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Open Mike 12/01/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 12th, 2019 - 156 comments
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156 comments on “Open Mike 12/01/2019”

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  1. Jenny - How to get there? 1
    12 January 2019 at 7:21 am

    If you are not white or privileged, this message is not intended for you.
    (even as a metaphor).

  2. WeTheBleeple 2
    12 January 2019 at 8:04 am

    Are you a bargain hunter? A connoisseur of crap? A Sally Store shark?

    Apparently, a new netflix show ‘Tidying up with Marie Kwondo’ has inspired many Kiwis to declutter lately. This has resulted in windfall hauls for various charity organisations.

    So the message is, there’s bargains to be found for those wanting them.

    I recommend blenders for fresh smoothies. Old books for learning from. Old clothes for a hipster disguise. I’m in the midst of a declutter myself though – out with the old in with the (not so) new? Change is good.

    I loved punk for a similar reason to hipster fashion, go to op shop, rip stuff, pin stuff, add badges, wardrobe done. With the hipster look just find something hideous and wear it with confidence. Job done.

    Happy hunting!

    • Robert Guyton 2.1
      12 January 2019 at 8:19 am

      This short film, offered yesterday here on TS by some kind soul, is a great watch and on the topic of de-cluttering – in this instance, shedding an entire herd of cattle! I enjoyed it very much and thought how paltry my own de-cluttering challenge when compared to the subject of “73 cows”.
      https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2018/10/09/73-cows/

      • WeTheBleeple 2.1.1
        12 January 2019 at 9:17 am

        I really enjoyed that film and it did challenge my stance (a little). I will never condone factory farming or the concept of eating meat daily. I do however subscribe to dietary science and find after a week of dining from my garden I’m still a bit hungry. I eat meat weekly, or slightly less, when my body asks for it.

        This is likely a lack of fats as much as protein, though I fared poorly growing beans this year so there is that missing.

        I eat a range of herbs and veg every day.

        I am open to suggestions as to what this ‘missing ingredient’ in my diet can be replaced with. If you start trying to push soy on me don’t bother, I’ll never eat that GE crap they’re destroying the Gulf of Mexico to farm for y’all.

        • Robert Guyton 2.1.1.1
          12 January 2019 at 9:27 am

          You thought I might “start trying to push soy ” on you?
          Nah!
          Cricket-flour patties, WTP; they’re the buzz 🙂
          If the cow farmer could only hook up with Charles Dowding…
          On another topic…do we humans ever willingly accept less comfort than we have grown accustomed to? Has anyone real examples of voluntary change to less comfort? I’m thinking/remembering what it was like sleeping on sand. Every time you turn, even slightly, sand fills in behind you, preventing you from turning back; is comfort like that?

          • Dennis Frank 2.1.1.1.1
            12 January 2019 at 9:50 am

            Cor, the deep questions so early in the day? I’m floundering. Must be some good reason why no bed of sand has entered the market. Nor have I ever heard of home-made examples. Perhaps we need to turn so frequently during the night that the sand effect you describe creates resistance. That would make it a non-user-friendly design.

  3. Dennis Frank 3
    12 January 2019 at 8:09 am

    Just in case you haven’t already noticed: “A new poll reveals a large majority of New Zealanders would support legalising recreational cannabis use in the Government’s 2020 referendum.” Forget decriminalisation! The public wants to go all the way!

    Here’s evidence that the boomers are the mostly closet-fascists and closet-stalinists, dead-keen to suppress the rights of others:

    18 – 24 years: 68 percent agree
    25 – 34 years: 75 percent agree
    33 – 44 years: 72 percent agree
    45 – 54 years: 58 percent agree
    55 – 64 years: 58 percent agree
    65 – 74 years: 30 percent agree
    75yrs or over: 37 percent agree

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/01/2020-cannabis-referendum-would-easily-pass-poll-says.html

    Two thirds of all the younger generations are now rejecting prohibition! I’d better take back my oft-expressed dismissal of their collective intelligence. Those over 65 are two thirds in support of continuing prohibition. It’s a huge difference!

    • Chris T 3.1
      12 January 2019 at 8:27 am

      You think they are “closet-fascists and closet-stalinists” from a poll on making weed legal?

      How very “judgmental” of you.

      And rather stupid

      • Dennis Frank 3.1.1
        12 January 2019 at 8:38 am

        We judge people on their actions, and their attitudes. These rightist and leftist turkeys who pretend to support democracy while trying to get away with denying others their civil rights have never been anything other than scum.

        You may think it stupid, but that’s obviously because you ain’t no real kiwi male. We call a spade a spade. Get with the program if you want to belong here.

      • greywarshark 3.1.2
        12 January 2019 at 9:12 am

        Chris T
        You are judgmental of the individual Dennis Frank for honestly decrying a recalcitrant group resisting practical change, as stupid.

        You are repressing an individual – he was expressing a considered opinion about a group in society. So you are the one who is stupid.

    • Gabby 3.2
      12 January 2019 at 8:59 am

      Thy’re old enough to see the damage it’s done in praxis franxie.

      • WeTheBleeple 3.2.1
        12 January 2019 at 9:10 am

        Most have never tried it and fill up on alcohol daily. Try again.

      • Psycho Milt 3.2.2
        12 January 2019 at 9:23 am

        Thy’re old enough to see the damage it’s done…

        Most people over 70 in this country have as much acquaintance with the smoking of marijuana and its effects as I do with aerobatics in a jet fighter.

        • Graeme 3.2.2.1
          12 January 2019 at 9:56 am

          I have fond memories from my student days in mid 70’s of being lectured on the perils of drugs by my stepmother while she had a gin in one hand and a tailormade in the other.

        • Adrian Thornton 3.2.2.2
          12 January 2019 at 12:24 pm

          @Psycho Milt, What are you talking about? if you are 70 today, that would make you 20 yo in 1969, I know for a fact that there was plenty of pot smoking going in certain circles in NZ in ’69, just the same as today.

          • solkta 3.2.2.2.1
            12 January 2019 at 12:38 pm

            While it was smoked in certain circles in the 60s it was not smoked in most circles like the 80s. My parents had no idea what it smelt like. I used to mix it with drum tobacco and smoke it right under their noses. Once my father walked through the kitchen while i had a couple of big buds drying in the oven and he didn’t notice.

            • Adrian Thornton 3.2.2.2.1.1
              12 January 2019 at 12:44 pm

              @solkta, that’s funny, because during the 1980’s there was pot pretty much everywhere I went…in one form or another.
              I would say it would have been without doubt the most widely used recreational drug used in NZ during that time, after alcohol of course.

          • Psycho Milt 3.2.2.2.2
            12 January 2019 at 12:44 pm

            What Soltka said. Most 20-year-olds in 1969 weren’t smoking dope and didn’t look kindly on the kind of people who did.

            • Dennis Frank 3.2.2.2.2.1
              12 January 2019 at 2:20 pm

              I turned 20 that year, and can report that I was still sceptical and too cautious. Not till March ’71 that I first tried it (to little apparent effect) due to feeling like I finally ought to jump on the bandwagon because the world was leaving me behind. I was a strange mix of radical and conservative, still am. But unlike what you say, I wasn’t hostile to users then. I recall viewing them with envy, in fact. Oh to be so adventurous! Casting your fate to the winds. Nah, too much of a challenge at the time so I wimped out…

        • Psych nurse 3.2.2.3
          12 January 2019 at 1:11 pm

          Most people over 65 are the generation who discovered the joys of weed first, mind you those that did are probably already dead.

          • Dennis Frank 3.2.2.3.1
            12 January 2019 at 2:24 pm

            A friend of mine, refugee from California, is still going strong in his late seventies. I think any correlation between cannabis users & early death would be established by now if real. I’ve never even heard of it being suggested.

        • patricia bremner 3.2.2.4
          13 January 2019 at 12:06 am

          3.2.2 True. Fear of the unknown.

      • Dennis Frank 3.2.3
        12 January 2019 at 9:30 am

        Yeah, like fast drivers. Eliminate them due to the damage done. Easy. Just pass a law making it illegal to sell a car that drives faster than the speed limit. Industry can spin on a dime. Often does so. No problem.

        So why don’t rightist govts do that? Freedom of choice. Milton Friedman. Neoliberal ideology. People want to be free to choose to break the law, speed when they want to. Same logic for cannabis. But Gabby, you know this already. Cruise control on cars has been there since the nineties. The tech exists to eliminate speeding. It’s really just that the right are full of shit. Go on, be honest, admit it.

      • millsy 3.2.4
        12 January 2019 at 9:39 am

        Yes, pot does have adverse health effects, but so do a lot of other substances. We don’t lock someone up for smoking a cigarette, or drinking a beer. Even during the age of Prohibition in the USA, it was still not illegal for people to drink alcohol in their own home (they just couldn’t possess, sell, buy or transport it).

    • WeTheBleeple 3.3
      12 January 2019 at 9:09 am

      Old people are certainly not my favorites despite approaching membership. In uni it was the old farts who’d fight for the status quo and question those who questioned them. A bunch of oil aficionados.

      But the young adults… They’d come to study group and we’d rant long and loud on alternative energy, agricultural diversification and more.

      I still remember my first Jay Day at Uni. We had a biology lecture and almost the entire class showed up baked (we’d been having spots in the quad). The lecturer knew what was up immediately but didn’t know how to change tack.

      “Questions?”… …. ……. ……………..

      😀

      • greywarshark 3.3.1
        12 January 2019 at 12:58 pm

        I did some adult-reading recovery tutoring in a drug rehabilitation unit before, I think, Labour in Ruth Dyson’s time closed them down.

        Talking to the chap I was helping, he told me that part of the steps he had to achieve towards wellness was to read a certain book on drug taking and write a summary of what he had learned. He found that he could read a whole page, know the words as he read them, but not be able to retain enough joined-up ideas and meaning by the end of the page to summarise what he had just read. Consequently the counsellors thought he wasn’t trying. I related the problem to them. They had not realised the brain function ‘numbing’ that the recovering people could be experiencing.

        I understand that the brain does recover but the traces of cannabis regularly used, get into some tissues and take months of absistence before being drawn out to leave the brain which then can function better.

        • Dennis Frank 3.3.1.1
          12 January 2019 at 2:27 pm

          Any fogging of the mind can be dispelled by drinking a herbal tea in which dried & powdered rosemary leaves are a primary component. Works like magic!

          • greywarshark 3.3.1.1.1
            12 January 2019 at 2:35 pm

            So that’s your secret you cunning person. Rosemary is more than just a pretty flower, smell and taste. Maybe you’ve come across the Elixir we have all been hoping for. I’ll definitely try it.

            • Dennis Frank 3.3.1.1.1.1
              12 January 2019 at 2:52 pm

              Have you ever done a detox? System cleansing is sometimes necessary due to the polluting effects of chemical food additives, micro-organisms, heavy metals. Rosemary is merely a system-maintenance agent. In my herbal tea mix, there’s around a dozen such.

    • Pat 3.4
      12 January 2019 at 5:07 pm

      There are only 2 ‘boomer’ cohorts in that list…and one one them is well in favour.
      Generalisations/stereotypes are notoriously of little use…..about as accurate as ‘average’

      • Dennis Frank 3.4.1
        12 January 2019 at 5:29 pm

        That probably means you’re younger than me and are sufficiently pragmatic/ broadminded to accept the extended definition of boomer & take it more seriously. I’m bang in the middle of the group only in 30% approval, and untypical (nonconformist). In the counter-culture we’d grown to 1% of the whole generation, which seemed impressive growth at the time!

        I kept tracking it & vaguely recall it trending around 5% at the end of the seventies. Just my estimation. Values polling is only an approximate indicator. I still saw them as trendy establishment liberals pretending to be radical. I wouldn’t have trusted them to support legalisation so never even checked if they did or not. Suit-wearers.

        • Pat 3.4.1.1
          12 January 2019 at 6:14 pm

          on the contrary …I dont take the labelling of generations seriously at all (except in the the misuse of its relevance)….folk are folk regardless and the curious thing is most of them age.

      • greywarshark 3.4.2
        12 January 2019 at 6:33 pm

        Pat
        That might be wishful thinking. I think more of older retired folk around here anyway, in Nelson, are National supporters. They display similar characteristics – there is the birds of a feather thing as a general point. Refusal to understand this would mean that you would be less able to make personal predictions that would achieve accuracy when considering voting patterns etc.

        • Pat 3.4.2.1
          12 January 2019 at 7:45 pm

          im sure you are not suggesting that someone who is an empathetic open minded thoughtful individual receives a personality transplant for their 65th birthday GWS

          • greywarshark 3.4.2.1.1
            14 January 2019 at 10:32 am

            Pat
            There has been a trend observed that peiople become more conservative in old age. Also that older people tend to support the status quo when it is in a place that is positive for them.

            • Pat 3.4.2.1.1.1
              14 January 2019 at 7:39 pm

              There has indeed been such a trend observed, conservative in that they less inclined to change i.e. maintain the views they have developed, so if you were of the view that drug reform was not a good idea when you were 30 odds are you will maintain that view at 40, 50 or 60 etc. This may be attributed to the predominant views/influences in the formative years ….and we also know that politics follow public opinion rather than lead it.
              How this reduced appetite for risk is reflected in voting patterns is a topic of much debate.

              As to the assertion that ‘older people tend to support the status quo when it is in a place that is positive for them’ a more accurate statement would be ‘people tend to support the status quo when it is in a place that is positive for them’…..age is not key.

              Again, folk are folk…and they age.

  4. SaveNZ 4
    12 January 2019 at 8:17 am

    Shouldn’t the government stop all these temporary work visas being issued under false pretences of work (and a hefty fee to the middleman) taking up accommodation in shortages?

    The best thing the government could do, is prosecute the recruitment company and make them pay the Chinese workers money back and then Close the scam.

