dumpster. 8,000 military votes were ‘lost’ in Georgia.
8. Manipulating United States Postal Service date stamps to backdate late received ballots… Postal workers in Erie, PA have alleged via affidavit that they were instructed to do this by their supervisor.
12. Selectively curing ballots such as only allowing this practice in Democrat heavy counties and not allowing it in Republican heavy counties. This has formed the basis of the latest Trump campaign lawsuit in PA.
14. Not purging the voter rolls of dead people and allowing them to vote year after year. There have been numerous instances of this.
I'm intrigued by #14. Precisely how do dead voters manage to keep voting continuously?? Is their system so poorly managed that votes in prior elections get fed into a current election count?
What makes the US more inadequate than other western democracies anyway? Seems peculiar that those never have electoral fraud controversies – whereas in the USA they’re apparently considered normal.
Oh fuck, what does it take for people to learn to check for actual reliable information rather than gullibly swallowing down and regurgitating disinformation from known long term liars?
The US does not have a voter or election fraud problem. The US has a problem with the Repug party just bald-faced lying all the time, and will frequently hokey up something they use to rile up the gullible that other people then have to go and debunk.
The Repugs do this at least partly as a distraction from their numerous efforts to prevent free and fair elections by methods including voter suppression, gerrymandering, court-packing etc.
edit: to just start the debunking of the bullshit that you have just idiotically sprayed out:
Last election the Dems beat the drum to death that Russian interference helped Trump win.
This election the Republicans allege Russian interference helped Biden win.
Either the Russians don't know who they want to lead the USA, or the reality is that both sides a bogeyman to blame for their own shortcomings. Why meddle with the electoral system in that country when it's natural state is chaos.
In 2014-2017 an intruder had control of the state computer in Georgia which programmed vote-counting machines for all counties. The same computer also held voter registration records. The intrusion exposed all election files in Georgia since then to compromise and malware. The FBI studied that computer in 2017, and public disclosure came in 2020 from a court case. Georgia did not have paper ballots to measure the amount of error in electronic tallies.
In October 2016, Russians accessed the internal computers of VR Systems, which provides election services, including compilation of election results and their release on the web, in 8 states. The intruders damaged 10 computers. The NSA prepared a classified report in May 2017, and it was leaked in June 2017. Whether the damage affected vote tallies has not been revealed.
You omitted the option that Russia will cheerfully back whoever promises to do the most damage to the US. A weak US will not contest Russia's geopolitical ambitions, a strong one, historically, will.
?? I thought it was up to the courts to determine the existence of electoral fraud. Until they do we just get claim vs counter-claim in the media.
So you want to pretend only one side does it in the USA. Those of us who read history learn the contrary. Why do you think Trump's father used his Democrat party links to help him get rich? Because it was profitable to do so.
So far there's been a vast amount of lies put out by Republicans alleging fraud with zero evidence. That complete lack of evidence is why those lawsuits have failed, almost all immediately at the first hurdle.
If you actually took a look at who is doing what and what evidence is actually being produced, you would very quickly realise that it's almost all coming from only one side. Just look for how many different ways the Republicans tried to stop eligible voters from casting their votes, and compare that to how many comparable Democrat efforts there were (none). Look at how many attempts Republicans have made to stop the counting of legitimate valid votes, and compare that to comparable Democrat efforts (none).
It's mindlessly easy and quick to toss out a throwaway line like "both sides do it". But when you do it without actually checking it to see if it's a supportable assertion, and expect others to debunk you, it's just contemptibly fucking rude.
The integrity of the electoral system is being tested by the claims and the validation process. When you have a country with a history that produced a political climate of paranoia and claims of electoral fraud, obviously you need to conduct due process. What part of that do you not understand?
Farrar's friends in the US discovered that the system failed to register their votes. Are you such a braindead partisan that you don't believe him or them?
If yes, are you incapable of comprehending how such experiences undermine voter trust in the electoral system?? If no, same question applies!
There is a veritable cornucopia of crapulence overflowing with frivolous lawsuits, outright lies, investigations on spurious grounds, all initiated by Republicans, that all turn out to be baseless. Sabine has been kind enough to point you to actual information debunking some of the crap you've so happily swallowed.
Now, what equivalent bullshit put out by Democrats can you actually point to? Real actual actions and evidence, not just quick and dirty lies thrown out by shameless Repug operatives.
Because if you can't. then your "both sides do it" and your mindless regurgitation of one side's bullshit makes you a part of the fucking problem.
Claim and counter-claim aren't evidence. Only a partisan would disagree. Sabine's links to media counter-claims are irrelevant to my points.
Democracy is a numbers game. Results depend on valid votes. Due process must establish the number of valid votes. A Republican state official makes the point:
In Georgia, where the tally is continuing and Mr Biden leads, its secretary of state hit back on Monday at fellow Republicans who had criticised his handling of the election.
Brad Raffensperger, whose office oversees Georgia's election, said: "Was there illegal voting? I am sure there was. And my office is investigating all of it. Does it rise to the numbers or margin necessary to change the outcome to where President Trump is, given Georgia's electoral votes? That is unlikely."
“There’s a great human capacity for inventing things that aren’t true about elections,” said Frank LaRose, a Republican who serves as Ohio’s secretary of state.
You didn't quote any Rep source, therefore your reckon isn't worth much. And did you know that judgments on electoral law (mal)practice are actually made by courts? Not state officials. Your reckon will seem valid in states that don't have electoral law court cases, but subjective reckons of bystanders are irrelevant until we know the outcomes of these controversies.
Honestly you need to add links to your claims. Just for histories sake.
And i would also not compare the Democrats of the pre – 60s to the democrats of today.
As for the claim that one side does it, well history shows us that there are poll taxes. literacy demands, 3/5 of the value of a white person, suffragets etc, and one could – looking at the history of voting and voting rights in the US – simply assume that if the Republicans could they would go back to the 1750 and simply not allow anyone to vote who is not a white property owning (land and humans btw) male. Just based on history – recent history one could even add.
As just one example of how the Repugs lie to create the impression there's smoke, and then quietly slink away when there's nothing to actually show, consider the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity set up early in the current maladministration. It was headed by Kris Kobach, a Ginger Genghis sycophant that set up camp so far up Drumpf's ass he double-bunked with Hannity.
But even Kobach couldn't hokey up even some bullshit apparently credible enough to keep it going, let alone find any actual evidence, so it was quickly shut down. But it served its purpose, creating an impression of "there's something there" for the gullible such as yourself.
That's someone who believes a con. You ought to avoid the trap of assuming other readers fall into that category. Beyond true/false lies maybe. Comments on the maybe part of the validity of truth claims about US voting ought not to be mentally mis-filed into the wrong category!
You have shown yourself to be gullible by swallowing down whole and regurgitating here outright bullshit propaganda put out by well-known liars without showing any sign of making the slightest effort to fact-check.
tl;dr Most of the lawsuits have been immediately thrown out through lack of evidence. None of the cases that got further involve any kind of fraud. What appears to be the most significant win the Repugs got was being allowed to watch ballots being counted from six feet away instead of ten feet. Which affected the vote count by precisely zero.
But hoo-boy, those lawsuits have been absolute gold for duping the gullible into thinking there's something there.
And I've always believed such outcomes are likeliest. However it's best to keep an open mind rather than pre-judge. Is what's going on here just mass delusional-thinking? Trumpism is contagious. But not all rightists get affected, eh?
Then the old saying about where there's smoke there's fire affects mass judgment too. Centrists wonder about that. In an era where fake news gets leverage, we suspect smoke manufacturing to occur, but we do need to check there's no fire.
Or to put it simply, claims that the 2020 election must be free from all flaws are a bit rich coming from the same crowd that spent the last four years telling us that the 2016 election was illegitimate.
@ d. frank..you are regurgitating right-wing spin…in a somewhat confused/incoherent manner..doing groin-stretching leaps..from peak to peak….with not much in-between ..unpleasant to watch..
Nr. 1. Unless you have someone open the ballots in a sorting centre you would not know if its Trump or Biden. But ballots were not delivered by the Trump appointed Post Master – who ordered sorting machines destroyed, slowed down delivery – not only of ballots but of standard mail, medicine etc to the pace of a snail, and so on.
Nr. 2 only mail in ballots are tracable, votes in person are not tracable. They however will be voted on the day itself, while mail in ballots, provisional ballots and ballots deposited in drop boxes will be counted after all in person votes have been counted.
Nr. 4 – again' a drop of newly counted' ballots is not 'found' Military votes are often counted last as they have the longest way to travel, specially overseas votes. And frankly if they would favor Trump he would not call to have them not counted.
Nr. 12 – there is no selectively curing ballots. there is however an issue with signature matching and a lot of people seem to forget to sign the enveloppe. Some States allow for people that have forgot this to come to a polling station and 'fix' this rather then have their vote invalidated. https://apnews.com/article/ap-explains-cured-ballot-018369d11ec349472e95ee5b4053df27
Nr. 14 Dead people and their vote. Firstly, if you cast your mail in ballot and send it off and then die in a car accident on the way home, it is a valid ballot, considering that you were not dead at the time of voting. This happens. But Lindsay Graham is very upset that dead people may vote, i'll give you that. But read here this https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/technology/dead-voters-pennsylvania.html
Just because the Republicans would like to go back to a time where only white male property owning libertarians got to vote, does not mean there is actually rampant voter fraud by democrats or democratic voting people.
Your Sceptical Alert Level and Warning System (AKA BS Detector) has let you down badly.
When PDF mentions “statistical anomalies”, it should raise a major flag with you and set off all alarm systems because you’re being sucked into a rabbit hole. Instead, you’re widening the entrance and even sign-posting it to suck in more folks that are gullible 🙁
Denial doesn't really work. He wouldn't have been able to identify 23 established methods of US electoral fraud if their political culture hadn't normalised them.
Why this hasn't happened in other capitalist democracies is a point worth considering, though. Rabbit holes are for conspiracy theorists, so that's a red herring. Is gaming the system via corruption inevitable due to Americans being inherently corrupt? I doubt it. So there's some kind of cultural factor at work, I suspect. Would be helpful if perceptive readers can identify it.
I guess the moral of the story is that which applies to other infrastructure neglect: if you don't tweak it from time to time it becomes increasingly malfunction-prone.
Consequence of the electoral cycle getting all the political attention. No system design for long-term revision & regeneration.
In the United States at least, if the people don't get what they need for long enough, and there are no public sector institutions sufficiently redistributing and refreshing power, the answer is revolution or civil war.
It's the country with the precedent of both, and I'm sure they would accept either as appropriate. If it got bad.
Denial? What are you on about? Scepticism doesn’t equal denial!?
