I'd put benefits up to the super rate – as they used to be.
Lower the age back to 60 and slightly increase taxation from the point of NZS + NZS equivalent in extra earnings.
This would mean you could earn super plus super again without any further impact but once you got over twice the NZS you'd pay more tax to help cover the cost of NZS.
Why – money needs to circulate through the economy. Giving the people with the least more helps do that.
I can recall 50 or so local businesses shutting up shop after the Richardson benefit cuts. Mainly small ones and locally owned. Opened the doors up for the chains to take over and the fake competition as many are owned by the same parent companies.
Interesting. Someone people I know have put forward similar idea targeting those who will never work again, but obviously it would be very beneficial if everyone had the same base.
Julian Assange has served out his sentence for bail jumping.It would have to be one of the most severe sentences for that relatively minor crime.
It has been decided that he will remain in prison, even though he hasn't been convicted of anything.I suspect the US , with the connivance of the UK is hoping he will die of an "unforeseen pre existing condition " Perhaps there will be an Epstein type suicide There will be earnest articles in newspapers on how the prison system needs to be reformed.
Denizens of TS pack will sneer and compete to come up with the most puerile jibes, say he only has himself to blame , exonerating whats happening to him right here and now and exemplifying what Nils Melzer of the UN has said
" there has been a relentless and unrestrained campaign of public mobbing, intimidation and defamation against Mr. Assange, not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, Sweden and, more recently, Ecuador.” According to the expert, this included an endless stream of humiliating, debasing and threatening statements in the press and on social media, but also by senior political figures, and even by judicial magistrates involved in proceedings against Assange."
In effect the UK elites are holding an increasingly frail Assange with his arms tied behind his back so the bully boys of the US can take turns at beating the shit out of him for daring to expose war crimes
Chelsea Manning still stands by him, refusing to commit perjury by testifying against him For that she remains in prison and continues to be fined $1000 a day . Ludicrous!
The Swedes , after 7 years of dilatory paper shuffling, opening and closing the rape case can still not decide whether charges should be laid.Can anyone say this is justice for the accused or complainant? The Swedish Court declared that prosecutors could travel to the UK and question Assange.This was back in early June, .still no moves towards this.
Cue "No rush.He's not going anywhere".. snort smirk fist bumps from other red blooded males on TS
I consider the Assange case to be pivotal , far more so than the Dreyfus affair was in the 19th early 20 th century.If Assange is destroyed, to pretty much universal public indifference, ( as a result of the very successful campaign Melzer refers to), the bastards have won and we're totally screwed Anyone can be shut down, all of us.
The shame is collective, its on all of us
I've wriiten to various ministers , urging them to uphold UN rulings and honour our commitment to human rights, but I'm afraid the special relationship is very special indeed
Not interested in sparring matches with the usual sportsmen on TS
If you're "not interested in sparring matches with the usual sportsmen on TS", then why the showboating come-ons like "Cue "No rush.He's not going anywhere".. snort smirk fist bumps from other red blooded males on TS" and "Denizens of TS pack will sneer…" ?
I agree that it is poor choice of words and possibly done in or with bad faith, but maybe not necessarily as a “tactic”. I could read it as an expression of frustration rather at the utterly predictable and tedious responses from some commenters on this site, none of which promote understanding other than to demonstrate the limited evolution of thinking of those commenters on the particular topic or issue at hand. I can list a few trigger words that elicit ad nauseam exchanges of arguments opinions and counter-arguments counter-opinions that never ever lead to the discernment of the truth. Some call it post-modernism but I call it boring willy-waving contests of fragile egos.
Actually, I think I said that the last time some doofus complained that the Swedes weren't working according to the preferred schedule of some NZ blog commenter.
And now that the yanks have put through an extradition request, Francesca is complaining that the guy who jumped bail for seven years isn't getting bail again. What a joke.
i was one of those who stood and gave him a standing ovation – when he appeared on the screen at that benchmark in anti-climaxes – the kim dotcom 'great reveal'..
since then i have been discomfited by the fact that everything he did in the 2016 u.s. election – was to help trump get elected…
If you're actually interested in anyone else's opinion of Assange and his situation, well, here's mine:
Assange's work in setting up wikileaks and making it easier to publish information such as that provided by Manning was a huge service to the world in general. Particularly since it did entail some degree of personal risk. Although nowhere near as much risk as the likes of Manning who paid the price while Assange took the credit.
Unfortunately, as others around him started to share his monumentally high opinion of himself, he let his inner asshole off the leash. Which led to a series of increasingly crap personal decisions leading to the situation he is now in.
Yes, it is extremely dangerous to press freedom that Assange is being held for extradition to the US to be punished for publishing factual information, no matter how charges against him may be twisted to make it appear he was operating outside of First Amendment protections. For the sake of all kinds of freedoms, I hope he is able to outright beat the extradition proceedings, or at least drag them out until there is a more rational president and DOJ that reach reach the same conclusion as Obama and Holder in 2013 – that the "New York Times problem" means it would be damaging to US interests as a whole to prosecute Assange.
Yet on a personal level, Assange's activities in 2016 to damage Clinton (which went way beyond just publishing DNC emails) and thereby inflict the Queens loofah-faced shitgibbon on the world, means that I really don't give a shit what happens to Assange personally. It is possible for people that have done extraordinarily positive things to completely wipe out whatever karmic credit they may have earned by also doing extraordinarily crap things.
edit: And phil’s comment was directly related to your original post. But your reply to phil was completely unrelated to anything in phil’s comment.
There's the issue of wikileaks only publishing info harmful to Clinton and Democrats, nothing harmful to Fuckface von Clownstick or Repugs in general. And the way releases were timed to move the news cycle on from things damaging to Grabby McHandsy, such as a bunch of stuff released shortly after the Access Hollywood tape came out.
Wikileaks also played a big part in pushing shit like the Seth Rich nonsense, the Uranium One smears, the lies about Clinton's health etc.
edit: and unrelated to 2016, there’s also wikileaks’ extreme carelessness around some vulnerable peoples’ personal information, putting them at risk. Concerns that Assange didn’t give a rat’s about when it was raised with him, IIRC.
since then i have been discomfited by the fact that everything he did in the 2016 u.s. election – was to help trump get elected…
francesca replied:
Clinton was sunk by Assange exposing the truth?
That's a classic "straw man" fallacy, with a bit of "false dichotomy" thrown in. It's a straw man because phil made no claim that Trump was elected entirely thanks to Assange, and it's a false dichotomy because the implied argument involves only two opposite possibilities: either Assange was responsible for Trump's victory, or he didn't help Trump's campaign at all.
