National MP Chris Penk has written an extraordinary "book" (in reality, an online rant) about the government's response to Covid-19.
He has done a copy and paste from every discredited source he could find (Taxpayers' Union, former ACT MP Muriel Newman, Simon "Sweden" Thornley, Kiwiblog (!) etc).
Too much nonsense to address in detail here, but the main point is that he has directly contradicted his own party leader. On his first day, Todd Muller described Ardern's handling of the crisis as "impressive", because they know they can't win by fighting public opinion at 90%. They really want to talk about something else.
This is not a mistake, it is the usual National tactic of covering all bases.
As long as one of them is saying it, then their party faithful who agree can be relied upon to support them.
In my opinion, the party faithful are pragmatic, they know that what is said in public is for public consumption, what matters is the intention behind. And that is often very different.
National had a smooth machine for so long that many on the left will assume that there must be a "cunning plan", that they always know what they are doing.
It's often true. It isn't right now. This is definitely not the ground Muller wants to fight on.
Isn't Penk another member of the Rapture Right in National? Our big media outlets refuse to cover how much US-inspired fundamentalists have infiltrated the National party – but at the moment the only way to understand how inept they've suddenly become is to recognise the vanguardism of fundamentalist infiltration of the National party. But these people harbour some seriously loony beliefs and like their numbskull American hero in the White House, they get their information from Fox News.
Generally speaking, I strongly support our media’s policy of regarding MPs private lives as off limits. But these evangelicals use their beliefs to inform radical policy positions well outside the mainstream of NZ life, so to to me that makes them open to discussion. After all, if you were an avowed revolutionary Marxist in the Labour caucus the Herald wouldn’t hesitate to tell the world about that. The last thing the country needs is to wake up the day after an election and then discover a 2 seat majority National + ACT government is being controlled by prosperity doctrine fundies who want to remake NZ in the image of Florida, because the MSM didn't think to mention it before the election.
You have brought up a point worrying me Sanctuary. There is evidence of deep conservative Catholicism in our politics, I think that the most prominent person is Bill English. But how far has it gone through National – I think Jim Bolger is one. Whether he was of the excessive level of preachiness or not, they must support each other of the same religion. Also the Exclusive Brethren has revealed itself to be helpful to National as being the best to serve their own interests.
The various cults that have sprung up to make use of the tax-free status of religion are a worry as they undermine the democratic process of elevating individuals value and rights, and progressive moves to think for oneself and develop our own personality and life achievements. It is hard to free oneself from the oppressive control as the cultish religions seek to contain individuals from make their own life, thoughtfully formed and seeking self-realisation and the good values of humanity.
(Note – Gloriavale is very close to Amish style; very narrow and demanding as to personal freedom, and other cults marry their young ones off at say 17 years, and women can not develop wide skills to gain employment or have a career, as children and domestic life take precedence.)
Taking away the tax-free status of churches and treating them as not-for-profit charities would be a big advantage in retaining our democracy and being able to make rational moves to cope with climate change, a better education so we have informed and actively involved citizens in politics. A move to do this would uncover the depth and width that the semi-religious community has permeated our society, with results that do not lead to its well-being.
Ron Mark is even more stupid after 3 yrs in govt he thinks the police shouldn't be armed and their training with arms is substandard after years in opposition questioning the use of police using the AR 4.
Heard of the 501's Ron the gangs are regularly being busted with large caches of guns including assault rifles.
He does have a point as to why an under-trained young constable needs to stand on a street outside a domestic dispute or traffic infringement with a gun that can fire almost a 1000 rounds a minute.
I reckon it should be fairly easy to achieve peacefully. Just instruct the WH staff to ignore it when he presses his buttons summoning snacks and Diet Coke (btw, it's not working). Then after a couple of hours, send in a robot carrying hamberders and diet coke to loiter outside the Oval Office. When he starts coming for the bait, get the robot to lead him into a waiting limo. Sorted.
The chilling moment for me isn't anything like that – I mean the Pentagon heads couldn't have been clearer in the last week that they will protect the constitution faaaaar deeper than they will protect this current White House occupant.
To me the issue is that Donald Trump still has a reasonable chance of winning a second term as President, and of retaining a majority of the Senate.
That's the moment that the global standing of the United States starts to disintegrate fast, and after that the glaciers of the United Nations, World Trade Organisation, UNESCO, International Monetary Fund, World Bank et al really start to calve off.
It's not an unreasonable scenario to see a full and irreversible liquefaction of the structures that have sustained our relative peace and prosperity for decades.
That's the kind of stuff that really matters to us weeny countries with no power.
Considering the damage Vulgarmort has already wrought and the accelerating trendlines of all the various craptacles he's initiated, I find it all a bit too much to even contemplate the idea of another four years.
What about this scenario of the cold war type, with added nuclear possibilities between India and Pakistan, which looms as a result of Australia adopting Trump-like attitudes then.
I was contemplating that likely scenario the other day and concluded the best way would be to lock him up inside the White house with no access to anything or anyone beyond its walls. When he finally goes troppo, they can remove him to an undisclosed location where he can remain in solitary confinement for the rest of his natural.
Fun fact: Chris Penk's dad was outed for running a letter writing campaign against assisted dying under a pseudonym and his brother runs the far right Maxim Institute. So yeah, we got a real set of bad eggs here.
Because I can see both sides of this debate. At the moment, my thinking doesn't support voting in favour of this proposal, but I am still thinking about it.
I am sorry to hear that. I watched my father die of aggressive lung cancer, he was a whisp of the strong man I knew as a child at his end. We've all got our own stories. How we interpret them informs how we will vote, I guess. I just hope the debate doesn't become a rancorous culture war.
It will be good if people with vote for euthanasia, controlled by good legal measures to ensure right behaviour all through. All it needs is for people to consider other people's wishes and see that it is wise to have that option. Being kind to other people will be of great importance in getting it through. It should not require unhappy experiences to be the reason. Accepting our human limit of time on this planet, and that it has been much extended by others who have improved health measures and have changed the pattern of earlier death, should enable us to make another rational change so that we can then decide when we want to pass on.
The changes made in the world have enabled longer and usually happier lives, though in NZ Maori have not had that full benefit. Now we could have happier deaths if others would just give us that freedom instead of imprisoning us on the planet when that is no longer our choice, or forcing us to take unpleasant decisions if we are forced to an illegal step and commit suicide. It is not fair or reasonable to refuse others their right to determine when and how they will die.
Right, so where will this end? Shall we bulldoze the Savage memorial because he supported the British Empire? How about Truby King, the founder of Plunket? He was a eugenicist who had fairly strong views on the genetic superiority of the British people – should we demolish his mausoleum? How about Marx, should his grave have hs statue on it? Communism killed millions! Should the British destroy all memorials to Clement Attlee, on the grounds of his appalling behaviour in Britain’s African colonies? What about statues of Winston Churchill? Personally I find the current fashion of vilification of James Cook by the left painfully cartoonish and utterly bereft of context. Should I stand by while monuments to probably the greatest navigator of any age (and an enlightened man by the standards of his time) be puled down by hooting mobs of ignoramuses?