You’re seeing things that aren’t there, missing flags, and warning signs. Instead of being sceptical of PDF, one of the key players in DP, and of what he writes about the US Elections of all things – more importantly why – you fell for his ‘Nigerian Prince’ scam, just as the gullible do. Instead of engaging your critical faculties, you swallowed his ‘essay’ hook, line & sinker – where was your usual ‘critical analysis’, where was your questioning? You lapped it up like a good lackey. PDF is very good at what he does, I admit, but still, you cannot hide behind ignorance on this one.
You claim that there’s no conspiracy and therefore (!!) no rabbit hole. You jumped straight into it, with your eyes wide open – speaking of detachment from reality and denial.
Your obtuseness on display here on OM today is gobsmacking – you’ve been played like a fiddle and don’t even know it.
The media biases are so blatant and pervasive that I'm not going to swallow any one claim uncritically. Like Dennis I'm just going to wait as see as the process unfolds and get on with other things more useful.
But at this moment you have to bet on Biden. Another four years of Andre's tangerine hued bon-mots being unsupportable.
I presume the article somewhere mentions that all he accepts that capsule descriptions 'all of the above,' could have the words 'Democrat' and 'Republican' substituted for each other, the name Trump able to be replaced by the name of any any President and the acceptance the election year could be any.
One aspect to what is going on in discussions (and ranting) about absentee votes and counting them, is to do with the votes of the military. It has been a perennial topic. Views were expressed before the election likely generated by Trump comments.
'How the fight over mail-in ballots threatens to undermine the votes of American troops'
Another headline elsewhere: 'Trump calls for ballot counting scenario where votes legally cast by military would be thrown out.'
The most wonderful thing about the situation is that those charged with defending the country, those on the line wherever they are to see that the American way is protected, would not even have a vote.
Even better that that should be orchestrated in an attempt to advantage someone who couldn't quite make the cut to be in the military. (i.e. Gutless little rich bastard who was prepared to have others die so he could live the life he wanted and had the father who could wangle it.)
At the end of the day, Trump was leading the USA to total biblical theocracy (among other things). Steps needed to be taken, and if certain things needed to manipulated to achieve this, and so be it.
If the election is indeed stolen from Trump, then those faceless officals did the US people a great service.
Trump as the instrument of god's will always seemed amusing but I agree the US could make a threat to world peace out of god's will on any basis.
Don't agree that cheating is justified though – in principle. If he had actually threatened nuclear war, I could agree that greater-good morality justifies intervention, but he never got that loopy, did he?
I didn't spin anything, btw. Just reported how the other half are seeing things. Remember that social reality is co-constructed. Splitting it into leftist & rightist bubbles produces delusional thinking – the deep holistic reality remains unaffected by that flim-flam.
So I was illuminating the difference between perception (mass perceptions) and reality (court outcomes). Notice how the other commentators were/are doing trial by media instead? Unhelpful, and just as likely to breed delusional thinking.
That wikipedia quote I cited proves hacking the US electoral system computers has happened, so retreating into denial of electoral fraud is a mistake.
Nobodies retreating into denial of electoral fraud. They're watching Trump's cases getting thrown out, the farcical claims and measures, the clumsy shitshow that it all is, and reporting some of that here: that which you accuse of 'trial by media' rather than what it was, a response to your lack of discernment.
And they've (GOP) been blatantly attempting to cheat this whole time. We've all see it. Gerrymandering, trying to invalidate votes, puppet postmaster, lack of polling stations, so many silly court requests, the list goes on AND NOW INCLUDES fraudulently (all the knocked back court cases amount to BS for purpose) obstructing the democratic process and denying that Trump is the biggest loser ever.
All those Q anon twats say they're 'just asking questions' as they repeat preposterous shite as well. It pays to check a few sources, those whom live in alternative realities are among us.
And I'm aware of all that, of course. You see a lack of discernment that isn't actually there. I was illuminating that political psychology driving the situation. The more we comprehend that stuff, the less it is likely to produce sociopathy.
Testing truth claims is part of how human society operates. I regard aversion to that as a strong signal of a sociopathic tendency. Doesn't matter how much bullshit the trumpists are disseminating. That's not the point. Democracy is contestable by design. Trying to deplatform the other team is wrong.
It looks like you saw something you could use to virtue-signal how "open-minded" you are in "considering all sides of an argument". So you posted it here, without applying even the simplest level of skepticism and independent fact-checking.
Had you taken even the most basic look outside of Dirty Politics Farrar's propaganda piece and his links to the worst kinds of partisan gargoyles, you would have quickly understood what a passel of lies the whole thing was.
edit: if you need help on how to fact-check, google is your friend. Here’s a starter how-to.
Stuff the USA. Those who are so concerned about the way they do things, why don't you go and live there and show them what to do. All we are seeing here is USA. No. 5 goes on and on like a toilet roll. The light from the USA dazzles us, and we stand in the middle of the road like gaping bunnies who can't move out of our own way to save ourselves.
Your bigotry is equal and opposite to anything on Farrar's site. Are you really unaware that democracy is based on fairness? Or do you just get off on juvenile point scoring? If so, time to grow up.
NewsMax host and former Trump administration official Carl Higbie spends three minutes spewing a laundry list of false and debunked claims casting doubt on the outcome of the presidential election.
“I believe it’s time to hold the line,” said Higbie, who resigned from his government post over an extensive track record of racist, homophobic and bigoted remarks, to the Trump faithful. “I’m highly skeptical and you should be too.”
The video, which has been shared more than 350,000 times on Facebook, is just one star in a constellation of pro-Trump misinformation that is leading millions of Americans to doubt or reject the results of the presidential election.
…
False election claims have not been confined to the internet and the airwaves. At a “Stop the Steal” rally on Saturday organized by longtime Tea Party activists and anti-lockdown protesters, attendees cited some of the exact same stories that were featured in Higbie’s Newsmax monologue, including claims that had already been factchecked by local Michigan news outlets. Several people at the rally said they did not trust Fox News and, even after Fox had called the election for Biden, the pro-Trump crowd was still chanting, “Four more years!” and “We won!”
The fact that many Trump supporters do not trust the election results is hardly surprising, since the president “primed his supporters to not accept the outcome if he didn’t win”, said Lewis, the misinformation researcher.
What has been striking, she said, are the tensions within the rightwing media about how to address the election results, or what story to tell about what supposedly went wrong.
“They haven’t actually clicked into a clearcut narrative as quickly as the Trump media ecosystem often does,” she said.
Meanwhile back in the real world – the Trump lawsuits are going no where and all lack any valid, verifiable evidence.
Since election day, Donald Trump and other Republicans have filed a smattering of lawsuits in battleground states that have provided cover for Trump and other Republicans to say that the election still remains unresolved.
Legal experts have noted these suits are meritless, and even if they were successful, would not be enough to overturn the election results. Indeed, judges in several of these lawsuits have already dismissed them, noting the Trump campaign has failed to offer evidence to substantiate allegations of fraud.
Smart alec DF with a riposte quoting authority to anyone questioning your assertions. You will never grow up, you will retain that cute, self-importance of a spoiled, indulged child all your life. It has served you well. Why attempt to change it and mature. You should join DPF on Kiwiblog, you would be a real ass-et there.
Well..one thing you have proven here today…is that you aren't very good at 'testing truth claims'…'cos farrar can be relied upon to be spin-free..eh..?..and what did you say that fail at 'testing truth claims' says about a person…?….you are pimping trump-lies..that have been polished by farrar…and you are wondering why you are being jeered at..?
So you can't read comments and comprehend them simultaneously, eh? I don't agree with anything Farrar writes, nor what Trump says. I couldn't care less if retards here think anyone who doesn't toe the party line is an enemy. go back to kindergarten & pay attention next time.
"President Donald Trump's administration is taking on the characteristics of a tottering regime — with its loyalty tests, destabilizing attacks on the military chain of command, a deepening bunker mentality and increasingly delusional claims of political victory.
That quote describes how I've been seeing it. Today I just tried to draw attention to how Farrar framed it, because contesting the merit of electoral fraud claims seems to be part of the US system nowadays. Political commentary ought to gauge the merit of such claims on the basis that they acquire mass traction.
Since trial by media doesn't work (media feeds on competing truth claims) we await judicial process to determine whether evidence exists. Presuming little is found, rightists in the US will subdivide into two camps: a shrinking number who cling to the mass delusion, and an increasing number who would rather get real.
Currently Republicans are mostly exhibiting solidarity. Untenable, likely, so the period we are in is a political hinge. The shift will gather speed. That's the context I have tried to illuminate.
Some perceptions matter a lot more than others when it comes to shifts of democratic power.
Since the Supreme Court has already declined to hear Trump's arguments in the previous weeks, there's very little likelihood of the Supreme Court agreeing to intervene now. Even his own Supreme Court Appointment Amy Coney Barrett signalled in the hearings that she's unlikely to intervene in voting matters.
And the good reasons that the Supreme Court will not intervene are set out here by Politico:
Whether Trump's foolishness continues through certification or not, the markets are the fourth power in the US political world. They're well past Trump already.
The best thing President Trump can do now is use the next 2 months to continue to fuck every leader in the United States off, so much that as well as civil society rising, even stacking the Pentagon will accelerate ex-generals mobilising the military against him.
And no, that's not a coup, that's the Constitutional arms enforcing the elected transition of power.
Yes the split on the right is the thing to watch now. Pragmatists vs those in the bubble. Trump's ego is unconfined by his superego (Freudian theory if I recall it right, the superego being internalisation of social hierarchy). Couldn't he take a rest for four years & run again? Never heard of anyone doing it but am unaware of any reason why not. If viable someone ought to inform him of the option…
Smuts was "prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and 1939 to 1948." (Wikipedia)
Fifteen years between his two stints as ruler is remarkable, eh? But he was a remarkable guy. Guerilla leader in the Boer War, rebel against the British Empire, a lawyer become general in the army. Then given the rank of Field Marshal by Winston Churchill when Smut joined his War Cabinet in WWII by invitation. Plus he wrote Holism & Evolution and the preamble to the UN Charter.
Smuts? Really? Makes David Duke look like a racial lightweight.
"Jan Smuts is today, in his world aspects, the greatest protagonist of the white race. " – W. E. DuBois, 1925
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was formulated at precisely the same time that South Africa committed itself to the policy of apartheid – which he backed.
In the second half of the twentieth century, the problem of racism and apartheid became a leading test case for the assertion of human rights. Smuts was the Prime Minister of South Africa installing a black nationwide prison leading up to 1948.
Sure he helped the UN Declaration preamble, but he fully supported and enforced racial segregation and he enforced it starting as Prime Minister of the South African apartheid state – in fact right through to 1948.
This guy is going to do the NZ Govt. in the end, having a great life in NZ while he is at it!