With respect to Assange's motivations, I suspect it was more Hillary-hate and a desire to fuck with the US as a whole, rather than any fondness for the waddling spray-tan warning label.
That's a bit of a distinction without a difference, though. In either case, the resulting actions and results are the same.
Yeah, I'd be at least 80/20 that President Hillary and her DoJ would have come to the same conclusion as Obama and Holder about the "New York Times problem". And that she would be professional enough to take Assange trying to damage her electorally as just politics, that the interests of press freedom for the US as a whole would take precedence over getting a petty personal vengeance.
So let me get this right – rather than be a journalist and publish leaks like they always have – they should have not said anything – so h.r.c got elected?
Or was the rest of us knowing about TPP and our own government spying on us irrelevant?
Because I'm confused – you seem to be adding a layer of motivation on top of what wikileaks already did as standard practice – you know, holding the powerful to account.
Interesting to watch Ole Rog's body language on The Nation (as I write).
Still a complete ideologue, not at all interested in hearing an alternative view (that of St John) – except possibly once. He even came equipped with a couple of pages of a crib sheet
If we are to put any credence on S’Rog’s views, we’d all end up living in a caged pig farm.
He's been slurring for quite a while @ Cinny. Quite concerning I guess for his disciples. It must be a real worry for them – should they be "efficient and effective" and shove him on Dancing With The Stars, or be kind and transformational and book him into a Rymancare facility with CLV providing the pastoral care
"An outcome of this reform was a general move to accrual based financial statements with New Zealand being the first country to provide national financial statements on an accrual basis in 1992."
["Accrual accounting was adopted by the Government in the 1980s during Sir Roger's stint as Finance Minister in the Fourth Labour Government. "
Complete fantasy , it didnt happen for NZ till early 1990s]
I think accrual accounting was adopted by the 4th Labour government in the 1980s, even if the the first set of government accounts prepared on that basis didn't appear until 1992. So Sir Roger's comment was not entirely "fantasy".
…here was Sir Roger Douglas on the other end of the line, inviting me to assess his latest ideas for improving New Zealand – kanohi ki te kanohi – over coffee.
It is not my place to summarise or in any other way represent those ideas, Sir Roger has his own plans for that. Suffice to say that they extend and elaborate upon ideas foregrounded in his books Towards Prosperity and Unfinished Business.
I did over-generalise, in that there will be people on the left who don't value freedom of speech and don't refer to it as "freeze peach." I don't think it's a straw man, though – after all, who would come up with a term of ridicule for something they value?
who would come up with a term of ridicule for something they value?
People who give nicknames?
The straw man is that you characterise people who disagree with your interpretation of what is 'free speech' as "people who do not value freedom of speech".
Some of us value balanced public speech. Those who say 'free' often seem to be backing only hateful varieties that harm social groups other than their own. They can merrily freeze their little fruits in their own circles as far as I'm concerned.
"Free speech" has been used to advance some rather diverse agendas, from issuing pornography to political donations. It might be better to narrow rather than broaden free speech definitions so that issues pretending to the title are obliged to make their arguments on their merits.
Not sure what you are suggesting but IMO putting restrictions on what defines as “free speech” is oxymoronic. I think it should be as open and broad as possible.
Only if the content invites people toward violence or uncivil behaviour should speech be banned.
Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed Ali, was awarded the prize for making peace with the country's bitter foe, and former province, Eritrea.
Only one side won the prize because "Eritrea’s Isaias leads one of the most repressive military dictatorships in the world; his government has been compared to North Korea and accused of possible crimes against humanity."
Want to engage more people in the voting process? Then don't ban the electoral commission from going to speak to high schools. JS
Looking forward to the electoral commission talking to our high school students after three years of being prevented from doing so. And the principal thought no one would notice……. caught out big time.
Yes, pretty sure the other schools in our region are ok with the electoral commission visiting. But it did make me think if any other NZ high schools were doing the same, which in my opinion should be illegal.
I feel it's really important for our youth to pre enroll at 17, and high school is the best place to capture that and make it happen, that way when they turn 18 they are already sorted.
I'd be much more in favour of lowering the age if advocates were first pressing for civics to be taught comprehensively in primary, secondary and tertiary schools.
Cheers for the links Duke. That was another thing that bugged me, all the resources and info are in place, making it easy for schools to work with the electoral commission, so why would any school prevent their students from such knowledge.
If our local high school doesn't educate the students or engage with the electoral commission for the coming general election, I might have to contact the press and the principal can explain to the public what his issue is.
I fear that overall the result for the left is not going to be good. I base this on the fact it looks like it's going to be one of the lowest voter turn-outs ever and that usually counts against left-leaning candidates.
Maybe it's not such an important factor in local body elections, but coupled with the over abundance of candidates nation-wide it is likely to put a lot of people off voting.
Phil Goff should make it in Auckland but after that……
Goff is not really 'left' – but then that role will always need to connect across the whole spectrum, like Len Brown also did. The Mayor of Auckland will always be seen at both food kitchens and shiny corporate soirees.
He was well to the left in his younger days but he gravitated to the centre as he grew older. Even so, he still refers to some people as Comrade So and So. Perhaps that was a family trait dating back to childhood. Iirc, his parents and grandparents were staunch Labour.
I first met him in the early 1970s. He was into Mickey Savage and co. then. In the 1980s he flirted with the Rogernomes. By the 1990s he was pulling back from them and now he sits on the centre-left of the spectrum.
Btw, put him in a room full of Labour people and you'd think he was back in his youth. It's where his political heart still lies.
It certainly is – but then when she got in the way of the Orange Grabbem Führer's nefarious plans for the 1000 year Reich she had to go.
Meanwhile, just in, is this report that the it wasn't just Bullsh*tter In Chief who was solely responsible..
Trump Diplomats Drafted An Official Statement For Ukraine To Announce Investigation Of Biden
In more evidence that Donald Trump was trying to use his position to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, The New York Times reports that senior diplomats in the administration had pushed Ukraine to commit – on paper – to investigations into the president’s political rivals.
According to the report, “Two of President Trump’s top envoys to Ukraine drafted a statement for the country’s new president in August that would have committed Ukraine to pursuing investigations sought by Mr. Trump into his political rivals, three people briefed on the effort said.”
The report notes that Trump was seeking to “bend American foreign policy to [his] political agenda” by obsessively pushing Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton.