Practically ANY statue in NZ erected in the last 150+ years will upset someone. How about we just not go a route of a ridiculous culture war over inanimate objects, that will only ultimately hurt the progressive cause in NZ?
In literary and historical analysis, presentism is the anachronistic introduction of present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Some modern historians seek to avoid presentism in their work because they consider it a form of cultural bias, and believe it creates a distorted understanding of their subject matter. The practice of presentism is regarded by some as a common fallacy when writing about the past.
But yes … hooting mobs of ignorami will prevail for the moment. City Councillors who appease these calls are probably not fools, they know in private that pulling down old statues is stupid, but most people will do anything for an easy life. When the mob labels you 'racist' people get sacked and cancelled. So down they will come.
Personally I find the current fashion of vilification of James Cook by the left painfully cartoonish
They're not the Left … they're Intersectionals … entirely different kettle of fish.
I see the Woke as a small but highly influential Cult centred within segments of both the New Middle Professional Class & the Upper-Middle Class (amazing just how many are descended from old Establishment families … Auckland Business Elites & South Island Rural Gentry) … attempting to hi-jack the Left … by massively downplaying the centrality of socio-economic disparity while simultaneously comandeering traditional Left moral concerns … racism & so on … then grossly distorting & weaponizing those concerns (with the help of their Gurus like Bishop DiAngelo …. or does she call herself Archbishop now ?) – some are dogmatic true-believers, others are the bully-boys we know all too well on NZ social media … focussed in large part on pursuing their own power & self-interest … albeit assiduously dressed up with this thin veneer of (LOL) "self-less Altruism".
Bad Actors playing Saints. Personal power & prestige enhancement.
Cook conflicts me. Probably more than a bit because I'm the son of a Yorkshireman 🙂
He was a great sailor and navigator, and advanced human knowledge (not just European – the actual observation of the transit of venus was a pretty difficult technical task given the optics of the day). But he was also responsible for a lot of bad shit. but then he was also quite progressive for the day, and I did hear a thing on RNZ ages ago that reckoned his behaviour on the third voyage showed all the signs of mental exhaustion and breakdown. So… complicated. Certainly not "good", but not fucking NB Forrest.
Churchill is a more extreme cause of ambivalence – a complete colonialist prick who gassed civilians and viewed hunting down Irish rebels almost as a game. But without him, Hitler could well have won.
No reason why he shouldn't be celebrated in his own place of birth though .
Maybe the important thing when looking at a statue of Cook could be , because of him my forebears came to NZ and could have a better life.At the expense of my other forebears.(referring to myself.)We all have a problematic history we need to be aware of
If we determine to visit the punishment for the sins of the fathers on generations of the sons, then everything gets torn down. Or at the very least, nothing is immune to the force of that argument.
And as can be easily seen, all cultures have problematic, traumatic history, there is probably no human alive who doesn't have some ancestors who benefited from invasion, slavery and genocide.
But the phrase "Black Lives Matter" is an overloaded message carrying multiple layers of meaning. One of which is it's really only the sins of white people that matter. Everyone else is excused.
I mean, we could just have pretty thorough discussions about whether we have lots of statues to fathers who sinned, but keep pushing that barrow. Not even NASCAR agrees with you.
Police officers are too often overarmed, undertrained, and low on empathy. Some police officers are surely racist and act like it. But it does not follow that white cops routinely kill black people in tense situations out of racist animus. This scenario may seem plausible—I believed it until only a few years ago. But there are times when facts are counterintuitive, and it is important to get the facts right and to analyze them with clear eyes and a clear mind (the enlightening work of criminologist and ex-cop Peter Moskos is helpful in this regard). Rhetoric has a way of straying from reality, and to get where we all want to go, it is reality that we must address.
No, the actual term "whataboutism" and its equally witless variant "whataboutery" appeared in the last three and a half years. It was, and is still, used as a strategy—a failed strategy— to derail those people impertinent enough to point out that Democrats, especially those in the Clinton/Schumer/Pelosi faction that controls the party, have a history of racism and militarism and voter suppression as vile as the Republicans, and that the United States has not even the slightest moral right to criticise any country for interference in elections of another jurisdiction.
The tu quoque diversion tactic is as old as the hills. The desperate and unconvincing "whataboutery" word is as old as…. Russiagate. And just as intellectually rigorous.
By the way, fifty years ago, a young Bill Clinton was indeed in sight—if you were at Oxford University, where the Rhodes “Scholar”—to use that word in the most generous and indulgent sense possible—-was a forlorn and by all accounts horribly unsuccessful suitor to dozens of young English women.
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites comprise 53% of the population.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks comprise 14% of the population.
This is the basis for the BLM claim that racist police kill blacks at a rate 2 -3 times higher than whites.
Yet obviously this is a dubious claim. People do not come into contact with the police at random, especially not in contexts of homicide and/or armed violence when police are very likely to respond with deadly force:
According to the US Department of Justice, African Americans accounted for 52.5% of all homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008, with Whites 45.3% and "Other" 2.2%. The offending rate for African Americans was almost eight times higher than Whites, and the victim rate six times higher. Most homicides were intraracial, with 84% of White victims killed by Whites and 93% of African American victims killed by African Americans
On this basis the simple rate comparisons above change to this:
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites commit 48% of the homicides.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks commit 52% of the homicides
On this basis the outcome is completely flipped, it looks like blacks are actually less likely to be shot by the police than whites. Have BLM sold the world a complete crock of shit?
In reality the truth is likely to be somewhere between these two highly simplified views. Many other factors can be introduced and the entire conversation is way more complex than one comment can possibly cover, but the more you look at the data the more McWhorter's conclusion looks to be pretty much on the money.
(This analysis is no substitute for a proper multi-factorial study, but I introduced one the other night, and no-one could be arsed reading it.)
Blacks are less likely to be shot by police than whites, you say? I suggest you ring up NewstalkZB, where there are people who are prepared to listen to such raving lunacy without laughing.
Using murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist is more stupid than literally cut&pasting massive straw man arguments from a right-wing propaganda platform to do the same.
murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist
I'm using murder convictions are a proxy for the likelihood of a particular ethnicity coming into contact with the police, and if that contact goes badly sideways, the possibility of being shot.
After all you still have no answer as to why the male 50% of the population are more than 95% of the police deaths. If population was the correct proxy then you would expect equal numbers of men and women to be killed regardless of ethnicity … but this is obviously not the case. Clearly the different rates of committing violent crime between the sexes is a highly relevant factor.
Yet BLM have used population as their sole proxy to convince the world there is a massive problem with systemic racism in the USA.
I'm using murder convictions are a proxy for the likelihood of a particular ethnicity coming into contact with the police.
After all you still have no answer as to why the male 50% of the population are more than 95% of the police deaths. If population was the correct proxy then you would expect equal numbers of men and women to be killed regardless of ethnicity … but this is obviously not the case.
"The correct proxy". 🙄
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
As for your digression, any explanation of the role of ethnicity and toxic masculinity in a disfunctional society would have to involve a certain amount of intersectionality, and you've repeatedly shown you can't deal with that concept and frankly I have neither the time, inclinition, cache, or words small enough to explain it to you.