John Key and the toxic legacy of the “Hobbit Affair” are likely going to haunt the NZ Govt. and Judiciary for some years to come. Sucking up to the Americans is not always a great idea.
Key should never have started this rubbish . I would really like to see a lot more of the background around why this was decided.At best it has only ever been a civil copyright violation but I assume KDC still has the platform defence that Facebook and the others use – no responsibility for what is on there.
Plus it must be time for the USA to drop the request and reimburse us. It's cost us taxpayers here a fortune
And I do feel for the others caught up with KDC. At best they seem to be basically employees and AFAIK none of them have ever been wealthy. This is now eight years on.
I also have a feleling that kim may have donated money won in the past or something similar??? very vague recollection
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, when asked about engaging with the Biden team on a transition, said with a smirk "there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration" and stressed the need to count all votes.
So the Republicans are not going to accept the result of the Election. Crikey! A bit grim for a model Democracy?
I saw Pompeo. I think he was kidding and being a smartarse. In contrast to his 'shove a light build somewhere to cure yourself' boss who has no capability to have a sense of humour and after saying something stupid pretends he was joking.
In think Pompeo is an arrogant smart arse. There is a bit of a serious electoral situation going on over there. Playing fast and loose in situations best served with gravitas is bizarre, pathetic and shows how out of control things are there. Saying exactly the same thing with a beer in his hand at a barbecue with a couple of mates wouldn't be so bad. No big audience there though, so he probably wouldn't have said it.
Which makes it calculated when said in the big world at a formal presser. And makes it indicative of scummy losers being in scummy loser mode.
Mike Pompeo undermined America’s democracy in one press conference
But when another reporter asked if Trump’s refusal to concede was hurting the State Department’s messaging to other nations that elections should be conducted and finalized freely, fairly, and democratically, Pompeo erupted.
“That’s ridiculous, and you know it’s ridiculous, and you asked it because it’s ridiculous,” he asserted. “You asked a question that is ridiculous.”
“The department cares deeply to make sure that elections around the world are safe and secure, and free and fair, and my officers risk their lives that that happens,” he continued.
Except the question wasn’t ridiculous.
Pompeo and his agency frequently criticize other countries’ democratic failures — take, for instance, Pompeo’s recent messages to Tanzania and Belarus — while watching the US president do the same thing at home. And now, based on Pompeo’s remarks, the State Department is actually defending those actions.
This is a bad look for America. Trump’s behavior, and Pompeo’s apparent support for it, makes it harder for the US to tell other countries to abide by democratic norms. If the US doesn’t follow those norms, why should others?
What all this says about the state of America is extremely troubling: The president and secretary of state aren’t doing much better than the undemocratic leaders they lambaste.
So are the Joint Chiefs of Staff loyal to the President, or to the Constitution. And if the constitution wins, can the President sack them and replace them with his puppets?
I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (So help me God)."
The oath to the constitution is dominant, there's no out clause. The bit about obeying the orders of the President is conditional on the code of military justice.
Adolf Twitler can fire anyone he wants from the Joint Chiefs, but anyone he appoints as replacement will have also taken the same oath. Also, given how he's treated the top military personnel, he might have trouble finding anyone in the top brass willing to be a stooge.
I flicked thru a couple of pages..and I think that the ones that people come up with here…are actually of a higher calibre..a gathering together of them would be a good exercise..
The older stuff is better. After two or three years fatigue set in and there was a lot less good new stuff coming through. But I did see a new one today that tickled a bit – "Don Cornholeone".
I was planning a big cathartic dump of all the things I've called him sometime when I won't have need of them anymore. It's a big list, might have to trickle them out maybe twenty a day or something.
Anthony Tata, a retired brigadier general whose nomination for a top Pentagon job collapsed this summer due to Islamophobic tweets and other controversial statements, began overseeing policy for the Defense Department on Tuesday.
The move was part of a high-level civilian leadership shakeup that began on Monday when President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper. It continued on Tuesday with the departure of the Pentagon's acting policy chief, the installation of a Trump loyalist as the new acting defense secretary's chief of staff, and the resignation of the department's top intelligence official.
Republican caught out posing as gay black man who says all sorts of racist stuff and bags democrats. There's loads of obvious bots swarming republican twitter accounts to decry the election as fake. They pretend to be servicemen, many claim they're leaving their democrat wives (lucky imaginary women) and leaving the country cos they've had enough.
You couldn't write better comedy than the Four Seasons Total Landscaping followed by this.
I've been thinking about political ideologies- I can understand how a certain economic/social theory might appeal initially to someone and they want to explore it more, even experiment with it should they reach a position of power.
But to not acknowledge that said theory is creating no end of grief for society at large and despite all the evidence presented to them will not admit anything needs changing? Is this a case of their egos not wanting to admit they've stuffed up big time and it'd be too embarrassing to do a U-turn, or have they been brainwashed so badly to the point of delusion that their way, and ONLY their way is right, and anything else is wrong?
I have a friend who has a very strong fixed belief, and no matter what anyone says, and despite all evidence to the contrary this belief never changes. But she has diagnosed schizophrenia and it's a paranoid delusion. She has a pretty valid excuse excuse. What excuse do these politicians have?
It seems connected to the born-again evangelicals- getting drawn into a belief system to the point of fanaticism, brainwashed to the point of delusion where only their way is the true way.
But to not acknowledge that said theory is creating no end of grief for society at large and despite all the evidence presented to them will not admit anything needs changing? Is this a case of their egos not wanting to admit they've stuffed up big time and it'd be too embarrassing to do a U-turn, or have they been brainwashed so badly to the point of delusion that their way, and ONLY their way is right, and anything else is wrong?
Evolution produced elimination of trumpism by natural design: "Foraging societies make short work of any loud-mouthed braggart trumpeting his supposed superiority over the rest." That's anthropologist Chris Boehm quoted in this book:
In Civilized to Death — The Price of Progress, author Christopher Ryan proposes the most controversial explanation offered today for what is wrong with our world.
Christopher Boehm has been studying power dynamics in foraging societies for more than four decades. Currently the director of the Jane Goodall Research Center and professor of anthropology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California, he has conducted fieldwork with both human and nonhuman primates and published more than 60 scholarly articles and books on altruism.
Tracing the development of altruism and group social control over 6 million years, Christopher argues that our moral sense is a sophisticated defense mechanism that enables individuals to survive and thrive in groups. One of the biggest risks of group living is the possibility of being punished for our misdeeds by those around us. Bullies, thieves, free-riders, and especially psychopaths—those who make it difficult for others to go about their lives—are the most likely to suffer this fate.
Getting by requires getting along, and this social type of selection, Christopher shows, singles out altruists for survival. This selection pressure has been unique in shaping human nature, and it bred the first stirrings of conscience in the human species. Ultimately, it led to the fully developed sense of virtue and shame that we know today.
Readers with a scientific approach to human nature ought to check out his description of how inequality in social structure seems to have been produced by levelling in hunter/gatherer cultures.
If you think Trump losing the election also eliminates another populist from rising, you are dreaming.
The conditions that caused Trumpism across the US, Europe, Brazil, UK, Philippines and elsewhere still exist. They are still particularly strong in the United States.
Pull away from the psycho-trash and look at the world as the electorate tells you it is.
It is bad if people can take bites out of Peter after he is dead. If they had a case to make there have been plenty of opportunities. The whole matter has been mishandled starting with the police enquiry.
Reported in stuff news. The woman at the centre of the latest allegation was in counselling in 2007 and the counsellor said that she had to report the incident to police to continue counselling.
This would be unprofessional and I would start with the counsellor.
I would like to know what is the date of injury which ACC are accepting for this case as I it may need to be changed?
I doubt that ACC have a process to backdate an error made by a counsellor which ACC accredits. It is my understanding it has to be an error made by ACC to backdate. I am thinking that treatment for the injury was denied by the counsellor but I would need to have this confirmed.
I know first hand and recently that ACC have been assessing the date of injury incorrectly when it comes to a schedule 3 issue under the Crimes Act 1961.
There needs to be some sort of review/inquiry into incorrect dates for historical sexual assault claims. I am thinking about historical cases and the outcome of the inquiry into abuse in state and faith based care.
Having my deemed date of injury changed to when I first attended counselling for the injury was important to me. Even though I could not use the actual date of injury having the date changed from what ACC said it was to what I said it was proved me to be correct and ACC incorrect.
ACC interpreting the law incorrectly is a serious matter.
The very tight interpretation that ACC takes to prevent them having to help needy people is an example of the Kafkaesque approach we are increasingly finding in our service delivery from so-called government. Is it government when there is an agency that is machine-like in its actions because of factors like having to make a profit from their budget?
There seems a drive to constantly reduce government spending at the same time as deliberately hurtful actions or inactions of government increase the numbers in need. *Limbo, how low can you go!
I don't see good results likely to come from that arms length approach from our gummint unless they adopt more kindness and put more money into training the people at the coal face, along with room for some discretion, and less money to the CEOs and top managers. If we can't pay world-class salaries, too bad, we will just have to find reasonably suitable people amongst the NZs considered deadheads under the present system. I think that salaries should be advertised at a recommended rate worked on some sort of maths say 5-10 x the living wage, and invite people to tender for the job with their choice of salary along with a full, verifiable CV. The advertised rate would be a guide of how 'tight' (cost-efficient) we are with top managers.
I am going to piss a lot of people off by my comment.
ACC fails far too many claimants who have a serious accident because of what they cover.
A small cut in your thumb, having your face bashed in because you were so drunk that you assaulted people, kept playing sport when you had an injury, drove recklessly and did or could have killed someone.
The minor claims ruin it for the serious claims. This was seen with the EQC my ornament got chipped bla bla and never mind the person who had a shoddy repair and became depressed or tied up with expensive litigation for years. As for the CTV building in Christchurch no one has been prosecuted and if they had been this would not make it right.
Far too many useless government agencies unaware of ruining people's lives. ACC is at the top of my list as without your health poverty is a certainty.
A dead man has rights otherwise the Supreme Court would not be making a judgement to look at quashing a conviction/s.
It does concern me that the woman making the allegation has not been listened to until now. This would have an impact which was avoidable had she been listened to. I cannot speak for her. I feel she was put in a situation that had she not spoken out again last year she would have not been able to speak out after the Supreme Court decision was made.
Unintended consequences and an anomalie which ACC would need to cover as organisational failure.
Who informed the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court have not ignored the woman's complaint?
To say this is historical is not good enough as it is having an impact now. When the complaint is investigated and settled then the woman can get on with her life.
Well I might upset with just the mention that some people can obsess on things and make a case which is unjustifiable. Just because a woman makes a complaint doesn't mean it is valid. That does not mean they can be dismissed but there is a 'moral outrage' on sexual and gender matters at present, and it seems to be becoming the reverse of the often unconcerned attitude of police in the past. The woman may not want to get on with her life even. She might have made the matter the centre of her concerns and never feel satisfied as she has no other strong interest.