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/379947/jobs-on-offer-but-still-no-visa-fix-for-chinese-workers

    No wonder tradespeople are complaining their wages haven’t moved in 20 years while the cost of construction is skyrocketing as are all the defects. Time construction was not some immigration scam, but people with the right paperwork and the right NZ training or equivalent who speak and read English so can be safe on site and follow the plans or they really are skilled and paid $100k plus that high skills should be getting in NZ. Kiwis are expected to pay $30k for a degree to become a builder and take 3 or 4 years but being undercut by non/poor English speakers often bought in by migrants as a work scam or to be cheap labour, who will work for virtually nothing.

    The government should be thinking of Kiwi welfare, rights and safety first instead they seem to be able to do anything for a foreigner with a problem, but somehow seems indifferent to the massive queues at the foodbanks for working Kiwis who can no longer survive on wages.

    • Psycho Milt 4.1
      12 January 2019 at 9:19 am

      I saw a lot of indentured labour in Kuwait (even supervised some) and it still gnaws at my insides. It’s horrifying and disgusting that we’re now allowing it to happen here, and I’d like my elected representatives to do something about it – I’m looking at you, Iain Less-Galloway, you’re my MP as well as the relevant Minister. If we’ve signed FTAs that require us to allow this, please get on with reviewing and renegotiating or withdrawing from those FTAs, because they should never have been agreed to in the first place.

      This is the standard method of running indentured labour:
      1. In countries with lots of desperate people in poverty, you get local contractors to hire labour for you.
      2. Those contractors sell the right to work for you to desperate locals. They can’t pay the amount the contractor is demanding, so the contractor ‘lends’ them the money on the basis they’ll soon be able to pay it back again once they’re earning allegedly big bucks working for you.
      3. You have your staff pick the labourers up from the airport, take their passports off them and shoehorn them into run-down accommodation fit for a small fraction of the number of people.
      4. These people are now effectively your slaves. They can’t go and work for anyone else because you have their passports. You can pay them whatever and whenever you feel like, and if anyone wants to make trouble about that you hold the threat of withdrawing sponsorship and putting them on the next plane home with nothing but a debt to the local contractor that will make them a slave to that contractor, who’s probably worse even than you.

      Is this seriously what we want happening here? Because various incidents have demonstrated that it already is.

      • Pat 4.1.1
        12 January 2019 at 9:31 am

        It most certainly is what some want, and you are correct to ask the question of ILG because the response to the exposure of its prevalence has been non existent….why?

      • SaveNZ 4.1.2
        12 January 2019 at 9:38 am

        It is also putting the better businesses out of work, who can not compete with the low tenders from companies with workers working at below market rates. Race to the bottom. Also it impacts on everyone as often when those firms get in cheap labour it backfires and a decade later you find out that the materials were also sub standard as is the work and currently the rate payers seem to be paying to fix it while the council blithely adds more liability to our books as well as the poor home owner who then finds out that they need to poor in $100k+ remedial work and actually might not even be able to live there anymore.

      • Draco T Bastard 4.1.3
        12 January 2019 at 12:31 pm

        Is this seriously what we want happening here?

        Apparently so because its happening here.

        Capitalism will always shift to slavery of some form or another. People being free to leave work and get another job on the same day for better pay or even just better conditions minimises the capitalists profits.

        And so they work to make sure that freedom is not available. They cut the welfare state by saying that people getting welfare are being paid too much, put in degrading conditions for getting welfare and put in place so many hoops for getting it as well.

        And the whole lot is for the purpose of removing people’s freedom.

        Out in place a UBI and watch as the poor/bad employers scream.

        • greywarshark 4.1.3.1
          12 January 2019 at 1:07 pm

          Maybe we will end up as in Israel – crowded to the max. No graciousness.
          (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/traffic-congestion-in-israel-yalla-solutions/

        • Shadrach 4.1.3.2
          12 January 2019 at 7:55 pm

          You really do write some unadulterated bs.

          “People being free to leave work and get another job on the same day for better pay or even just better conditions minimises the capitalists profits.”

          Not for the employer who the employee shifts to, or they wouldn’t offer better terms. That is capitalism at work, the freedom of the worker to negotiate better terms. Do you really not understand that?

          • Draco T Bastard 4.1.3.2.1
            12 January 2019 at 10:25 pm

            You miss the point that workers are, presently, not free to leave their present employment.

            I know you’re going to say that they are but they really aren’t.

            First off, if they leave they have no income for 13 weeks. That’s a cost.
            Because of the governments failure to run a full employment policy they can’t just walk to another job. Which means that they could be out of work for weeks or even months.

            That is capitalism at work, the freedom of the worker to negotiate better terms. Do you really not understand that?

            I understand it. Do you not understand that a high unemployment rate removes the ability of workers to negotiate? That they can only take what’s offered?

            This is why the government keeps unemployment high. To actually prevent the workers from negotiating better terms and wages.

            • shadrach 4.1.3.2.1.1
              13 January 2019 at 7:48 pm

              “You miss the point that workers are, presently, not free to leave their present employment.”
              Of course they are. It’s called ‘resigning’.

              “First off, if they leave they have no income for 13 weeks. ”
              Wrong. They leave their old employer with potential outstanding leave entitlements, and start earning the very next day with their new employer. There are plenty of jobs.

              “Do you not understand that a high unemployment rate removes the ability of workers to negotiate? ”
              And a low unemployment rate increases the ability to negotiate. Thus the market provides the freedoms that workers don’t have under the dictates of socialism.

              “This is why the government keeps unemployment high.”
              The government wants low unemployment, because it increases it’s revenues and reduces it’s costs. If you seriously believe the government wants to keep unemployment high, you must think the current government is doing a pretty poor job!

      • Adrian Thornton 4.1.4
        12 January 2019 at 12:39 pm

        @Psycho Milt +1, come to the Hawkes Bay if you want to see imported labour from impoverished pacific Island being used cynically to suppress wages and conditions. I brought this up with A. Little when I got the chance once, he blurted out some meaningless bullshit for an answer, which was really disappointing as I have always quite Little.

        The problem with Little is the same problem with Labour NZ, ie. they seem to in their hearts, still really believe free market capitalism will answer all our problems, they really are liberal ideologues, this whole pragmatism bullshit that Ardern bangs on about is nothing more than a smoke screen for more of the same.

        • Psycho Milt 4.1.4.1
          12 January 2019 at 12:49 pm

          Same in Marlborough. I was in Blenheim for Christmas and found there’s now a big ugly barracks on the edge of town for the labourers imported from Vanuatu to work in the vineyards. I’ve seen better-looking prisons.

          • SaveNZ 4.1.4.1.1
            12 January 2019 at 1:47 pm

            The police and immigration also seem also more willing politically to prosecute Pacific Islanders for ‘trafficking’ but less so for other nationals also in on the same wicket! Maybe not keen to displease Asian dual nationals who apparently bring in good political donations for politicians…

            • marty mars 4.1.4.1.1.1
              12 January 2019 at 3:15 pm

              Evidence? That doesn’t sound correct. Are there any stats?
              Asians? From where? You mean China don’t you or do you have an ethnicity breakdown to put up.

              • SaveNZ …
                12 January 2019 at 6:35 pm

                There have been 4 trafficking cases prosecuted in NZ, as far as I am aware it always concentrates on Pacific Island horticulture workers, while it seems that other types of rampant human trafficking aka among the massive 150k temp work permits per year last year on top of the 129,000 migrants coming. That is under Labour. To give an idea they were talking about 15,000 when they won the election. So that promise has defiantly not be kept.

                For years now we have constant stories of workers paying for the work permits etc up front and then finding out there is no work and it is not all what is promised but they don’t get their money back. As far as I am concerned it falls under trafficking. Should people even be allowed to sell temporary work permits and internments to foreign people and profit from it?

                if people were paying to come into NZ in a boat they would be called human traffickers. Instead they do some shady stuff, and are bringing people to NZ who pay for the privilege just like the people traffickers but because they are on bogus permits it is apparently ok to lie and cheat people and then rely on NZ taxpayers to bail everyone out and turn a blind eye to the process because they are too incompetent to close it down.

        • patricia bremner 4.1.4.2
          12 January 2019 at 1:44 pm

          When did the PM talk about pragmatism? ???
          I thought that was a National mp. “We are pragmatists”

          • Draco T Bastard 4.1.4.2.1
            12 January 2019 at 2:23 pm

            https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/107442623/kindness-not-hate—jacinda-arderns-message-to-donald-trump-and-the-world

            Our empathy and strong sense of justice is matched only by our pragmatism.

            https://e-tangata.co.nz/korero/jacinda-lofty-goals-and-small-town-values/

            But the way I describe my approach to politics is that I’m a pragmatic-idealist.

            Of course, she’s still following capitalism which, itself, is not pragmatic. In fact, its a denial of pragmatism.

          • greywarshark 4.1.4.2.2
            12 January 2019 at 2:46 pm

            There is a marriage of words that some people are wrongly divorcing.
            The term for what we need is ‘pragmatic idealism’.

            Here pragmatic is an adjective qualifying the idealism that we need to drive us forward as a nation to some good goals. This will prevent a fast gallop headlong down the road signposted with fluffy feel-good names of destinations for Labour. Or for National the roads marked off with little spots of gold that only the first person to reach them gathers and pockets, leaving the later phalanx lost, confused and searching for a leader.

            So that is the recipe, ‘pragmatic idealism’. Pragamatism as a noun will just turn the nation to an empty dust bowl with huge barrack-like prisons placed strategically apart.

      • RedLogix 4.1.6
        12 January 2019 at 1:49 pm

        @PM

        This. On the nail; a very accurate post that reflects exactly what I’ve seen elsewhere. I’ve seen this exploitation up front and in person on one big overseas project; it’s ugly, ugly.

        This is a story about desperate people living in over-populated countries where there is intense local competition for opportunity. Of course the intense desire to better oneself gets exploited in these circumstances.

        Yes we can take action here in NZ to minimise the egregious abuse; but the root causes lie elsewhere. It reinforces yet again; no single nation state is able to address the big global scale challenges facing us.

        • Draco T Bastard 4.1.6.1
          12 January 2019 at 2:33 pm

          It reinforces yet again; no single nation state is able to address the big global scale challenges facing us.

          Does it?

          Or does it show that the government is willing to accept these types of things in the name of trade?

          As a nation we do have the choice of not trading with nations that allow this, to make sure that such exploitation doesn’t happen in our nation and that anyone of our nation who does support this in anyway ends up in jail. And we can even point to the UDHR to say why we’re not doing it.

          Of course, that does mean dropping out of FTAs that breach the UDHR like the one with China. And not signing up to ones with nations like Saudi Arabia.

          Sure, it’s not a global solution until everyone does it but it’s a step on the right path. And once we’ve done it we can apply pressure to others in the UN to do it. Somehow I think that some of the most exploited nations may actually be the first to step up.

    • cleangreen 4.2
      12 January 2019 at 2:01 pm

      SaveNZ. 100%.

      Yes I support your logic.

      It seems very clear now that the Chinese Government is behind dumping all these workers onto us here as the Chinese economy enters a slow down now.

      “Shouldn’t the government stop all these temporary work visas being issued under false pretenses of work (and a hefty fee to the middleman) taking up accommodation in shortages?

      The best thing the government could do, is prosecute the recruitment company and make them pay the Chinese workers money back and then Close the scam.”

    • OnceWasTim 4.3
      12 January 2019 at 5:21 pm

      “Shouldn’t the government stop all these temporary work visas being issued UNDER FALSE PRETENCES OF WORK (and a hefty fee to the middleman) taking up accommodation in shortages?”

      And shouldn’t they stop tying any type of visa to a specific employer rather than to an employment sector or specific project? It’s a recipe for exploitation – but unfortunately it’s all working as designed

      AND
      “The best thing the government could do, is prosecute the recruitment company and make them pay the Chinese workers money back and then Close the scam.”

      Since you’ll usually find cosy little relationships between hire companies (and others such as shitty tertiary education providers and charlatan Immigration Advisors that have not been properly monitored – as opposed to professionals with a proven record of ethical behaviour and subject to sanctions of the legal profession), YES, the best thing would be to prosecute and compensate their victims. And where they only possess PR, rescind it and deport. And where they have dual citizenship, we should seriously consider giving them a choice of which country they wish to retain their citizenship

      AND
      “The government should be thinking of Kiwi welfare, rights and safety first………….”
      The government should be thinking of the welfare, rights and safety of ANYBODY that’s in the country regardless of their circumstances without favour

      • SaveNZ 4.3.1
        13 January 2019 at 7:22 am

        The government should close down any temporary work permit being issued unless the person has a job that is proved that can not be done by a New Zealander and is paying well above market rates (because at present employers get around it by for example offering pay rates that are unliveable or the same as 20 years ago, like horticulture workers or people being recruited through numerous third parties all taking a profit and so the end worker gets under minimum wages (ak Chorus subcontractors and construction workers). They should also have to provide accommodation and prove that it is not taking accomodation away from other people aka the job has to supply it in high shortage areas like Auckland, Hawkes bay, Wellington).

        There should also be a limit to work permits per year like 15,000 of temporary work permits. A bottom line will automatically change the dynamic and the traffickers will be out of business, because at present the numbers of temp workers are limitless.

        Foreign people who study in NZ should not be allowed to work as that has become a way to enter NZ and then use it later to find a fake job and get residency.

        Former migrants or non NZ citizens should not be allowed to offer work permits or job sponsorship or marriage with residency to others. (aka Sroubek and his wife getting residency and these cases, https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376220/10k-11-days-and-one-failed-deportation, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12123831) so that the Ponzi scam is closed.

        So many people are profiting off what is essentially NZ visas and citizenship and that is why we have ridiculous levels like 150,000 work permits last year alone, while jobseeker benefits are up and 129,000 new migrants when apparently Labour, Greens and NZ First were supposed to close the loopholes. There are more migrants than under the Natz, because the government and their officials have such ineffectual controls, so many lawyers are profiting off the scams with litigation as the laws here are not fit for purpose or being exploited, allowing people who pay little to no taxes here for most of their lives to retire here and criminal exploiters to live in NZ and scam here.