More from the report:
The drafting of the statement marks new evidence of how Mr. Trump’s fixation with Ukraine began driving senior diplomats to bend American foreign policy to the president’s political agenda in the weeks after the July 25 call between the two leaders.
The statement was drafted by Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt D. Volker, then the State Department’s envoy to Ukraine, according to the three people who have been briefed on it.
…
The statement was written with the awareness of a top aide to the Ukrainian president, as well as Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and the de facto leader of a shadow campaign to push the Ukrainians to press ahead with investigations that could be of political benefit to Mr. Trump, according to one of the people briefed on it.
The statement would have committed Ukraine to investigating the energy company Burisma, which had employed Hunter Biden, the younger son of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. And it would have called for the Ukrainian government to look into what Mr. Trump and his allies believe was interference by Ukrainians in the 2016 election in the United States to benefit Hillary Clinton.
But wait! There's more!
The entire Trump administration was in on the Ukraine scheme
This scheme to extort a foreign power into handing over dirt on a political opponent is not one of those instances in which Trump went off on his own and did something impeachable.
Instead, this operation appears to be administration-wide – from Donald Trump and Mike Pence to William Barr and Mike Pompeo. Thanks to The New York Times report on Thursday, we now know that senior diplomats on Trump’s team were in on it as well.
This is no longer about one phone call Donald Trump had with the president of Ukraine, or even about one whistleblower complaint that set the political world on fire.
This is about a president of the United States who is using all the powers of the American government and foreign policy apparatus for nefarious purposes – and a growing number of officials inside the administration were accomplices in his criminal efforts.
Wow.
So for shit's and giggle's went to look at former contributor to The Standard, Colonial Viper (or Tat Loo as he is also known), Twitter feed and it is clear the guy has gone completely around the bend. Anti-Feminism, Global Warning denying, Trump supporter and Woo based 'medicine' promoter.
Have a look if you feel like multiple face-palming…
True – it is a sad case to behold. I think it is one of those instances where someone is completing the circle – going hard left, and then merging into the hard right.
Still he didn't peddle mindless Russia and Trump conspiracies, or repeat the establishment narrative. Probably what made him quite a popular commentator in some quarters.
Some time ago I commented that trade unions, and the like, have been too successful in pushing for more money for us normals. I didn't bookmark it so I could see what response I got if any but today listening the 9-Noon programme on dogs the thought struck me that the way we all want more money is one of the problems with today's world …. My wife who now lives in a pensioners' flat would like a dog but Council says NO …. but the reason why my wife doesn't have cat [Council permitted] is as a responsible person the possible likelihood of vet bills puts her off as she lives on a pension. I think this is rather sad.
Lindsey Graham thought he was talking to Turkey's defence minister. He says the Kurds are a big problem and a threat to Turkey and says Trump wants to be helpful to Erdogan's money launderer and Giuliani client Reza Zarrab.
Graham then raised an issue that’s been top of mind for Erdogan for years—the U.S. case involving Zarrab, who was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to 32 months in prison stemming partly from bribes he paid to Turkish bank officers.
“And this case involving the Turkish bank, he’s very sensitive to that,” Graham said of Trump. “The president wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power.”
[…]
Zarrab also had ties to the Turkish government, according to a memo written in 2016 by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and was “engaged in a massive bribery scheme… paying cabinet-level [Turkish] governmental officials and high-level bank officers tens of millions of Euro and U.S. dollars” to facilitate his transactions.
Erdogan, wary of corruption being revealed in open court, fiercely lobbied high-level Obama administration officials for Zarrab's release after his 2016 arrest, the Washington Post reported at the time. At one point he even asked Vice President Joe Biden to have Bharara fired. Erdogan also sent his justice minister at the time to meet with then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and argue that the case was "based on no evidence."
The Hater Supremo is determined to have blood on his tiny hands before he is removed.
Fortunately the crowds are growing smaller and the mood of the nation is turning against him; and he knows that – but his only known response is to up the vitriol, hatred, and raving to new levels of unbalanced, dangerous, mindlessness cant.
Monica Lewinsky was bombarded with threats of rape and death, “Overnight, I went from being a completely private person to being a publicly humiliated one worldwide,”…luckily she had the sistership #metoo support of Hilary Clinton….
"In a CBS interview on Sunday, correspondent Tony Dokoupil asked Clinton if she thought her husband should have resigned after his affair with Lewinsky, then a White House intern, became public.
“Absolutely not,” Clinton said.
Clinton also said the relationship wasn’t an abuse of power on the former president’s part. Lewinsky was “an adult,” she said, before changing the subject to talk about sexual harassment and assault allegations against President Donald Trump."
Trump is an abomination..Hillary is 'better'…better was never, and will never be good enough.
… better was never, and will never be good enough.
So why should a politician even try for the support of anyone with an attitude like that, since they will never be good enough? If you're looking for political wins, it's far better trying to get the support of people that are persuadable realists, rather than the unattainable perfectionists.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani broke lobbying laws in his dealings in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the inquiry.
The investigators are examining Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to undermine the American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, one of the people said. She was recalled in the springas part of Mr. Trump’s broader campaign to pressure Ukraine into helping his political prospects.
The investigation into Mr. Giuliani is tied to the case against two of his associates who were arrested this week on campaign finance-related charges, the people familiar with the inquiry said. The associates were charged with funneling illegal contributions to a congressman whose help they sought in removing Ms. Yovanovitch.
Imagine the shit fight when they start looking into the recipients of all that NRA cash.
At least 14 Republican candidates and groups directly received a total of $675,500 in campaign contributions last year from Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the Soviet-born Florida businessmen indicted this week on campaign-finance violations.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say six of their donations involved either a shell company used to hide the men’s identities or foreign money meant to curry favor with U.S. politicians. The pair made numerous contributions between February and July, many of them to umbrella political groups that then parceled out money to dozens of GOP politicians, a Wall Street Journal review of state fundraising and Federal Election Commission records found.
And not before time – the NRA is under serious threat.
A new Senate report is the latest threat to NRA’s tax-exempt status — and maybe its survival
Leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) traveled to Moscow using NRA funds, according to a new Senate report, raising the question of whether the organization broke laws governing nonprofit spending. If the association did in fact break those laws, it could lose its tax-exempt status — and according to a former IRS official, without its tax-exempt status the NRA could be forced to shut down.
The report, which was compiled by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee and released on Friday, investigates the relationship between NRA leadership and Russian nationals with Kremlin ties. Those nationals include Maria Butina, a 30-year-old Russian who was convicted last year of conspiring to act as a foreign agent. As Vox’s Andrew Prokop explained, her alleged goal was to “try to influence the Republican Party to be friendlier to Russia, by way of the NRA.”