I have read that though counselling face to face is very effective, because it is more expensive than other methods, ACC does not wish to use it. Perhaps they use medication with only a short series of counselling, not sure. Obviously they need to set a limit.
Historical complainants are being cheated because of how they were treated dismissed, minimised, blamed. Not right 50 years ago and not right now.
I personally found counselling to be a waste of time when it came to the organisational failure because of the harm it caused indirectly and the harm was not recognised then but has now been confirmed to have had a severe impact. So the Limitations Act time frame has expired and they get away with it.
As for appearing to be obsessive to ask a person to drop having been injured and not being treated fairly is unacceptable.
Regardless of having strong interests sexual abuse can be intrusive on many levels. I hate sitting about as my mind wanders more so I have structure and purpose in my life.
When it comes to a false complaint it usually gets discovered and the falsely accused would probably require counselling.
edit
I’m thinking about people who have in the recent past, introduced the theory which debunks past memories. It has caused confusion and seems to come from a position of dismissal and derision really, and they seem indifferent to the mental problems that have arisen from bad treatment. But people do need to come forward as early as possible, to find a way of releasing the pain of being dehumanised. The problem may be different for those actually physically abused to those mentally and those who have had to live in wretched surroundings. Also did it happen in an institution or not – a workplace or private home.
It seems to me that telling someone would be a good first step; a counselling service with someone with proper credentials (not just assumed because they belong to some organisation, a church, have a certificate that looks authentic). Talking it, then writing down the things that are hard to describe, would be beneficial. Taking it further would then be a second step, after finding out how to go about it and facing the process.
That is the sort of counselling that I envisage would be helpful. Not Freudian on a couch though. I have read about gestalt chair work, I think it is called – that would be good. I read that Prince Harry carried on with counselling for seven years and someone in that field said that would be counter-productive, just renewing the sad and bad memories all the time and imprinting them in the mind more deeply, rather than coming to terms with the past.
I know someone who had a bad experience and took the case to Court. That person has regained balance in life but has now an interest in psychology and reads widely, to continually learn of scholarly findings and others' experiences.
Abuse is something that needs to be acknowledged. Bit I think that it cannot be regarded as a right to delve into the distant past with accusations and a Court case. Not a right but each case should be judged on its merits. This woman must think that she will find peace or be vindicated somehow by the accusation against Peter Ellis. Now he os dead he can't defend himself or if guilty, apologise. He has served a term in prison, as a result of evidence that has been criticised; it is a highly emotional and debated matter. But there's a truism 'If you get what you want, you may find that it is not as satisfying as expected.' What does this woman want or expect? Will she find life better of she can point the finger at him as a bad person, which is now a hollow outcome when he is dead?
It may be that she can find peace in her mind from another approach, other actions that affirm her as a person of value to others, and particularly to herself. Self-hating is so destructive and must be countered by finding one's positives.
He's going to burn the house down before he leavers.
WASHINGTON — The White House has removed the scientist responsible for the National Climate Assessment, the federal government’s premier contribution to climate knowledge and the foundation for regulations to combat global warming, in what critics interpreted as the latest sign that the Trump administration intends to use its remaining months in office to continue impeding climate science and policy.
Michael Kuperberg, executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the climate assessment, was told Friday that he would no longer lead that organization, people with knowledge of the situation said.
According to two people close to the administration, he is expected to be replaced by David Legates, a deputy assistant secretary at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who previously worked closely with climate change denial groups.
The Reserve Bank will kick off a Funding for Lending scheme in December with few if any conditions on how banks could on-lend the money.
The scheme, confirmed in its monetary policy statement on Wednesday, will see the central bank provide cheap funding to banks to on-lend to their customers in a bid to further lower retail interest rates.
My son showed me a large collection online of complaints regarding cheating, lost ballots, counting errors, bias etc but they were complaints from the Democrats (Demon crats?) in previous elections so nothing new here at all. Except I suppose Donald Trump, the President, is louder than previous President hopefuls.
The Māori Party has applied for a recount of two Māori seats, despite having no problem with the final results. Māori Party President Che Wilson said the party had no dispute with the final results in the two electorates of Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and Te Tai Hauāuru (covering Tirau to Porirua), which Labour won. However, he said the party had issues with the way whānau were treated at polling booths and it wanted to highlight prejudice against Māori who were trying to vote.
Perhaps rabid leftists here will accuse them of being infected by Trumpism. Prejudice, eh? If the complainants experienced that, it's a serious matter. Could just be perception, not reality. Will be interesting to see if the vote count changes…
Did you effin' even read the content of their complaint..?…these are serious issues they are talking about….um..!..could you enlighten me as to where you sit on the political spectrum..?…
"Perhaps rabid leftists here will accuse them of being infected by Trumpism. Prejudice, eh?"
Have fun doling out labels Dennis. Do you wear your 'Rabid Centrist' badge with pride?
"This past week, democracy spoke and we voted out the bigot that led our land for the past four years. As we celebrate the historic election, it’s hard not to be saddened by the fact that over seventy million Americans voted to keep him in power. Looking back on the years since he first announced a run for presidency, as well as all of his antics attempting to comment on politics prior, it is clear that the outgoing president is an inherently racist person. Every thing he has said, every policy he has pushed, and every trick he has tried to pull has had underlying racist motives — from calling others rapists and shitholes, to separating and caging refugee families, failing to condemn white supremacy, freely using a variety of derogatory terms, pulling out of deals with allies that aim for a more globalized and clean earth,… and worst of all, modeling to American people that it is all okay." https://independent-americans.medium.com/exploiting-racism-for-personal-gain-72a763278e44
Have I overlooked it but does anyone here care about the lack of action by the RBNZ and our government at the crazy house price rises raging at the moment, especially in Auckland? Surely waiting till March to slap LVRs back on investor mortgages will only exacerbate the situation in the coming weeks and months. I hoped that first home buyers would have a better chance with lower interest rates but it seems that increasing investors’ housing stock is OK with this lot. I am concerned that this may be the old government continuing to do little while saying a great deal. Even the REINZ have expressed concern.
It was quoted as being 'to stimulate the economy'….I guess ardern/robertson missed that economics 101 lecture where the maxim was stated that the most efficient way to stimulate any economy is to give money to the poorest..for the simple fact that money goes straight back into the economy..thru the tills of retailers/service-providors…whereas giving to rich just means that they get richer…so it is not economic-logic that is driving ardern…with her refusal to help the poorest…and to just give more to the rich…so they can buy more rentals/increase the size of their pile…and of course arderns' new tory friends wouldn't like her helping the poorest…so what with that..and the focus groups (vox-pop on steroids ..with all the intellectual rigor of those always tedious exercises in giving the incoherent a voice)..these drive the decision making of this government…in fact..when ardern is asked about helping the poorest…she should just do a lily tomlin..and say "focus-group says 'no!'.."
Have I overlooked it but does anyone here care about the lack of action by the RBNZ and our government at the crazy house price rises raging at the moment, especially in Auckland?
I've mentioned the hyper-inflation in the housing market driven by bank lending a few times.
I can only surmise that the government like it because it pumps billions of dollars into the economy every year without the government having 'borrow' the money and thus helps keep the economy going despite the huge amounts of poverty that its causing. And, of course, the house owners like it because they have huge amounts of income from not doing anything of value.
Thanks. I am very concerned by this widening of the economic divisions within this society. I see that rents are increasing where I live in Auckland. With high unemployment and low benefit incomes, I can only deduce that our high rate of ‘child poverty’ will increase while asset owners like property investors get wealthier. I did not think this government wanted this. I wander what this governemnt’s constituency really is.
Fascinated to see that the National announcement of its spokespeople lineup seems to have totally not been commented on today on the Standard on its release.
My walking mate remarked that it only made about the fifth item in the news, after Covid, West Indians, etc.
Collins said everyone would have to pull their weight as they've only got 33 seats. Why would she have to say that about her self-described 'strong team'?
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
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Interesting article about real estate agents who I have no doubt, from experience from the houses we were (and other friends have been) shown and the surprise at where we wanted to buy, operate exactly the same way here.
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/real-estate-agents-brokers-racism-inequality-housing
"One obvious way is through race. Real estate agents steer white homebuyers to white neighborhoods and homebuyers of color to nonwhite neighborhoods, and I think it’s imperative to stress that this is a contemporary practice. Just last year, Newsday documented rampant racial discrimination by real estate agents on Long Island."
"When we think about neighborhood inequality, we should absolutely pay attention to housing prices. Not only do these prices matter for the intergenerational transmission of wealth, housing prices are highly correlated with the quality and robustness of local institutions and amenities."
Comment from No Right Turn:
"Meanwhile, Labour has ruled out a wealth tax, a capital gains tax, or any increase in taxation beyond their derisory re-imposition of a (low) top tax rate on people who earn more than backbench Labour MP's. The message is clear: their "kindness" extends only to rich people, who will be exempted from paying their fair share of the costs of the pandemic (or society in general). As for poor kids, they can keep on starving. Which once again invites the question: what is Labour for, exactly, if they're not going to ever deliver anything?"
My bold.
Already, after a mere few weeks with an overwhelming mandate, this Labour government is shaping up to massively under-whelm us on the left.
they said what they were gonna do and not do, and now they are following through. People should have been underwhelmed before the election and thus maybe have gotten some crumbs thrown their way, but everyone was to busy being scared of Judith Collins. Thus any discussion of what Labour actually said it was gonna do was verboten, and now they don't need the voter anymore. They are elected. Now watch that kindness and gentleness be delivered.
Exactly.
Our elected representatives don't do what the people want but what business wants and it inevitably makes it worse for the majority of people.
The Labour MPs aren't delusional Kay. They mostly realise that they are among the rich of this country and they appear to be only too happy to defend their privileges.
Do you think that the PM is going to attempt to bring down house prices? Of course she isn't. After all she has almost certainly achieved a gain of at least a million dollars in the last two and a half years since she bought a property on Sandringham in Auckland that was then worth a couple of million dollars.. Is she going to risk that? Of course not. Is she going to open herself up to a wealth tax on the house? Of course not. Is she going to risk a capital gains tax on the place? Of course not.
She isn't part of the working class. She is one of the better off members of the bourgeoisie. She certainly isn't one of the proletariat. So are most of the other members of the Government and they aren't, at least as I see it, going to risk any of their wealth and status.
Unpopular opinion: Jacinda is bascially Tony Blair in heels.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but that doesn't make it any less true!