  5. halfcrown 5
    12 January 2019 at 8:21 am

    Nice one Bleeple

    “Old books for learning from”

    Agree with that every year we go the Red Cross Bookfair held in Hamilton. We use it as a giant lending library. Always come away with a large load of books, all sorts of reading material. When we have read the ones we do not need to keep we return them to the Red Cross for the next book fair We have picked up some great books there like Peter Wrights SpyCatcher and Neville Shute’s Slide Rule and they are nearly always in good condition.

    • WeTheBleeple 5.1
      12 January 2019 at 9:28 am

      Book fairs. what a great way to spend a day, book fair and brunch, my favorite. I’ve attended the Hamilton book fair a couple years ago and got ‘The Reader’s Digest Do It Yourself Manual (1965)’ – a 500 page hardcover book on building – from furniture and shelves etc through to houses, log cabins… All with hand tools. What a Treasure! BBQ areas, ponds, pagolas, retaining walls, paths, terraces…. amazing book.

      • Robert Guyton 5.1.1
        12 January 2019 at 9:33 am

        My difficulty with book fairs is meeting people there. What’s the protocol; nod and keep searching? A quick howdy-do and … keep searching, or stop for a catch-up and watch your almost-treasures walk out the door with someone else? I love talking. I love foraging at book fairs; what to do, what to do?

    • greywarshark 5.2
      12 January 2019 at 9:29 am

      Learning about – books plus. On Radio NZ this a.m. interesting, informative, leading to understanding, hopeful.

      8.35 Erin Rhoads: A zero-waste quest
      Erin Rhoads runs the Australian eco-lifestyle website The Rogue Ginger, and has written the book Waste Not, which gives suggestions for reducing consumption and waste – particularly of plastic – in every area of life, and every room in the house. She has been attempting to come as close to “zero waste” as possible since 2013. She also consults with businesses on waste reduction.

      09:05 Dov Alfon: Stories from inside Israel’s military
      Dov Alfon is an Israeli investigative journalist and former editor of the newspaper Haaretz, to which he still contributes from his home in Paris. Dov was formerly an intelligence officer in Unit 8200, the most secretive arm of the Israeli military,
      and –

      in his first work of fiction, A Long Night in Paris, he lays bare Israel’s secretive world of intelligence gathering. He received a Peace Through Media prize in 2011.

      10:05 Anthony Cabraal: Tackling a broken culture of work
      Anthony Cabraal is a member of Enspiral, a collective of businesses and freelancers that aims to support people who want to spend their lives changing the world. He is co-editor of the book Better Work Together, which discusses harnessing the “power of community” to transform businesses. He is interested in helping communities of people approach governance of companies, profits, leadership, staff retention, and other structural issues that make workplaces dysfunctional, in new and innovative ways.

      10:35 John Cryan: How your gut affects your brain
      Dr John Cryan, a neuropharmacologist and microbiome expert from the University College Cork, researches the interactions between the brain and the collection of microbes in the gut, and how that relationship affects stress, psychiatric health, and immune-related disorders. In his latest book, The Psychobiotic Revolution, Professor Cryan and colleague Ted Dinan write about research showing that beneficial microbes can improve mood.

      Someone could put up audio when its through if they have time. I want to be on the Earth March, and want to be in two places at once, so I am a bit stretched!

      And Halfcrown – this Israeli book may be special; there isn’t that much sane thinking available to us from there. (I like Nevil Shute – great humane, storyteller with interesting technical stuff too. I guess Slide Rule is about him personally?)

      • WeTheBleeple 5.2.1
        12 January 2019 at 9:36 am

        I highly rate Dr Cryan I read a ton of his stuff when researching autism. He’ll be an eye opener for many.

        • cleangreen 5.2.1.1
          12 January 2019 at 2:18 pm

          Dr Cryan is excellent and many before him has explained the effects “our toxic world”

          try also the book called “Our toxic World” by Our Toxic World: A Wake Up Call Paperback – October, 2003 by Doris Rapp (Author)

          https://www.amazon.com/Our-Toxic-World-Wake-Call/dp/1880509083

          Just a short brief in this link below will chill your bones as enter into a poisoned world.
          By Dr. Mercola

          https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/03/15/the-wild-world-of-chemical-exposure.aspx
          Dr. Mercola’s Natural Health Newsletter

          Polytoxicity: The Wild World of Chemical Exposure
          26 March 15, 2017

          toxic chemicals in hand sanitizer
          STORY AT-A-GLANCE
          There are about 85,000 chemicals registered under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), but even the EPA is largely in the dark about what that actually means for people’s health and the environment
          Combining chemicals often magnifies their toxic effects; in the case of bisphenol-A (BPA), using hand sanitizer prior to handling a BPA-containing receipt may increase skin absorption 100-fold
          About 1 in 11 public schools in the U.S. are located within 500 feet of highways, truck routes and other roads with heavy traffic, leaving millions of school kids breathing polluted air
          By Dr. Mercola

          Have you ever wondered how many chemicals you’re exposed to on any given day? How about your kids? It’s really anyone’s guess. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compile and keep a current list of chemical substances manufactured or processed in the U.S.

          That list includes about 85,000 chemicals,1 but even the EPA is largely in the dark about what that actually means for people’s health and the environment.

          As noted in Chemical & Engineering News, “The agency is struggling to get a handle on which of those chemicals are in the marketplace today and how they are actually being used.”2

          Very few chemicals on the market are tested for safety, but even those that are, are not necessarily safe. Part of this is because safety testing is typically done on just one chemical at a time, and under laboratory conditions.

          The way you’re actually exposed to chemicals — in combination and under countless different real-world scenarios — may increase their toxicity exponentially.

          The Toxic Reality of Using Hand Sanitizer, Eating and Holding a Receipt
          A revealing example of just how toxic our world has become is the bisphenol-A (BPA) used in thermal paper (the type many receipts are made out of).

          BPA is an endocrine-disrupting chemical linked to a number of health concerns, particularly in pregnant women, fetuses and young children, but also in adults, including high blood pressure, heart disease,3 obesity, fertility problems and more.

          BPA is most often associated with plastics, personal care products and canned goods but, according to a 2014 study published in PLOS One, “Free BPA is applied to the outer layer of thermal receipt paper present in very high (∼20 mg BPA/g paper) quantities as a print developer.”4

          This in itself is unsettling, considering very few people think twice about handling receipts (or handing one to a child). However, the study revealed that a very common scenario — using hand sanitizer prior to handling a receipt — maximizes the risk.

        • WeTheBleeple 5.2.1.2
          12 January 2019 at 3:42 pm

          I don’t know how you went from Dr Cryan on the gut microbiome to ‘our toxic world’ to Dr Mercola, but you did it.

          Here’s a taste:

          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22968153

          “Studies are revealing how variations and changes in the composition of the gut microbiota influence normal physiology and contribute to diseases ranging from inflammation to obesity. Accumulating data now indicate that the gut microbiota also communicates with the [Central Nervous System (CNS)]–possibly through neural, endocrine and immune pathways–and thereby influences brain function and behaviour. Studies … suggest a role for the gut microbiota in the regulation of anxiety, mood, cognition and pain. Thus, the emerging concept of a microbiota-gut-brain axis suggests that modulation of the gut microbiota may be a tractable strategy for developing novel therapeutics for complex CNS disorders.

      • greywarshark 5.2.2
        12 January 2019 at 1:42 pm

        https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018678197/erin-rhoads-a-zero-waste-quest

        https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018678201/dov-alfon-stories-from-inside-israel-s-military

        https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018678205/anthony-cabraal-tackling-a-broken-culture-of-work

        https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018678206/john-cryan-how-your-gut-affects-your-brain

        and an extra – on Canada, the venturing woman and Saudi Arabia.
        https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018678196/spotlight-on-saudi-arabia-s-guardianship-of-women

        and, published 2010:
        Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean …
        https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/613283.Princess
        Rating: 4 – ‎26,738 votes
        Start by marking “Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia” as Want to Read: … The true story of one of the princesses of the royal house of Al Saud in Saudi Arabia is told in a fashion that is both charming and riveting. The veil that guards the women of …

      • halfcrown 5.2.3
        12 January 2019 at 4:49 pm

        ” I guess Slide Rule is about him personally?”

        Yes it is. Nevil Shutes full name is Nevil Shute Norway. He explains why he only used Nevil Shute as his writing name (shit I am surprised no one picked up my typo) He was a mathematician working on the R101 Airship, Gives an insight into his political thinking and why he ended up in Australia writing novels about Australia and aircraft. A great engineer predicted metal fatigue long before it was understood what metal fatigue really was (No Highway). As I have said before I don’t recommend books as we all have our different tastes but it is a good read all about the British Aircraft industry in the ’20s and ’30s with great characters who he worked with like Alan Cobham and Geoffrey De Haviland.

        “this Israeli book may be special; there isn’t that much sane thinking available to us from there.”

        Oh I don’t know Grey I found Dr Yuval Noah Harari’s book “Sapiens” extremely good and he’s Jewish and lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
        but your recommendation has been noted and added to the list. Thanks

    • millsy 5.3
      12 January 2019 at 9:47 am

      The thing about books, is that there are lots of info in them that you simply cannot find online.

  6. Sacha 6
    12 January 2019 at 8:56 am

    The invisibility of class and the advantages of social capital: https://www.damemagazine.com/2018/07/17/the-self-made-billionaire-is-a-myth/

    • Dennis Frank 6.1
      12 January 2019 at 9:44 am

      Yes, an essential perspective. The effect of social niche is often not factored into evaluation. Context is everything. As I’ve pointed out here before, all meaning is relative to context.

      “humans are herd animals. If that herd happens to go from Stanford straight into the product manager program at Google, that’s what you do. There are a lot of people who were just on the assembly line from Stanford to Google to some little startup they sold for $50 million and that’s it. That track was just laid out for them, they just got on the treadmill and went down the assembly line and I don’t think most people understand how that works.”

      The point is to learn how the culture of capitalism both forms and replicates. It replicates itself via the endeavour of the individuals it forms. Context produces matrix – recall the formative role of that being the feature of the movie. It created the social reality of the world. Only the minority rebels saw through it to the deeper reality in which it was embedded.

    • Draco T Bastard 6.2
      12 January 2019 at 12:38 pm

      Extreme Wealth is Not Merited

      The paper concludes that fifty percent of the world’s billionaire wealth is non-meritocratic owing to either inheritance or a high presumption of cronyism. Another 15 percent is not meritocratic owing to presumption of monopoly. All of it is non-meritocratic owing to globalization. By contrast, crime and technology are found to be negligible sources of extreme wealth.

      Is there a place for difference in earning?

      Yes, yes there is.

      But there should still be no unearned income and no one is worth more than, say, 30% more than the average wage.

      • RedLogix 6.2.1
        12 January 2019 at 2:14 pm

        Who defines ‘unearned income’? You or me? Or some unaccountable Central Committee of Comrades?

        And who defines your 30% ratio? Same committee?

        Take my own life for example … the annualised income ratio between my first job as an after-school bottle washer in a chemist shop, and the one I’m doing now is (in real terms) probably in the order of 1200% or more. Why do you think the version of me that’s 50 yrs older is being paid so much more? And how exactly do you think this should be regulated?

        • greywarshark 6.2.1.1
          12 January 2019 at 2:32 pm

          I think that DTB’s idea of having some proportionality from bottom to top is right. We have gone up on the Bell curve? and I would prefer not to see it rushing down the other side. Why not ease up a little so the gradient won’t be so steep? Forget percentages – they are just indicators that have too many variables to be tossed into an argument.

          Say though the minimum wage is just getting by level at $20 an hour, and with thousing play being the game du jour for the irresponsible economists that is a basic, then what would 5 times be like, $100 an hour, $4,000 a 40 hour week making approx $200,000 per annum. Stop the competition for housing from immigrants by reducing immigration numbers, and refuse to sell our land and housing infrastructure to overseas hot-pants money off-loaders and pay at the highest $500,00 p.a. Half a million would give a very nice lifestyle and housing could settle down to being necessary infrastructure at more reasonable prices.
          If people didn’t like it they could take their money and go elsewhere. We would not be worse off in the long run. If we were short of top talent we could pay some big bucks on a short term basis and buy it in. We could afford that.

          • RedLogix 6.2.1.1.1
            12 January 2019 at 2:58 pm

            This is one of those questions that has no empirical answer.

            We can for instance easily reject the two extremes; one where one persons owns everything and has all the income, the other where everyone has exactly the same income and wealth. Neither of these extremes is feasible.

            But they are useful markers to help think about the problem. In global terms it’s fair to say we are much closer to the first extreme of everyone owning everything, than perfect equality. So this strongly suggests which direction we need to move in … towards spreading income and wealth more evenly. I’ve clearly argued elsewhere that the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty is one of the four big moral challenges of our era.

            But how would we know if we had gone too far?

            I don’t think we can rely on individual opinion; each one of us would have a different answer. Nor can any fixed number be relied upon to account for the multiple dimensions which determine income, wealth and social capital.

            Nor should we rely on just one mechanism; progressive taxation has long been the traditional tool the left has wielded, yet other nations have tended towards tighter distributions of income before taxation. Others have taxed capital, investment and expenditure in complex fashions, and so on.

            There is also a complex relationship between opportunity and outcomes; these two being tension with each other. We tend to maximise one at the expense of the other.

            Nor is it easy to account for exactly how brutal the drivers of inequality really are, and how deep they run into our psychological being. For instance; how many tens of millions of talented musicians are there? Yet probably less than 1000 of them account for the vast majority of music listened to. Last year I was working on a site with 13,000 people, yet barely 100 of them would count as the key technical leaders. If you want a formal expression of this, checkout Price’s Law.

            Outstanding success is a very rare thing; it’s distribution is exceedingly skewed. The vast majority of people are firmly lodged right at the bottom. This is true of all fields of endeavour, across all societies.