Especially when your straw men are big enough to be set fire to by a bunch of hippies at the end of a drugfest.
The theory of intersectionality, now widely embraced by activists, maintains that non-whites, women, and LGBT individuals face systemic oppression whose scope increases according to the number of minority statuses a person holds.
The fewer boxes you check (straight white men don’t check any) the more “privilege” you are deemed to possess. This privilege, which now serves as a sort of intersectional mark of original sin, is invoked to justify silencing any view you disagree with.
It may once have been an useful academic tool in some specialised contexts, but once it escaped into the wild the cult it morphed into something quite different.
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
Which is why you have to do a proper multi-factorial analysis, but I've already shown there is no point in introducing that.
whatever, dude. Quibbling about the denominator tends to make your calls for further research looks like just another tactic to delay accepting the evidence repeatedly caught on camera.
I'm glad that you now know how to search for videos (and even filter out inconvenient search results). Only a few days ago you thought the ability to link to a relevant video was a sign of obsession with the topic.
On the contrary, I was merely responding to your suggestion about 'evidence repeatedly caught on camera'.
And judging by your flippant demeanor it would appear these white lives really didn't matter to you … and certainly not to any of the thousands of protesters tearing the USA apart right now on the basis of a lie.
Yes WW2 was altogether a lot closer than we imagine.
The same applies in the Desert War, that was an extremely close run thing as well.
The same applies in the Battle of the Atlantic. Churchhill at one point had determined to surrender within two weeks, but several last moment technical developments persuaded him not to.
This doesn't take away from the fact that the Russian people sacrificed an entire generation of men on the Eastern front and in doing so crushed the bulk of the German army.
12km … It could also be argued that the delay to the start of the campaign (because the Italians could not take Greece) was a factor.
But for mine the German problem was they could not take cities heavily defended – that would have applied to Moscow as with Leningrad and Stalingrad.
The Stuka and Panzer tag team stumbled against anti-tank and air defence concentrations. When the Russians could take this scenario out into the field – Kursk it was all over.
The Maginot Line might have worked, if the Germans were not able to go around it.
Even if they just laid seige to Moscow, that would have hindered the resupply that got through to Leningrad. And without UK/US supplies coming through Murmansk (because UK surrendered and didn't run the convoys), Leningrad falls. Which frees up the northern thrust to assist one of the other groups (oil or Moscow).
All because the guy who was PM at the time of Dunkirk chose to accept the advice around him and offer terms. Very few periods in history rest on one person's decision and character like that.
The conflict you describe is something I sort of struggle with in regards to artists.
Josh Homme, IMO, is one of the best guitarists, vocalists and songwriters going round at the moment. Great body of work and a fantastic collaborator (PJ Harvey, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones, Lady Gaga, Iggy Pop).
But there are many stories of him being a total arse of a person. Kicking a photographer in he mouth, tipping the rider table over backstage…
Spike Milligan, comic genius with occasional racist and anti-semite streaks through his work….
We should commission statues to commemorate Maori events as well. Ask Maori artists in each region to design and produce sculptures of famous members from their area….just saying.
That's a bit of an ironic statement, coming just after you have damned others for "painfully cartoonish" vilification.
I'm also uneasy about this move to pull down statues, but I recognise that the protestors are serious and moral thinkers. "Hooting mobs of ignoramuses" applies to certain groups, such as those thugs who gathered in Hamilton last year to heap abuse on the gypsy tourists. It does not apply to demonstrators that you don't approve of them.
TBH, I struggle to summon up a huge amount of sympathy for someone complaining that their two week all expenses paid, all meals supplied, break in the Crowne Plaza doesn't give them a lot of exercise opportunity – let alone put it on the front page of the Herald.
Middle class snowflake syndrome, with a huge helping of white privilege.
Talk about entitlement and "freezing cold " , in AUCKLAND ? . Oh for fucksake, ship her off to do some grape pruning in Central Otago to teach her some humility.
such a wide term then, "middle class" for such a narrow and particular sub-group "aspirational, stand on the poor, often self-employed, one month away from disaster"…
… exactly as I said gsays "sign of poor and confused thinking"
How many of the middle class would fit into your category gsays? Maybe 1%. 5% perhaps. 20% tops maybe? Don’t be so disparaging of the vast majority of our population mr bigot
Wayne, maybe, (I don't know 'cos I'm Pākehā), it's because the lady in question has such issues for her major problem/s, and non-whites have generally somewhat larger issues with which to contend.
I was reading a bit in the paper in which the issue of the death of fictional character, Tony Soprano, was being discussed.
Elsewhere, meanwhile, while I comfortably sit on my patio with my mid-morning coffee eying the news and weather……….. meanwhile, the world continues to dump unimaginable grief and harm and injustice on others because they are ‘other’.
At times like this I am reminded of my childhood, envying a boy at school who had tomato sauce sandwiches while I had ham, walnut and marmite, cheese and tomato. That wasn't white priviege. That was poverty.
Two things. I didn't know then what poverty was like. Secondly, it's analogous- my privilege as the son of a grocer, hence the ham sandwiches, and the privilege of having not to worry about the effects of racial stereotyping, bigotry and hatred.
Learning empathy would help us all.
At primary school I was bullied. The boy who backed me against the rest of the class-mates knew about empathy. He was mocked for his hair style, a 'pudding bowl', cut by his mother as a result of poverty.
well if we can provide prisoners with an hour of exercise we should be able to do this with people in quarantine.. i don't see the issue.
Like, i don't see why they can not have an hour outside – why this can not be organised – heck why this actually has not been implemented already.
Considering that this is an ongoing thing now for the forseeable future, i don't understand why 'outside time' has not been considered, planned for and is available to these guys.
But then yelling snow flake and 'middle class snowflake syndrome with a huge helping of white privilege' is just easier then admitting that locking up people in a room for 14 days with no 'outside' time would be considered cruel and inhumane treatment where this someone locked up in a prison.
I tend to agree. Maybe she is full of her own entitlement too, but nevertheless having to stay in one room for 14 days would be challenging for many. Personally I'd find having to eat catered food for two weeks hard. I hope they're doing better about the exercise for families with kids.
Welcome to CHAZ – the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
Protesters in Seattle have claimed around six city blocks and declared it a free zone. Police may enter for emergencies only. Trump is pissed, I am intrigued.
Having established territory, upon proving they are organised, and capable of committing war crimes of their own – the protesters may be in a position to use the Geneva convention to start charging the GOP and Police with war crimes?
This process may take years, and Trump may kill many people in the interim, but what else can one do in the face of overwhelming stupidity might?
I do think Trump's lost face hiding in his bunker, and his dingbat followers may have lost faith in his support after getting arrested for threatening protesters with chainsaw, longbow and bicycle shorts. But he's capable of anything, and would love to institute martial law.
The protests are far from over, just quieter, and global. I am rooting for the citizens of CHAZ to bring The Hague down on Slump's redneck racist ass.
This is what Labour said before the 2017 election:
“The Government claims it’s not safe to enter the drift and try to get any bodies in there out. That’s not true. Experts, both local and international, say the mine is now stable. We can get those men out, and secure evidence regarding the cause of the explosion. It can be done.