Part of that relationship involved a 2015 trip to Russia during which Butina promised to introduce top NRA executives to powerful officials, and during which those executives were told they would be given opportunities to advance personal business interests.
The problem — aside from the fact that the NRA is accused of willingly establishing relationships with Russian nationals with close ties with the Kremlin — is that tax-exempt nonprofits aren’t allowed to use their funds for personal gain, as NPR has reported.
“This was an official trip undertaken so NRA insiders could get rich — a clear violation of the principle that tax-exempt resources should not be used for personal benefit,” Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement to CNN.
I found this video from MSNBC very interesting with the links being drawn to billionaire Firtash under house arrest in Vienna and "Giuliani Role In Trump Ukraine Scheme".
Trump is reinforcing Saudi, trying to prop up the balance of power he tilted the other way with decisions in Syria. It's looking likely to be a long lesson in why empires use local auxiliaries – which Trump isn't.
You may be right – though there are a bunch of people who are ashamed of it.
I'm expecting Saudi are in for a rough ride as foreign backed Yemeni forces give them an insurgency on steroids that an unsupported minority could not. Hard though it may be to sympathize with princes who cut people up to fit them in cake boxes, the consequences of a Saudi collapse would hit our little oil dependent nation pretty hard. Saudi has phosphate too.
Oh dear. Now even Tulsi is against pulling out US troops to leave the Kurds to get slaughtered by the Turks. There goes her cred with the self-styled "anti-war" delusionals.
US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that tackling the climate crisis will involve making dramatic economic changes in a passionate closing speech at the C40 World Mayors summit in Copenhagen on Friday…
…“Our current logic created this mess and operating in the same way will not get us out.”
This uncompromising message won her a powerful round of applause. But it was when she came to the impact climate change had had on her own life, and on her family in Puerto Rico, that she became emotional.
“I speak to you as a human being, a woman whose dreams of motherhood now taste bittersweet because of what I know about our children’s future,” she said, her voice breaking as if she was struggling to hold back tears.
“That our actions are responsible for bringing their most dire possibilities into focus.”
From the moment she began speaking, the main hall at the summit became completely still, and when she finished, the ovation she received far exceeded that received by the veteran climate campaigner and former vice-president Al Gore, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen; or the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Trump denies knowing Giuliani's arrested associates who bragged about their close relationship with the White House.
Of course he doesn't know them! He has never even met them. He is PERFECTLY INNOCENT. It was a PERFECT phone call as well! Everything he does is perfect, and he has a perfect memory – it is completely blank.
Donald Trump tried to distance himself from the latest scandal that threatens his presidency on Thursday by saying he didn’t know either of the foreign-born Rudy Giuliani associates that his own Justice Department had just indicted for alleged campaign finance violations.
But that’s not what one of the men said three years ago — while attending Trump’s
In fact, Lev Parnas described himself to a foreign correspondent at the cash-bar event in midtown Manhattan as a friend of the president-elect who didn’t live far from his South Florida winter home.
Scoop: Trump pins Ukraine call on Energy Secretary Rick Perry
President Trump told House Republicans that he made his now infamous phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the urging of Energy Secretary Rick Perry — a call Trump claimed he didn’t even want to make.
Behind the scenes: Trump made these comments during a conference call with House members on Friday, according to 3 sources on the call.
Per the sources, Trump rattled off the same things he has been saying publicly — that his call with Zelensky was "perfect"and he did nothing wrong.
But he then threw Perry into the mix and said something to the effect of: "Not a lot of people know this but, I didn't even want to make the call. The only reason I made the call was because Rick asked me to. Something about an LNG [liquefied natural gas] plant," one source said, recalling the president's comments. 2 other sources confirmed the first source's recollection.
Argentinian historian on how fascism is making a comeback under Bolsonaro and Trump.
Despite the growing allegations about his misconduct, President Trump remains idolized by many of his supporters. His campaign rallies feature fans whose devotion is unwavering. When Trump insulted a supporter he mistook for a protester for being overweight, for example, the supporter later said he was not insulted: “Everything’s good. I love the guy.” Trump counts among his fans not only voters but also fellow world leaders. Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, also explicitly told Trump “I love you” when they met at the United Nations.
These expressions of love should be concerning. They share features with the unconditional form of love typical of political cults that has often manifested in dangerous ways.
Historically, idolizing the “leader” is a key dimension of fascism. In the 1930s and 1940s, different fascist leaders inspired cults of personality, which came in different colors across the globe. In China, supporters of Chiang Kai-shek wore blue shirts, while Brazilian supporters of Plínio Salgado wore integralista green shirts. Argentina’s dictator José F. Uriburu, Romania’s Corneliu Codreanu and Spain’s Francisco Franco similarly inspired loyal followings. Supporters of fascism fervently believed in the heroic, even Godlike nature of their leaders. Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Nazi propaganda minister, wrote in his diaries about his feelings for Adolf Hitler: “I love him … I bow to the greater man, to the political genius.” Such devotion ultimately allowed leaders to insulate themselves from criticism and accountability.
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Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
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Curious to know…what would be your justification for increasing the rate of pension at this point in time?
Nobody?
so that lots of old people don't have live the end stages of their lives in poverty.
I'd put benefits up to the super rate – as they used to be.
Lower the age back to 60 and slightly increase taxation from the point of NZS + NZS equivalent in extra earnings.
This would mean you could earn super plus super again without any further impact but once you got over twice the NZS you'd pay more tax to help cover the cost of NZS.
Why – money needs to circulate through the economy. Giving the people with the least more helps do that.
I can recall 50 or so local businesses shutting up shop after the Richardson benefit cuts. Mainly small ones and locally owned. Opened the doors up for the chains to take over and the fake competition as many are owned by the same parent companies.
Interesting. Someone people I know have put forward similar idea targeting those who will never work again, but obviously it would be very beneficial if everyone had the same base.
And here we are, another demographic that needs an increase in funds
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/116494305/millennial-money-woes-financial-stress-making-one-in-five-young-adults-physically-ill
The graph shows under 65s least stressed
Aye which is why my priority would be to first increase benefits – and get rid of the youth rate that was pushed up from 17 to 24.
In short make benefits back to the same rate as NZS and remove the age discrimination.
Yea…that youth rate seems to assume their living costs are lower (like they live on the floor or something). Completely unrealistic.
the top 20..
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions
'New data shows how fossil fuel companies have driven climate crisis despite industry knowing dangers..’
they need to be moved against – and soon..
the question being the mechanics of this..
how will we do it..?