            The modern world has largely solved the problem of absolute poverty; but it has greatly exacerbated relative poverty; inequality challenges us in ways we’re only just beginning to understand. The left exists to address this question; but our grasp of it’s true nature and our dialog around it falls woefully short.

            • Draco T Bastard 6.2.1.1.1.1
              12 January 2019 at 3:30 pm

              But they are useful markers to help think about the problem. In global terms it’s fair to say we are much closer to the first extreme of everyone owning everything, than perfect equality.

              The first extreme you mention is one person owning everything and we’re actually getting pretty close to that. It is, after all, the inevitable result of capitalism. So is the collapse of society that it will bring about.

              The solution isn’t actually everyone owning the same amount but nobody owning resources, land, houses and other items that bring in unearned income. This would actually allow the labour market to work.

              But how would we know if we had gone too far?

              When we have increasing poverty while a few people have far more than they can either spend or use in their life time.

              There is also a complex relationship between opportunity and outcomes; these two being tension with each other. We tend to maximise one at the expense of the other.

              We don’t have equal opportunity nor do we have equal outcomes.

              Outstanding success is a very rare thing; it’s distribution is exceedingly skewed.

              Perhaps the problem is our definition of success. As you say, there are millions of talented musicians but, despite these people actually being successful, we don’t see them as such because they haven’t made millions.

              The vast majority of people are firmly lodged right at the bottom.

              Which I seems to be largely because people don’t have the right ‘class’.

              • JohnSelway …
                12 January 2019 at 3:40 pm

                The ironic thing being that if a musician does become successful you accuse them of being thieves

                • greywarshark …
                  12 January 2019 at 6:48 pm

                  The ironic thing is that people like you JS come onto TS and stay as if you find it worthwhile, and then start criticising and nit-picking.
                  What on earth do you mean by “you accuse them of being thieves”
                  If you are going to try for TS interaction and discussion can you please explain your line of thinking. I for one am tired of the tossers who toss-off some remark that they think as profound or shrewd.

                  • JohnSelway …
                    13 January 2019 at 9:36 am

                    DTB once said being rich was only achieved by theft. I countered that the musician or artist who becomes rich does so from the benefits of their own talent rather than off the backs of the poor. He never answered it so I mentioned it here as it seemed relevant.

                    Also – fuck off. This open mike and I’ll say what I want. Don’t like it? Don’t read it

                    • greywarshark …
                      14 January 2019 at 10:39 am

                      Don’t like personal criticism or seeking improvement John Selway.
                      Don’t come here!

                      This is Open Mike and I’ll say what I want.
                      You are a good example of someone who is highly individualistic and doesn’t care about the purpose of this blog, which is to look at what’s being done in NZ and see how we can do things better.
                      Not to stamp like a three year old and run around demanding things be done to suit oneself.

              • RedLogix …
                12 January 2019 at 3:47 pm

                owning resources, land, houses and other items that bring in unearned income.

                Marx formulated his outdated theories in an era when the relationship between wealth and resources was poorly understood. It turned out Marx was completely wrong. By simple observation it’s clear that real wealth derives from a complex of factors; monetary and social capital, intelligence, talent, persistence and diligence, tolerance for risk, resilience, good looks, good luck and an energetic urban setting are some of the obvious ones.

                In the early 1800’s it was natural to perceive labour in purely physical terms, but 200 years later this kind of ‘labour’ has almost zero global value. In a modern economy real value lies almost entirely elsewhere; and this is a trend that is rapidly accelerating.

                Which I seems to be largely because people don’t have the right ‘class’.

                This is true to at least some extent; class is real and has real impacts. But the West has moved very strongly in the direction of an equality of opportunity in order to mitigate this. You just can’t have a perfect equality of outcome at the same time.

                • McFlock …
                  12 January 2019 at 4:15 pm

                  Almost all of those immediately come down to luck, anyway.

                  Frankly, all I’d do is make it illegal for the state to countenance <60 median income after housing costs (as a poverty line, i.e. so everyone under that line gets a cheque from the government so they meet that minimum), then adopt a progressive taxation policy on all income so that marginal tax rates on more than 9 times the gross median income are something like 90% (everything over roughly $440k at the moment).

                  It wouldn't be perfect, but I don't think it would be too far wrong.

                  • Dennis Frank …
                    12 January 2019 at 4:25 pm

                    The reason progressive taxation fell out of favour with the electorate was due to Labour using it to fund big govt, so the question is how to market it effectively. Can you foresee Labour learning it’s lesson and campaigning on the combination of promising to keep the cost of govt down while pitching for a mandate to bring back progressive taxation on income?

                    • McFlock …
                      12 January 2019 at 4:36 pm

                      They promised to keep government cost down last election. It is a promise I think they should not make at the next election. And tax is under review.

                  • RedLogix …
                    12 January 2019 at 4:30 pm

                    immediately come down to luck

                    Yes. The genetic lottery is a capricious and often cruel thing; but exactly what should we do about it?

                    Until we understand inequality properly; that it’s roots lie far deeper than mere capitalism or neo-liberalism, we don’t stand a chance of addressing it effectively.

                    It’s my sense the answer lies less with how wealth is distributed, but in how it’s used. A society that makes put’s energy into ensuring those that the bottom of the heap, even those it might despise as ‘losers’ are not disrespected and discarded is the moral platform we need to re-build. The idea that each one of us, regardless of our lot in life, is of value and worth, is the key idea.

                    • McFlock …
                      12 January 2019 at 4:35 pm

                      As I said, my position is that what we should do about it is make sure everyone has the basics and tax the fuck out of the disproportionaly wealthy so that their children don’t have dolt-45 level unearned advantages.

                    • RedLogix …
                      12 January 2019 at 5:14 pm

                      We tried that, and while it worked for a while, because we didn’t have an effective moral defense for it … it all got dismantled in the 1980’s.

                      I’m not against strong progressive taxation; but I’d argue that by itself it’s a fragile tool.

                      And what Dennis said at 4:25

                    • McFlock …
                      12 January 2019 at 5:24 pm

                      It got dismantled in the 1980s because more equal societies don’t stop people being corrupt fuckwits.

                      Getting an egalitarian and fair society is like quitting smoking. You do the good thing for a while, then someone succumbs to temptation. So you try again. And again. Forever.

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      12 January 2019 at 6:03 pm

                      Until we understand inequality properly; that it’s roots lie far deeper than mere capitalism or neo-liberalism, we don’t stand a chance of addressing it effectively.

                      Poverty is a direct result of capitalism. The whole system is designed to channel the wealth to the rich. That’s what it does and that wealth must come from the poor.

                      Get rid of the system that channels the wealth to the rich and we can do something about poverty.

                      We certainly won’t be able to do something about it until we accept that truth.

                      It’s my sense the answer lies less with how wealth is distributed, but in how it’s used.

                      In the context of economics distributed and used are the same.

                      We either distribute the wealth so that there is no poverty or we distribute it to the already wealthy and ensure that we do have poverty.

                      So far, we’ve chosen the latter course.

                    • RedLogix …
                      13 January 2019 at 7:06 am

                      Poverty is a direct result of capitalism.

                      Poverty … both absolute and relative existed long, long before capitalism. The inescapable problem is that differences multiply; success attracts success. This applies to all fields of human endeavour, the first 10,000 hours are the hardest, after that it largely a matter of pursuing the endless opportunities that open up to competency and integrity.

                      And even then, outstanding success remains an exceedingly rare thing. Indeed according to Prices Law of the 7 billion humans on earth, it’s just 80,000 or so who contribute 50% of the creative value and innovation to the entire global output.

                      Random linky: https://dariusforoux.com/prices-law/

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  12 January 2019 at 5:57 pm

                  But the West has moved very strongly in the direction of an equality of opportunity in order to mitigate this.

                  No it hasn’t. In fact, over the last few decades it’s gone completely in the other direction as we’ve punished the poor for being poor while putting the rich, no matter how they got that wealth, upon pedestals.

        • Draco T Bastard 6.2.1.2
          12 January 2019 at 2:54 pm

          Who defines ‘unearned income’?

          Any income that doesn’t come from work.

          So, rent, shareholding, inheritance, interest etcetera. For a more informed view read Why we can’t afford the rich.

          And who defines your 30% ratio?

          That was merely a suggestion. I have stated before that there should be both a minimum income (UBI) and a maximum income.

          Why do you think the version of me that’s 50 yrs older is being paid so much more?

          Because we’ve got the valuation of work massively wrong. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed over the last few years is that those people we need the most are paid the least while those we need the least are paid the most.

          Some time back I pointed out that a CEOs million dollar bonus, if given to the work force, would have been a 40c per hour raise. That million dollars still came from the same pile – the corporate accounts – but the workers had just been declined a pay-rise. The point being that high pay-rates for some are preventing decent pay-rates for others.

          You should, of course, be paid more than teenage you as experience and knowledge count but is the job that you do actually worth the amount that you’re paid? The evidence suggests that it’s possible you’re being paid too much.

          And how exactly do you think this should be regulated?

          A minimum and maximum wage and then let the market sort it out.

          • RedLogix 6.2.1.2.1
            12 January 2019 at 3:03 pm

            The evidence suggests that it’s possible you’re being paid too much.

            Interesting you should frame it like that; why not suggest that the bottle washer version of me was being paid too little?

            Over and again your message translates to a hatred of the rich rather than any real concern for the poor.

            • Draco T Bastard 6.2.1.2.1.1
              12 January 2019 at 3:18 pm

              why not suggest that the bottle washer version of me was being paid too little?

              He probably was.

              Over and again your message translates to a hatred of the rich rather than any real concern for the poor.

              No it doesn’t. That’s just you twisting my words to make yourself feel better as you’re one of the rentiers who should not exist.

              • RedLogix …
                12 January 2019 at 3:22 pm

                you’re one of the rentiers who should not exist.

                I scarcely have to twist anything. Not so much as a tinsey tweak ….

            • JohnSelway 6.2.1.2.1.2
              12 January 2019 at 3:30 pm

              “Over and again your message translates to a hatred of the rich rather than any real concern for the poor.”

              Hole in one. Draco is an admitted authoritarian who hates the rich (actually anyone who has riches because in Draco’s mind it all amounts to theft – even the artist who gets rich from their own efforts rather than from rents or inheritance)

              He hates more than he empathises

              • Draco T Bastard …
                12 January 2019 at 3:33 pm

                Hole in one.

                No, it was just Red twisting things because he didn’t like the truth.

  7. greywarshark 7
    12 January 2019 at 9:30 am

    This on procrastination – do you suffer from this? Apparently it’s in our genes – so does that mean it is inevitable and we should just let it rule? This from Canadian who looks into our underlying drives.
    https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-weekend/audio/2018677711/piers-steel-why-we-procrastinate-and-how-to-stop

  8. WeTheBleeple 8
    12 January 2019 at 9:47 am

    Very useful if it works. I’m a terrible procrastinator and much of that is goal setting or failure to break them down so I get overwhelm of mental to do lists.

    But there have been times in life I’ve juggled a dozen things seemingly effortlessly. With a plan, and a diary…

    It never fails to amuse me how, as humans, we learn good helpful things then forget them just as easily. Like our default is to self sabotage.

    Time management. That’s what I require right now. So simple I simply forgot.

    • Janice 8.1
      12 January 2019 at 12:13 pm

      I find that an attack of my chronic inertia seems to activate my congenital procrastination. particularly on hot days. I also forget that I have lost my memory somewhere.

    • greywarshark 8.2
      12 January 2019 at 6:59 pm

      WtB
      Familiar story. But I like it. Perhaps there can be a society for the chronic procrastinator/fevered activator – goes like a see-saw. Who finds they tend to wait for a deadline and that sharpens your mind acutely and you can immediately judge how long each thing will take to a 3 minute accuracy?

      • WeTheBleeple 8.2.1
        12 January 2019 at 7:56 pm

        I used to edit a monthly community paper. So I was writer, editor, sales, etc… 90% of it got done in the last week. Still managed to double circulation and triple the size in six months.

        Then won > $6K with friends playing phone trivia, also coinciding with a nice sized holiday pay – and so went on a 6 week drinking jag (as you do) followed by a hospitalised detox.

        6 months drinking in 6 weeks, now that’s efficiency.

        • greywarshark 8.2.1.1
          14 January 2019 at 10:45 am

          Yes WtB some people waste their lives drinking too much over decades and end up with no life left and trying to detox. You did the short pressure-cooker course, and passed the third stage of wisdom successfully (learning from personal experience), and now have jumped that ravine and can journey on at a higher level. Poetic eh!

  9. Jenny - How to get there? 9
    12 January 2019 at 10:14 am

    Be afraid

    Be very afraid

    Oceans Are Warming Faster Than Predicted
    “Earth’s seas are absorbing excess heat 40 percent faster than previous estimates”

    Chelsea Harvey – Scientific American, January 11, 2019

    New Zealand seas in 2018 hottest since records began, dire warning for marine life

    Michael Neilson, General/Māori Affairs reporter – NZ HeraldNZ Herald, January 11, 2019

    • Jenny - How to get there? 9.1
      12 January 2019 at 10:50 am

      ‘

      by Erika Spanger-Siegfried, Senior Analyst in the Climate and Energy program at UCS – Union Of Concerned Scientists, December 30, 2018

      An ancient pre-literate myth; metaphor for the effort we need to recover our badly wounded climate.

      …….The brazen young hero, Lemminkäinen, is murdered for his womanizing, and his body is utterly destroyed, blasted into tiny pieces and cast into the black river Tuona that courses through the underworld. All his mother knows is that her beloved boy is missing so she searches the world over to find him, every difficult mile in vain. Finally, she asks the sun and it gives her the terrible, heart-shattering news. Okay, she says. I’m going to need a rake. Make me one, she tells her friend the blacksmith, and she descends into the darkness and begins to seek her boy anew. She rakes the river Tuona for untold days, in her wet shift in the cold rushing blackness, all the way to the ocean. Nothing. So, she turns and begins raking her way back upstream. And somewhere in the blending black days and weeks she finds…. a piece of his shirt. So, on she rakes. And she finds a bone, eventually a rib, finally a hip. On she rakes, maybe not even thinking enough to despair. Just striving to save her boy. Because if she thinks she possibly can, then how can she possibly stop?

      Eventually, she finds all of him. And she begins to sew him back together. Every bit of sinew attached to every bone, every patch of flesh rejoined, every eyelash made right in her inconceivable toil. Finally, he is complete. And with a drop of honey to his lips, Lemminkäinen stirs and comes to life. His mother has fought long and hard and far, far beyond all limits of what we think of as hope. Her hope is no butterfly. It’s more like the monarch’s miraculous migration and the green-fuse force of life that drives it.

      • greywarshark 9.1.1
        12 January 2019 at 7:02 pm

        Jenny – How to Get There
        Which day of the week do you decide to note the latest, but then shut down for the rest of the day and night ie nearly a whole day leaving the world to everyone else to worry about and resting your weary mind?

    • Dennis Frank 9.2
      12 January 2019 at 10:56 am

      But is fear of the future the best way to engage with it? I’m inclined to go with Monty Python instead. And that line they made a song out of had already been traditional folk wisdom for a very long time!

      “When Chapman died on 4 October 1989, the five remaining Pythons, as well as Chapman’s close friends and family, came together at his public memorial service to sing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” as part of Idle’s eulogy. In 2005, a survey by Music Choice showed that it was the third most popular song Britons would like played at their funerals. By 2014, it was the most popular.”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_Look_on_the_Bright_Side_of_Life

      • Jenny - How to get there? 9.2.1
        12 January 2019 at 2:08 pm

        Were the young men who played football with blocks of ice on the deck of the Titanic brave, or just not aware of the true nature of the tragedy unfolding around them?

        Did their levity in the face of the coming disaster help or hinder their chances of survival?

        I would say that creating an air of carefree lightheartedness, would have led many, not to understand the peril they were all in. Even some who might otherwise have survived if they had been moved to action sooner.

        If you are not afraid, you are not brave, you are just not fully aware of the danger.

        Without fear there can be no courage.

        Courage is acting despite your fear.

        Speaking personally, Dennis, I don’t find your argument for levity in the face of the climate disaster compelling. To make light of the peril we are all in would, in my opinion, be a mistake.

        P.S.
        In the example you gave to back up your point; The mourners, at Graham Chapman’s funeral, were not themselves in any peril.

        This tells me that you think the same way about climate change, that it will affect others, and not you, or those dear to you.

        • Dennis Frank 9.2.1.1
          12 January 2019 at 2:33 pm

          No, the precautionary principle must apply as regards public policy, but the problem with fear is that it tends to paralyze people. As with animals.

          So to empower them, we must provide a positive alternative to a grim reality. One that opens up another pathway to the future which is viable. That gives them a useful basis on which to proceed.

    • Cinny 9.4
      12 January 2019 at 4:43 pm

      Thanks for the links Jenny.

      Girls and I have been talking about this daily, usually as we return from a swim at the river or beach. Discussion about how we are going to work with the new climate also occurs.

      The girls are now noticing the difference after five years of summer swimming at the same places. Visible marine life changes via sea temp’s; resulting in educating ourselves on sharing the water with stingrays etc.

      Will share the info with them.

  10. Nic the NZer 10
    12 January 2019 at 10:37 am

    For the next time a commentator (or economist, or member of government) suggests cutting minimum wages, or benefits, or employment protections is a good way of improving employment outcomes. This is often called making the labour market more flexible/responsive/dynamic.

    At heart the argument seems illogical because its based on a fallacy.

    “What started the discussion was the allegation that the level of employment in the long run is a result of people’s own rational intertemporal choices and that how much people work basically is a question of incentives.”

    https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2019/01/06/cutting-wages-the-wrong-medicine/

    Sadly the Future of Work is failing to understand these fallacies at all,

    https://www.labour.org.nz/speech_by_grant_robertson_the_future_of_work_and_labour_s_economic_vision

    “Already this year I have outlined two critical underpinnings of our approach. First, our Budget Responsibility Rules. In order to make our bold and progressive programme credible we have to demonstrate to New Zealanders that we can deliver it. They want us to show that we understand their desire for a government that manages our finances responsibly.”

    Sadly this policy is harmful, restrictions of government spending reduce employment and importantly this net effect is not automatically equalized away by the economy responding to government spending (though the sensibleness of the above approach rests on this). The upshot of this will be unemployment in NZ will not lower as quickly as is otherwise possible (even if its not excessive). It also seems likely that the government will be slow to react to shifts in the economy resulting in a continuing pattern of an observable large increase in unemployment followed by a slow drawn out recovery.

    “The Labour Party believes in full employment- anyone who can work should be able to work. As Minister of Finance I will re-assert Labour’s historic mission of full employment. In the first term of government we will lower unemployment to 4%.”

    The goal of 4% is not particularly high, NZ achieved close to 2% unemployment across the entire period between the mid 1930’s and the mid 1970’s when the country actually had a policy of full employment. Further the meaning of full-employment is these days up for grabs and in this context probably refers to the NAIRU rate (as he goes on to talk about monetary policy). The NAIRU rate only looks at unemployment and so infers that full employment can include significant under employment (people who while employed want more hours of work). Also the last we heard the reserve bank believed the NAIRU rate was about 4.5% unemployment and the economy was beyond full employment.

    “And we want all parts of the economic apparatus working towards that goal. That is why we will expand the objectives of the Reserve Bank to include not just controlling inflation, but also maximising employment. We want to modernise our monetary policy, recognising that in 28 years a lot has changed, and we want it to work for us, not the other way around”

    The problematic implication here is that the reserve bank can achieve full employment and significantly effect employment by manipulating monetary policy. In the longer term this is thought to be the best approach to maximizing employment and use of fiscal policy is discouraged for this purpose (also see surplus above). Unfortunately this is fallacious, based on the idea that the economy will equalize away the net effects of fiscal policy on employment (and bring inflation in line with government spending). The upshot of this policy choice is that the employment rate will ultimately track the fortunes of the NZ economy.

    “These are policies that aim to make changes for workers and employers easier and quicker, and thereby reducing unemployment. This involves helping people find work in areas that need them, helping people get the skills they need to fill gaps in the labour force, and anything else that can help those without work, or in poor working conditions, to find new employment quickly, simply and without hassle.”

    Now to be fair, some of the measures outlined above are possibly reasonable and may help with the responsiveness of the labour market. But ultimately this is still based on a fallacy that unemployment is reflective of peoples desire to work. As Robertson made clear ultimately the government will *not* itself be actively ensuring that employment is available for all, this will remain at the fortunes of the NZ economy. This undermines many of the suggested policies, while work and income may be accessible to more people including those in work, if they can’t find jobs or better jobs this will almost certainly turn into work and income holding their users responsible for not finding jobs or better jobs and looking at their incentives. Training programs can be helpful, however if there are none of the anticipated jobs at the end then these become problematic and a waste leaving students with debt or at least having wasted significant time and still needing to retrain. There are also likely some labour market reforms which favor employers but didn’t get mentioned in full detail.

    Ultimately, as I see it, this policy is a continuation of NZ’s long standing employment policies and will amount to Labours softer touch in government, but nothing more.

    • greywarshark 10.1
      12 January 2019 at 10:56 am

      It is important for Labour to sound as if it is ready to fit in with whatever the death spiders of the financial world are weaving. Labour needs the bluster of a blowfly that keeps on fighting the sticky web, then rests, then has another go and often evades the spiders fangs wanting to suck it dry of its life juices.

      That’s where we are now, in the web and losing strength. Can we make it to carry on our sort of valuable contribution to the world, or are we losers?

      • cleangreen 10.1.1
        12 January 2019 at 3:32 pm

        Good analogy greywarshark,

        I for one have seen the total sellout of our NZ media to corporate control and influence.

        I recall when Labour MP’s all solidly said that they want to see a government operated neutral balanced free from commercial media provided.

        But we have since have just seen RNZ captured by the right wing element.

        RNZ is just another right wing element of the National Party now.

        Labour must take control the media; – or it will lose in 2020; – be sure of this.

    • Draco T Bastard 10.2
      12 January 2019 at 3:16 pm

      The goal of 4% is not particularly high, NZ achieved close to 2% unemployment across the entire period between the mid 1930’s and the mid 1970’s when the country actually had a policy of full employment.

      Is that supposed to be not particularly low?

      Further the meaning of full-employment is these days up for grabs and in this context probably refers to the NAIRU rate (as he goes on to talk about monetary policy). The NAIRU rate only looks at unemployment and so infers that full employment can include significant under employment (people who while employed want more hours of work). Also the last we heard the reserve bank believed the NAIRU rate was about 4.5% unemployment and the economy was beyond full employment.

      The NAIRU is non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. In other words, it’s the rate of unemployment that prevents wages rising but still allows profits to rise. It is for this reason that all the benefits of increased productivity over the last few decades have gone to the rich rather than everyone. And, yes, New Zealand too.

      Looks like Robinson and the Labour Party are still following the failed capitalist model.

  11. patricia bremner 11
    12 January 2019 at 1:59 pm

    Well we are still tolerating spiders in our midst. i.e Key in ANZ.

    • greywarshark 11.1
      12 January 2019 at 2:16 pm

      I think that your sentence gives the wrong impression patricia. We are in no position to have an opinion about John Key and what he does. This is the golden boy of the financially prominent and he has done so well for them here and even Australia, that they have given him a top award. 18 July 2017 >
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94826194/sir-john-key-receives-australias-highest-honour

      We tolerate him because we have to, having very little say in anything of importance to this country. (Why it is important to keep goals in sight and focus and look to mix with people who have integrity and who care about and respect others).)

  12. JohnSelway 12
    12 January 2019 at 2:00 pm

    I have been in Wellington on holiday for a few weeks and am due to head back home to Tauranga on Tuesday. I don’t have my car with me and didn’t want to fork out for a flight so I am getting a bus but it makes me wonder why we don’t have a proper rail network. I would have thought a train could start in Wellington, head through Palmerston North then branch off somewhere central like Taupo to New Plymouth, Tauranga and Gisbourne with another line heading north through Hamilton to Auckland, then heading further – maybe ending up in the Bay of Islands.

    It wouldnt have to visit every town but at least the major centres

    • Draco T Bastard 12.1
      12 January 2019 at 3:03 pm

      Because the politicians decided that we should all drive cars. Cars are more expensive but they create more work than public transport and more unearned income for shareholders.

      • marty mars 12.1.1
        12 January 2019 at 3:19 pm

        Which shareholders?

        • Draco T Bastard 12.1.1.1
          12 January 2019 at 3:46 pm

          Gas stations
          Service garages
          Oil companies
          Road construction companies

          All of these have owners that get income from others work. And the list goes on.

          • bwaghorn 12.1.1.1.1
            12 January 2019 at 4:46 pm

            Maybe a clever person should start a kiwisaver fund that buys kiwis business. It s the best path to a public ownership of nz companies of a bunch non business minded strangers .

            • Draco T Bastard 12.1.1.1.1.1
              12 January 2019 at 6:07 pm

              That’s just legitimising the continued ownership and unearned income.

              My preference is that businesses becomes self-owned and controlled solely by those who work there.

              There are some exceptions with natural monopolies that everyone needs at which point they should be state owned and provided as a government service.

              • bwaghorn …
                12 January 2019 at 9:43 pm

                How would you combat the to many chiefs in the kitchen problems . How would they gain ownership without some sort of massive uprising?
                Mine is a more easy to reach goal I believe.

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  12 January 2019 at 10:19 pm

                  How would they gain ownership without some sort of massive uprising?

                  The whole point is that they don’t gain ownership.

                  And the government can always buy everything in the country.

                  So, government buys the business, sets it as a self-owned business and then leaves it alone as the people who work there run it. A total free-market.

                  Mine is a more easy to reach goal I believe.

                  It’s within the current paradigm but the current paradigm is a failure.

            • greywarshark 12.1.1.1.1.2
              12 January 2019 at 7:05 pm

              I think that idea has some merit – especially ones in which we would like to have a monopoly or near.

              • Graeme …
                12 January 2019 at 10:34 pm

                NZ Super Fund held 10% of Z Energy in 2016.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_Energy

                Super Fund and Kiwisaver funds would have a good stake in New Zealand sharemarket. And the fear of state control of capital markets by state super funds was what Muldoon’s 1974 dancing cossacks add was about.

                https://teara.govt.nz/mi/interactive/32721/dancing-cossacks

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Cossacks_advertisement

                • greywarshark …
                  12 January 2019 at 11:14 pm

                  Yes but I thought that a hands off situation would present us with a
                  well balanced economy. But instead of the government making decisions it is Treasury and powerful people here and in other countries so we have a flexible exchange rate, and flexible this that and the other thing. We are Houdinis now. Perhaps we should turn around some of our accustomed behaviours after reflection, and find a new route.

                  • Graeme …
                    13 January 2019 at 9:17 am

                    It’s been an ideological battle in NZ politics for a very long time. Labour wan’t community or state /defacto state ownership of strategic assets, National wants private, preferably by their mates or donors, ownership.

                    NZ Super Fund and Kiwisaver are almost a guerrilla attack from behind the lines on the National view. And it may be working. Look to see what these funds do when NZ strategic and blue chip assets are being sold cheaply, bet they quietly buy. Otherwise they are playing in the international markets and doing quite nicely.

                    And both are very similar to what Labour’s 1974 scheme would have become by now, but probably 1/10 the size. Where we could have been with a good super / sovereign wealth fund from the mid 70’s haunts me a lot and I’ve detested the National party with a vengeance since that add aired.

  13. Cinny 13
    12 January 2019 at 4:23 pm

    Tremendously proud of our local MP Damien O’Connor.

    The only downer about him being so very busy in government is…. we haven’t see him around as much at this time of year.

    Hope he’s had a chance to enjoy a break with his loved ones over the summer holidays.

    He’s one of the good guys,

    Excellent article in today’s Nelson Mail.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/109466288/grappling-with-the-big-issues-all-part-of-the-job-for-mp-damien-oconnor

  14. greywarshark 14
    12 January 2019 at 7:25 pm

    Wellington – Bus issues: timeliness, capacity, transfers … and route changes
    January 9, 2019 20 comments

    On the electric bus front, the current 10 double-decker trial buses will soon start operating all day, with the assistance of the charging station at Reef Street. I am pushing for the next order of Transit’s electric double-decker buses to be brought forward (22 more – all fabricated in Tauranga).

    Daran Ponter – Wellington Regional Councillor
    http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=115387

  15. greywarshark 15
    12 January 2019 at 11:34 pm

    California needs to prepare for the next fire season. They used to last 200-250 days in the year, and now have elongated to about 300 days. Yet the government is not paying fireman, for training, for what is required to prepare for more wildfires.

    Some furloughed employees see an additional irony because the shutdown has delayed fire mitigation and training at a time when President Donald Trump has attacked California for poor forest management. But Whittington said most of his former co-workers are determined not to get involved in politics.

    How long is California going to put up with this deadbeat USA government that seems bent on ruining the country and making grotesque visions of the USA democracy? They have started talking about seceding and being the country’s wealthiest state, but under water constraints that must cut its horticulture crops, it may become obvious that they need to handle their own problems and their own money.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/beleaguered-firefighters-put-hold-government-shutdown-n957456

  16. sumsuch 16
    13 January 2019 at 1:16 am

    There is only one issue as there was in September 1939. Climate change now, or, 100 times WW 2. Christ help us, says an atheist.

  17. sumsuch 17
    13 January 2019 at 1:24 am

    I however wish some our Leftist prophets celebrated this magnificent civilisation ‘in the meanwhile’ whilist also criticizing the comfort-loving that will kill us. Sez a magniloquent comfort-lover.

    • greywarshark 17.1
      14 January 2019 at 10:55 am

      sumsuch
      You are so right. Do we enjoy what we have and be grateful and satisfied, also then, when we have had our plenty give what is left and still good so that others can have some too?

      No, in general we are always trying for more. Some of us haven’t got past that grasp and hold mentality that saw people dumping good furniture and other stuff in the refuse rather than taking it to recycling – because letting one of those lazy b..s buy it cheap, no way.

  18. Eco Maori 18
    13 January 2019 at 9:21 am

    Kia ora R & R I support equality for maori & our wahine they raise our tamariki so they deserve to be payed and respected for the great role wahine play in our society .
    The way I see it is that Europee people are in most of the management jobs even on our farms and they give the best jobs to there M8 hence maori have a hard time climbing there ladder of life as the odds a heavly stacked against US . After all most jobs are filled by word of mouth first and for most . Maori must learn to do what the Europen do and look after Maori first wake up in all aspects of life jobs education sports culture. Ka kite ano P.S I back free snaitary prouducts for wahine at the least school tamariki

  19. Eco Maori 19
    13 January 2019 at 9:55 am

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.

  20. Eco Maori 20
    13 January 2019 at 10:39 am

    Some Eco Maori Music for the Minute.

  21. Eco Maori 21
    13 January 2019 at 11:51 am

    Eco Maori could see this he is waging a war on the mokopunas future backing carbon and rolling back all the good laws that protected OUR enviroment that Obama installed to protect the creatures wai and the enviroment and who will be better off if global warming runs rampant. ???????????????????????????????
    F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia
    WASHINGTON — In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.
    The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.
    The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice.
    Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said.
    And when a newly inaugurated Mr. Trump sought a loyalty pledge from Mr. Comey and later asked that he end an investigation into the president’s national security adviser, the requests set off discussions among F.B.I. officials about opening an inquiry into whether Mr. Trump had tried to obstruct that case.
    F.B.I. officials viewed their decision to move quickly as validated when a comment the president made to visiting Russian officials in the Oval Office shortly after he fired Mr. Comey was revealed days later.
    “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to a document summarizing the meeting. “I faced great pressure because of Russia.
    That’s taken off.”More recently, the president startled his own national security officials by suddenly announcing the withdrawal of troops from Syria, widely seen as handing a strategic victory to Russia and prompting the defense secretary James Mattis to quit. He also bizarrely endorsed the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
    Holed up at the White House with no official engagements, Trump then turned his Twitter feed to the other subject dominating US politics: a partial government shutdown which, in its 22nd day, is now the longest in American history, eclipsing the previous record set during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Ka kite ano links below.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/politics/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

  22. Eco Maori 22
    13 January 2019 at 12:49 pm

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute

  23. Eco Maori 23
    13 January 2019 at 3:11 pm

    Victoria
    New Victorian windfarm could provide 10% of state’s energy
    Golden Plains approved by Andrews government and awaits federal consent to proceed
    The managing director of a company that plans to construct Victoria’s largest windfarm says the project will supply enough power to replace up to a third of the generation of the decommissioned Hazelwood power station at less than $50/MWh.
    The Victorian government has granted a planning permit for WestWind Energy’s $1.5bn Golden Plains windfarm, which will become one of the largest windfarms in the southern hemisphere.
    The project is now awaiting federal approval to proceed.
    Victoria’s blackouts, Hazelwood’s closure and the search for someone to blame
    Read more

    The windfarm would span 17,000 hectares on land 60km north-west of Geelong and generate more than 3000 gigawatt hours of electricity per year – enough to power more than 400,000 homes.
    Tobias Geiger, the managing director of WestWind Energy, said the large scale project would be able to supply energy at low cost.Tobias Geiger, the managing director of WestWind Energy, said the large scale project would be able to supply energy at low cost.
    Advertisement

    “With this very large project and very good wind resource, combined with the latest wind turbine technology that’s now available, we can achieve a levelised cost of energy for this project that is below $50 per MW/h,” he said.
    “If you put that into the context of electricity market prices from Victoria which for the past two years have hovered around $80 to $120 per MW/h, you can see the significance of this project for driving down electricity prices for all Victorians.” At $50/MWh — just 5 cents per kWh — the Golden Plains windfarm will produce power for less than the market cost of fuel alone for many coal and all gas power stations,” he said.
    “And it’s big — expected to provide between 8–10% of Victoria’s energy.”
    Ka kite ano links below

    At $50/MWh — just 5 cents per kWh — the Golden Plains windfarm will produce power for less than the market cost of fuel alone for many coal and all gas power stations,” he said.
    “And it’s big — expected to provide between 8–10% of Victoria’s energy.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/13/new-victorian-wind-farm-could-provide-10-of-states-energy

  24. Eco maori 24
    13 January 2019 at 4:33 pm

    The neo alt right people can not sleep with all the Fame the Pacific people are getting at the minute they do what they do best and cheat and get a faulse story posted about
    DJ the Rock. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has claimed the Daily Star fabrecated.The story, which appeared on Friday’s front page under the headline “The Rock Smacks Down Snowflakes” and was billed as an exclusive, was picked up by news outlets around the world
    Read more
    It quoted the actor as allegedly saying that “generation snowflake or, whatever you want to call them, are actually putting us backwards” and “if you are not agreeing with them then they are offended – and that is not what so many great men and women fought for”.

    However, Johnson, a former wrestler who has become one of the world’s biggest film stars, used an Instagram video to insist the quotes were fake.

    “The interview never took place, never happened, never said any of those words, completely untrue, 100% fabricated, I was quite baffled when I woke up this morning,” he said.

    “You know it’s not a real DJ [Dwayne Johnson] interview if I’m insulting a group, a generation or anyone, because that’s not me.”

    The Daily Star is overseen by the Independent Press Ka kite ano links below

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/12/the-rock-says-daily-star-interview-criticising-millennials-100-fabricated-dwayne-johnson P.S alt right are low down dirty cheats

  25. Eco Maori 25
    13 January 2019 at 6:38 pm

    Kia ora Newshub Auckland transport needs to listen to the people when warned about A road from the Oraki board being dangerous and asking for speed ristricting . I have my opinion on the people being named and shamed who attacked and robbed that old Wahine living by her self I will keep it to my self.
    I say it’s a good move making Hamilton Bees testing for American foul brood dersase to eliminate the dease from Hamilton we need to change the way we farm from mono culture farming to many different crops in the same area and Organic farming to protect our Bees and insects awa & Tangaroa.
    Its good to highlight the plastic that is used unnecessary on food products Tom we need to make everyone accountable for the plastic waste they make.
    Good on Canada for granting that Saudi girl asilm she needed help the Saudis don’t treat there Wahine very respectfully. I Tau toko the Wellington Phoenix soccer club it would be good to see all Kiwis support the great game te Mokopunas could make a lot of putea playing Soccer Ka kite ano

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    Skeptical Science
    7 hours ago

  • Whiteness, class and the white working class
    This essay by Kenan Malik, on the controversy over the funding of scholarships for white working class boys, was originally published in the Observer on 5 January 2020, under the headline‘Bursaries don’t help when it’s not their colour that thwarts these boys’. There is a scene in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    8 hours ago

  • We have a date
    The Prime Minister has just announced the election date as 19 September. So, its a Suffrage Day election, and well before the Trump hits the fan in the US. The no-longer-new practice of announcing the election date well in advance is good, and puts everyone on a more even footing ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    12 hours ago

  • With the En-ROADS climate simulator, you can build your own solutions to global warming
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Killer hurricanes, devastating wildfires, melting glaciers, and sunny-day flooding in more and more coastal areas around the world have birthed a fatalistic view cleverly dubbed by Mary Annaïse Heglar of the Natural Resources Defense Council as “de-nihilism“. One manifestation: An increasing number of ...
    Skeptical Science
    18 hours ago

  • The coronavirus outbreak in China: what a difference a week makes
    When it comes to emerging infectious diseases and outbreaks, so much can happen in a week. In the case of the coronavirus outbreak in China, I’ve gone from not being too alarmed, to thinking “oh, crap!”. But that still doesn’t mean we should all panic. As I’m writing this on ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    1 day ago

  • National cries wolf over Coronavirus
    Opposition MP Michael WoodhouseLast week, the current National Party leader, Simon Bridges, claimed that the Minister of Health wasn’t leading on ‘significant issues that matter to New Zealanders within his Health portfolio’ when commenting about the Government’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak.This silly comment was made despite David Clark working ...
    The Jackal
    2 days ago

  • Fluoridation and sex steroid hormones – or the mouse that roared
    All the recent research anti-fluoride campaigners promote as “evidence” of harm from community water fluoridation amount to cherry-picking a very few statistically significant results from a large number of non-significant results. The whole exercise is a bit like the “Mouse that Roared.” Credit: The Mouse that Roared – TMTR Intro ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    2 days ago

  • Leave Neve alone
    Neve Te Aroha Gayford at RatanaI’m sure I’m not the only one to notice that the Ratana birthday celebrations this year were a well-attended event that went off without much of a hitch. This is in stark contrast to previous years, where some form of controversy has usually taken centre ...
    The Jackal
    3 days ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #4
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jan 19, 2020 through Sat, Jan 25, 2020 Editor's Pick The companies that have contributed most to climate change Thought-provoking readings on those most responsible for the pollution. Sometimes, ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • The swimming pool paradox
    It’s another warm day, but the breeze isn’t helping much, so off I go to the inviting outdoor swimming pool (banner picture) at the other end of campus. It’s an unheated pool (well, there’s no artificial heat source), which means one thing: It’s going to feel cold when I get ...
    SciBlogsBy Marcus Wilson
    4 days ago

  • 100 seconds to midnight
    The Doomsday Clock is a tracker created by he Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for how close we are to global destruction. Created in 1947, it got worse as the Cold War started, then improved as it cooled down, then got worse again as Ronald Reagan tried to confront the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • A multitude of drops: Social tipping points in climate action
    If you’re here, you probably know that the climate crisis is upon us, that it’s getting steadily worse, and that attempts to address it haven’t worked yet. People are still driving and even advertising SUVs with impunity, and oil companies are exploring like crazy, even in New Zealand. Politically, socially, ...
    SciBlogsBy Robert McLachlan
    5 days ago

  • The Thoughtful Mr Parker.
    Stunningly Wrong-Headed: So blinded are the “left-wing” believers in free markets and free trade (like Trade Minister, David Parker) that even when they are staring directly at the wreckage of the lives and communities which these “unconscionable freedoms” (to borrow Marx’s telling phrase) have left in their wake, they cannot ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • What’s the problem with all science being “done” in English?
    I’ve been listening to a wonderful podcast this morning which left me thinking. The podcast was a 30-min well-spent break, in the company of Daniel Midgley and Michael Gordin.  You might know Daniel Midgley from the Talk the Talk linguistics podcast. Michael Gordin is the author of “Scientific Babel”, which ...
    SciBlogsBy Andreea Calude
    5 days ago

  • Snakeflu?! An intriguing source suggested for new Chinese coronavirus
    The whole world is on edge over a coronavirus outbreak that started in early December in Wuhan City, China. The virus is thought to have first infected people working at a seafood and live animal market. So what could the original source have been? There’s no official word yet, but ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    5 days ago

  • Simon’s Philippine jaunt: #LittleBoysPlayingToughguys
    Not too far back, Simon Bridges the Leader of the Opposition and National Party, went on an excursion to China. This was arranged not by MFAT (NZ’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade), but by their MP Jian Yang – a man who also just happened to “forget to mention” ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    5 days ago

  • Will Turia ever forgive Labour?
    Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
    The Jackal
    6 days ago

  • What are the recent fluoride-IQ studies really saying about community water fluoridation?
    Scaremongering graphic currently being promoted by Declan Waugh who is well known for misrepresenting the fluoride science This graphic is typical of current anti-fluoride propaganda. It is scare-mongering, in that it is aimed at undermining community ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    6 days ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #3, 2020
    Biography of a policy metric Bård Lahn performs a sweeping literature review to present the history of our notion of a "global carbon budget" and how this number has come  to encapsulate a massive amount of scientific research into a useful, easily grasped tool in our policy skill set.  A ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Oxfam Report: Time to Care – Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis
    January 2020 Economic inequality is out of control. In 2019, the world’s billionaires, only 2,153 people, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. This great divide is based on a flawed and sexist economic system that values the wealth of the privileged few, mostly men, more than the billions of ...
    Closing the GapBy Tracey Sharp
    6 days ago

  • How to avoid being a cunt to hospo workers’
    Working hospo is hard mahi for many reasons, from long hours and gruelling high-volume weekends to customers who treat us as their servants. There are always lovely and polite customers who treat hospo workers with respect and kindness but, throughout my 15-years in the biz, I’ve collected a number of ...
    PosseBy chloeanneking
    6 days ago

  • 2019-nCoV (the new coronavirus): Should we be concerned, and will there be a vaccine?
    Probably yes to both but don’t panic yet. There is a plan. What is this virus? 2019 novel coronavirus, aka 2019-nCoV, belongs to a family of viruses called coronavirus. These are very common viruses that infect a wide range of animals including humans and can cause mild to severe disease, ...
    SciBlogsBy Helen Petousis Harris
    7 days ago

  • The Chinese coronavirus outbreak: what are the options for vaccines and treatments?
    By now you’ve probably heard of the coronavirus outbreak that started in Wuhan City, China. The number of cases is rising, up to about 300 with six deaths. Cases have been reported in several more Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as in Japan, Thailand, and South Korea. ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    7 days ago

  • Educating New Zealand’s future workforce
    Judy Kavanagh Do you remember your first day at school? The education I received was for a very different world than the world of today. Along with huge social shifts there have been big changes in the New Zealand economy and the work people do. There are occupations unheard of ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    7 days ago

  • A casual attitude towards transparency
    Back in December, when the government was introducing new secrecy legislation on an almost daily basis, I posted about the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill. The Bill establishes a new class of public entity, "special purpose vehicles", which collect and spend public money and enjoy statutory powers. Despite this, they ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • Against a carbon bailout
    If we are to avoid making the planet uninhabitable, we need to cut carbon emisisons fast. Which basicly means putting the fossil fuel industry - coal, gas, and oil - out of business. But this means that the banks and other lenders who have bankrolled the industry's environmental destruction will ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • Still a criminal industry
    More evidence that the fishing industry suffers from pervasive criminality, with Forest & Bird highlighting some odd numbers in the annual statistics:The Annual Review Report For Highly Migratory Species Fisheries 2018/19 (Pg 4, Table 4) showed only 4% of commercial long lining trips for tuna and swordfish reported non-fish bycatch ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • Controversy? Or Manufactroversy?
    A few days ago, New Zealand’s Minister of Education announced the wider release of a resource on climate change, which was initially trialled at a Christchurch school during 2018. According to the Minister, children will learn about “the role science plays in understanding climate change, aids understanding of both the response ...
    SciBlogsBy Alison Campbell
    7 days ago

  • The emerging coronavirus outbreak in China
    By now you’ve probably heard of the new virus causing an outbreak of severe pneumonia in China. The question on most people’s minds is, how worried should we be, especially as hundreds of millions of people will soon be travelling across China and beyond to visit family for the Lunar ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    1 week ago

  • How did climate change get so controversial?
    An excerpt from the book Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, released Feb 25. Our human brain is poorly equipped to deal with a threat like climate change. Over millions of years, we’ve evolved to avoid life-threatening dangers like predators jumping out of bushes. We’ve survived by quickly detecting and avoiding immediate, short-term ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Farmers are ruining Canterbury’s rivers
    Its summer, so people naturally want to go for a swim. But in South Canterbury, you can't, because the rivers are full of toxic goo:As of Monday, the Waihi River at Wilson Street footbridge, Geraldine, the Waihao River at Bradshaws Bridge, and three spots on the Opihi River - at ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Sack Shane Jones
    Late last year, NZ First was caught trying to enrich itself from public office, with a dodgy forestry company linked to a number of NZ First figures sticking its hand out repeatedly for government money. Regional Economic Development Minister shane Jones' "explanations" were patently unconvincing, and his recusal from deciding ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • BIG idea physics
    This morning I’ve been having a quick look through some documentation from The Ministry of Education on proposed changes to NCEA Level 1 Science. For those not familiar with the NZ secondary education system, a typical student would complete NCEA level 1 at the end of year 11.  In this ...
    SciBlogsBy Marcus Wilson
    1 week ago

  • Revolution in New Zealand? Not Even Close!
    No Fires Thanks, We're Kiwis: For the moment, in those close-to-home places where revolutions are born, there may be tetchiness and resentment, frustration and complaint, but nowhere is anybody uttering the cry that will bring a New Zealand revolution into being: “We have found the way to make tomorrow better ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #3
    Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Graphic of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... 'It's heart-wrenching': 80% of Blue Mountains and 50% of ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Britain exits the European Union and takes a sharp right turn
    by John Smith  Britain’s exit from the imperialist bloc known as the European Union (EU) is now irreversible. The crushing electoral defeat of the Labour Party has dismayed many workers and youth who had placed their hopes in Jeremy Corbyn, its left-wing leader. This article assesses these historic events, neither of which ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #3
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jan 12, 2020 through Sat, Jan 18, 2020 Editor's Pick The Past and the Future of the Earth’s Oldest Trees Bristlecone pines have survived various catastrophes over the millennia, and they ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • How climate change influenced Australia’s unprecedented fires
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections, and has been adapted into a new myth rebuttal on climate-wildfire connections with the short URL sks.to/wildfires Australia’s frightening bushfires, which kicked off an early fire season in September 2019, have already had cataclysmic effects, and the continent is still just in the early ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Gender Identity Ideology – A Partial Bibliography of Online Coverage
    This great resource has been contributed to Redline by Janie Doebuck. Janie made some notes on the bibliography: 1) It is by no means exhaustive. There are tons more gender critical posts, essays, articles, podcasts, youtube videos, etc. online. 2) There are links in the bibliography that are behind paywalls. There ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 weeks ago

  • About those biased Oscar Nominations
    There’s been a lot written about the 2020 Oscar Nominations and their apparent lack of diversity. It’s true, there are in fact no women nominated for the Best Director and very few nominees of colour across the board. But is this a result of a biased process or a symptom ...
    The Jackal
    2 weeks ago

  • How New Zealand media reports chronic pain
    Hemakumar Devan Around three million New Zealanders access news media (both paper and online) every week. Yes, you heard that right! So, the potential for news media to shape public health beliefs is common sense. As chronic pain affects one in five New Zealanders, we wanted to find out how ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • Still Waiting For American Democracy.
    Unfinished Republic: Though the United States' crimes against democracy are legion, most Americans are blissfully unaware of them. The brutal realities of American life: the officially sanctioned violence; the refusal to hold racists accountable for their actions; the seemingly endless tragedy of African-American suffering; of which White America is the ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 weeks ago

  • In Outrage Over Its Bunk Science, Goop Finds Fuel for Growth
    Michael Schulson For years, experts have said that Goop, the wellness and lifestyle brand founded by the actor and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, markets pseudoscience and overblown cures. And for years, despite the criticism, Goop has just kept growing. Now the company, which was valued at $250 million in 2018, ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • Tobacco Excise Taxes and the Smokefree 2025 Goal: Some Ways Forward
    Janet Hoek, Richard Edwards, George Thomson, Andrew Waa, Nick Wilson Debate over tobacco tax increases has intensified as research indicates potentially conflicting policy directions. On the one hand, excise tax increases continue to stimulate quit attempts among smokers yet, on the other hand, they may lead to financial hardship for ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    2 weeks ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #2, 2020
    Conflation and how to fix it VIa AMS,  Raul Lejano looks at what in a layperson's thinking would be called conflation— confusion and blending of entirely different topics— when people think about climate change. Ideology and the Narrative of Skepticism  (open access) starts with some arguably frightening false connections between the science and ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 weeks ago

  • ‘Cranky Uncle’ smart phone game will show you how to disarm climate deniers
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bud Ward (Image: Courtesy of John Cook) When it comes to climate change, it seems every family has its own version of the proverbial Cranky Uncle. An uncle, cousin, grandparent, in-law, neighbor, whatever. Just think back to the recent holiday season’s large ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 weeks ago

  • Science in the ’20s – part 1
      Outrageous, immoral or downright dangerous. That’s a description of the lifestyle of women “flappers” in the 1920s. Could it apply to science (and scientists) in the 2020s? Actually, you could look back at the past decade and see those, or similar terms, used about some science and scientists. Sometimes ...
    SciBlogsBy Robert Hickson
    2 weeks ago

  • Postscript: Citizenship Granted.
    I am pleased to say that I have been granted NZ citizenship. I need to do the ceremony for things to be official, but the application was a success. I now join my son as a dual NZ-US citizen. To be fair, very little will change other than the fact ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    2 weeks ago

  • Hard News: Music: Morales is coming
    It will be no secret to longtime readers that I, Russell Brown, love the disco.   So I'm pretty excited by the fact that one of the greats of the game is returning this summer – and also pleased to say I have tickets to give away.Legendary mixer and DJ ...
    Public Address
    2 weeks ago

  • The WHO Vaccine Safety Summit – from someone who was actually there
    The conspiracy I saw a new conspiracy theory flying around the other day. According to the conspiracy (that seems to originate from Del Bigtree), the World Health Organization have been ‘caught on camera’ questioning the safety of vaccines. Gosh this sounds as though someone was a mole at a ...
    SciBlogsBy Helen Petousis Harris
    2 weeks ago

  • The timely death of the British Labour Party
    Below is an article submitted to Redline by Alec Abbott  At its inception, the British Labour Party was a vehicle for the propagation of racist and imperialist views within the working-class. Such views are still widespread in the party, as they are in Europe’s Social-Democratic parties, though, in the case of ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 weeks ago

  • Mystery China pneumonia outbreak likely caused by new human coronavirus
    Connor Bamford, Queen’s University Belfast Since December 2019, there has been a cluster of 59 cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, eastern China. The pneumonia is associated with a previously unidentified coronavirus related to the deadly SARS virus. Seven of those cases are thought to be serious, and one person – ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • Yes, koalas are cute – but should we bring them to NZ? Errm, no
    It’s been hard to miss the extreme fires raging across Australia and the tragic plight of the animals – human and otherwise – affected by the fires’ insatiable spread. I know I’ve been captivated and concerned by the tales of how Australia’s famous wildlife has been coping. Koalas approaching cyclists ...
    SciBlogsBy Sarah-Jane O'Connor
    2 weeks ago

  • National’s negative campaigning
    Anybody who looked into the Dirty Politics saga knows all too well that honesty is often in short supply within the National Party. You would think that after the exposure the John Key government received over their untruthful attack politics, the National Party would learn from its "mistakes" and leave ...
    The Jackal
    2 weeks ago

  • Ending the government’s charade over water
    For the past decade, the government has been responding to the obvious Treaty issues raised by water allocation with the mantra that "no-one owns water". But last year, the Waitangi Tribunal ruled that actually, Māori owned it, and that those rights had never been extinguished. They recommended that iwi bring ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • Northern Ireland joins the civilised world
    Same-sex marriage has finally become legal in Northern Ireland. But not through any decision of the Northern Irish Executive or Assembly, which has only just reformed after a three year walkout by the DUP; instead, Westminster made that decision for them. I've talked before about the constitutional impropriety of this, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • I had an intense conversation at work today.
    Claire Cohen-Norris volunteers with Citizens Climate Lobby as a chapter founder and leader in rural New York. Her climate advocacy sprung from her drive to provide a secure, joyful and fulfilling life for her two wonderful children. It has become a life’s mission, shared with her like-minded husband and partner. Claire ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 weeks ago

  • French transport workers take on Macron over pension reform
    by John Edmundson Starting on December 5th, 2019 workers in the Parisian rail network commenced an open-ended strike in opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed changes to their pension scheme. Rail workers in the Metro Underground have, for decades, had retirement conditions that compensate them for the low wages, ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    2 weeks ago

  • What a difference the decimal point makes
    I’m back at work following a nearly three-week break over Christmas. We were fortunate to be offered a house to stay in for a week over Christmas, which enabled us to have a holiday in Dunedin and see the extended family reasonably cheaply. But the house came with a catch:  ...
    SciBlogsBy Marcus Wilson
    2 weeks ago

  • Who’s Going To Stop Him?
    Blank And Pitiless: Having ordered the assassination of the Iranian General, Qasem Soleimani, President Donald Trump promised to reduce the cultural monuments of Iran’s 3,000 year-old civilisation to rubble if a revenge attack was mounted. A breach of international law? Certainly. A war crime? Indisputably. Who’s going to stop him? Nobody.WHAT ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 weeks ago

  • A worker’s story
    This interview is from Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) and is the first of an ongoing series of interviews they plan to do with workers from various sectors who are having their well being and livelihoods damaged. They begin with an educator in Southland. Due to the attitude and actions ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 weeks ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #2
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jan 5, 2020 through Sat, Jan 11, 2020 Editor's Pick Debunked Australian Bushfire Conspiracy Theories Were Pushed by Alex Jones, Murdoch Media   As unusually intense and widespread bushfires have ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 weeks ago

  • J.K. Rowling, the Seattle Library, and the Issue That Must Not Be Named
    This article was submitted to Redline by Seattle-based activist Lucinda Stoan J.K. Rowling recognizes repression when she sees it.  That’s why the author of the wildly popular Harry Potter books recently tweeted in defense of Maya Forstater. Forstater lost her job for stating that sex is real and immutable. A judge ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 weeks ago

  • Rules of Empire: Laws simply do not apply and “National Security” excuses all else.
    Empires rise and fall, and the American Empire is absolutely no different. But while an Empire, in order to further the footprint, it seems to pay to do one primary thing above all else: project that everything – everything – is “simply for the good of the world” at large, ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    3 weeks ago