The National Government just wants to wash its hands of the whole thing, and move on. They don’t seem to care no-one has ever faced court for those 29 deaths, or that the families have never got the bodies back to bury.
That’s not the way Kiwis do things. We do right by people. We ensure that, when there is wrongdoing, there is justice. We keep our promises.”
Looks to me like you’re simply trolling here or the ‘oops’ meant that you submitted your comment in accident. Which one is it? You remind me of Judith Collins and I get irritated easily when that happens.
I spend far too much time thinking about covid-19 chronic lung disease might be seen in the years down track. I wonder if the countries that have been overwhelmed by the pandemic have a plan in place for managing the resultant chronic illness (if any). Could be expensive.
yes, had this discussion with the bloke. How many times do you need to get it before it gets you – our guess 3 – 5 years. So if the disease will continue running unfettered and is capable of infecting people more then once the worlds population could take a hit in about 3 – 5 years.
I am so happy i am not a young person trying to start life as an adult in the current shitshow.
After months of living with the coronavirus pandemic, American citizens are well aware of the toll it has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged recession. But there’s another threat to the economy, too. It lurks on the balance sheets of the big banks, and it could be cataclysmic. Imagine if, in addition to all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, you woke up one morning to find that the financial sector had collapsed.
[…]
To prevent the next crisis, Congress in 2010 passed the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the new rules, banks were supposed to borrow less, make fewer long-shot bets, and be more transparent about their holdings. The Federal Reserve began conducting “stress tests” to keep the banks in line. Congress also tried to reform the credit-rating agencies, which were widely blamed for enabling the meltdown by giving high marks to dubious CDOs, many of which were larded with subprime loans given to unqualified borrowers. Over the course of the crisis, more than 13,000 CDO investments that were rated AAA—the highest possible rating—defaulted.
The reforms were well intentioned, but, as we’ll see, they haven’t kept the banks from falling back into old, bad habits. After the housing crisis, subprime CDOs naturally fell out of favor. Demand shifted to a similar—and similarly risky—instrument, one that even has a similar name: the CLO, or collateralized loan obligation. A CLO walks and talks like a CDO, but in place of loans made to home buyers are loans made to businesses—specifically, troubled businesses. CLOs bundle together so-called leveraged loans, the subprime mortgages of the corporate world. These are loans made to companies that have maxed out their borrowing and can no longer sell bonds directly to investors or qualify for a traditional bank loan. There are more than $1 trillion worth of leveraged loans currently outstanding. The majority are held in CLOs.
I'm no master political strategist, but I'd have thought that an opposition party desperately looking for votes could find more productive ideas than "let's immediately open the borders and bring in hundreds of international students to central Auckland, and stick them in quarantine, while there are reports right now of quarantine in central Auckland not working properly".
Removing statues of non-indigenous historical figures and putting them together somewhere as a theme park would be better than just getting rid of them. Like Coronation Park in India, but with more emphasis on the tourist dollar.
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Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
“Instead of following along countries that are investing in death and better ways of killing people faster, we need to invest in life and in making Aotearoa a fair, just and equitable place where everyone has what they need for a dignified life.” ...
MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI, TPM MP FOR TAI TOKERAU This Government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori. CHRISTOPHER LUXON Oh well look you know I don’t think that hard-working Kiwis want to hear language like that. It’s just really unhelpful rhetoric. My Government is genuinely committed to advancing outcomes ...
The body positivity movement started with women confronting the unrealistic expectations and unrepresentative portrayals of them in media and advertising. Men weren’t part of it … their bodies hadn’t been sexualised to the same extremes and they didn’t really need it. But now that’s changed. And in a warped sort ...
The New Zealand comedy legend takes us through her life in television, including the time she hugged Elton John and the unshakeable legacy of a girl named Lyn. In 1981, Ginette McDonald stood on the stage of Auckland’s St James Theatre and directly addressed Queen Elizabeth II. It was a ...
An essay by Lily Duval from the just-released anthology Otherhood: Essays on being childless, childfree and child adjacent.I was 22 when my friend Alice gave birth in the living room of our pokey Addington flat. She laboured in the blow-up pool for hours. Garish fish swam along the inflated ...
Ella Borrie on the best books about motherhood she’s come across so far. Over the past few years I’ve been drawn to books about motherhood. I’m fascinated by the joys and horrors of becoming a parent. The question of children also feels more pressing than it used to. It’s like ...
Out of gift ideas for mum? You can’t go wrong with a bottle of toilet cleaner and a new squeegee. Emily Writes is the writer and editor of Emily Writes Weekly. This week marks five years since I published a post on The Spinoff about Mother’s Day marketing titled ‘A ...
My husband is posted overseas for 12 months and I’m armed with an expensive, newfangled vibrator. Will I miss him? The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.A few days after my husband leaves, a new sex toy arrives at the front door. Nestled ...
Jaimie Baird’s new book Here Today Gone Tomorrow is a record of four decades of graffiti and street art in Wellington, told through more than 1,200 photographs. He spoke with Joel MacManus about what inspired the book. How did you first get interested in photographing street art? I remember ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman looks back at a busy week where food of all political leanings dominated. Sometimes you’re just going about your week thinking you’ve got a good handle on what might be coming as far as news topics and then someone (usually a politician) says something so ridiculous that ...
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National MP Chris Penk has written an extraordinary "book" (in reality, an online rant) about the government's response to Covid-19.
He has done a copy and paste from every discredited source he could find (Taxpayers' Union, former ACT MP Muriel Newman, Simon "Sweden" Thornley, Kiwiblog (!) etc).
Too much nonsense to address in detail here, but the main point is that he has directly contradicted his own party leader. On his first day, Todd Muller described Ardern's handling of the crisis as "impressive", because they know they can't win by fighting public opinion at 90%. They really want to talk about something else.
Nobody told Penk, it seems.
This is not a mistake, it is the usual National tactic of covering all bases.
As long as one of them is saying it, then their party faithful who agree can be relied upon to support them.
In my opinion, the party faithful are pragmatic, they know that what is said in public is for public consumption, what matters is the intention behind. And that is often very different.
I disagree. Neale Jones sums it up.
National had a smooth machine for so long that many on the left will assume that there must be a "cunning plan", that they always know what they are doing.
It's often true. It isn't right now. This is definitely not the ground Muller wants to fight on.
OK. Happy to consider that National is just stupid.
it really is a choice between bad or stupid or a combination fo the two, innit…
Isn't Penk another member of the Rapture Right in National? Our big media outlets refuse to cover how much US-inspired fundamentalists have infiltrated the National party – but at the moment the only way to understand how inept they've suddenly become is to recognise the vanguardism of fundamentalist infiltration of the National party. But these people harbour some seriously loony beliefs and like their numbskull American hero in the White House, they get their information from Fox News.