Julian Assange has served out his sentence for bail jumping.It would have to be one of the most severe sentences for that relatively minor crime.
It has been decided that he will remain in prison, even though he hasn't been convicted of anything.I suspect the US , with the connivance of the UK is hoping he will die of an "unforeseen pre existing condition " Perhaps there will be an Epstein type suicide There will be earnest articles in newspapers on how the prison system needs to be reformed.
Denizens of TS pack will sneer and compete to come up with the most puerile jibes, say he only has himself to blame , exonerating whats happening to him right here and now and exemplifying what Nils Melzer of the UN has said
" there has been a relentless and unrestrained campaign of public mobbing, intimidation and defamation against Mr. Assange, not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom, Sweden and, more recently, Ecuador.” According to the expert, this included an endless stream of humiliating, debasing and threatening statements in the press and on social media, but also by senior political figures, and even by judicial magistrates involved in proceedings against Assange."
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24665
In effect the UK elites are holding an increasingly frail Assange with his arms tied behind his back so the bully boys of the US can take turns at beating the shit out of him for daring to expose war crimes
Chelsea Manning still stands by him, refusing to commit perjury by testifying against him For that she remains in prison and continues to be fined $1000 a day . Ludicrous!
The Swedes , after 7 years of dilatory paper shuffling, opening and closing the rape case can still not decide whether charges should be laid.Can anyone say this is justice for the accused or complainant? The Swedish Court declared that prosecutors could travel to the UK and question Assange.This was back in early June, .still no moves towards this.
Cue "No rush.He's not going anywhere".. snort smirk fist bumps from other red blooded males on TS
I consider the Assange case to be pivotal , far more so than the Dreyfus affair was in the 19th early 20 th century.If Assange is destroyed, to pretty much universal public indifference, ( as a result of the very successful campaign Melzer refers to), the bastards have won and we're totally screwed Anyone can be shut down, all of us.
The shame is collective, its on all of us
I've wriiten to various ministers , urging them to uphold UN rulings and honour our commitment to human rights, but I'm afraid the special relationship is very special indeed
Not interested in sparring matches with the usual sportsmen on TS
If you're "not interested in sparring matches with the usual sportsmen on TS", then why the showboating come-ons like "Cue "No rush.He's not going anywhere".. snort smirk fist bumps from other red blooded males on TS" and "Denizens of TS pack will sneer…" ?
I'm wondering that too.
"Denizens of TS pack will sneer…" is a classic bad faith tactic that promotes disruption rather than understanding. Do we need that here?
I agree that it is poor choice of words and possibly done in or with bad faith, but maybe not necessarily as a “tactic”. I could read it as an expression of frustration rather at the utterly predictable and tedious responses from some commenters on this site, none of which promote understanding other than to demonstrate the limited evolution of thinking of those commenters on the particular topic or issue at hand. I can list a few trigger words that elicit ad nauseam exchanges of
argumentsopinions andcounter-argumentscounter-opinions that never ever lead to the discernment of the truth. Some call it post-modernism but I call it boring willy-waving contests of fragile egos.Actually, I think I said that the last time some doofus complained that the Swedes weren't working according to the preferred schedule of some NZ blog commenter.
And now that the yanks have put through an extradition request, Francesca is complaining that the guy who jumped bail for seven years isn't getting bail again. What a joke.
i was one of those who stood and gave him a standing ovation – when he appeared on the screen at that benchmark in anti-climaxes – the kim dotcom 'great reveal'..
since then i have been discomfited by the fact that everything he did in the 2016 u.s. election – was to help trump get elected…
does that dichotomy puzzle you at all..?
Clinton was sunk by Assange exposing the truth?
Clinton actually won the popular vote.
Blame the electoral college
Nice work putting words into Phil's mouth and diverting from Phil's actual point.
And once more Andre, you fail to actually address the point of my post , but never mind , Mars and Venus and all that
All the best to you
If you're actually interested in anyone else's opinion of Assange and his situation, well, here's mine:
Assange's work in setting up wikileaks and making it easier to publish information such as that provided by Manning was a huge service to the world in general. Particularly since it did entail some degree of personal risk. Although nowhere near as much risk as the likes of Manning who paid the price while Assange took the credit.
Unfortunately, as others around him started to share his monumentally high opinion of himself, he let his inner asshole off the leash. Which led to a series of increasingly crap personal decisions leading to the situation he is now in.
Yes, it is extremely dangerous to press freedom that Assange is being held for extradition to the US to be punished for publishing factual information, no matter how charges against him may be twisted to make it appear he was operating outside of First Amendment protections. For the sake of all kinds of freedoms, I hope he is able to outright beat the extradition proceedings, or at least drag them out until there is a more rational president and DOJ that reach reach the same conclusion as Obama and Holder in 2013 – that the "New York Times problem" means it would be damaging to US interests as a whole to prosecute Assange.
Yet on a personal level, Assange's activities in 2016 to damage Clinton (which went way beyond just publishing DNC emails) and thereby inflict the Queens loofah-faced shitgibbon on the world, means that I really don't give a shit what happens to Assange personally. It is possible for people that have done extraordinarily positive things to completely wipe out whatever karmic credit they may have earned by also doing extraordinarily crap things.
edit: And phil’s comment was directly related to your original post. But your reply to phil was completely unrelated to anything in phil’s comment.
can you give a brief explanation of the evidence/argument that Assange sabotaged Clinton during the election campaign?
There's the issue of wikileaks only publishing info harmful to Clinton and Democrats, nothing harmful to Fuckface von Clownstick or Repugs in general. And the way releases were timed to move the news cycle on from things damaging to Grabby McHandsy, such as a bunch of stuff released shortly after the Access Hollywood tape came out.
Wikileaks also played a big part in pushing shit like the Seth Rich nonsense, the Uranium One smears, the lies about Clinton's health etc.
Here's a few pieces for more reading:
https://qz.com/1533847/roger-stones-indictment-reveals-plan-to-discredit-hillary-clintons-health/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/wikileaks-trump-mueller-roger-stone-jerome-corsi/576940/
https://www.vox.com/2016/9/15/12929262/wikileaks-hillary-clinton-julian-assange-hate
edit: and unrelated to 2016, there’s also wikileaks’ extreme carelessness around some vulnerable peoples’ personal information, putting them at risk. Concerns that Assange didn’t give a rat’s about when it was raised with him, IIRC.
thanks, I didn't know about the timing issue.