  • Indian lessons for NZ workers – the January 8 general strike
                    by Phil Duncan On Wednesday (January 8) another massive general strike took place in India.  Some 250 million industrial workers, white-collar workers, agricultural labourers struck against the government’s economic policies and attacks on the Muslim population through new proposed citizenship rules. This ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    3 weeks ago

  • Climate Change: The action that counts
    Over on Newsroom, Professor Jacqueline Beggs writes about the action she is taking on climate change. Its the usual list: reduce meat, don't fly, consume less. I'm doing some of this myself, and none of it hurts - but the way our economic system is constructed means the impact of ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 weeks ago

  • Fossil fuel political giving outdistances renewables 13 to one
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk Corporations, special interest groups, and individuals inject billions of dollars into the American political system every year. Much of the financial support in politics is concealed from public view, as some rules – and loopholes – allow “dark money” and ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 weeks ago

  • Animal response to a bushfire is astounding. These are the tricks they use to survive
    Dale Nimmo, Charles Sturt University Have you ever wondered how our native wildlife manage to stay alive when an inferno is ripping through their homes, and afterwards when there is little to eat and nowhere to hide? The answer is adaptation and old-fashioned ingenuity. Australia’s bushfire season is far from ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    3 weeks ago

  • Should I ditch my fossil-fueled car?
    Yes. Reducing the number of cars in your household, or switching from petrol/diesel to electric, will dramatically reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. It’s one of the easiest and highest-impact climate steps you can take. New Zealand is being flooded with cars The New Zealand vehicle fleet is increasing rapidly. In ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    3 weeks ago

  • Speaker: Planet History: Taking Tea with Quentin
    This interview with Quentin Crisp is part of a series of articles republished from Planet, the independent magazine I edited in the early 90s from a base at 309 Karangahape Road, along with Grant Fell, Rachael Churchward, Fiona Rae, David Teehan, Mere Ngailevu and others.Inevitably, you forget things, and over ...
    Public Address
    3 weeks ago

  • Week That Was: 2020
    We are back for 2020! From changes to Family Funded Care, to a record high number of Kiwis in construction in the trades - we're already back making progress on those long-term challenges. Read all about it and more ...
    Labour Blog
    5 days ago

  • Winston Peters: “Ihumātao deal still a long way off”
    Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told Mike Hosking that a settlement deal regarding Ihumātao in Auckland is still a long way off. The Maori King's flag was lowered at the site near Auckland Airport yesterday, sparking suggestions an announcement of a deal could be made by Waitangi Day. Pania Newton, ...
    NZ First News
    6 days ago

  • Winston Peters accuses Gerry Brownlee of ‘politicising’ Holocaust memorial
    Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters is accusing Gerry Brownlee of "politicising" a Holocaust memorial event after the National MP questioned the lack of Kiwi representation there. The Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem, Israel, is holding the World Holocaust Forum on January 23 to mark 75 years since ...
    NZ First News
    6 days ago

  • Provincial Growth Fund to help Waipukurau Pā sites attract thousands of tourists
    The Ngā Ara Tipuna - Waipukurau Pā Site Interpretation project is receiving $2.798 million from the Provincial Growth Fund. It is is expected to boost the town's employment and tourism, creating sixteen new jobs once completed and attract up to 15,000 visitors a year. Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development ...
    NZ First News
    7 days ago

  • “Common sense will prevail, not extremism” Winston Peters backs Shane Jones’ pro-meat stance
    New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is backing his MPs who have spoken out against a new climate change teaching resource that advises students to eat less meat to save the planet. The new teaching resource, announced by Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Climate Change Minister James Shaw, tells students ...
    NZ First News
    1 week ago

  • Violent assault on paramedic highlights need for law change
    Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Justice Today’s horrific violent assault of an on-duty female paramedic which rendered her unconscious is truly unsettling. “Our thoughts are with the paramedic, her loved ones and the St John’s team at Warkworth Station,” says New Zealand First Justice Spokesperson Darroch Ball. “Harsher penalties for perpetrators ...
    NZ First Press Release
    1 week ago

  • Acting PM Winston Peters confirms NZDF troops in Iraq not hit by Iranian attacks
    Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters called for calm and diplomacy following Iranian missile strikes on bases housing United States troops in Iraq, but confirmed New Zealand's base in the country was not hit. The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) was earlier today investigating claims New Zealand's base in Iraq had ...
    NZ First News
    1 week ago

  • Kaikōura $10.88 million boost in tourism & business
    Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10.88 million to boost business and tourism opportunities in Kaikōura, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. As part of the Kaikōura Marina Development Programme, the following two projects will receive ...
    NZ First Press Release
    2 weeks ago

  • Delivering a stable water supply to Wairarapa
    Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in Wairarapa The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $7.11 million to create a sustainable water supply for the Wairarapa. The PGF will provide a $7 million investment to Wairarapa Water Limited to progress the Wairarapa Water Storage Scheme towards procurement, consenting, ...
    NZ First Press Release
    2 weeks ago

  • Housing consents hit highest level since 1974
    Housing consents have hit a 45-year high, as Statistics NZ data shows a total of 37,010 residential consents were issued in the year to November --- the first time they have breached the 37,000 mark since the mid-1970s. Statistics NZ said the trend had been rising since late 2011, when ...
    NZ First News
    2 weeks ago

  • Darroch Ball MP: “Violence against first responders is a problem on the rise”
    New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball says that a paramedic being kicked unconscious last night in an attempted burglary in Warkworth, north of Auckland, is a symptom of a larger problem. "Incidents like this are becoming more and more frequent...and it’s getting worse," Mr Ball said. The MP is pushing for ...
    NZ First News
    2 weeks ago

  • Minister Ron Mark asks NZDF to conduct fire risk assessment from defence point of view
    Defence Minister Ron Mark said there was nothing to prevent similar large-scale bushfires seen in Australia from also happening in New Zealand, and has asked the New Zealand Defence Force to conduct a nfire risk assessment from a defence point of view. The defence assessment would help prevent a disaster ...
    NZ First News
    3 weeks ago

  • PM announces election date as September 19
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  • Provincial Growth Fund supports Waikato youth into constructionProvincial Growth Fund supports Waika...
    Two projects focussed on supporting Waikato youth into the construction industry have been given combined funding of just over $1 million from the Te Ara Mahi allocation of the Provincial Growth Fund, Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today.  The two Te Ara Mahi PGF projects announced are: ...
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  • Provincial Growth Fund supports Waikato youth into construction
    Two projects focussed on supporting Waikato youth into the construction industry have been given combined funding of just over $1 million from the Te Ara Mahi allocation of the Provincial Growth Fund, Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today.  The two Te Ara Mahi PGF projects announced are: ...
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  • New Zealand to support Pacific Public Sector Hub
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  • Minister pays tribute to journalist, author and broadcaster, Gordon McLauchlan
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  • Minister wishes best of luck to those heading back to school
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  • Health staff to meet flights from China as precautionary measure
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  • National Yearling Sales 2020
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  • Government and construction industry to build big, lift productivity with Transformation Plan
    Delivering the workforce and productivity gains required to build the houses, schools, roads, rail and hospitals New Zealand needs will become easier with the Government-industry Construction Sector Transformation Plan launched today, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. “The action plan launched today delivers on the Government’s Construction Sector ...
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  • Log trains to begin on Wairoa-Napier line
    Log trains are about to start running between Wairoa and Napier following Provincial Growth Fund investment to reopen the rail line, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. The Government invested $6.2 million to reopen the mothballed rail line which was closed after significant storm damage in 2012. “With PGF ...
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    4 days ago

  • Minister of Defence concludes successful visit with his US counterpart
    Minister of Defence Ron Mark met with United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper today. “This was an excellent opportunity to meet with one of our closest security partners,” Ron Mark said. “The main focus of the meeting was to discuss challenges that New Zealand and the United States share ...
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  • New Zealand acknowledges ICJ decision on Myanmar
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters today acknowledged the ruling of the International Court of Justice in relation to the Rohingya people in Myanmar. The ruling ordered the Government of Myanmar to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts of genocide in relation to members of the ...
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  • NZ’s trade aims advanced at Davos meetings
    A proposal to cut “trade and production-distorting subsidies” in the agricultural sector by 2030 has set out important measures to ensure a fair agricultural trading system.  Speaking after attending meetings of trade ministers in Davos, Switzerland, Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker welcomed the joint proposal from the ...
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  • Great news for New Zealanders with cystic fibrosis
    Health Minister Dr David Clark says he is delighted that PHARMAC has struck a provisional deal to fund Kalydeco – a medicine which is set to improve the quality of life for about 30 New Zealand children and adults with cystic fibrosis. “While rare, cystic fibrosis is an awful inherited ...
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  • New Zealand least corrupt country in the world
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  • Boost for Rēkohu/Wharekauri/Chatham Islands Community Conservation
    Community conservation in Rēkohu/Wharekauri/the Chatham Islands is receiving a boost, with grants to support local projects announced today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “Rēkohu/Wharekauri/ the Chatham Islands are home to 20 per cent of New Zealand’s threatened bird species and 11 per cent of New Zealand’s threatened plant species. ...
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  • Rātana Pā goes high-tech with UFB
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  • Govt’s strong financial management acknowledged
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  • Boost in Whānau Ora funding to keep changing lives
    Whānau throughout New Zealand are set to benefit from an extra three million dollars that will go directly to Whānau Ora Commissioning Agencies, the Minister for Whānau Ora Peeni Henare announced today.  Including previous funding boosts, the Agencies will now receive $87 million this year between them.  In Budget 2019 ...
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  • More people getting into work
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  • Wairoa gets up to $6.1m to rebuild heart of CBD
    The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing up to $6.1 million to revitalise business and tourism opportunities in Wairoa, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF is funding: Up to $4.8 million for the Wairoa Integrated Business and Tourism Facility Up to $960,000 for the ...
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    7 days ago

  • Major Events support for creative and cultural events
    Creative and cultural events that highlight New Zealand’s diverse culture and build national pride are set to get a funding boost through the Major Events Fund, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford said today. The new Creative and Cultural Events Incubator, which is funded through the Major Events Fund, will open ...
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  • Classroom internet in hundreds of schools to get a boost
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  • Construction workforce, apprenticeships hit record highs
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  • NZ concludes digital economy trade talks with Singapore and Chile
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  • Provincial Growth Fund to fund Waipukurau cultural development and tourism
    The Ngā Ara Tipuna -  Waipukurau Pā Site Interpretation project will receive $2.798 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to create an authentic cultural tourism experience, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today “The project will inform visitors about the history of six pā sites in Waipukurau with a combination ...
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  • 21 new judges boost diversity, improve access to justice
    Twenty-one new District Court judges have been appointed in a move that will improve access to justice and boost diversity on the bench. The new judges include replacements for retirements and 10 new positions. Attorney-General David Parker today announced the 14 judges who can immediately be named, with the remainder ...
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    1 week ago

  • Puhinui to Auckland Airport in 10 minutes
    Aucklanders are another step closer to getting rapid transit to the airport, with the start of construction to upgrade State Highway 20B to the airport, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. SH20B will be upgraded with additional lanes in each direction, dedicated to bus and high-occupancy vehicles between Pukaki Creek ...
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  • Advancing New Zealand’s trade agenda focus of Europe meetings
    World Trade Organisation reform, agricultural trade and a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom will be the focus of Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker’s visit to Europe this week. David Parker leaves on Tuesday for a series of meetings in the UK and Switzerland that aim ...
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    1 week ago

  • Minister of Defence to visit counterparts in US and Canada
    The Minister of Defence, Ron Mark, departed today for the United States and Canada where he will meet with his counterparts.  While in Canada Minister Mark will meet with his counterpart, Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan.  “New Zealand and Canada are close friends, and share an instinctive like-mindedness on ...
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  • Government to deliver family carers $2000 pay rise, expand scheme to spouses this year
    The Coalition Government is delivering this year the changes to Funded Family Care the disability sector has long-asked for, says Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. “Today we are announcing the details of our big changes to Funded Family Care, including an annual average pay boost of $2,246.40 for funded ...
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  • Ko te reo kua mū: Piri Sciascia
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    1 week ago

  • Minister opens new ecosanctuary at Cape Farewell
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  • Pacific partners work together to provide additional support to Australia
    The NZDF continues to support the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as it battles fires in Victoria and New South Wales, including by transporting Republic of Fiji Military engineers from Nadi to Australia, announced Defence Minister Ron Mark. On Saturday morning a NZDF Boeing 757 will depart New Zealand to uplift ...
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  • Kaikōura $10.88 million boost in tourism & business
    The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10.88 million to boost business and tourism opportunities in Kaikōura, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. As part of the Kaikōura Marina Development Programme, the following two projects will receive PGF funding: A $9.88 million investment to begin the ...
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    2 weeks ago

  • Govt accounts in surplus, debt remains low
    The Government’s books are in good shape with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the five months to November. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above forecast by $0.7 billion resulting ...
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    2 weeks ago

  • Auckland focus for first Police graduation of 2020
    The number of Police on the Auckland frontline is increasing with the graduation today of a special locally-trained wing of new constables. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of eighteen officers from Recruit Wing 333-5 means that more than 1900 new Police have been deployed since the Coalition Government ...
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  • Wairarapa gets $7.11m PGF water boost
    The Provincial Growth Fund is putting $7.11 million into creating a sustainable water supply for Wairarapa, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The following two projects will receive Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding: A $7 million investment in Wairarapa Water Limited for the pre-construction development of ...
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    2 weeks ago

  • Progress with new Police station in Mahia
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    2 weeks ago

  • Plans to protect the future of whitebaiting announced
    With several native whitebait species in decline the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has today released proposals to standardise and improve management of whitebait across New Zealand. “The need for action for a healthy whitebait fishery has never been greater,” Eugenie Sage said.  “Four of the six whitebait species are ...
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