Generally speaking, I strongly support our media’s policy of regarding MPs private lives as off limits. But these evangelicals use their beliefs to inform radical policy positions well outside the mainstream of NZ life, so to to me that makes them open to discussion. After all, if you were an avowed revolutionary Marxist in the Labour caucus the Herald wouldn’t hesitate to tell the world about that. The last thing the country needs is to wake up the day after an election and then discover a 2 seat majority National + ACT government is being controlled by prosperity doctrine fundies who want to remake NZ in the image of Florida, because the MSM didn't think to mention it before the election.
You have brought up a point worrying me Sanctuary. There is evidence of deep conservative Catholicism in our politics, I think that the most prominent person is Bill English. But how far has it gone through National – I think Jim Bolger is one. Whether he was of the excessive level of preachiness or not, they must support each other of the same religion. Also the Exclusive Brethren has revealed itself to be helpful to National as being the best to serve their own interests.
The various cults that have sprung up to make use of the tax-free status of religion are a worry as they undermine the democratic process of elevating individuals value and rights, and progressive moves to think for oneself and develop our own personality and life achievements. It is hard to free oneself from the oppressive control as the cultish religions seek to contain individuals from make their own life, thoughtfully formed and seeking self-realisation and the good values of humanity.
(Note – Gloriavale is very close to Amish style; very narrow and demanding as to personal freedom, and other cults marry their young ones off at say 17 years, and women can not develop wide skills to gain employment or have a career, as children and domestic life take precedence.)
Taking away the tax-free status of churches and treating them as not-for-profit charities would be a big advantage in retaining our democracy and being able to make rational moves to cope with climate change, a better education so we have informed and actively involved citizens in politics. A move to do this would uncover the depth and width that the semi-religious community has permeated our society, with results that do not lead to its well-being.
This removal of the ' tax free status" for religions is something I believe should happen.
It has often been used to push a particular point of view. Who else can promulgate their ideas at no cost?
I agree greywarshark… not an even playing field.
Oh dear…
https://twitter.com/arothmanhistory/status/1270693558039781379
Ron Mark is even more stupid after 3 yrs in govt he thinks the police shouldn't be armed and their training with arms is substandard after years in opposition questioning the use of police using the AR 4.
Heard of the 501's Ron the gangs are regularly being busted with large caches of guns including assault rifles.
NZ first is desperately sabotaging to get over 5%
He does have a point as to why an under-trained young constable needs to stand on a street outside a domestic dispute or traffic infringement with a gun that can fire almost a 1000 rounds a minute.
Yes, I heard the interview and I agreed with him.
At least get your fact straight when you try to make an argument.
NZ Police are only armed with semi auto guns not fully auto guns
Don't be dismissive about whether guns are semi auto or full auto. It's a slippery slide that responsible people are concerned about, rightly.
So they've not gone for the law enforcement selective fire version which would give them a three-round burst or fully automatic capability?
Tricledrown, we do not want Policing through fear mongering. It will end badly.
Training is hugely important.
Training for how to shoot and electrically shock people? Disarm them.
… the police shouldn't be armed
+1.
It's now becoming an open topic of conversation as to what to do if the DumpsterFuhrer refuses to leave when his time's up.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-remove-trump-from-the-white-house_n_5ee21f1ec5b6843ba6f808cf
I reckon it should be fairly easy to achieve peacefully. Just instruct the WH staff to ignore it when he presses his buttons summoning snacks and Diet Coke (btw, it's not working). Then after a couple of hours, send in a robot carrying hamberders and diet coke to loiter outside the Oval Office. When he starts coming for the bait, get the robot to lead him into a waiting limo. Sorted.
The chilling moment for me isn't anything like that – I mean the Pentagon heads couldn't have been clearer in the last week that they will protect the constitution faaaaar deeper than they will protect this current White House occupant.
To me the issue is that Donald Trump still has a reasonable chance of winning a second term as President, and of retaining a majority of the Senate.
That's the moment that the global standing of the United States starts to disintegrate fast, and after that the glaciers of the United Nations, World Trade Organisation, UNESCO, International Monetary Fund, World Bank et al really start to calve off.
It's not an unreasonable scenario to see a full and irreversible liquefaction of the structures that have sustained our relative peace and prosperity for decades.
That's the kind of stuff that really matters to us weeny countries with no power.
Ad, stop it! Please.
Considering the damage Vulgarmort has already wrought and the accelerating trendlines of all the various craptacles he's initiated, I find it all a bit too much to even contemplate the idea of another four years.
What about this scenario of the cold war type, with added nuclear possibilities between India and Pakistan, which looms as a result of Australia adopting Trump-like attitudes then.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/06/taking-back-our-eyes.html
We need to form new alliances and not give in to the lowest common denominator.
I was contemplating that likely scenario the other day and concluded the best way would be to lock him up inside the White house with no access to anything or anyone beyond its walls. When he finally goes troppo, they can remove him to an undisclosed location where he can remain in solitary confinement for the rest of his natural.
Ahhhh… beautiful dreams.
Fun fact: Chris Penk's dad was outed for running a letter writing campaign against assisted dying under a pseudonym and his brother runs the far right Maxim Institute. So yeah, we got a real set of bad eggs here.
http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/column/20190122/euthanasia-and-the-eighth-commandment/
P.S. Auckland University has really become a hothouse for right wing cranks, hasn't it!
You're not a crank because you're against the euthenasia bill.
It's a better bill than when it started, but it's still a pig.
Actually I will probably vote against the end of life bill in the referendum.
What makes him a candidate for right wing crankery is the clearly disingenuous attempts to hoodwink the public with his letter writing campaign.
You must know whether you will vote for or against the bill Sanc-why the “probably”?
Because I can see both sides of this debate. At the moment, my thinking doesn't support voting in favour of this proposal, but I am still thinking about it.
Both my brothers died horribly from cancer I hope the bill passes so that I have the option to not suffer as much as they did.
I am sorry to hear that. I watched my father die of aggressive lung cancer, he was a whisp of the strong man I knew as a child at his end. We've all got our own stories. How we interpret them informs how we will vote, I guess. I just hope the debate doesn't become a rancorous culture war.
It will be good if people with vote for euthanasia, controlled by good legal measures to ensure right behaviour all through. All it needs is for people to consider other people's wishes and see that it is wise to have that option. Being kind to other people will be of great importance in getting it through. It should not require unhappy experiences to be the reason. Accepting our human limit of time on this planet, and that it has been much extended by others who have improved health measures and have changed the pattern of earlier death, should enable us to make another rational change so that we can then decide when we want to pass on.
The changes made in the world have enabled longer and usually happier lives, though in NZ Maori have not had that full benefit. Now we could have happier deaths if others would just give us that freedom instead of imprisoning us on the planet when that is no longer our choice, or forcing us to take unpleasant decisions if we are forced to an illegal step and commit suicide. It is not fair or reasonable to refuse others their right to determine when and how they will die.
Strongly agree with you Barfly.
Yes Barfly. My Aunt had to go to hell and back with lung cancer. I know what I believe. We help animals, yet let humans suffer. It should be a choice.