Am aware of the personal info issue, it was probably the final straw for me.
phillip ure wrote:
since then i have been discomfited by the fact that everything he did in the 2016 u.s. election – was to help trump get elected…
francesca replied:
Clinton was sunk by Assange exposing the truth?
That's a classic "straw man" fallacy, with a bit of "false dichotomy" thrown in. It's a straw man because phil made no claim that Trump was elected entirely thanks to Assange, and it's a false dichotomy because the implied argument involves only two opposite possibilities: either Assange was responsible for Trump's victory, or he didn't help Trump's campaign at all.
Seems quite likely Assange personally doesn't like Clinton. Didn't she say she would be personally more than happy to see him dead or something?
But on the other hand if Assange only/mostly gets interesting material on Clinton rather than Trump then whats to do?
Assanges politics should be irrelevant.
Disagree phillip ure, the NSA Targets World Leaders for US Geopolitical Interests seemed to me too have go at the whole establishment.
https://wikileaks.org//nsa-201602/
Are you saying the whole Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership reveal was to help trump?
https://wikileaks.org/ttip/
Case could be made for the DNC leaks, but no one believed them – so why do you think they had an impact?
Mind you this is one after the election, but boy howdy did the FSB have a melt down over this.
https://wikileaks.org//spyfiles/russia/
i am not debating whether or not his help-trump plans succeeded or not..
my concerns are around that he had those plans in the first place…
and did what he could to makes those plans succeed/get the orange ball of pus elected..
there lies the dichotomy – as i see it…
With respect to Assange's motivations, I suspect it was more Hillary-hate and a desire to fuck with the US as a whole, rather than any fondness for the waddling spray-tan warning label.
That's a bit of a distinction without a difference, though. In either case, the resulting actions and results are the same.
My enemy's enemy is my.. oops.
Yeah, I'd be at least 80/20 that President Hillary and her DoJ would have come to the same conclusion as Obama and Holder about the "New York Times problem". And that she would be professional enough to take Assange trying to damage her electorally as just politics, that the interests of press freedom for the US as a whole would take precedence over getting a petty personal vengeance.
So let me get this right – rather than be a journalist and publish leaks like they always have – they should have not said anything – so h.r.c got elected?
Or was the rest of us knowing about TPP and our own government spying on us irrelevant?
Because I'm confused – you seem to be adding a layer of motivation on top of what wikileaks already did as standard practice – you know, holding the powerful to account.
his hatred of the clintons is well-documented..
and everything he did he did to help trump..
so yes..there likely was 'motivation' in his/those actions..
"….the sparring matches with the usual sportsmen on TS."
But, but! Watching the willy-wagging is sooo much fun!
The finger-tapping cliche brigade.
Interesting to watch Ole Rog's body language on The Nation (as I write).
Still a complete ideologue, not at all interested in hearing an alternative view (that of St John) – except possibly once. He even came equipped with a couple of pages of a crib sheet
If we are to put any credence on S’Rog’s views, we’d all end up living in a caged pig farm.
I watched the same and was left wondering if ole rog was all there. Did you notice he was slurring?
He's been slurring for quite a while @ Cinny. Quite concerning I guess for his disciples. It must be a real worry for them – should they be "efficient and effective" and shove him on Dancing With The Stars, or be kind and transformational and book him into a Rymancare facility with CLV providing the pastoral care
The Nation must have been hard pressed finding people to interview today.
Maybe seymour could teach him some moves and rog could take to the floor and find out what it feels like to live a bit 🙂
why was he on the Nation?
Indeed. Whose interests does that serve?
I guess for the same reason John Key has been popping up as a rent-a-voice on MSM over the past week or so.
(I should have stuck with my idol Kim on that Red Radio)
The Newshub story is wrong
"Accrual accounting was adopted by the Government in the 1980s during Sir Roger's stint as Finance Minister in the Fourth Labour Government. "
Complete fantasy , it didnt happen for NZ till early 1990s
As this academic paper from Victoria Uni lays out
"An outcome of this reform was a general move to accrual based financial statements with New Zealand being the first country to provide national financial statements on an accrual basis in 1992."
["Accrual accounting was adopted by the Government in the 1980s during Sir Roger's stint as Finance Minister in the Fourth Labour Government. "
Complete fantasy , it didnt happen for NZ till early 1990s]
I think accrual accounting was adopted by the 4th Labour government in the 1980s, even if the the first set of government accounts prepared on that basis didn't appear until 1992. So Sir Roger's comment was not entirely "fantasy".
Judging by this post from Chris Trotter, the old codger's planning a comeback:
Natch, Trotter was most impressed.
jfc, on both counts.
The right will all be booking in cosy chats with Colonel Trotter now that he's more comfortable on their side of things. Frozen peaches for all.
frozen peaches?
People on the left who don't value freedom of speech tend to refer to it as "freeze peach."
That's a classic "straw man" fallacy, with a bit of "false dichotomy" thrown in.
I did over-generalise, in that there will be people on the left who don't value freedom of speech and don't refer to it as "freeze peach." I don't think it's a straw man, though – after all, who would come up with a term of ridicule for something they value?
People who give nicknames?
The straw man is that you characterise people who disagree with your interpretation of what is 'free speech' as "people who do not value freedom of speech".
Some of us value balanced public speech. Those who say 'free' often seem to be backing only hateful varieties that harm social groups other than their own. They can merrily freeze their little fruits in their own circles as far as I'm concerned.
"Free speech" has been used to advance some rather diverse agendas, from issuing pornography to political donations. It might be better to narrow rather than broaden free speech definitions so that issues pretending to the title are obliged to make their arguments on their merits.
Not sure what you are suggesting but IMO putting restrictions on what defines as “free speech” is oxymoronic. I think it should be as open and broad as possible.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/116443386/the-complicated-issue-of-hate
Did Douglas want an assessment or an endorsement from Trotter?
Nobel Peace Prize Winner announced
Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed Ali, was awarded the prize for making peace with the country's bitter foe, and former province, Eritrea.
Only one side won the prize because "Eritrea’s Isaias leads one of the most repressive military dictatorships in the world; his government has been compared to North Korea and accused of possible crimes against humanity."
Want to engage more people in the voting process? Then don't ban the electoral commission from going to speak to high schools. JS
Looking forward to the electoral commission talking to our high school students after three years of being prevented from doing so. And the principal thought no one would notice……. caught out big time.
is that just your high school?
Yes, pretty sure the other schools in our region are ok with the electoral commission visiting. But it did make me think if any other NZ high schools were doing the same, which in my opinion should be illegal.
I feel it's really important for our youth to pre enroll at 17, and high school is the best place to capture that and make it happen, that way when they turn 18 they are already sorted.
One of the best arguments for reducing the voting age to 16 is being able to use schools as a vehicle for engagement.
ok that's the first argument for lowering the age that's made sense to me.
Get em young. 🙂
I'd be much more in favour of lowering the age if advocates were first pressing for civics to be taught comprehensively in primary, secondary and tertiary schools.
I’d argue that they cannot teach civics comprehensively without teaching history comprehensively.
Nice, I was just thinking that (esp re the recent debate about teaching NZ history).
I've heard advocates asking for exactly that – use the resources of our schools to involve young people in the community's civic life.
Heres the High Schools program
https://elections.nz/your-community/teaching-voting-at-schools
Plus these Teaching Units
Votes for Women – New Zealand Curriculum level 4
Tūranga Mua, Tūranga Tika – Te Marautanga o Aotearoa level 5
Be Heard – New Zealand Curriculum level 5
Have Your Say – New Zealand Curriculum levels 3 and 4
Cheers for the links Duke. That was another thing that bugged me, all the resources and info are in place, making it easy for schools to work with the electoral commission, so why would any school prevent their students from such knowledge.
If our local high school doesn't educate the students or engage with the electoral commission for the coming general election, I might have to contact the press and the principal can explain to the public what his issue is.
Good luck to those on the left, looking to win a council seat or 3 today, all around the country. Hopefully some Rotarian ass will be kicked today.
No one seems to be marking the 30th anniversary of the abolishment of the counties and boroughs in this country. Which is sad.
Another anniversary that past 2 weeks ago is the Tomorrow's Schools reforms.
@ millsy
My comment at 8 was supposed to be a reply to yours @ 7. Not hitting 'reply' is getting to be a habit. 🙁
Yep, one of my voting criteria was if I recognised their name from hoardings I would not vote for them.
The logic is that to have lots of hoardings= lots of money. The last thing I want from my representatives is for them to be wealthy.
I fear that overall the result for the left is not going to be good. I base this on the fact it looks like it's going to be one of the lowest voter turn-outs ever and that usually counts against left-leaning candidates.
Maybe it's not such an important factor in local body elections, but coupled with the over abundance of candidates nation-wide it is likely to put a lot of people off voting.
Phil Goff should make it in Auckland but after that……
Goff is not really 'left' – but then that role will always need to connect across the whole spectrum, like Len Brown also did. The Mayor of Auckland will always be seen at both food kitchens and shiny corporate soirees.
He was well to the left in his younger days but he gravitated to the centre as he grew older. Even so, he still refers to some people as Comrade So and So. Perhaps that was a family trait dating back to childhood. Iirc, his parents and grandparents were staunch Labour.
He didn't seem especially left anymore during the 4th Lab govt. Twenty years earlier before he had any power, sure.
I first met him in the early 1970s. He was into Mickey Savage and co. then. In the 1980s he flirted with the Rogernomes. By the 1990s he was pulling back from them and now he sits on the centre-left of the spectrum.
Btw, put him in a room full of Labour people and you'd think he was back in his youth. It's where his political heart still lies.
Although sports is anathema to some it occasionally provides opportunities for reflecting on the 'real' world, the way things are done and values.
The way things are, the value of money is significantly more important than other values.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12275814
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/400820/trump-impeachment-ambassador-says-she-was-ousted-over-false-claims
Looks like her crime was… she had been appointed by Obama.
It's a wonder she lasted as long as she did.
It certainly is – but then when she got in the way of the Orange Grabbem Führer's nefarious plans for the 1000 year Reich she had to go.
Meanwhile, just in, is this report that the it wasn't just Bullsh*tter In Chief who was solely responsible..
But wait! There's more!
This is about a president of the United States who is using all the powers of the American government and foreign policy apparatus for nefarious purposes – and a growing number of officials inside the administration were accomplices in his criminal efforts.
Image reads
"Introducing the new Trump Super Bus with room under it for Everybody!"
Wow.
So for shit's and giggle's went to look at former contributor to The Standard, Colonial Viper (or Tat Loo as he is also known), Twitter feed and it is clear the guy has gone completely around the bend. Anti-Feminism, Global Warning denying, Trump supporter and Woo based 'medicine' promoter.
Have a look if you feel like multiple face-palming…
No thanks.
How is that different to when he was active here?
He seems much more virulent now. And I don't recall him being a AGW denier before
True – it is a sad case to behold. I think it is one of those instances where someone is completing the circle – going hard left, and then merging into the hard right.
just as Act sprang from Labour..
Very different to when he was first on the Standard.
Still he didn't peddle mindless Russia and Trump conspiracies, or repeat the establishment narrative. Probably what made him quite a popular commentator in some quarters.
Some time ago I commented that trade unions, and the like, have been too successful in pushing for more money for us normals. I didn't bookmark it so I could see what response I got if any but today listening the 9-Noon programme on dogs the thought struck me that the way we all want more money is one of the problems with today's world …. My wife who now lives in a pensioners' flat would like a dog but Council says NO …. but the reason why my wife doesn't have cat [Council permitted] is as a responsible person the possible likelihood of vet bills puts her off as she lives on a pension. I think this is rather sad.
There's a mangy old stray cat hanging around Flowers Street @ John looking for a home.
It's guaranteed to have private insurance to pay the vet's bills
Lindsey Graham thought he was talking to Turkey's defence minister. He says the Kurds are a big problem and a threat to Turkey and says Trump wants to be helpful to Erdogan's money launderer and Giuliani client Reza Zarrab.
Graham then raised an issue that’s been top of mind for Erdogan for years—the U.S. case involving Zarrab, who was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to 32 months in prison stemming partly from bribes he paid to Turkish bank officers.
“And this case involving the Turkish bank, he’s very sensitive to that,” Graham said of Trump. “The president wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power.”
[…]
Zarrab also had ties to the Turkish government, according to a memo written in 2016 by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and was “engaged in a massive bribery scheme… paying cabinet-level [Turkish] governmental officials and high-level bank officers tens of millions of Euro and U.S. dollars” to facilitate his transactions.
Erdogan, wary of corruption being revealed in open court, fiercely lobbied high-level Obama administration officials for Zarrab's release after his 2016 arrest, the Washington Post reported at the time. At one point he even asked Vice President Joe Biden to have Bharara fired. Erdogan also sent his justice minister at the time to meet with then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and argue that the case was "based on no evidence."
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/10/lindsey-graham-trump-hoax-call-043991
He's trying to get this woman killed.
https://twitter.com/MiriamElder/status/1182469068948987904
Anything is better than Clinton though right?
You have a sarc tag with that? 🙂
The Hater Supremo is determined to have blood on his tiny hands before he is removed.
Fortunately the crowds are growing smaller and the mood of the nation is turning against him; and he knows that – but his only known response is to up the vitriol, hatred, and raving to new levels of unbalanced, dangerous, mindlessness cant.
Monica Lewinsky was bombarded with threats of rape and death, “Overnight, I went from being a completely private person to being a publicly humiliated one worldwide,”…luckily she had the sistership #metoo support of Hilary Clinton….
Trump is an abomination..Hillary is 'better'…better was never, and will never be good enough.
… better was never, and will never be good enough.
So why should a politician even try for the support of anyone with an attitude like that, since they will never be good enough? If you're looking for political wins, it's far better trying to get the support of people that are persuadable realists, rather than the unattainable perfectionists.
how many countries do you think clinton would have bombed/invaded by now..?
70,000 displaced and counting..
https://news.yahoo.com/syria-kurds-battle-turkish-invasion-104622127.html
Rudy, meet bus.
https://twitter.com/stevennelson10/status/1182760003423424512
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/i-smell-a-wiretap-ex-fbi-official-suspects-the-feds-have-tapes-of-rudy-giuliani/
lol poor wee rudy – he will make the turnip turd tornado pay for the insult I'm sure – lol burger on rye coming up
And not before time – Rudy is said to be under investigation for Ukraine work.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-investigation.html
Imagine the shit fight when they start looking into the recipients of all that NRA cash.
At least 14 Republican candidates and groups directly received a total of $675,500 in campaign contributions last year from Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the Soviet-born Florida businessmen indicted this week on campaign-finance violations.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say six of their donations involved either a shell company used to hide the men’s identities or foreign money meant to curry favor with U.S. politicians. The pair made numerous contributions between February and July, many of them to umbrella political groups that then parceled out money to dozens of GOP politicians, a Wall Street Journal review of state fundraising and Federal Election Commission records found.
http://archive.li/rg14C
hehehe
And not before time – the NRA is under serious threat.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/28/20888815/nra-russia-senate-report-tax-exempt-investigation-irs-new-york-dc-james-attorney-general
I found this video from MSNBC very interesting with the links being drawn to billionaire Firtash under house arrest in Vienna and "Giuliani Role In Trump Ukraine Scheme".
Trump is reinforcing Saudi, trying to prop up the balance of power he tilted the other way with decisions in Syria. It's looking likely to be a long lesson in why empires use local auxiliaries – which Trump isn't.
The US military is Blackwater gone big.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1182769613416882176
You may be right – though there are a bunch of people who are ashamed of it.
I'm expecting Saudi are in for a rough ride as foreign backed Yemeni forces give them an insurgency on steroids that an unsupported minority could not. Hard though it may be to sympathize with princes who cut people up to fit them in cake boxes, the consequences of a Saudi collapse would hit our little oil dependent nation pretty hard. Saudi has phosphate too.
Oh dear. Now even Tulsi is against pulling out US troops to leave the Kurds to get slaughtered by the Turks. There goes her cred with the self-styled "anti-war" delusionals.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/465431-gabbard-rips-trumps-syria-decision-kurds-are-now-paying-the-price
Yay for good people
Rudy made him do it.
https://twitter.com/AriMelber/status/1182811886364037120
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/10/10/1891669/-Look-at-all-these-photos-with-those-two-alleged-criminals-Trump-doesn-t-even-know?
Of course he doesn't know them! He has never even met them. He is PERFECTLY INNOCENT. It was a PERFECT phone call as well! Everything he does is perfect, and he has a perfect memory – it is completely blank.![image](https://talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/uploads/default/original/2X/6/6184282ab36674d6ac0ce7b6b9c6eab84bbf578a.jpeg)
I'm sure someone has the videos.
https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1182441506600374272
Lots of interesting people tRump doesn't know.
Donald Trump tried to distance himself from the latest scandal that threatens his presidency on Thursday by saying he didn’t know either of the foreign-born Rudy Giuliani associates that his own Justice Department had just indicted for alleged campaign finance violations.
But that’s not what one of the men said three years ago — while attending Trump’s
In fact, Lev Parnas described himself to a foreign correspondent at the cash-bar event in midtown Manhattan as a friend of the president-elect who didn’t live far from his South Florida winter home.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/11/lev-parnas-giuliani-trump-private-party-044698
heh..!
in happier pre-arrests days/times..
But! But! But! RIck Perry made him do it!
https://www.axios.com/trump-blamed-rick-perry-call-ukraine-zelensky-8178447a-0374-4ac6-b321-a9454b0565d4.html
Guess his Perfect Memory has deleted that data.
Does Nige know what an FTA is?
https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1182554541591552000
How the violent leftists narrative is a curtain-raiser to right-wing violence.
https://twitter.com/DavidNeiwert/status/1182771363469090816
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1182771363469090816.html
Argentinian historian on how fascism is making a comeback under Bolsonaro and Trump.
Despite the growing allegations about his misconduct, President Trump remains idolized by many of his supporters. His campaign rallies feature fans whose devotion is unwavering. When Trump insulted a supporter he mistook for a protester for being overweight, for example, the supporter later said he was not insulted: “Everything’s good. I love the guy.” Trump counts among his fans not only voters but also fellow world leaders. Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, also explicitly told Trump “I love you” when they met at the United Nations.
These expressions of love should be concerning. They share features with the unconditional form of love typical of political cults that has often manifested in dangerous ways.
Historically, idolizing the “leader” is a key dimension of fascism. In the 1930s and 1940s, different fascist leaders inspired cults of personality, which came in different colors across the globe. In China, supporters of Chiang Kai-shek wore blue shirts, while Brazilian supporters of Plínio Salgado wore integralista green shirts. Argentina’s dictator José F. Uriburu, Romania’s Corneliu Codreanu and Spain’s Francisco Franco similarly inspired loyal followings. Supporters of fascism fervently believed in the heroic, even Godlike nature of their leaders. Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Nazi propaganda minister, wrote in his diaries about his feelings for Adolf Hitler: “I love him … I bow to the greater man, to the political genius.” Such devotion ultimately allowed leaders to insulate themselves from criticism and accountability.
http://archive.li/CmDgs
Skills.
https://twitter.com/taniatare/status/1182696005814214658
Brexit: EU and UK agree to 'intensify' talks
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-50016853