Remember that the greens wealth tax was to pay for the changes in benefits and to implement universal allowance. The 2 go hand in hand, so IMO we need to be careful not to frame this as a tax grab. That there is an offset to addressing inadequacies within the current "support" system. This measure appears to get lost in commentary 😉
https://www.greens.org.nz/progressive_tax_reform
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/beachheroes/pages/12689/attachments/original/1594876918/Poverty_Action_Plan_policy_document_screen-readable.pdf?1594876918
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300155251/government-should-use-printed-money-to-increase-benefits-which-will-be-spent-in-the-economy
Well, no surprises here. At least National is not lying when they say they will reduce taxes, benefits and appease the rich.
C'mon Warnock. Give us a Democrat Senator in Georgia.
And Ossoff, there are two run offs, and the dems need both of them to win.
It'll need a combination of sad MAGAmorons too discouraged to vote given the imminent eviction of their Spraytan Stalin from the White Supremacist House, together with energised Dems eager to give Biden and Harris an actual chance to get something done turning out in massive numbers.
Unlikely, but I'm still hoping.
Farrar examines the fraud potential in the US election: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/11/is_us_election_fraud_real.html
His capsule descriptions of each type are worth a read, so here's a few examples:
I'm intrigued by #14. Precisely how do dead voters manage to keep voting continuously?? Is their system so poorly managed that votes in prior elections get fed into a current election count?
What makes the US more inadequate than other western democracies anyway? Seems peculiar that those never have electoral fraud controversies – whereas in the USA they’re apparently considered normal.
Oh fuck, what does it take for people to learn to check for actual reliable information rather than gullibly swallowing down and regurgitating disinformation from known long term liars?
The US does not have a voter or election fraud problem. The US has a problem with the Repug party just bald-faced lying all the time, and will frequently hokey up something they use to rile up the gullible that other people then have to go and debunk.
The Repugs do this at least partly as a distraction from their numerous efforts to prevent free and fair elections by methods including voter suppression, gerrymandering, court-packing etc.
edit: to just start the debunking of the bullshit that you have just idiotically sprayed out:
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54811410
So why did the Russians not hack the election this time?
Would have been too easy for them? They prefer a challenge I think.
It seems they tried, but didn't get the traction this time around.
Partly because some of their efforts were shut down on them.
https://www.vox.com/2020/9/21/21401149/russia-2020-election-meddling-trump-biden
Partly because Biden hasn't had decades of smears thrown at him that preprime the gullible for new smears against him, unlike Hillary.
Partly because they tried to use a totally inept messenger completely lacking in credibility to anyone with even the slightest degree of skepticism.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/officials-told-white-house-russian-intelligence-targeted-rudy-giuliani-report-2020-10?r=US&IR=T
Last election the Dems beat the drum to death that Russian interference helped Trump win.
This election the Republicans allege Russian interference helped Biden win.
Either the Russians don't know who they want to lead the USA, or the reality is that both sides a bogeyman to blame for their own shortcomings. Why meddle with the electoral system in that country when it's natural state is chaos.
You got a linky for Repug allegations that Russian interference helped Biden?
I hadn't seen any, and I'm in the mood for a laugh.
You omitted the option that Russia will cheerfully back whoever promises to do the most damage to the US. A weak US will not contest Russia's geopolitical ambitions, a strong one, historically, will.
Oh come on Red
You know the answer to that
Because the right guy won
actual reliable information
?? I thought it was up to the courts to determine the existence of electoral fraud. Until they do we just get claim vs counter-claim in the media.
So you want to pretend only one side does it in the USA. Those of us who read history learn the contrary. Why do you think Trump's father used his Democrat party links to help him get rich? Because it was profitable to do so.
Idiot.
So far there's been a vast amount of lies put out by Republicans alleging fraud with zero evidence. That complete lack of evidence is why those lawsuits have failed, almost all immediately at the first hurdle.
If you actually took a look at who is doing what and what evidence is actually being produced, you would very quickly realise that it's almost all coming from only one side. Just look for how many different ways the Republicans tried to stop eligible voters from casting their votes, and compare that to how many comparable Democrat efforts there were (none). Look at how many attempts Republicans have made to stop the counting of legitimate valid votes, and compare that to comparable Democrat efforts (none).
It's mindlessly easy and quick to toss out a throwaway line like "both sides do it". But when you do it without actually checking it to see if it's a supportable assertion, and expect others to debunk you, it's just contemptibly fucking rude.
Moron.
The integrity of the electoral system is being tested by the claims and the validation process. When you have a country with a history that produced a political climate of paranoia and claims of electoral fraud, obviously you need to conduct due process. What part of that do you not understand?
Farrar's friends in the US discovered that the system failed to register their votes. Are you such a braindead partisan that you don't believe him or them?
If yes, are you incapable of comprehending how such experiences undermine voter trust in the electoral system?? If no, same question applies!
There is a veritable cornucopia of crapulence overflowing with frivolous lawsuits, outright lies, investigations on spurious grounds, all initiated by Republicans, that all turn out to be baseless. Sabine has been kind enough to point you to actual information debunking some of the crap you've so happily swallowed.
Now, what equivalent bullshit put out by Democrats can you actually point to? Real actual actions and evidence, not just quick and dirty lies thrown out by shameless Repug operatives.
Because if you can't. then your "both sides do it" and your mindless regurgitation of one side's bullshit makes you a part of the fucking problem.
Claim and counter-claim aren't evidence. Only a partisan would disagree. Sabine's links to media counter-claims are irrelevant to my points.
Democracy is a numbers game. Results depend on valid votes. Due process must establish the number of valid votes. A Republican state official makes the point:
From New York Times (sorry paywalled) –The Times Called Officials in Every State: No Evidence of Voter Fraud
Its total BS Dennis. Thanks for your persistence Andre.
You didn't quote any Rep source, therefore your reckon isn't worth much. And did you know that judgments on electoral law (mal)practice are actually made by courts? Not state officials. Your reckon will seem valid in states that don't have electoral law court cases, but subjective reckons of bystanders are irrelevant until we know the outcomes of these controversies.
No, I tend to avoid biased sources. Thats how I improve the chance of a reckon being closer to the truth, but even then I keep my mind open.
You on the other hand, seem to be relying for your closed view, on the biased reckon of the POTUS, a man not known for caring for the truth.
Yes I did know that judgments on electoral law are made by courts.
Honestly you need to add links to your claims. Just for histories sake.
And i would also not compare the Democrats of the pre – 60s to the democrats of today.
As for the claim that one side does it, well history shows us that there are poll taxes. literacy demands, 3/5 of the value of a white person, suffragets etc, and one could – looking at the history of voting and voting rights in the US – simply assume that if the Republicans could they would go back to the 1750 and simply not allow anyone to vote who is not a white property owning (land and humans btw) male. Just based on history – recent history one could even add.
As just one example of how the Repugs lie to create the impression there's smoke, and then quietly slink away when there's nothing to actually show, consider the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity set up early in the current maladministration. It was headed by Kris Kobach, a Ginger Genghis sycophant that set up camp so far up Drumpf's ass he double-bunked with Hannity.
But even Kobach couldn't hokey up even some bullshit apparently credible enough to keep it going, let alone find any actual evidence, so it was quickly shut down. But it served its purpose, creating an impression of "there's something there" for the gullible such as yourself.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-voter-fraud-commission-matthew-dunalp-maine-kris-kobach-mike-pence-trump-voter-fraud-commission-matthew-dunalp-maine-kris-kobach-mike-pence-a8477716.html
gullible
That's someone who believes a con. You ought to avoid the trap of assuming other readers fall into that category. Beyond true/false lies maybe. Comments on the maybe part of the validity of truth claims about US voting ought not to be mentally mis-filed into the wrong category!
You have shown yourself to be gullible by swallowing down whole and regurgitating here outright bullshit propaganda put out by well-known liars without showing any sign of making the slightest effort to fact-check.
Bullshit. Electoral fraud can only be established by court decision. No amount of poncing around by you on the stage here is gonna change that.
Oh the power and the passion….
If you're hung up on court decisions and uninterested in looking at actual evidence, well, here's a brief summary of how those lawsuits are going:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/09/republican-lawsuits-challenging-election-pennsylvania-arizona-nevada-havent-gone-far-heres-why/6227596002/
tl;dr Most of the lawsuits have been immediately thrown out through lack of evidence. None of the cases that got further involve any kind of fraud. What appears to be the most significant win the Repugs got was being allowed to watch ballots being counted from six feet away instead of ten feet. Which affected the vote count by precisely zero.
But hoo-boy, those lawsuits have been absolute gold for duping the gullible into thinking there's something there.
And I've always believed such outcomes are likeliest. However it's best to keep an open mind rather than pre-judge. Is what's going on here just mass delusional-thinking? Trumpism is contagious. But not all rightists get affected, eh?
Then the old saying about where there's smoke there's fire affects mass judgment too. Centrists wonder about that. In an era where fake news gets leverage, we suspect smoke manufacturing to occur, but we do need to check there's no fire.
Or to put it simply, claims that the 2020 election must be free from all flaws are a bit rich coming from the same crowd that spent the last four years telling us that the 2016 election was illegitimate.
@ d. frank..you are regurgitating right-wing spin…in a somewhat confused/incoherent manner..doing groin-stretching leaps..from peak to peak….with not much in-between ..unpleasant to watch..
11 November 2020 at 8:56 am
Nr. 1. Unless you have someone open the ballots in a sorting centre you would not know if its Trump or Biden. But ballots were not delivered by the Trump appointed Post Master – who ordered sorting machines destroyed, slowed down delivery – not only of ballots but of standard mail, medicine etc to the pace of a snail, and so on.
See here the last call from a Judge to sweep all facilities to find ballots that were not processed? It was ignored. https://www.syracuse.com/us-news/2020/11/judge-furious-with-louis-dejoy-after-usps-refuses-search-for-undelivered-mail-in-ballots.html
Nr. 2 only mail in ballots are tracable, votes in person are not tracable. They however will be voted on the day itself, while mail in ballots, provisional ballots and ballots deposited in drop boxes will be counted after all in person votes have been counted.
Here is an article that gives a list of states that trace mail in ballots https://www.newsweek.com/these-are-states-where-you-can-track-your-mail-vote-1525920
Nr. 4 – again' a drop of newly counted' ballots is not 'found' Military votes are often counted last as they have the longest way to travel, specially overseas votes. And frankly if they would favor Trump he would not call to have them not counted.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trumps-calls-to-stop-vote-counts-could-disenfranchise-military-voters-2020-11?r=US&IR=T
Nr. 8. Yeah, a bit of reading comes up with' not so fast jose'. https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/nov/05/allegations-usps-election-fraud-michigan-dont-hold/
Nr. 12 – there is no selectively curing ballots. there is however an issue with signature matching and a lot of people seem to forget to sign the enveloppe. Some States allow for people that have forgot this to come to a polling station and 'fix' this rather then have their vote invalidated. https://apnews.com/article/ap-explains-cured-ballot-018369d11ec349472e95ee5b4053df27
Nr. 14 Dead people and their vote. Firstly, if you cast your mail in ballot and send it off and then die in a car accident on the way home, it is a valid ballot, considering that you were not dead at the time of voting. This happens. But Lindsay Graham is very upset that dead people may vote, i'll give you that. But read here this https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/technology/dead-voters-pennsylvania.html
Just because the Republicans would like to go back to a time where only white male property owning libertarians got to vote, does not mean there is actually rampant voter fraud by democrats or democratic voting people.
Run-of-the-mill clerical errors have been used as false evidence of voter fraud in Michigan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/technology/false-dead-michigan-voter-claims.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
More Kabuki theatre for the audience of one.
https://twitter.com/ashleylynch/status/1326044567297159169
https://twitter.com/jacobsoboroff/status/1326153333376086016
https://twitter.com/PoliticsReid/status/1326189255857594374
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1326000431546458113
edit:
we have a live one
https://twitter.com/JBurch1971/status/1326252620906958856
Your Sceptical Alert Level and Warning System (AKA BS Detector) has let you down badly.
When PDF mentions “statistical anomalies”, it should raise a major flag with you and set off all alarm systems because you’re being sucked into a rabbit hole. Instead, you’re widening the entrance and even sign-posting it to suck in more folks that are gullible 🙁
FFS!!
Denial doesn't really work. He wouldn't have been able to identify 23 established methods of US electoral fraud if their political culture hadn't normalised them.
Why this hasn't happened in other capitalist democracies is a point worth considering, though. Rabbit holes are for conspiracy theorists, so that's a red herring. Is gaming the system via corruption inevitable due to Americans being inherently corrupt? I doubt it. So there's some kind of cultural factor at work, I suspect. Would be helpful if perceptive readers can identify it.
Ad more or less identified it last night, too much political process, not enough institional stability.
In particular the US has a very complex and arcane electoral system at every level. It just begs to be gamed.
I guess the moral of the story is that which applies to other infrastructure neglect: if you don't tweak it from time to time it becomes increasingly malfunction-prone.
Consequence of the electoral cycle getting all the political attention. No system design for long-term revision & regeneration.
In the United States at least, if the people don't get what they need for long enough, and there are no public sector institutions sufficiently redistributing and refreshing power, the answer is revolution or civil war.
It's the country with the precedent of both, and I'm sure they would accept either as appropriate. If it got bad.
Denial? What are you on about? Scepticism doesn’t equal denial!?
You’re seeing things that aren’t there, missing flags, and warning signs. Instead of being sceptical of PDF, one of the key players in DP, and of what he writes about the US Elections of all things – more importantly why – you fell for his ‘Nigerian Prince’ scam, just as the gullible do. Instead of engaging your critical faculties, you swallowed his ‘essay’ hook, line & sinker – where was your usual ‘critical analysis’, where was your questioning? You lapped it up like a good lackey. PDF is very good at what he does, I admit, but still, you cannot hide behind ignorance on this one.
You claim that there’s no conspiracy and therefore (!!) no rabbit hole. You jumped straight into it, with your eyes wide open – speaking of detachment from reality and denial.
Your obtuseness on display here on OM today is gobsmacking – you’ve been played like a fiddle and don’t even know it.
The media biases are so blatant and pervasive that I'm not going to swallow any one claim uncritically. Like Dennis I'm just going to wait as see as the process unfolds and get on with other things more useful.
But at this moment you have to bet on Biden. Another four years of Andre's tangerine hued bon-mots being unsupportable.
I presume the article somewhere mentions that all he accepts that capsule descriptions 'all of the above,' could have the words 'Democrat' and 'Republican' substituted for each other, the name Trump able to be replaced by the name of any any President and the acceptance the election year could be any.
One aspect to what is going on in discussions (and ranting) about absentee votes and counting them, is to do with the votes of the military. It has been a perennial topic. Views were expressed before the election likely generated by Trump comments.
'How the fight over mail-in ballots threatens to undermine the votes of American troops'
https://taskandpurpose.com/analysis/military-mail-in-voting-2020-election
Another headline elsewhere: 'Trump calls for ballot counting scenario where votes legally cast by military would be thrown out.'
The most wonderful thing about the situation is that those charged with defending the country, those on the line wherever they are to see that the American way is protected, would not even have a vote.
Even better that that should be orchestrated in an attempt to advantage someone who couldn't quite make the cut to be in the military. (i.e. Gutless little rich bastard who was prepared to have others die so he could live the life he wanted and had the father who could wangle it.)
At the end of the day, Trump was leading the USA to total biblical theocracy (among other things). Steps needed to be taken, and if certain things needed to manipulated to achieve this, and so be it.
If the election is indeed stolen from Trump, then those faceless officals did the US people a great service.
Sometimes these things need to be done.
Trump as the instrument of god's will always seemed amusing but I agree the US could make a threat to world peace out of god's will on any basis.
Don't agree that cheating is justified though – in principle. If he had actually threatened nuclear war, I could agree that greater-good morality justifies intervention, but he never got that loopy, did he?
Another conspiracy surrounding a Trump election. Only this time there is transparency.
Farrar
examinescopy/pastes to arrive at his chosen angle about the fraud potential in the US election.FIFY
FFS get a grip and do some reading before spinning.
I didn't spin anything, btw. Just reported how the other half are seeing things. Remember that social reality is co-constructed. Splitting it into leftist & rightist bubbles produces delusional thinking – the deep holistic reality remains unaffected by that flim-flam.
So I was illuminating the difference between perception (mass perceptions) and reality (court outcomes). Notice how the other commentators were/are doing trial by media instead? Unhelpful, and just as likely to breed delusional thinking.
That wikipedia quote I cited proves hacking the US electoral system computers has happened, so retreating into denial of electoral fraud is a mistake.
Nobodies retreating into denial of electoral fraud. They're watching Trump's cases getting thrown out, the farcical claims and measures, the clumsy shitshow that it all is, and reporting some of that here: that which you accuse of 'trial by media' rather than what it was, a response to your lack of discernment.
And they've (GOP) been blatantly attempting to cheat this whole time. We've all see it. Gerrymandering, trying to invalidate votes, puppet postmaster, lack of polling stations, so many silly court requests, the list goes on AND NOW INCLUDES fraudulently (all the knocked back court cases amount to BS for purpose) obstructing the democratic process and denying that Trump is the biggest loser ever.
All those Q anon twats say they're 'just asking questions' as they repeat preposterous shite as well. It pays to check a few sources, those whom live in alternative realities are among us.
And I'm aware of all that, of course. You see a lack of discernment that isn't actually there. I was illuminating that political psychology driving the situation. The more we comprehend that stuff, the less it is likely to produce sociopathy.
Testing truth claims is part of how human society operates. I regard aversion to that as a strong signal of a sociopathic tendency. Doesn't matter how much bullshit the trumpists are disseminating. That's not the point. Democracy is contestable by design. Trying to deplatform the other team is wrong.
Oh horseshit.
It looks like you saw something you could use to virtue-signal how "open-minded" you are in "considering all sides of an argument". So you posted it here, without applying even the simplest level of skepticism and independent fact-checking.
Had you taken even the most basic look outside of Dirty Politics Farrar's propaganda piece and his links to the worst kinds of partisan gargoyles, you would have quickly understood what a passel of lies the whole thing was.
edit: if you need help on how to fact-check, google is your friend. Here’s a starter how-to.
https://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/
So were taking our advice on spotting fake news from you now are we?
Stuff the USA. Those who are so concerned about the way they do things, why don't you go and live there and show them what to do. All we are seeing here is USA. No. 5 goes on and on like a toilet roll. The light from the USA dazzles us, and we stand in the middle of the road like gaping bunnies who can't move out of our own way to save ourselves.
Your bigotry is equal and opposite to anything on Farrar's site. Are you really unaware that democracy is based on fairness? Or do you just get off on juvenile point scoring? If so, time to grow up.
Good grief!
https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1326352935635345410?s=19
The only ones committing fraud it seems are the Repugnants:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/us-postal-worker-recants-voter-fraud-claims-after-republicans-call-for-inquiry
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/donald-trump-us-election-misinformation-media
Meanwhile back in the real world – the Trump lawsuits are going no where and all lack any valid, verifiable evidence.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/10/donald-trump-longshot-election-lawsuits
Smart alec DF with a riposte quoting authority to anyone questioning your assertions. You will never grow up, you will retain that cute, self-importance of a spoiled, indulged child all your life. It has served you well. Why attempt to change it and mature. You should join DPF on Kiwiblog, you would be a real ass-et there.
Well..one thing you have proven here today…is that you aren't very good at 'testing truth claims'…'cos farrar can be relied upon to be spin-free..eh..?..and what did you say that fail at 'testing truth claims' says about a person…?….you are pimping trump-lies..that have been polished by farrar…and you are wondering why you are being jeered at..?
So you can't read comments and comprehend them simultaneously, eh? I don't agree with anything Farrar writes, nor what Trump says. I couldn't care less if retards here think anyone who doesn't toe the party line is an enemy. go back to kindergarten & pay attention next time.
"President Donald Trump's administration is taking on the characteristics of a tottering regime — with its loyalty tests, destabilizing attacks on the military chain of command, a deepening bunker mentality and increasingly delusional claims of political victory.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/11/politics/donald-trump-joe-biden-transition/index.html
Oh we're paying attention. It's the longest cliffhanger ever.
That quote describes how I've been seeing it. Today I just tried to draw attention to how Farrar framed it, because contesting the merit of electoral fraud claims seems to be part of the US system nowadays. Political commentary ought to gauge the merit of such claims on the basis that they acquire mass traction.
Since trial by media doesn't work (media feeds on competing truth claims) we await judicial process to determine whether evidence exists. Presuming little is found, rightists in the US will subdivide into two camps: a shrinking number who cling to the mass delusion, and an increasing number who would rather get real.
Currently Republicans are mostly exhibiting solidarity. Untenable, likely, so the period we are in is a political hinge. The shift will gather speed. That's the context I have tried to illuminate.
You'd write a book rather than admit you failed to look up what you read about. I'm embarrassed for you.
Some perceptions matter a lot more than others when it comes to shifts of democratic power.
Since the Supreme Court has already declined to hear Trump's arguments in the previous weeks, there's very little likelihood of the Supreme Court agreeing to intervene now. Even his own Supreme Court Appointment Amy Coney Barrett signalled in the hearings that she's unlikely to intervene in voting matters.