Brassed-off journalist turns up the heat in Cook's kitchen.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/121794135/make-better-door-knobs-what-statues-of-old-victors-mean-to-me
Right, so where will this end? Shall we bulldoze the Savage memorial because he supported the British Empire? How about Truby King, the founder of Plunket? He was a eugenicist who had fairly strong views on the genetic superiority of the British people – should we demolish his mausoleum? How about Marx, should his grave have hs statue on it? Communism killed millions! Should the British destroy all memorials to Clement Attlee, on the grounds of his appalling behaviour in Britain’s African colonies? What about statues of Winston Churchill? Personally I find the current fashion of vilification of James Cook by the left painfully cartoonish and utterly bereft of context. Should I stand by while monuments to probably the greatest navigator of any age (and an enlightened man by the standards of his time) be puled down by hooting mobs of ignoramuses?
Practically ANY statue in NZ erected in the last 150+ years will upset someone. How about we just not go a route of a ridiculous culture war over inanimate objects, that will only ultimately hurt the progressive cause in NZ?
+100
Yup. Presentism.
But yes … hooting mobs of ignorami will prevail for the moment. City Councillors who appease these calls are probably not fools, they know in private that pulling down old statues is stupid, but most people will do anything for an easy life. When the mob labels you 'racist' people get sacked and cancelled. So down they will come.
Exactly, lets only make history about what happened since the last change of ideology.
It ends where where the evil that was interr'd with their bones doesn't outweigh the good that lives after them, in the eyes of the people.
They're not the Left … they're Intersectionals … entirely different kettle of fish.
I see the Woke as a small but highly influential Cult centred within segments of both the New Middle Professional Class & the Upper-Middle Class (amazing just how many are descended from old Establishment families … Auckland Business Elites & South Island Rural Gentry) … attempting to hi-jack the Left … by massively downplaying the centrality of socio-economic disparity while simultaneously comandeering traditional Left moral concerns … racism & so on … then grossly distorting & weaponizing those concerns (with the help of their Gurus like Bishop DiAngelo …. or does she call herself Archbishop now ?) – some are dogmatic true-believers, others are the bully-boys we know all too well on NZ social media … focussed in large part on pursuing their own power & self-interest … albeit assiduously dressed up with this thin veneer of (LOL) "self-less Altruism".
Bad Actors playing Saints. Personal power & prestige enhancement.
While I agree with the vibe of yr comment, the notion Cook was the greatest navigator of any age, seems to be a whitewashing of history.
The Pacifica navigators that got here before Cook did so without tools at his disposal.
Cook conflicts me. Probably more than a bit because I'm the son of a Yorkshireman 🙂
He was a great sailor and navigator, and advanced human knowledge (not just European – the actual observation of the transit of venus was a pretty difficult technical task given the optics of the day). But he was also responsible for a lot of bad shit. but then he was also quite progressive for the day, and I did hear a thing on RNZ ages ago that reckoned his behaviour on the third voyage showed all the signs of mental exhaustion and breakdown. So… complicated. Certainly not "good", but not fucking NB Forrest.
Churchill is a more extreme cause of ambivalence – a complete colonialist prick who gassed civilians and viewed hunting down Irish rebels almost as a game. But without him, Hitler could well have won.
No answers here – torn both ways.
About the only honest response you can have
No reason why he shouldn't be celebrated in his own place of birth though .
Maybe the important thing when looking at a statue of Cook could be , because of him my forebears came to NZ and could have a better life.At the expense of my other forebears.(referring to myself.)We all have a problematic history we need to be aware of
If we determine to visit the punishment for the sins of the fathers on generations of the sons, then everything gets torn down. Or at the very least, nothing is immune to the force of that argument.
And as can be easily seen, all cultures have problematic, traumatic history, there is probably no human alive who doesn't have some ancestors who benefited from invasion, slavery and genocide.
But the phrase "Black Lives Matter" is an overloaded message carrying multiple layers of meaning. One of which is it's really only the sins of white people that matter. Everyone else is excused.
I mean, we could just have pretty thorough discussions about whether we have lots of statues to fathers who sinned, but keep pushing that barrow. Not even NASCAR agrees with you.
Well I'd be a lot more convinced if BLM demonstrated the same anguish over the 5000 – 6000 blacks who kill each other annually, and the fact that blacks are 52% of all homicide perpetrators than the relative handful of unarmed black victims at the hands of the police … black and white:
So the Black Lives Matter protestors don't experience anguish over black violence? What evidence do you have to back up that remarkable allegation?
Actually rather than the tiresome point scoring, how about reading the article I linked to. John McWhorter isn't some random dude on the internet.
Actually rather than the tiresome point scoring
Ummm, never mind, as you were.
McWhorter is not a lot superior to "some random dude on the internet." He's an Obama cultist, and not a serious academic.
I'm not convinced you'd ever be convinced beyond your limitless whataboutism..
"Whataboutism"—another contribution to philosophical discourse, courtesy of the doomed Hillary Clinton campaign.
Also see “Russian bots”, “Russian masterminds”, “Steele Dossier”, “Luke Harding”, “resistance”.
Nope, it's 50-odd years old.
No, the actual term "whataboutism" and its equally witless variant "whataboutery" appeared in the last three and a half years. It was, and is still, used as a strategy—a failed strategy— to derail those people impertinent enough to point out that Democrats, especially those in the Clinton/Schumer/Pelosi faction that controls the party, have a history of racism and militarism and voter suppression as vile as the Republicans, and that the United States has not even the slightest moral right to criticise any country for interference in elections of another jurisdiction.
Jeebus mate, MF even did the homework and provided you with a link. 50+ years old and not a Clinton in sight.
The tu quoque diversion tactic is as old as the hills. The desperate and unconvincing "whataboutery" word is as old as…. Russiagate. And just as intellectually rigorous.
By the way, fifty years ago, a young Bill Clinton was indeed in sight—if you were at Oxford University, where the Rhodes “Scholar”—to use that word in the most generous and indulgent sense possible—-was a forlorn and by all accounts horribly unsuccessful suitor to dozens of young English women.
OK let's go back to the core BLM grievance, that racist white police are mass murdering blacks at a rate far higher than whites.
The question is what rate comparison are they using?
From the stats linked to for 2019 show a total of 634 office involved shootings. On a simple population basis
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites comprise 53% of the population.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks comprise 14% of the population.
This is the basis for the BLM claim that racist police kill blacks at a rate 2 -3 times higher than whites.
Yet obviously this is a dubious claim. People do not come into contact with the police at random, especially not in contexts of homicide and/or armed violence when police are very likely to respond with deadly force:
On this basis the simple rate comparisons above change to this:
58% of deaths are white, yet non-Hispanic whites commit 48% of the homicides.
37% of deaths are black, yet non-Hispanic blacks commit 52% of the homicides
On this basis the outcome is completely flipped, it looks like blacks are actually less likely to be shot by the police than whites. Have BLM sold the world a complete crock of shit?
In reality the truth is likely to be somewhere between these two highly simplified views. Many other factors can be introduced and the entire conversation is way more complex than one comment can possibly cover, but the more you look at the data the more McWhorter's conclusion looks to be pretty much on the money.
(This analysis is no substitute for a proper multi-factorial study, but I introduced one the other night, and no-one could be arsed reading it.)
Blacks are less likely to be shot by police than whites, you say? I suggest you ring up NewstalkZB, where there are people who are prepared to listen to such raving lunacy without laughing.
Using murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist is more stupid than literally cut&pasting massive straw man arguments from a right-wing propaganda platform to do the same.
murder convictions as a proxy for contact with police to explain that systemic racism doesn't exist
I'm using murder convictions are a proxy for the likelihood of a particular ethnicity coming into contact with the police, and if that contact goes badly sideways, the possibility of being shot.
After all you still have no answer as to why the male 50% of the population are more than 95% of the police deaths. If population was the correct proxy then you would expect equal numbers of men and women to be killed regardless of ethnicity … but this is obviously not the case. Clearly the different rates of committing violent crime between the sexes is a highly relevant factor.
Yet BLM have used population as their sole proxy to convince the world there is a massive problem with systemic racism in the USA.
"The correct proxy". 🙄
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
As for your digression, any explanation of the role of ethnicity and toxic masculinity in a disfunctional society would have to involve a certain amount of intersectionality, and you've repeatedly shown you can't deal with that concept and frankly I have neither the time, inclinition, cache, or words small enough to explain it to you.
Especially when your straw men are big enough to be set fire to by a bunch of hippies at the end of a drugfest.
Frankly, the thought of discussing gender and ethnicity with you at the same time is the fucking definition of futility.
The theory of intersectionality, now widely embraced by activists, maintains that non-whites, women, and LGBT individuals face systemic oppression whose scope increases according to the number of minority statuses a person holds.
The fewer boxes you check (straight white men don’t check any) the more “privilege” you are deemed to possess. This privilege, which now serves as a sort of intersectional mark of original sin, is invoked to justify silencing any view you disagree with.
It may once have been an useful academic tool in some specialised contexts, but once it escaped into the wild the cult it morphed into something quite different.
So in search of "the correct proxy" you latch onto another product determined by the bias of the system accused of bias.
Which is why you have to do a proper multi-factorial analysis, but I've already shown there is no point in introducing that.
whatever, dude. Quibbling about the denominator tends to make your calls for further research looks like just another tactic to delay accepting the evidence repeatedly caught on camera.
Video like this?
Or this?
I'm glad that you now know how to search for videos (and even filter out inconvenient search results). Only a few days ago you thought the ability to link to a relevant video was a sign of obsession with the topic.
In another 50 years you might even be "woke".
On the contrary, I was merely responding to your suggestion about 'evidence repeatedly caught on camera'.
And judging by your flippant demeanor it would appear these white lives really didn't matter to you … and certainly not to any of the thousands of protesters tearing the USA apart right now on the basis of a lie.
The ego you have to assume that someone's attitudes to you somehow reflects their attitudes on anything other than you is absolutely trumpian.
But without him, Hitler could well have won.
???? I think that if you did a little serious reading, you might find that the Russians were the decisive factor in the defeat of Hitler.
I think you'll find hitler might have taken moscow (and Stalin) if he was fighting a one-front war with no arctic convoys supplying the Soviets.
Wasn’t it something like 12km?
Yes WW2 was altogether a lot closer than we imagine.
The same applies in the Desert War, that was an extremely close run thing as well.
The same applies in the Battle of the Atlantic. Churchhill at one point had determined to surrender within two weeks, but several last moment technical developments persuaded him not to.
This doesn't take away from the fact that the Russian people sacrificed an entire generation of men on the Eastern front and in doing so crushed the bulk of the German army.
12km … It could also be argued that the delay to the start of the campaign (because the Italians could not take Greece) was a factor.
But for mine the German problem was they could not take cities heavily defended – that would have applied to Moscow as with Leningrad and Stalingrad.
The Stuka and Panzer tag team stumbled against anti-tank and air defence concentrations. When the Russians could take this scenario out into the field – Kursk it was all over.
The Maginot Line might have worked, if the Germans were not able to go around it.
Even if they just laid seige to Moscow, that would have hindered the resupply that got through to Leningrad. And without UK/US supplies coming through Murmansk (because UK surrendered and didn't run the convoys), Leningrad falls. Which frees up the northern thrust to assist one of the other groups (oil or Moscow).
All because the guy who was PM at the time of Dunkirk chose to accept the advice around him and offer terms. Very few periods in history rest on one person's decision and character like that.
The conflict you describe is something I sort of struggle with in regards to artists.
Josh Homme, IMO, is one of the best guitarists, vocalists and songwriters going round at the moment. Great body of work and a fantastic collaborator (PJ Harvey, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones, Lady Gaga, Iggy Pop).
But there are many stories of him being a total arse of a person. Kicking a photographer in he mouth, tipping the rider table over backstage…
Spike Milligan, comic genius with occasional racist and anti-semite streaks through his work….
We should commission statues to commemorate Maori events as well. Ask Maori artists in each region to design and produce sculptures of famous members from their area….just saying.
… hooting mobs of ignoramuses…
That's a bit of an ironic statement, coming just after you have damned others for "painfully cartoonish" vilification.
I'm also uneasy about this move to pull down statues, but I recognise that the protestors are serious and moral thinkers. "Hooting mobs of ignoramuses" applies to certain groups, such as those thugs who gathered in Hamilton last year to heap abuse on the gypsy tourists. It does not apply to demonstrators that you don't approve of them.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-relentless-taunting-of-gypsy.html
White privilege in action example #45,981,098:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12339243
TBH, I struggle to summon up a huge amount of sympathy for someone complaining that their two week all expenses paid, all meals supplied, break in the Crowne Plaza doesn't give them a lot of exercise opportunity – let alone put it on the front page of the Herald.
Middle class snowflake syndrome, with a huge helping of white privilege.
Talk about entitlement and "freezing cold " , in AUCKLAND ? . Oh for fucksake, ship her off to do some grape pruning in Central Otago to teach her some humility.
You sound a little cranky yourself this morning.
It's bloody cold outside pruning and only going to get colder. I hate winter.
She was given a platform on Morning Report today as well. She has a sort of "Don't You Know who I Am!" quality about her. Poor little muppet.
Middle Class snowflake maybe, but why is it also "white privilege"?
but lower class and upper class in particular are also snowflakes… why always pick on the middle class? sign of poor and confused thinking i think
I like to use the middle class term to describe the aspirational, stand on the poor, often self-employed members of the precariat.
Those that are just one month or one contract away from falling amongst those that they so readily dismiss.
such a wide term then, "middle class" for such a narrow and particular sub-group "aspirational, stand on the poor, often self-employed, one month away from disaster"…
… exactly as I said gsays "sign of poor and confused thinking"
How many of the middle class would fit into your category gsays? Maybe 1%. 5% perhaps. 20% tops maybe? Don’t be so disparaging of the vast majority of our population mr bigot
Judging by the amount of votes the Nats and act get, the number is way over 20%.
The reaction and dumping of Metira Turei showed the 'Me first and the gimmee gimmee' attitude is common amongst us.
Greed or unwillingness to share is one of the biggest challenges we face.
"Don’t be so disparaging of the vast majority of our population mr bigot" Irony much.
Wayne, maybe, (I don't know 'cos I'm Pākehā), it's because the lady in question has such issues for her major problem/s, and non-whites have generally somewhat larger issues with which to contend.