And the good reasons that the Supreme Court will not intervene are set out here by Politico:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/04/supreme-court-trump-reelection-434071
And then there's civil society: the banks have well and truly moved on from Trump:
https://www.aba.com/about-us/press-room/press-releases/aba-statement-on-presidential-election
Jamie Dimon of JPMorganChase congratulated Biden and demanded a smooth transition of power.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/07/business/business-leaders-react-biden-win/index.html
Cheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook set out her warm congratulations to Biden and Harris in her official post:
https://www.facebook.com/sheryl/posts/10164271355910177
77% of major business want Biden and his team to succeed and prefer him:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/01/investing/stocks-week-ahead/index.html
Whether Trump's foolishness continues through certification or not, the markets are the fourth power in the US political world. They're well past Trump already.
The best thing President Trump can do now is use the next 2 months to continue to fuck every leader in the United States off, so much that as well as civil society rising, even stacking the Pentagon will accelerate ex-generals mobilising the military against him.
And no, that's not a coup, that's the Constitutional arms enforcing the elected transition of power.
Yes the split on the right is the thing to watch now. Pragmatists vs those in the bubble. Trump's ego is unconfined by his superego (Freudian theory if I recall it right, the superego being internalisation of social hierarchy). Couldn't he take a rest for four years & run again? Never heard of anyone doing it but am unaware of any reason why not. If viable someone ought to inform him of the option…
Vice president from '53 to '61, Nixon lost to JFK in ’60 and won against Hubert Humphrey in '69.
Not the same thing but a fitting role model for Trump.
Smuts was "prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and 1939 to 1948." (Wikipedia)
Fifteen years between his two stints as ruler is remarkable, eh? But he was a remarkable guy. Guerilla leader in the Boer War, rebel against the British Empire, a lawyer become general in the army. Then given the rank of Field Marshal by Winston Churchill when Smut joined his War Cabinet in WWII by invitation. Plus he wrote Holism & Evolution and the preamble to the UN Charter.
Smuts? Really? Makes David Duke look like a racial lightweight.
"Jan Smuts is today, in his world aspects, the greatest protagonist of the white race. " – W. E. DuBois, 1925
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was formulated at precisely the same time that South Africa committed itself to the policy of apartheid – which he backed.
In the second half of the twentieth century, the problem of racism and apartheid became a leading test case for the assertion of human rights. Smuts was the Prime Minister of South Africa installing a black nationwide prison leading up to 1948.
Sure he helped the UN Declaration preamble, but he fully supported and enforced racial segregation and he enforced it starting as Prime Minister of the South African apartheid state – in fact right through to 1948.
The very first word in your comment is false.
You might argue that guest posts on a blog are endorsed by the owner but that could get you into a lot of trouble here.
Or are you claiming Kiwi in America is a Farrar pseudonym?
That big pesky German may get a further, new taxpayer damages payout over privacy “mistakes”.
https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-national/kim-dotcom-line-new-taxpayer-payout
Kim previously got 90 grand in 2018 for a privacy breach
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/353417/crown-to-pay-90-000-for-kim-dotcom-privacy-breach
This guy is going to do the NZ Govt. in the end, having a great life in NZ while he is at it!
John Key and the toxic legacy of the “Hobbit Affair” are likely going to haunt the NZ Govt. and Judiciary for some years to come. Sucking up to the Americans is not always a great idea.
Key should never have started this rubbish . I would really like to see a lot more of the background around why this was decided.At best it has only ever been a civil copyright violation but I assume KDC still has the platform defence that Facebook and the others use – no responsibility for what is on there.
Plus it must be time for the USA to drop the request and reimburse us. It's cost us taxpayers here a fortune
And I do feel for the others caught up with KDC. At best they seem to be basically employees and AFAIK none of them have ever been wealthy. This is now eight years on.
I also have a feleling that kim may have donated money won in the past or something similar??? very vague recollection
So the Republicans are not going to accept the result of the Election. Crikey! A bit grim for a model Democracy?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/secretary-of-state-enters-post-election-fray-as-republicans-fight-transition/7ILYJEYWYJKAIV7YYKRDI55MHE/
I saw Pompeo. I think he was kidding and being a smartarse. In contrast to his 'shove a light build somewhere to cure yourself' boss who has no capability to have a sense of humour and after saying something stupid pretends he was joking.
In think Pompeo is an arrogant smart arse. There is a bit of a serious electoral situation going on over there. Playing fast and loose in situations best served with gravitas is bizarre, pathetic and shows how out of control things are there. Saying exactly the same thing with a beer in his hand at a barbecue with a couple of mates wouldn't be so bad. No big audience there though, so he probably wouldn't have said it.
Which makes it calculated when said in the big world at a formal presser. And makes it indicative of scummy losers being in scummy loser mode.
Trump is the only person who needs to recognise the outcome of the election because he is holding up the transition from president to president elect.
Nothing will be gained and Trump will be removed forcibly if required.
Yes a very embarrassing sentence or two said by the Secretary of State.
Here is how some in America think of this and the hypocrisy of the whole thing.
At what point does a "coup" become a coup?
When the leader has the army behind him to enforce the leadership.
So are the Joint Chiefs of Staff loyal to the President, or to the Constitution. And if the constitution wins, can the President sack them and replace them with his puppets?
The Enlistment Oath:
The oath to the constitution is dominant, there's no out clause. The bit about obeying the orders of the President is conditional on the code of military justice.
Adolf Twitler can fire anyone he wants from the Joint Chiefs, but anyone he appoints as replacement will have also taken the same oath. Also, given how he's treated the top military personnel, he might have trouble finding anyone in the top brass willing to be a stooge.
Thanks.
It really is a farcical shitshow.
Adolf Twitler ! that's gold Andre
Here, have a treasure map to the motherlode. Use it cautiously and wisely.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrumpNicknames/
I flicked thru a couple of pages..and I think that the ones that people come up with here…are actually of a higher calibre..a gathering together of them would be a good exercise..
The older stuff is better. After two or three years fatigue set in and there was a lot less good new stuff coming through. But I did see a new one today that tickled a bit – "Don Cornholeone".
I was planning a big cathartic dump of all the things I've called him sometime when I won't have need of them anymore. It's a big list, might have to trickle them out maybe twenty a day or something.
Heh..!…yeah…do that..as ardern-gloom sets/beds in..a few laughs can't hurt…
A successful coup is reliant on the military backing an unelected leader. The military will not back Trump so no coup once his term is up.
Edit I tried to correct when I commented @8.1 but was to late.
When the unelected leader has the army behind them to enforce being the leader.
I guess we're about to find out.
https://twitter.com/rabrowne75/status/1326284851268489217
https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/1326282360015495169
Anthony Tata, a retired brigadier general whose nomination for a top Pentagon job collapsed this summer due to Islamophobic tweets and other controversial statements, began overseeing policy for the Defense Department on Tuesday.
The move was part of a high-level civilian leadership shakeup that began on Monday when President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper. It continued on Tuesday with the departure of the Pentagon's acting policy chief, the installation of a Trump loyalist as the new acting defense secretary's chief of staff, and the resignation of the department's top intelligence official.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/10/pentagon-top-policy-official-resigns-435693
Charming.
I was aware of Trump becoming the terminator. He is creating an unstable government.
Might be a good idea for him to chill as his blood pressure would be sky high.
Digital blackface.
Republican caught out posing as gay black man who says all sorts of racist stuff and bags democrats. There's loads of obvious bots swarming republican twitter accounts to decry the election as fake. They pretend to be servicemen, many claim they're leaving their democrat wives (lucky imaginary women) and leaving the country cos they've had enough.
You couldn't write better comedy than the Four Seasons Total Landscaping followed by this.
https://twitter.com/JacobRubashkin/status/1326266748727943169
The spirit of the Nats “Merv” and “Hone*” lives on in the USA…
* “Hone” was then Nat Chief Whip, MP John Carter, pretending to be an unemployed Māori on John Banks talkback show in 1995.
Ah-huh.
Methinks the clean-up is going to need more than a flimsy tissue like this:
https://twitter.com/DeanBrowningPA/status/1326270188682178560
Comedy gold….. some of the comments are very amusing.
https://twitter.com/DeanBrowningPA/status/1326285974305972226
Oh man, I'm in pain from laughing so hard. I got to the one that had the picture of Junior with the Ghouliani eyes, and it just killed me.
I've been thinking about political ideologies- I can understand how a certain economic/social theory might appeal initially to someone and they want to explore it more, even experiment with it should they reach a position of power.
But to not acknowledge that said theory is creating no end of grief for society at large and despite all the evidence presented to them will not admit anything needs changing? Is this a case of their egos not wanting to admit they've stuffed up big time and it'd be too embarrassing to do a U-turn, or have they been brainwashed so badly to the point of delusion that their way, and ONLY their way is right, and anything else is wrong?
I have a friend who has a very strong fixed belief, and no matter what anyone says, and despite all evidence to the contrary this belief never changes. But she has diagnosed schizophrenia and it's a paranoid delusion. She has a pretty valid excuse excuse. What excuse do these politicians have?
It seems connected to the born-again evangelicals- getting drawn into a belief system to the point of fanaticism, brainwashed to the point of delusion where only their way is the true way.
I
All of the above?
Evolution produced elimination of trumpism by natural design: "Foraging societies make short work of any loud-mouthed braggart trumpeting his supposed superiority over the rest." That's anthropologist Chris Boehm quoted in this book:
Readers with a scientific approach to human nature ought to check out his description of how inequality in social structure seems to have been produced by levelling in hunter/gatherer cultures.
Correction: replace produced with eliminated in final paragraph!
If you think Trump losing the election also eliminates another populist from rising, you are dreaming.
The conditions that caused Trumpism across the US, Europe, Brazil, UK, Philippines and elsewhere still exist. They are still particularly strong in the United States.
Pull away from the psycho-trash and look at the world as the electorate tells you it is.
There is hope for the National Party! They got Goldsmith out of their finance role because of his cock-ups around understanding numbers.
They replaced him with Woodhouse who couldn't count the number of homeless men freeloading in an Auckland inner city isolation hotel.
Heh..!…I was wondering how to word that one..that'll do nicely…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430345/new-complainant-emerges-with-allegations-against-peter-ellis
It is bad if people can take bites out of Peter after he is dead. If they had a case to make there have been plenty of opportunities. The whole matter has been mishandled starting with the police enquiry.
Reported in stuff news. The woman at the centre of the latest allegation was in counselling in 2007 and the counsellor said that she had to report the incident to police to continue counselling.
This would be unprofessional and I would start with the counsellor.
I would like to know what is the date of injury which ACC are accepting for this case as I it may need to be changed?
I doubt that ACC have a process to backdate an error made by a counsellor which ACC accredits. It is my understanding it has to be an error made by ACC to backdate. I am thinking that treatment for the injury was denied by the counsellor but I would need to have this confirmed.
I hadn't thought of the ACC side Treetop. I could imagine that your scenario may well be the case.
I know first hand and recently that ACC have been assessing the date of injury incorrectly when it comes to a schedule 3 issue under the Crimes Act 1961.
There needs to be some sort of review/inquiry into incorrect dates for historical sexual assault claims. I am thinking about historical cases and the outcome of the inquiry into abuse in state and faith based care.
Having my deemed date of injury changed to when I first attended counselling for the injury was important to me. Even though I could not use the actual date of injury having the date changed from what ACC said it was to what I said it was proved me to be correct and ACC incorrect.
ACC interpreting the law incorrectly is a serious matter.
The very tight interpretation that ACC takes to prevent them having to help needy people is an example of the Kafkaesque approach we are increasingly finding in our service delivery from so-called government. Is it government when there is an agency that is machine-like in its actions because of factors like having to make a profit from their budget?
There seems a drive to constantly reduce government spending at the same time as deliberately hurtful actions or inactions of government increase the numbers in need. *Limbo, how low can you go!
I don't see good results likely to come from that arms length approach from our gummint unless they adopt more kindness and put more money into training the people at the coal face, along with room for some discretion, and less money to the CEOs and top managers. If we can't pay world-class salaries, too bad, we will just have to find reasonably suitable people amongst the NZs considered deadheads under the present system. I think that salaries should be advertised at a recommended rate worked on some sort of maths say 5-10 x the living wage, and invite people to tender for the job with their choice of salary along with a full, verifiable CV. The advertised rate would be a guide of how 'tight' (cost-efficient) we are with top managers.
* Limbo song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuKBsJoA7jk
I am going to piss a lot of people off by my comment.
ACC fails far too many claimants who have a serious accident because of what they cover.
A small cut in your thumb, having your face bashed in because you were so drunk that you assaulted people, kept playing sport when you had an injury, drove recklessly and did or could have killed someone.
The minor claims ruin it for the serious claims. This was seen with the EQC my ornament got chipped bla bla and never mind the person who had a shoddy repair and became depressed or tied up with expensive litigation for years. As for the CTV building in Christchurch no one has been prosecuted and if they had been this would not make it right.
Far too many useless government agencies unaware of ruining people's lives. ACC is at the top of my list as without your health poverty is a certainty.
GWS I have given your comment more thought.
A dead man has rights otherwise the Supreme Court would not be making a judgement to look at quashing a conviction/s.
It does concern me that the woman making the allegation has not been listened to until now. This would have an impact which was avoidable had she been listened to. I cannot speak for her. I feel she was put in a situation that had she not spoken out again last year she would have not been able to speak out after the Supreme Court decision was made.
Unintended consequences and an anomalie which ACC would need to cover as organisational failure.
Who informed the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court have not ignored the woman's complaint?
To say this is historical is not good enough as it is having an impact now. When the complaint is investigated and settled then the woman can get on with her life.
Well I might upset with just the mention that some people can obsess on things and make a case which is unjustifiable. Just because a woman makes a complaint doesn't mean it is valid. That does not mean they can be dismissed but there is a 'moral outrage' on sexual and gender matters at present, and it seems to be becoming the reverse of the often unconcerned attitude of police in the past. The woman may not want to get on with her life even. She might have made the matter the centre of her concerns and never feel satisfied as she has no other strong interest.
I have read that though counselling face to face is very effective, because it is more expensive than other methods, ACC does not wish to use it. Perhaps they use medication with only a short series of counselling, not sure. Obviously they need to set a limit.
Historical complainants are being cheated because of how they were treated dismissed, minimised, blamed. Not right 50 years ago and not right now.
I personally found counselling to be a waste of time when it came to the organisational failure because of the harm it caused indirectly and the harm was not recognised then but has now been confirmed to have had a severe impact. So the Limitations Act time frame has expired and they get away with it.
As for appearing to be obsessive to ask a person to drop having been injured and not being treated fairly is unacceptable.
Regardless of having strong interests sexual abuse can be intrusive on many levels. I hate sitting about as my mind wanders more so I have structure and purpose in my life.
When it comes to a false complaint it usually gets discovered and the falsely accused would probably require counselling.
edit
I’m thinking about people who have in the recent past, introduced the theory which debunks past memories. It has caused confusion and seems to come from a position of dismissal and derision really, and they seem indifferent to the mental problems that have arisen from bad treatment. But people do need to come forward as early as possible, to find a way of releasing the pain of being dehumanised. The problem may be different for those actually physically abused to those mentally and those who have had to live in wretched surroundings. Also did it happen in an institution or not – a workplace or private home.
It seems to me that telling someone would be a good first step; a counselling service with someone with proper credentials (not just assumed because they belong to some organisation, a church, have a certificate that looks authentic). Talking it, then writing down the things that are hard to describe, would be beneficial. Taking it further would then be a second step, after finding out how to go about it and facing the process.
That is the sort of counselling that I envisage would be helpful. Not Freudian on a couch though. I have read about gestalt chair work, I think it is called – that would be good. I read that Prince Harry carried on with counselling for seven years and someone in that field said that would be counter-productive, just renewing the sad and bad memories all the time and imprinting them in the mind more deeply, rather than coming to terms with the past.
I know someone who had a bad experience and took the case to Court. That person has regained balance in life but has now an interest in psychology and reads widely, to continually learn of scholarly findings and others' experiences.
Abuse is something that needs to be acknowledged. Bit I think that it cannot be regarded as a right to delve into the distant past with accusations and a Court case. Not a right but each case should be judged on its merits. This woman must think that she will find peace or be vindicated somehow by the accusation against Peter Ellis. Now he os dead he can't defend himself or if guilty, apologise. He has served a term in prison, as a result of evidence that has been criticised; it is a highly emotional and debated matter. But there's a truism 'If you get what you want, you may find that it is not as satisfying as expected.' What does this woman want or expect? Will she find life better of she can point the finger at him as a bad person, which is now a hollow outcome when he is dead?
It may be that she can find peace in her mind from another approach, other actions that affirm her as a person of value to others, and particularly to herself. Self-hating is so destructive and must be countered by finding one's positives.
This link is good for explaining Perls Empty Chair technique for gaining insight into mental anxiety and understanding of oneself.
https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/gestalt-therapy-the-empty-chair-technique/
He's going to burn the house down before he leavers.
WASHINGTON — The White House has removed the scientist responsible for the National Climate Assessment, the federal government’s premier contribution to climate knowledge and the foundation for regulations to combat global warming, in what critics interpreted as the latest sign that the Trump administration intends to use its remaining months in office to continue impeding climate science and policy.
Michael Kuperberg, executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the climate assessment, was told Friday that he would no longer lead that organization, people with knowledge of the situation said.
According to two people close to the administration, he is expected to be replaced by David Legates, a deputy assistant secretary at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who previously worked closely with climate change denial groups.
https://archive.li/hbAb2 (nyt)
It has become normalised about how many staff are fired by Trump or who leave to avoid being fired. The actual number is unknown.
Not sure what the severance payment is and is still mounting.
What could possibly go wrong ?
The Reserve Bank will kick off a Funding for Lending scheme in December with few if any conditions on how banks could on-lend the money.
The scheme, confirmed in its monetary policy statement on Wednesday, will see the central bank provide cheap funding to banks to on-lend to their customers in a bid to further lower retail interest rates.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123364254/reserve-bank-to-start-funding-for-lending-next-month
I'm glad we didn't leave people to starve or die of hypothermia. We are good like that.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430331/govt-red-cross-spend-15m-helping-immigrants-stranded-in-nz
We are?
https://healthcentral.nz/elderly-kiwis-dying-in-cold-homes/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105645152/new-zealanders-hungry-and-cold-in-their-own-homes-this-winter
etc, etc.
My son showed me a large collection online of complaints regarding cheating, lost ballots, counting errors, bias etc but they were complaints from the Democrats (Demon crats?) in previous elections so nothing new here at all. Except I suppose Donald Trump, the President, is louder than previous President hopefuls.
Perhaps rabid leftists here will accuse them of being infected by Trumpism. Prejudice, eh? If the complainants experienced that, it's a serious matter. Could just be perception, not reality. Will be interesting to see if the vote count changes…
Did you effin' even read the content of their complaint..?…these are serious issues they are talking about….um..!..could you enlighten me as to where you sit on the political spectrum..?…
Have fun doling out labels Dennis. Do you wear your 'Rabid Centrist' badge with pride?
That would be a serious matter but how would that affect the vote count?
It's inevitable that the vote count will change as they're counted manually and humans make mistakes.
EDIT:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/123363210/mori-party-applies-for-recount-in-seats-to-highlight-prejudice-in-vote-process
And calling for more racist laws that benefit Māori and oppress pakeha.
Have I overlooked it but does anyone here care about the lack of action by the RBNZ and our government at the crazy house price rises raging at the moment, especially in Auckland? Surely waiting till March to slap LVRs back on investor mortgages will only exacerbate the situation in the coming weeks and months. I hoped that first home buyers would have a better chance with lower interest rates but it seems that increasing investors’ housing stock is OK with this lot. I am concerned that this may be the old government continuing to do little while saying a great deal. Even the REINZ have expressed concern.
It was quoted as being 'to stimulate the economy'….I guess ardern/robertson missed that economics 101 lecture where the maxim was stated that the most efficient way to stimulate any economy is to give money to the poorest..for the simple fact that money goes straight back into the economy..thru the tills of retailers/service-providors…whereas giving to rich just means that they get richer…so it is not economic-logic that is driving ardern…with her refusal to help the poorest…and to just give more to the rich…so they can buy more rentals/increase the size of their pile…and of course arderns' new tory friends wouldn't like her helping the poorest…so what with that..and the focus groups (vox-pop on steroids ..with all the intellectual rigor of those always tedious exercises in giving the incoherent a voice)..these drive the decision making of this government…in fact..when ardern is asked about helping the poorest…she should just do a lily tomlin..and say "focus-group says 'no!'.."
I've mentioned the hyper-inflation in the housing market driven by bank lending a few times.
I can only surmise that the government like it because it pumps billions of dollars into the economy every year without the government having 'borrow' the money and thus helps keep the economy going despite the huge amounts of poverty that its causing. And, of course, the house owners like it because they have huge amounts of income from not doing anything of value.
Thanks. I am very concerned by this widening of the economic divisions within this society. I see that rents are increasing where I live in Auckland. With high unemployment and low benefit incomes, I can only deduce that our high rate of ‘child poverty’ will increase while asset owners like property investors get wealthier. I did not think this government wanted this. I wander what this governemnt’s constituency really is.
Fascinated to see that the National announcement of its spokespeople lineup seems to have totally not been commented on today on the Standard on its release.
My walking mate remarked that it only made about the fifth item in the news, after Covid, West Indians, etc.
Collins said everyone would have to pull their weight as they've only got 33 seats. Why would she have to say that about her self-described 'strong team'?