I was reading a bit in the paper in which the issue of the death of fictional character, Tony Soprano, was being discussed.
Elsewhere, meanwhile, while I comfortably sit on my patio with my mid-morning coffee eying the news and weather……….. meanwhile, the world continues to dump unimaginable grief and harm and injustice on others because they are ‘other’.
At times like this I am reminded of my childhood, envying a boy at school who had tomato sauce sandwiches while I had ham, walnut and marmite, cheese and tomato. That wasn't white priviege. That was poverty.
Two things. I didn't know then what poverty was like. Secondly, it's analogous- my privilege as the son of a grocer, hence the ham sandwiches, and the privilege of having not to worry about the effects of racial stereotyping, bigotry and hatred.
Learning empathy would help us all.
At primary school I was bullied. The boy who backed me against the rest of the class-mates knew about empathy. He was mocked for his hair style, a 'pudding bowl', cut by his mother as a result of poverty.
I see the connection.
But she got dizzy walking in circles, poor dear.
well if we can provide prisoners with an hour of exercise we should be able to do this with people in quarantine.. i don't see the issue.
Like, i don't see why they can not have an hour outside – why this can not be organised – heck why this actually has not been implemented already.
Considering that this is an ongoing thing now for the forseeable future, i don't understand why 'outside time' has not been considered, planned for and is available to these guys.
But then yelling snow flake and 'middle class snowflake syndrome with a huge helping of white privilege' is just easier then admitting that locking up people in a room for 14 days with no 'outside' time would be considered cruel and inhumane treatment where this someone locked up in a prison.
I tend to agree. Maybe she is full of her own entitlement too, but nevertheless having to stay in one room for 14 days would be challenging for many. Personally I'd find having to eat catered food for two weeks hard. I hope they're doing better about the exercise for families with kids.
Welcome to CHAZ – the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
Protesters in Seattle have claimed around six city blocks and declared it a free zone. Police may enter for emergencies only. Trump is pissed, I am intrigued.
Having established territory, upon proving they are organised, and capable of committing war crimes of their own – the protesters may be in a position to use the Geneva convention to start charging the GOP and Police with war crimes?
This process may take years, and Trump may kill many people in the interim, but what else can one do in the face of overwhelming
stupiditymight?I do think Trump's lost face hiding in his bunker, and his dingbat followers may have lost faith in his support after getting arrested for threatening protesters with chainsaw, longbow and bicycle shorts. But he's capable of anything, and would love to institute martial law.
The protests are far from over, just quieter, and global. I am rooting for the citizens of CHAZ to bring The Hague down on Slump's redneck racist ass.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/06/12/on-the-seattle-commune/
Looks like it might be all over
Faster than the Berlin Spartacists
This is what Labour said before the 2017 election:
“The Government claims it’s not safe to enter the drift and try to get any bodies in there out. That’s not true. Experts, both local and international, say the mine is now stable. We can get those men out, and secure evidence regarding the cause of the explosion. It can be done.
The National Government just wants to wash its hands of the whole thing, and move on. They don’t seem to care no-one has ever faced court for those 29 deaths, or that the families have never got the bodies back to bury.
That’s not the way Kiwis do things. We do right by people. We ensure that, when there is wrongdoing, there is justice. We keep our promises.”
https://www.labour.org.nz/promises_to_pike_families_must_be_kept
Oooops !!!!!!!
Looks to me like you’re simply trolling here or the ‘oops’ meant that you submitted your comment in accident. Which one is it? You remind me of Judith Collins and I get irritated easily when that happens.
ouch
https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/06/11/disturbing-photo-shows-what-coronavirus-can-do-to-your-lungs/
the pic of the lung is quite something.
I second that "ouch" with a "ewww – bubbles? How bubbles?"
Nasty!
I spend far too much time thinking about covid-19 chronic lung disease might be seen in the years down track. I wonder if the countries that have been overwhelmed by the pandemic have a plan in place for managing the resultant chronic illness (if any). Could be expensive.
yes, had this discussion with the bloke. How many times do you need to get it before it gets you – our guess 3 – 5 years. So if the disease will continue running unfettered and is capable of infecting people more then once the worlds population could take a hit in about 3 – 5 years.
I am so happy i am not a young person trying to start life as an adult in the current shitshow.
The banks have done it again.
https://twitter.com/FrankPartnoy/status/1248321023407034368
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1248321023407034368.html
After months of living with the coronavirus pandemic, American citizens are well aware of the toll it has taken on the economy: broken supply chains, record unemployment, failing small businesses. All of these factors are serious and could mire the United States in a deep, prolonged recession. But there’s another threat to the economy, too. It lurks on the balance sheets of the big banks, and it could be cataclysmic. Imagine if, in addition to all the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, you woke up one morning to find that the financial sector had collapsed.
[…]
To prevent the next crisis, Congress in 2010 passed the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the new rules, banks were supposed to borrow less, make fewer long-shot bets, and be more transparent about their holdings. The Federal Reserve began conducting “stress tests” to keep the banks in line. Congress also tried to reform the credit-rating agencies, which were widely blamed for enabling the meltdown by giving high marks to dubious CDOs, many of which were larded with subprime loans given to unqualified borrowers. Over the course of the crisis, more than 13,000 CDO investments that were rated AAA—the highest possible rating—defaulted.
The reforms were well intentioned, but, as we’ll see, they haven’t kept the banks from falling back into old, bad habits. After the housing crisis, subprime CDOs naturally fell out of favor. Demand shifted to a similar—and similarly risky—instrument, one that even has a similar name: the CLO, or collateralized loan obligation. A CLO walks and talks like a CDO, but in place of loans made to home buyers are loans made to businesses—specifically, troubled businesses. CLOs bundle together so-called leveraged loans, the subprime mortgages of the corporate world. These are loans made to companies that have maxed out their borrowing and can no longer sell bonds directly to investors or qualify for a traditional bank loan. There are more than $1 trillion worth of leveraged loans currently outstanding. The majority are held in CLOs.
http://archive.li/sckLP (The Atlantic)
Loud and clear.
https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1270835650497929216
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/trump-juneteenth-tulsa-rally-is-worlds-least-subtle-dog-whistle
I'm no master political strategist, but I'd have thought that an opposition party desperately looking for votes could find more productive ideas than "let's immediately open the borders and bring in hundreds of international students to central Auckland, and stick them in quarantine, while there are reports right now of quarantine in central Auckland not working properly".
Repeat: "immediately".
National's "plan", announced today
Hmm if we were to believe the current daily figures out of China we should be looking to open up a 'bubble' very shortly…
Of course if you believe those figures, I've got a very nice bridge going cheap…
How do you spell racism? Answer: NYPD.
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2020/06/04/rage-against-the-machine/
Removing statues of non-indigenous historical figures and putting them together somewhere as a theme park would be better than just getting rid of them. Like Coronation Park in India, but with more emphasis on the tourist dollar.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lseih/2019/06/20/coronation-park-and-the-forgotten-statues-of-the-british-raj/
Brilliant! Put Captain Hamilton and the rest of those anti-heroes in to a Kiwi version of Mme Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors.