One more day, one more lie, one more smile, one more wave.
Some old joke wants my vote. Aspirational fail.
Did you see on TV? The third world disease on her face.
Unlike me, all you see, are scabs not your first world disgrace.
You’re the faeces of the species, you’re the disease, you’re the plague on the face of that girl.
You’re the hunger, you’re the plunder, all asunder, heaven wonder if there’s oil on the moon (in our bones).
You’re the statistic, optimistic, pessimist e-con-o-mystic, you’re the waste in the space.
Merchant banker, supertanker, deep drill wanker, pull your anchor, just get out of the way.
And we’ll rise. And when we rise up.
We will sing, and we will be glorious.
One more try, one more bribe, one more tea for your friend.
Some old bloke on a rope while they bury his dead.
Did you see on tv? The mould on kids in their bed.
Unlike me, all you see, is dirt and the profits from rent.
You’re the faeces of the species, you’re a disease, you’re a plague on the backs of us all.
You’re the sadistic, little twisted, first world gifted, Mi-pad whiz kid, the foul wind in the sales.
You’re the hunter, you’re the blunder, toxic numbers, six foot under, and you’re the slag of good grace.
Mother cluster, bunker buster, colonel mustard, general custard, just get out of our way.
And we’ll rise. And when we rise up.
We will sing, and we will be glorious.
19 on the daily chart, 304 on the wildcard chart, from two votes.
We’re all lefties here, right? we’re all anti poverty and pro children in need, right?
Two clicks, and you don’t even have to listen to the song to vote.
Pass the link around, and we’ll all have played a part in forcing the issue of child hunger and inept government in NZ in the faces of a head under the cover, not really listening public.
Surely you can see what the songs about, so please click to fight to win.
Underneath the title and band name, there’s an orange ‘vote’ button
Or click or mouse over the Al1en head picture and there’s an orange java vote button.
I’d do a screenshot if I knew how post it.
You can vote everyday until we win.
Viva revolution.
I have to to log in using my facebook details to access my profile, but if I log out, return to the site and dismiss the login screen, I always go straight to song page.
I don’t know why you can’t access the page, but I appreciate your efforts in trying.
Thanks.
Sometimes I like a crooked day dream to keep me company at work.
My fave is the song does well using the government’s (ours) money, and the pm handing over an award at the tuis (or whatever they’re called), to a stunt double dressed in an alien suit, with the whole nation knowing it’s about his premiership and him doing sod all to help our children out of poverty, live on TV.
It makes international news reels, and as we know, there’s no such thing as bad, free publicity.
Then my boss comes and wakes me and tells me he’s made my coffee. đ
I voted. But it still asks for some silly flash player, I have never had any trouble playing anything from the net before It would be nice to know what I voted for đ
My respect to all those who have voted.
231 after 7 votes.
You see how easy this could be to win if the just the site stalwarts here gifted a daily vote over the next couple of weeks.
Tell your friends, use the pc at work and home and we could all be having a right old laugh at Teflon john expense.
I don’t want to spam more than I have, and certainly don’t want to wear out my welcome here, so for bearing with me, ta very much.
Just in case anybody is still awake and or interested, I’ve made a Dr Evil pic to accompany the vote link if anyone wants it.
Right click, save as, and email away. http://www.al1en.org
Puff piece in the Herald today on Maggie Barry, written by Audrey Young, headlined ‘Maggie’s Way’.
A Q&A style article. She talks about the insults and bullying nature of parliament and it’s from her point of view all Labour’s fault. Gets politely and super lightly called on insulting and bullying Jacinda Adern, and it turns out it’s all because of Trevor Mallard twitter twatting or something.
Maggie doesn’t do insults or bullying, neither does National, its all Labour and the Greens fault. Of course Young leaves that and moves on to bigger more pressing issues.
Which MP outside your party impresses you?
That’s a hard one. Can I get back to you on that? That’s a really hard one.
Classy, there are good people on both sides of the house doing good work and you can’t even mention one, you f&^*ing work there on committees with these people . Says more about Barry than any of her other answers.
Maggie this may be the zenith of your political career, may your years of seat warming ahead be good for your garden.
This article was so light and fluffy from our hard hitting gallery journo I think the paper floated in from the letterbox this morning on its own.
All the Maori party mps, for services to the National party.
John Banks, that he’s still clinging on to his salary, despite everything that says he shouldn’t.
Simon Bridges, for carrying on and making the best of it, despite taking a severe beating with the wanker stick.
And last and very much least, Paula Bennett, for her continued support for NZ tent makers in these troubled times, and popularising the moo moo all over again, even if she does need help to zip it.
Audrey young doing her bit for the party her daddy served and her herald masters.
Maggie Barry is a vacuous nasty piece of work, can’t even shut the f up and learn the ropes. Finally got selected for one of the safest seats as they couldn’t risk her in anything less.
“I personally think that men and men and women and women should be allowed to marry if that’s what they want. Frankly, I don’t quite understand why they want to do it. I’ve never got married in my life.”
She even manages to screw up her pro-marriage equality stance. It’s like a pre-women’s vote man telling a woman ‘I don’t know why you want the right to vote, I’ve never done it’.
Yes Maggie, we shouldn’t marry because you think it’s silly.
On the subject of student loan defaulters, I have no idea why the IRD cannot just make an agreement with the tax collection agencies of the UK, USA, Ireland, and Aus to have the student debt recovered through their respective tax systems?
Probably because those countries want nothing to change. At the moment, they get all our educated people improving their economy / society.
Not only would it cost their tax systems to chase kiwis, but it would stem the tide of highly educated people working within their country.
I don’t know how anyone could really confuse the two though, the writing styles are worlds apart. “Cactus Kate” is just a horrible bogan wrapped in a logical fallacy.
I actually quite like Cactus’s writing. Sure she is a right wing bogan but at least she is an up front bogan and she writes and thinks rationally. Her principles may be different to ours but at least she has some principles. And unlike Key she is exactly who she is. There is not pretension. She is not trying to make out she is something she is not.
That’s very true micky, and I don’t doubt her sincerity one bit. She’s a straight up honest bastard.
However she does rely on some pretty flimsy logic. For example on RNZ she tried to argue that Matt McCarten shouldn’t criticise the operators of the Pike River mine because he wouldn’t want to run a mine himself.
Also there are times I think a responsible host should hide the keys to her computer…
That is a horrible accusation. I have never been on red radio.
And you’ve misrepresented the comments I did actually make on another station which were in relation to a defamatory comment made by another guest. One who consistently accuses directors of companies of all manner of bad behaviour, so I was merely making a point that it is not as easy and glamorously well remunerated that he may think it is and if it was he should be a mining company director.
What is the world coming to, with Hooton cheer leading for team Shearer, and Cactus Kate arguing (albeit in a nuanced sense) in favour of team Cunliffe. As I read her, she wants to see actual political engagement and a proper battle of ideas, rather than both left and right racing to see who can do the best job of cosseting the middle class. And I have to say, it is a lovely piece of writing.
Odgers can’t write to save herself. I find her at times close to illiterate. On top of this, no matter how much she tries to dress things up for her audience, her words are invariably littered with a belief that greed is good and spiked with a hatred for anyone she thinks may impede that pursuit. I would’ve loved to have seen her in parliament, getting roasted on a daily basis, away from the safety of her computer screen. Small fish in an even smaller pond.
Of all the things to talk about you are all hung up on whinging about grammar and calling me a bogan.
Little wonder Cunliffe cannot gain momentum in a working class party.
His supporters are a bunch of snobby toffs.
This kind of grammar policing, of anyone, really makes me cringe. The style of my writing is often poor and ungrammatical. Yet somehow, I feel entitled to have my say. If I felt insecure about all this, as so many people do, reading these kinds of comments would make me even more reticent about participating in conversations at the Standard.
Looks like you’re hung up on issues with your bad writing, too. There was this, you know:
“On top of this, no matter how much she tries to dress things up for her audience, her words are invariably littered with a belief that greed is good and spiked with a hatred for anyone she thinks may impede that pursuit.”
I hope you aren’t implying that those who are put off speaking out by comments deriding others for their writing deficits, are just being “oversensitive”.
I’m never too bothered about clumsy or wrong grammar, but “CK’s” summary of my post as:
The silly policy to build homes for middle class kiddies screaming poverty is an excellent example of this Cunliffe v Shearer tension. “Karol” has an excellent post on this and has thought of the conspiracy that capitalism in fact is to blame in forcing this idea that owning your own home is aspirational to all.
…. is just inaccurate, whether as result of clumsy use of words, or just a poor interpretation. I was critical of the political position and policy of the current Labour caucus leadership (Team Shearer really), but I’m pretty sure I never referred to Cunliffe directly or indirectly in my ‘state housing vs home ownership’ post. And “conspiracy” is not what I think of when I am writing about the way the loose networks of the wealthy and powerful operate to further their own interests.
So she doesn’t have much of an idea of what I was thinking, but then maybe the entity that is “karol” is just a quotation, a figment of someone’s (or some group’s) imagination?
You’re being far too charitable, Karol. Anyone who refers to the poor as the “pathetic heaving underclass”, believes beneficiaries should be paid not to “breed” and thinks Slater’s blog has anything to offer other than a window into how nasty the right can get can’t be taken seriously. Just as QoT saw the hook in Fran O’Sullivan’s piece, no matter how hard she tries Odgers cannot help but let her true colours show, even when she posts on The Standard as happened again throughout today. I do not see how some on the Left can place genuine value in anything she says.
There were some points of agreement between my views on home ownership & CK’s, but she went off on her own little tangent about the (allegedly continuing) Cunliffe-Shearer tension.
I’m more curious as to why TS suddenly got so much attention over the last 24 hours or so, from CK, MH, and a Labour MP and an LP policy person. Some things seem to be bubbling away out of my sight. Yes, FO’S was still being pretty right wing, but, also seemed to shift her position somewhat.
I’m wondering if it’s part of a growing sense of uncertainty about changes happening that some political people feel they are losing control of. While some may be just trying to manoeuvre so they’ll be in a relatively favourable position when the dust settles.
Hi weka, the game is far bigger than February, important as that is. Leaders come and go, MPs come and go, neither Shearer nor Cunliffe will be relevant 10-15 years from now. The real sea change has to happen at the Labour membership and constitutional level. And we’ve only just started.
As I read her, she sees the Shearer/Cunliffe tension as arising from the courting of the middle class by the Shearer people, and the desire for a genuinely left orientation by a lot of left wing people. And she sees the housing policy and your response to it as exemplifying this tension. But I agree that beyond those points, she does go off on her own tangent.
Queue some b/s about ck’s post being proof positive that ‘misguided’ types of the left are unwittingly in cahoots with portions of the right and in effect undermining the ‘nice’ Labour Party just as the ‘right’ wants, and how every one counted within the ‘misguided left’ ought now, and once and for all, STFU.
In fact. Haven’t I already read that line somewhere here at ts?
Does ‘indeed’ indicate you think that’s a reasonable line to spin, McFlock? The reason I ask is your follow-on, which I guess is attempting to posit the opposite of what I’d call a b/s line. And it’s another b/s line. No-one is calling on DS to resign the leadership. But lots of people are wanting to see democracy really exist within the Labour Party. And, I guess, pressure might be applied to mp’s who’d rather deny democracy in Feb.
Now, you might not agree with that sentiment or goal. Fine. But don’t mis-call it as a call for DS to resign.
Well, I have seen arguments that posit Hooten’s support for shearer is evidence that shearer is not fit to be leader.
If I were to make a similar quibble about your phrasing, I don’t recall seeing anyone here specifically demand that critics of the Labour party should “STFU”.
Yep things are getting really strange. Chris Trotter thinks the nats have a mandate to sell our assets and the right are calling for tax increases for the wealthy.
Has it ever occurred to any of you lot that most people don’t have a blindly ideological approach to every issue unlike yourselves – that there are good points and bad points to both sides of most given arguments? That most peoples views may shift back and forth somewhat over time?
I guess it is because you lot are in constant battle mode fighting the good war against the forces of evil, you have developed an us vs them mentality – “you are either with us or against us!”.
You are left exasperated an confused when you can’t squeeze someone into one of a few pigeon holes.
Has it ever occurred to you that us lot don’t give one big fat f**k what you ‘think’ and we only tolerate you as an object of mirth to bestow the odd piece of spittle upon when we have run out of jokes about the Prime Minister Slippery’s bad habit of public displays of ‘spastic dancing’…
Neo marxism is dead in the water – who’s suppose to be the Agent of change since the proletariat failed to turn up to the party? Why should anyone believe that knowledge is only ever Historical never Universal?
Has it ever occurred to any of you lot that most people donât have a blindly ideological approach to every issue unlike yourselves â that there are good points and bad points to both sides of most given arguments? That most peoples views may shift back and forth somewhat over time?
Sounds like poststructuralist mumbo-jumbo to me…isn’t that usually your target?
No its not poststructurlist, its Humanist. I believe there is an objective reality and objective universal values about ethics/justice.
Post structuralists/Deconstructionist/various Feminists splinter groups/Neo Marxists/Cultural Relativists/Multiculturalists – they all suffer from hyper relativism and symptoms of solipsism of varying severity.
Makes it hard to pin that lot down as they twist and squirm, grabbing a bit of this and a bit of that to create what can only be described as very bad philosophy.
well, that is where we part ways friend; existence precedes essence; consider the “existence” of people born with profound impairments (at Templeton there were “patients” that resembled sun-fish, to put it politely); consider the “essence” of so-called “schizophrenics”; I have followed your comments over the year, and like mine, there is nothing “objective” about them. (we need new lock-nuts)
Ah, k-p, why so keen to put people in boxes? I do have difficulty following a party line or any one theory – the best still have their weaknesses. It depends on the context and the issue as to which is most useful. I am a little bit neo-Marxist and quite a bit post-structuralist. There are some things in postmodernism I agree with. There is no theory of everything. But I am for democratic socialism, social and economic justice/fairness, and am against violence, prejudice, persecution and oppression.
And I am for evidence-based research, knowledge, understanding and argument.
I do think there is an objectively (scientifically) verifiable material reality. I see objectivity as a process, not an end point. And it doesn’t necessarily cancel out subjectivity, especially when it comes to human activities and communications. Objectivity is haunted by subjectivity, as you demonstrated with that sentence of yours I quoted above. But, that’s the thing about language and human communications.
You seem to miss your own contradictions. “believing” in something is a subjective statement.
Yep. I’d say it’s an odd sort of humanism that fails to recognise that humans interpret reality both subjectively, and through socially constructed lenses.
not that flakey Post Modernist stuff which I think QofT suffers from.
No, please, do go on.
I’ll just be over here having a chuckle that you managed to get from “you stupid lefties just want to pigeonhole everyone” into “I bet you’re a neo-Marxist” in a mere six comments.
”i have never read the book,(Marx),tho i was told to take a look,i lifted my pool hall cue for another game”,
(Thanks to the Clash for the lines which i have gleefully altered with the addition of the Social/economists moniker),
LOLZ, my pidgeon hole is somewhere in the vicinity of Pol Pot, a Communizing Fascist,
Thanks to the good old New Zealand education tho i have the ability to realize that getting KP’s relatives to bang a four inch nail into the back of His head at gun-point just isn’t acceptable human behaviour so good old Post-Modernist,(whatever the fuck that means), me has had to accept simply being a Socialist…
Trotter must have holidayed in one of those Batchs that have 50 year old lumpy couches!
He didn’t get a good rest and over stretched some of the points he was making.
Shearer should front foot the mercenary thing so that it is yesterday’s news by the time the Nats get their research ready for leaking through their usual channels
This is twilight zone stuff…are Right Wing commentators giving Key and English room to launch one or two definitively Left Wing policies? Can their strategy for 2014 be really this cunning? Mix in one or two headline Left Wing policies (top tax rate hike and youth employment/youth training programmes), and use it as cover for austerity and asset sell downs elsewhere?
I wonder if they have found in their polling that a lot of ordinary NZers – including the middle class – are worried that their kids can’t seem to get ahead and that there is a shortage of decent jobs and training opportunities.
Nah, it just won’t happen via a lift in the top tax rate, the Fed crowd would string English up by a very sensitive part of His anatomy in a rotary shed at the very thought of it,
The only invite Slippery would get from now until the little Shyster is given the kick would be from those wishing to have Him behave naturally,(dance like a clown),in their presence while they took pics to show off to the Grand-kids in their dotage,
The Bizness lobby would immediately stop calling, i think that if they are going to spend money on any sort of employment initiative,(or pretend to), the usual suspect will be trotted out, asset sales proceeds will have yet another attachment of ‘youth employment’ attached to it along with the continuously growing list of roading,health,schools,debt, blah blah blah,
Other than that if the Slippery little Shyster has half a brain He will be offering employers a years worth of dole payments as a ‘training allowance’ to actually employ a large number of the 24% of unemployed youth, possibly with a slight hint at a top tax rate rise…
Have people forgotten about the youth changes for 16-17 year olds?
Does one think it’s possible that that was setting the scene for harsher benefit conditions for all youth and more privatisation?
The right taketh more than they giveth so creating an enviornment where it seems that they are taking positive steps to address the issue may simply be a way of saying to people well now there’s no excuse to be on a benefit.
Bootcamps won’t work this time to get that 5% of swinging vote but the strategy surely won’t change – we’re offering this but if you don’t avail yourself of our wonderful opportunity then benefit damnation is yours.
Can their strategy really be this cunning? It sounds eerily like their 2008 me-to strategy. The must be getting a bit of polling feedback telling them to DO something.
This is what I reckon. Also, any PR headline increase in the top personal tax rate can be more than compensated for by drops in corporate and trust tax rates, see how it works đ
may I just pop in here?
I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter đ
(The last thing on knows when constructing a work is what to put first; continual eloquence is tedious) ;)-Blaise
WHAT WE CAN NEVER KNOW,or the collapsing hermeneutic (there’s your spiral)
-David Germez
“one could in the light of the fact that the divine life is itself a continued variation,,, apply to divinity in the most exalted sense the name of time. The old mythology of Chronos as primordial being and first divine principle seems thereby to be somehow in contact with the truth”
-Franz Bretano :Philosophical Investigations on Space Time and the Continuum.
“All created things are God’s speech. The being of a stone speaks and manifests the same as does my mouth about God: and people understand more by what is done than by what is said”
-Meister Eckhart : The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defence.
Let just get this out there. A person in receipt of a benefit, if they earn more than $3,400 are pushed up into the second lowest band of taxation. Key did this because obviously he never read the convention on human rights, that if someone is so in need that they receive a benefit then they cannot be treated differently, that everyone should receive the same amount of welfare. Yet Key believes that progressive taxation should kick on those on welfare!
Looking at it another way. People who earn $100,000 pay 10.5% on the first $14,000 they earn.
People who earn $3,400 pay only at the 10.5% rate. Those in receipt of a welfare
check, and have no income, get the full entitlement, pay no tax on income. But Key in
his infinite stupidity believes that those individuals who do have some paltry $3,400+
of income should not get the full welfare entitlement (as effectively they pay more tax,
pay the 17.5% rate on their measly income after the first $3,400).
Just for a moment imagine the cost of filing tax returns as all those people on welfare
whose taxation just became a complicated mess. Whatever happened to keeping
government taxation simple. But worse, how can government argue that families
on welfare should not get family tax credit when there is clearly income tax
bands for those on welfare. I mean whatever happened to equal treatment in taxation.
You pay a higher rate of tax makes you eligible for the programs its funds to those who
also pay higher rates of tax.
“whatever happened to equal treatment in taxation”, only when the main beneficiaries of such treatment are those at the top of the food chain or those who vote to put them there,
The Working for Families fiasco where the Clark Government deemed the middle class,(and quite high up in that decile), to be more ‘in need’ of relief from taxation than beneficiaries with children was the final straw for me that broke my connection with Labour,
Incidently the ‘loud noise’ us lot at the Standard have been making over housing affordability has obviously attracted the attention of Labour so much so that Annette King has paid a visit and at least aquainted herself with the concerns many of us here have regarding State owned rentals being provided to the decile of lower waged workers so there is a small glimmer of hope of seeing some specific and substantial gains in that area when Labour release it’s completed election policy,(hopefully sooner rather than later),
My view is that the next ‘issue’ that we as the Standard need to address is just that of ‘working for Families’ and just how grossly unfair is it to tax the benefits of welfare dependent children and then refuse to offer them the ‘tax relief’ offered to the children of the upper echelons of the middle class…
The money spent on some of WFF would be better off being spent on a) a universal family benefit, and b) an increase in the state housing stock. The same outcome would be achieved.
Though I agree with the sentiments leveled at Labour, my point was this, that Key introduced a second progressive tax in the middle of the welfare. Imagine for a moment that we pay benefit to help people out of poverty only to tax them more if they do the right thing on welfare!
Save or get some part time work????
But worse, by taxing them on welfare we also don’t pay them WFF, which is blatantly unfair.
But its even worse, the 10.5% tax rate is a farce since its really just a tax relief for the rich, those who don’t get welfare don’t the relief since unlike everyone else the MSD take the first
10.5% tax band when they provide welfare. So the low tax band had no effect except for the
free who live off assets with little income (and can’t claim benefit), those geared to reduce their
taxes using trusts – the super rich.
Merging Madness and Reason (it’s the DSM V season)
“you have never been diagnosed as mad-this is the shifting sand upon which you erect your sanity. Yet, your illness has gone unrecognized…you have been deprived of treatment because the steady, sure advance of science has taken too long to reach you.”
“Beneath the (can’t read my handwriting, some adjective) labels of consensus there is just the homogenous zone-our common origins and physiology bind us together; we are a crowd of open-eyed children staring with wonder at the world. This vast assembly of “thrown” people is the homogenous zone-a coat of many (red) colours”.
“Reason too, recognized itself as being duplicated and dispossessed of itself; it thought itself wise and it was and it was mad; it thought it knew and it knew nothing; it thought itself righteous and it was insane; knowledge led one to the forbidden world when one thought one was being led by it to eternal light.” (thats “progress” for ya’s; Get Ya YaYa’s Out) (those art-school rockers aye)
-Foucault :Mental Illness and Psychology
According to Scheff, relative to the rate of treated “mental illness” the rate of unrecorded residual rule breaking of societal norms is extremely high.
-consider this continual self-absorbed flouting of cell -phone /driving legislation, and it’s on the increase; BodyCount’s in the house.Listen to how close people are to stress thresholds in their daily discourse with children, family, associates, witness the behavioural temperature on the roads, the anasthetization and subsequent harms carried out; that’s why I drank alone in the end; Dos Gusanos was fun though, all those years ago đ (an I’m not surprised productivity is tanking when I observe people ostensibly working yet using their work p.c for shopping and such-like)
“Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of ‘world history’, but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed and the clever beasts had to die-One might invent such a fable and yet still it would not have adequately illustrated how miserable, how shadowy and transient, how aimless and arbitrary the human intellect looks within nature.
-Friedrich Nietzsche :On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense
“Madness and sanity are variants of the same phenomena; everything that we see and fear in the madman can also be seen and feared in ourselves. We are all mad children, we are all autistic, we are all deluded, we are all abstract and solipsistic and we all madly cobble together systems of absurd beliefs on this lost planet of fools; perhaps a fundamental truth about our humanity can be found in the instability, ‘throwness’ and madness of the homogenous zone.”
(Baudrillard places his hopes in terrorism, viruses and catastrophe)
i read today of an analysts perspective on FIVE potential Asian Shocks
-Taiwanese Independence asserted by the democratic vote
-Islamic unrest reaching China
-US Defence (Naval) cuts
-Thailand destabilized
-Territorial disputes in E and S China seas (we do live in interesting times)
Exit Strategy
-Why, thou sayest well; I do now remember a saying, “The fool doth think he is wise, yet the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
-As You Like It (if you are ruled by mind, you are a king, if by body, a slave-Cato)
WHAT WE CAN NEVER KNOW- David Gamez. I whole-heartedly recommend this little book; I read it this afternoon at the library (air-con and I cannot afford to pay my fees, yet;)
HBT-10 more hot dry days forecast, little rain since August, Irrigation Ban on the way, Farmers may ‘dry out’
-if you’re walking a dog, they cannot eat anything they find in or around rivers or ponds, (cyano-bacteria) meanwhile we are going to supply more dairy to another Infant Formula Manufacturer establishing in NI
Dom-The Children’s Commissioner, a HB paediatrician,Russell Wills,, is “incredulous” about child poverty and inequality in our country…
from your friendly neighbourhood “madman” (hyper-rationally and reflexively yours)
now what am I gonna do for a crust. hmmm
11.29 By faith the people passed through the RED Sea, as on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. đ
đ It’s a Mad Mad World, btw D, I’m gettin “bored” again, don’t wanna write a book, there’s enough been written already, might start an Anarchist Commune ala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin đ
I assumed your “watch from the High Plains” remark meant that you weren’t going to be actively commenting for the moment, forgive me if I misinterpreted.
Loved your stuff, trooper, a message from Nu-Earth?
“And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him.”
“What is happening at the moment? Because the Falklands are back in the news. Belfast is back in the news. It’s like some sort of hideous 80s revival, isn’t it? All we need is a heartless Conservative prime minister attacking the unemployed and demonising the poor, bankers making obscene profits, David Bowie releasing a single…”–Sandi Toksvig, The News Quiz
mickysavage -> So tell me KP is unfettered capitalism in a healthy state and just what this world needs?
Obviously not. I was never a supporter of neo liberalism, except back in the 80s when I was in my middle teens. But everyone was entranced by it then, Muldoon was gone, the Cold War over, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was on TV.
This is an interesting piece by a contemporary philosopher I like, applying some Humanist qualities – imagination, intuition, memory, ethics – to the current morass:
“I can only ask: is there a single example in Western civilisation over the past 2500 years when a broad policy of austerity has pulled a civilisation out of crisis and set it on the road to wellbeing, prosperity or growth? No. There is no example. There is no evidence. Only ideological conviction – romanticism – coming out of a political-economic theory packed into an apparently inevitable force called globalisation…
…Crises usually strike when ideologies have been around too long and the elites that serve them have lost their ability for critical thought…
…Instead of retreating inside a received wisdom, which has already revealed that it doesn’t work, we could turn to some basic, helpful human qualities…
…Ethics, for example, are a simple, practical reminder that the primary obligation of a civilisation is to its citizens’ wellbeing, not to the protection of commercial contracts or the servicing of debts. The fact that most of these debts were incurred by the commercial sector and its financiers reinforces this point…
…Memory is an essential tool of education. You can’t deal with a crisis if you are in the hands of economists, managers and business elites who don’t know the history of debt. They don’t know the history of competition. Very few read anything of consequence. They are the briefing paper generation. Many are, in reality, functionally illiterate, except on very narrow topics. They don’t know what has worked and not worked in their own society. In fact, they don’t seem to understand the concept of either society or civilisation…
…As for Imagination, it is not the privileged domain of the arts. Good financial policy is an expression of imagination. Throughout history great financiers and great ministers of finance have usually also been great consumers of culture, intellectuals, men of imagination. I think of Solon in Athens 2600 years ago, of Sully at the side of Henry IV in 1600, of Siegmund Warburg after World War II, of Jean Monet rebuilding Europe. As they would explain: you must imagine your way out of an economic cul de sac, just as a good general imagines his way out of a military stalemate. Bad generals stick to trench warfare…
…History is clear. When faced by unsustainable debts, the fools, the weak, the degenerate civilisations become obsessed by what they owe. They convince themselves that money is real, not an agreed-upon convention. They become its slave. And they destroy themselves. Successful civilisations make these impossible debts disappear – clearly, intentionally, massively. In this way they protect what needs to be protected, such as the savings of real people and their pensions. They clear the decks and the result is raw, new human energy to deal with society’s needs. History is filled with examples of this being done on purpose. It is also filled with the carcasses of those who refused to face reality and so caused their societies to commit suicide.”
For some reason no reply buttons are showing for Pascal or karol, so here goes:
Pascal -> “Yep. Iâd say itâs an odd sort of humanism that fails to recognise that humans interpret reality both subjectively, and through socially constructed lenses.”
Where did I deny any subjectivity? It’s the post structuralists/post modernists who go the hyper relativistic route.
You end up with crazy feminists calling Newton’s Laws of Physics a ‘rape manual’, and prattling on about “Rape Culture”. Science is dismissed or supposedly ‘improved’ via “Critical Theory” to “Feminist Science” or “Post Modernest Science”.
It’s all very poor philosophy and embodies atrociously low Academic standards.
You don’t necessarily “end up with crazy feminists calling Newtonâs Laws of Physics a ârape manualâ” if you accept a lot of what PM theorists say. And to equate that sort of thing with rape culture’ is just asinine.
Do you think that cultural norms are socially constructed, partially through the way we talk about things? And that cultural norms affect individuals thoughts about behavior and blameworthiness?
If so, then it’s no stretch to say that the way a society talks about rape, will affect the incidence of rape. ie, that some ways of talking about rape could increase the incidence of rape by creating cultural norms that support rapists interpretations of reality.
You end up with crazy feminists calling Newtonâs Laws of Physics a ârape manualâ, and prattling on about âRape Cultureâ. Science is dismissed or supposedly âimprovedâ via âCritical Theoryâ to âFeminist Scienceâ or âPost Modernest Scienceâ.
Oops, k_p’s brain overloaded and it’s back to copy-pasting MRA propaganda which he’s already been informed multiple times is inaccurate. Balance has been restored to the Force.
karol -> “Ah, k-p, why so keen to put people in boxes? ”
Just want to know where you stand is all, nothing wrong with that.
“I do have difficulty following a party line or any one theory â the best still have their weaknesses.”
I don’t follow a part line and I get MOBBED on here for it – especially by your girl pals.
“It depends on the context and the issue as to which is most useful.”
It’s not good enough to go with what is “useful”. Marxism for example is a theory of everything, the guy was a genius obviously, nevertheless his philosophical system crashed and burned. Why should anyone believe you have the intellectual ability to uplift a fragment of it, remove it from context and claim it is “useful” for contemporary application.
“I am a little bit neo-Marxist and quite a bit post-structuralist. There are some things in postmodernism I agree with.”
The main tenet in postmodernism is that language is meaningless. Apparently Focault back tracked from that to the position that the meaning the reader gets from a text may differ from the author’s intention. In which case he hasn’t made any insight that authors and readers haven’t been aware of already.
As for Derrida, he’s been called an intellectual fraudster by some luminary academic types. Anyone who says they have read Derrida is lying, its incomprehensible – worse than Hegel.
The fact that Post-structuralist professors still hand out As Bs and Cs to their students submitted essays suggest the whole exercise is an insider’s joke.
“There is no theory of everything. But I am for democratic socialism, social and economic justice/fairness, and am against violence, prejudice, persecution and oppression.”
“And I am for evidence-based research, knowledge, understanding and argument.”
You are keeping the word “science” out of it. Are you referring to science, if not why not, and to what are you referring, Karol?
“I do think there is an objectively (scientifically) verifiable material reality.”
Ok you do bring up science now. Don’t know how you can claim to believe in science but claim to be “quite a bit post-structuralist”
“I see objectivity as a process, not an end point. And it doesnât necessarily cancel out subjectivity, especially when it comes to human activities and communications. Objectivity is haunted by subjectivity, as you demonstrated with that sentence of yours I quoted above. But, thatâs the thing about language and human communications.”
I never denied that there is subjectivity, it is postmodernist who deny the objective.
“You seem to miss your own contradictions. âbelievingâ in something is a subjective statement.”
Is it? Does it matter? Like I said I don’t deny there is subjectivity eg “Chocolate tastes better than vanilla!” [ proviso – scientist discover genetic basis for varying tastes ]
[lprent: There is no “partY line” – it is every person’s argument for themselves. However there is a moderation line.
Personally I tend to view you as having a problem with dealing with women (what is it with that?) and indeed with anyone who thinks. You have that kind of “I’m just a poor victim” mentality (as you have amply demonstrated in this comment) that makes it difficult for you to deal with anyone disagreeing with you. And to top it off you seem to be a poor excuse for a psuedo-intellectual. Generally a waste of bandwidth and a bit of a luser in social media terms.
But these are just my opinions – they don’t enter into moderation.
Most of the time you pick up bans for either personally attacking authors or peristently going off topic in posts – usually the female authors. Right now you’re on most moderators “watch for stupidity” lists, and includes r0b’s list (about your only NOTABLE acheivement to date). ]
âI am a little bit neo-Marxist and quite a bit post-structuralist. There are some things in postmodernism I agree with.”
To be very blunt and clear, to me you are the typical KIWI IDIOT, I frown on, you have neither any understanding of complex history, socialism, social science, alternative social agendas and even scientifically evidenced social data.
I am totally flabber-ghasted about what brought you here.
Sorry, my impression is, you know too little of what goes down.
My comment was not really directed at the quote “kiwi_prometheus” used re what Karol may have commented on before, it was just totally incoherent, confusing, contradictory and much senseless, what “kiwi_prometheus” commented on in a wider context, also using that particular quote.
I tried to read his truly bizarre comments a few times, and I still cannot make that much sense at all out of what “k_p” tried to say or argue. Sorry for the frustration that lead to anger and some over the top comment I made in return.
You are not even just that “Kiwi idiot” I sometimes dismissably refer to, you are a totally ignorant, one sided coffin slicer of sorts, getting another angle on why some people may have died.
That is the lowest and cheapest crap I ever read and heard, man. Rot in fucking hell for that.
I donât follow a part line and I get MOBBED on here for it â especially by your girl pals.
Have you ever considered that’s because you say really stupid things about girls?
Itâs not good enough to go with what is âusefulâ. Marxism for example is a theory of everything, the guy was a genius obviously, nevertheless his philosophical system crashed and burned.
There’s only one thing to say here and it was said by Marx himself: I don’t know what I am but I know that I’m not a Marxist.
Marx considered that Marxists had twisted his teachings. This can most clearly be seen by his writings on the Paris Commune of 1871 which was anarchist. It was destroyed by military attack from the government.
Is it? Does it matter?
Yes it does. Opinion and belief cannot change objective fact. This is something that the RWNJs and economists can’t seem to grasp.
“The main tenet in postmodernism is that language is meaningless. Apparently Focault back tracked from that to the position that the meaning the reader gets from a text may differ from the authorâs intention. In which case he hasnât made any insight that authors and readers havenât been aware of already.”
Hi xtasy. This paragraph pretty much sums things up. Every point made here is complete and utter bullshit and incorrect no matter how you look at it. So much so it’s impossible to engage with. I’d tell kp sayonara.
A great experience I had today, or rather yesterday (12.01.) to visit and view the NEW Rainbow Warrior vessel down at Princes Wharf. I am IMPRESSED, Greenpeace got their shit together, had I not been a member of sorts, I would have signed up right way.
I am worried for the ones who do not get it, how much NZ, Australian and Antarctic environmen is in danger! It is damned serious.
I left the vessel in doubt and worry, who is going to keep them alive to fight, I asked, being myself in dire straits.
I can only hope they get donations, manage and do more good, as that is what Greenpeace are here for. I would dread the day they die. I would want to die also.
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time ...
I was surprised when the prime minister described the Economic Response to Covid-19 package as the ‘largest peacetime government spend in New Zealand's history’. Reflecting – checking through history – I realised that the term ‘spend’ was crucial and the package had no income tax cuts. Even so, it has ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out. In ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand. Today’s contentMedia Henry Cooke (Stuff): There’s no easy way for Government to save media drowning. But a fast fix is ...
Just after midday a cyclist was killed on a straight road on a clear day, after being hit by a van in North Canterbury. Lucinda Rees from NZ School Speeds is asking for the mandatory cyclist/vulnerable road user passing gap, which is in consultation, ...
By Indra Singh in Suva Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says that if Fijians continue to disregard the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic directives from authorities, a nationwide 24-hour curfew could be imposed. His comments come as Fiji yesterday recorded its two latest coronavirus cases, taking the total to seven. Bainimarama said ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Ōtaki author Renée.Yes, a few cyclists out and about. I remember my first bike bought from Farmers around 1942, five shillings a ...
Internal memos from NZ’s biggest magazine company, which announced its sudden closure yesterday, state they were lobbying to change a ban on publication. But the minister responsible, Kris Faafoi, has doubled down on rejecting that position, calling those internal communications ‘contradictory’ to what they said to him directly.Magazine publishing giant ...
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...
The loss of a loved one can be difficult in the best of times. But it’s even more painful when the planes are grounded.Late on Saturday night, three days into New Zealand’s level four lockdown, Harish got a call from his sister in India telling him that his father had ...
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...
Covid-19 cases top 1m; Trump brags he's #1 on Facebook and says he knows about the virus because a 'friend' got it; UK testing scandal grows; Cats more vulnerable to virus than dogsTicking up to a million cases: A gruesome landmark was passed today when we go over one million ...
“So do not fear, I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” Isaiah 41:10 COVID-19 - Lock down: one week on Welcome to the latest Policy Watch ...
Workers at the Port of Lyttelton are resisting the introduction of casual cargo handlers due to concerns about COVID19. RMTU South Island Organizer John Kerr says there is concern about a Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) proposal to "bring in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Strangio, Associate Professor of Politics, Monash University One of Australia’s preeminent historians, Stuart Macintyre, once observed of John Curtin, the Labor Party leader revered for navigating this nation through the dangers of the second world war, that he would have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide New research the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that SARS CoV 2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19 coronavirus, is more stable on plastic and stainless steel than on cardboard or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The Australian government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy, estimated to cost A$130 billion, is a crucial measure to help keep the economy from completely cratering. But, even if COVID-19 is sufficiently under control for the economy to return ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gordon Menzies, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Technology Sydney During this pandemic, our twin health and economic crises require two different types of concern, and they operate differently. For the health crisis, a high level of concern is necessary. Saving lives ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harriette Richards, University of Melbourne Times of instability and crisis produce increased nostalgia for the past. We long for a time that no longer exists, or never existed. Like melancholy, nostalgia is a sentiment of loss – one that’s particularly familiar to ...
RBNZ bans bank dividends; Who is next after Bauer's shock closure? Vital plan blocked; Commission wins in real estate price fixing case; Softbank walks out WeWorkNo you won’t: The Reserve Bank took the unprecedented step of prohibiting the banks from paying dividends during the coronavirus crisis or redeeming any ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Media reels after horror week, Wellington Council facing massive budget crunch, and highest single day of new Covid-19 cases.It had always been clear that this was going to be a difficult time for the media, with the Covid-19 downturn hitting ...
Former National Finance Ministers Steven Joyce and Bill English question the severity of the Covid-19 lockdown and ask whether the Government has an exit strategy. Andrew Patterson reports. Steven Joyce and Bill English have seen their fair share of financial crises and natural disasters as the last National Government's finance ...
There is no sign the government will tighten quarantine controls for those arriving at the border, in response to calls from the Opposition to quarantine and test everyone. ...
Two new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Fiji, prompting a lockdown of its capital. Teuila Fuatai reports. Fijian health authorities are scrambling to identify close contacts of its latest two Covid-19 cases. The couple, from Nabua, Suva, appear unrelated to the country’s previous five. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama ...
Christchurch is a city of contrasts, as some stretch their legs with smiles and others with suspicion. David Williams reports It was no surprise it happened in Christchurch’s student quarter. The smiles of those standing at their gates in Ilam Road broadened as a baby kayak strapped to a skateboard ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
How long does it take to recover, how do you know you’ve recovered and can you catch Covid-19 twice? If you’ve had Covid-19 when are you officially recovered? Turns out there’s no test in New Zealand. It's judged by time of onset and last symptoms. How do I tick the ...
The first thing to note about the partying Queenstown backpackers is these acts of youthful rebellion are not an isolated phenomenon. As I write this on April 1, The Guardian is reporting on a group of people in their 20s who took the opportunity to celebrate Spring Break in the ...
Every Friday of lockdown, LockerRoom will share posts from Kiwi sportswomen who've caught our eye with novel ways of keeping on top of their game at home. This week we have Black Ferns making their own training equipment, a Kiwi professional cyclist virtually racing against riders around the world, and ANZ Premiership netballers calling their ...
Steve Braunias pays tribute to the Listener, closed yesterday in the wake of Covid-19's devastation of the economy. This piece to mark the end of the Listener is exactly how I started writing for the Listener: late at night, with instant coffee, in a state of shock. The shock then ...
Suzanne McFadden speaks to two Kiwi 'bubbles' who have unanticipated - but serendipitous - housemates. Sue Bremner has found a silver lining to the brooding cloud of lockdown – it’s meant getting to know the sister who never knew she existed for almost 65 years. Englishwoman Bremner has found herself holed ...
Open mike 12/01/2013 
We must root out the traitors among us! ...3 hours ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...10 hours ago
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...11 hours ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...14 hours ago
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...15 hours ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...17 hours ago
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...23 hours ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...1 day ago
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...1 day ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...2 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 3 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...3 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...3 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...4 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...6 days ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...10 hours ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...6 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...1 week ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...8 hours ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...3 hours ago
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...3 hours ago
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...4 hours ago
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...6 hours ago
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...7 hours ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...7 hours ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...7 hours ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...8 hours ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...8 hours ago
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...8 hours ago
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...8 hours ago
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...9 hours ago
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...9 hours ago
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...9 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...10 hours ago
Vodafone says its continuing to see significant increases in calls and data on its networks after the first week of level 4 lockdown. ...10 hours ago
People with lower credit scores increased their borrowing upon news of the lockdown, while those with higher scores dropped away. March data from the credit-reporting agency Centrix, which runs credit checks on behalf of banks, finance companies, online lenders, and buy now pay later schemes, showed credit inquiries dropped sharply ...12 hours ago
Small business owners say commercial rent relief is desperately needed if they are to survive past the Covid-19 disruptions. While the wage subsidy helped with staff costs, there is currently no government assistance for commercial rent - which typically accounts for 40 percent of a firm's fixed costs. Landlords and ...12 hours ago
SkyCity is making 200 staff redundant as part of cost cutting because of the Covid-19 virus. The casino operator said it had no choice but to cut the size of the workforce given that once business resumes it will be at much reduced level. Chief executive Graeme Stephens said it's ...13 hours ago
Up to 100,000 foreigners could be seeking to leave the country in coming weeks, now the Government has relaxed domestic travel restrictions for them. ...14 hours ago
Health Minister David Clark has flouted the Government's advice to exercise locally after confirming he drove to a park to go mountain biking on Thursday. ...14 hours ago
Covid-19 cases top 1m; Trump brags he's #1 on Facebook and says he knows about the virus because a 'friend' got it; UK testing scandal grows; Cats more vulnerable to virus than dogs Ticking up to a million cases: A gruesome landmark was passed today when we go over one million ...15 hours ago
RBNZ bans bank dividends; Who is next after Bauer's shock closure? Vital plan blocked; Commission wins in real estate price fixing case; Softbank walks out WeWork No you won’t: The Reserve Bank took the unprecedented step of prohibiting the banks from paying dividends during the coronavirus crisis or redeeming any ...15 hours ago
Former National Finance Ministers Steven Joyce and Bill English question the severity of the Covid-19 lockdown and ask whether the Government has an exit strategy. Andrew Patterson reports. Steven Joyce and Bill English have seen their fair share of financial crises and natural disasters as the last National Government's finance ...17 hours ago
Two new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Fiji, prompting a lockdown of its capital. Teuila Fuatai reports. Fijian health authorities are scrambling to identify close contacts of its latest two Covid-19 cases. The couple, from Nabua, Suva, appear unrelated to the country’s previous five. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama ...17 hours ago
Christchurch is a city of contrasts, as some stretch their legs with smiles and others with suspicion. David Williams reports It was no surprise it happened in Christchurch’s student quarter. The smiles of those standing at their gates in Ilam Road broadened as a baby kayak strapped to a skateboard ...17 hours ago
How long does it take to recover, how do you know you’ve recovered and can you catch Covid-19 twice? If you’ve had Covid-19 when are you officially recovered? Turns out there’s no test in New Zealand. It's judged by time of onset and last symptoms. How do I tick the ...18 hours ago
The first thing to note about the partying Queenstown backpackers is these acts of youthful rebellion are not an isolated phenomenon. As I write this on April 1, The Guardian is reporting on a group of people in their 20s who took the opportunity to celebrate Spring Break in the ...18 hours ago
Every Friday of lockdown, LockerRoom will share posts from Kiwi sportswomen who've caught our eye with novel ways of keeping on top of their game at home. This week we have Black Ferns making their own training equipment, a Kiwi professional cyclist virtually racing against riders around the world, and ANZ Premiership netballers calling their ...18 hours ago
Steve Braunias pays tribute to the Listener, closed yesterday in the wake of Covid-19's devastation of the economy. This piece to mark the end of the Listener is exactly how I started writing for the Listener: late at night, with instant coffee, in a state of shock. The shock then ...18 hours ago
Suzanne McFadden speaks to two Kiwi 'bubbles' who have unanticipated - but serendipitous - housemates. Sue Bremner has found a silver lining to the brooding cloud of lockdown – it’s meant getting to know the sister who never knew she existed for almost 65 years. Englishwoman Bremner has found herself holed ...18 hours ago
http://www.theaudience.co.nz/the-al1en/the-faeces-of-the-species-1/
Click the link, and vote to get NZonAir funding.
One more day, one more lie, one more smile, one more wave.
Some old joke wants my vote. Aspirational fail.
Did you see on TV? The third world disease on her face.
Unlike me, all you see, are scabs not your first world disgrace.
You’re the faeces of the species, you’re the disease, you’re the plague on the face of that girl.
You’re the hunger, you’re the plunder, all asunder, heaven wonder if there’s oil on the moon (in our bones).
You’re the statistic, optimistic, pessimist e-con-o-mystic, you’re the waste in the space.
Merchant banker, supertanker, deep drill wanker, pull your anchor, just get out of the way.
And we’ll rise. And when we rise up.
We will sing, and we will be glorious.
One more try, one more bribe, one more tea for your friend.
Some old bloke on a rope while they bury his dead.
Did you see on tv? The mould on kids in their bed.
Unlike me, all you see, is dirt and the profits from rent.
You’re the faeces of the species, you’re a disease, you’re a plague on the backs of us all.
You’re the sadistic, little twisted, first world gifted, Mi-pad whiz kid, the foul wind in the sales.
You’re the hunter, you’re the blunder, toxic numbers, six foot under, and you’re the slag of good grace.
Mother cluster, bunker buster, colonel mustard, general custard, just get out of our way.
And we’ll rise. And when we rise up.
We will sing, and we will be glorious.
19 on the daily chart, 304 on the wildcard chart, from two votes.
We’re all lefties here, right? we’re all anti poverty and pro children in need, right?
Two clicks, and you don’t even have to listen to the song to vote.
Pass the link around, and we’ll all have played a part in forcing the issue of child hunger and inept government in NZ in the faces of a head under the cover, not really listening public.
Surely you can see what the songs about, so please click to fight to win.
Click what Alien? I’ve followed the link twice and still can’t figure out how to vote.
Thanks for that, mate.
Underneath the title and band name, there’s an orange ‘vote’ button
Or click or mouse over the Al1en head picture and there’s an orange java vote button.
I’d do a screenshot if I knew how post it.
You can vote everyday until we win.
Viva revolution.
278 on the wildcard chart from 5 votes. đ
I’ve voted now. Thanks for telling us how. I couldn’t work it out either. đ
Funny isn’t it? You put a bright orange button with the word “vote” on it in the middle of a sparsely decorated page…
that’s not where that link takes me.
What do you see? js.
Your facebook page. I have to click on the picture to go further.
I have to to log in using my facebook details to access my profile, but if I log out, return to the site and dismiss the login screen, I always go straight to song page.
I don’t know why you can’t access the page, but I appreciate your efforts in trying.
Thanks.
That’s kind of you, thanks very much.
Sometimes I like a crooked day dream to keep me company at work.
My fave is the song does well using the government’s (ours) money, and the pm handing over an award at the tuis (or whatever they’re called), to a stunt double dressed in an alien suit, with the whole nation knowing it’s about his premiership and him doing sod all to help our children out of poverty, live on TV.
It makes international news reels, and as we know, there’s no such thing as bad, free publicity.
Then my boss comes and wakes me and tells me he’s made my coffee. đ
Daily chart is updated at midnight, wildcard chart by the hour.
So far, 242 with 6 votes.
A famous victory for the left slipping away. đ
Come on.
I voted. But it still asks for some silly flash player, I have never had any trouble playing anything from the net before It would be nice to know what I voted for đ
why wont it play??
I don’t know why it won’t play for you, but cheers for the solidarity.
If you want to hear the track it’s also up at https://soundcloud.com/theal1en/the-faeces-of-the-species
But don’t blame me if you can’t sleep tonight. đ
My respect to all those who have voted.
231 after 7 votes.
You see how easy this could be to win if the just the site stalwarts here gifted a daily vote over the next couple of weeks.
Tell your friends, use the pc at work and home and we could all be having a right old laugh at Teflon john expense.
I don’t want to spam more than I have, and certainly don’t want to wear out my welcome here, so for bearing with me, ta very much.
Actually I think you are ranked 220…
You must have just hit the hourly change over.
Cheers for looking out for me đ
Just in case anybody is still awake and or interested, I’ve made a Dr Evil pic to accompany the vote link if anyone wants it.
Right click, save as, and email away. http://www.al1en.org
And I’m serious, or one million dollars.
Always looking out for you mate. This Viper has your six.
Now lost amongst dead open mikes.
Got up to 7 in the daily chart and 168 on the chart that counts – The wildcard chart.
14 plays and 9 votes.
Not bad for a days revolutioneering. Thanks comrades.
Now please, do it again, and tell a friend. đ
Puff piece in the Herald today on Maggie Barry, written by Audrey Young, headlined ‘Maggie’s Way’.
A Q&A style article. She talks about the insults and bullying nature of parliament and it’s from her point of view all Labour’s fault. Gets politely and super lightly called on insulting and bullying Jacinda Adern, and it turns out it’s all because of Trevor Mallard twitter twatting or something.
Maggie doesn’t do insults or bullying, neither does National, its all Labour and the Greens fault. Of course Young leaves that and moves on to bigger more pressing issues.
Which MP outside your party impresses you?
That’s a hard one. Can I get back to you on that? That’s a really hard one.
Classy, there are good people on both sides of the house doing good work and you can’t even mention one, you f&^*ing work there on committees with these people . Says more about Barry than any of her other answers.
Maggie this may be the zenith of your political career, may your years of seat warming ahead be good for your garden.
This article was so light and fluffy from our hard hitting gallery journo I think the paper floated in from the letterbox this morning on its own.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10858622
“Which MP outside your party impresses you?”
All the Maori party mps, for services to the National party.
John Banks, that he’s still clinging on to his salary, despite everything that says he shouldn’t.
Simon Bridges, for carrying on and making the best of it, despite taking a severe beating with the wanker stick.
And last and very much least, Paula Bennett, for her continued support for NZ tent makers in these troubled times, and popularising the moo moo all over again, even if she does need help to zip it.
Audrey young doing her bit for the party her daddy served and her herald masters.
Maggie Barry is a vacuous nasty piece of work, can’t even shut the f up and learn the ropes. Finally got selected for one of the safest seats as they couldn’t risk her in anything less.
“I personally think that men and men and women and women should be allowed to marry if that’s what they want. Frankly, I don’t quite understand why they want to do it. I’ve never got married in my life.”
She even manages to screw up her pro-marriage equality stance. It’s like a pre-women’s vote man telling a woman ‘I don’t know why you want the right to vote, I’ve never done it’.
Yes Maggie, we shouldn’t marry because you think it’s silly.
Im sure blokes all over the country will be breathing a sigh of relief, dont know why anyone would want to marry her…
Saw the headline, and figured I wanted to keep my breakfast.
No wonder our young are heading to Aussie, if this story is anything to go by.
Headline on the Herald : Student loan debtor: I’m better off in OZ.
In NZ a borrower has to pay back $10.000 a year,across the Tasman it’s only $3.000
Sorry i can’t link the story..
Here’s the link vivaciousviper:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10858618
Thanks for linking Olwyn (:
On the subject of student loan defaulters, I have no idea why the IRD cannot just make an agreement with the tax collection agencies of the UK, USA, Ireland, and Aus to have the student debt recovered through their respective tax systems?
Probably because those countries want nothing to change. At the moment, they get all our educated people improving their economy / society.
Not only would it cost their tax systems to chase kiwis, but it would stem the tide of highly educated people working within their country.
http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/labour-struggles-with-its-direction.html
I wasn’t sure where to post the above. It is a blog by Cactus Kate, primarily abut Karol’s post, ‘State Housing versus Home Ownership’.
I haven’t left a teaser, it’s all pretty interesting.
Am half way through, yes it is interesting, but for the rest of the weekend can we please refer to Cactus Kate as “Cactus Kate”? đ
Sorry? You’ll have to explain.
“Cactus” decided to call Karol “Karol”.
Ahhh. Missed it. Ta.
And as for the delusion that anyone in their right mind would mistake “Cactus Kate” for QoT. And to say the least QoT makes way more sense.
I’m a bit stunned, I agree with almost everything “Cactus Kate” is saying.
It’s possibly an impostor writing. Maybe QoT.
She has paid homage to QoT I notice…..
(as is only fitting).
I don’t know how anyone could really confuse the two though, the writing styles are worlds apart. “Cactus Kate” is just a horrible bogan wrapped in a logical fallacy.
I actually quite like Cactus’s writing. Sure she is a right wing bogan but at least she is an up front bogan and she writes and thinks rationally. Her principles may be different to ours but at least she has some principles. And unlike Key she is exactly who she is. There is not pretension. She is not trying to make out she is something she is not.
I wish more right wingers were like that.
That’s very true micky, and I don’t doubt her sincerity one bit. She’s a straight up honest bastard.
However she does rely on some pretty flimsy logic. For example on RNZ she tried to argue that Matt McCarten shouldn’t criticise the operators of the Pike River mine because he wouldn’t want to run a mine himself.
Also there are times I think a responsible host should hide the keys to her computer…
That is a horrible accusation. I have never been on red radio.
And you’ve misrepresented the comments I did actually make on another station which were in relation to a defamatory comment made by another guest. One who consistently accuses directors of companies of all manner of bad behaviour, so I was merely making a point that it is not as easy and glamorously well remunerated that he may think it is and if it was he should be a mining company director.
Sorry, radio live perhaps?
But yes, that’s precisely the logical fallacy to which I refer. Thanks for restating it.
Should have stood on the ACT list IMO.
What is the world coming to, with Hooton cheer leading for team Shearer, and Cactus Kate arguing (albeit in a nuanced sense) in favour of team Cunliffe. As I read her, she wants to see actual political engagement and a proper battle of ideas, rather than both left and right racing to see who can do the best job of cosseting the middle class. And I have to say, it is a lovely piece of writing.
That’s the difference between Hooten and “Cactus” đ
“it is a lovely piece of writing.”
Maybe I’m just not used to her writing style, but I found myself repeatedly tripping over her use of grammar.
Yes, on re-reading I noticed a couple of grammatical mistakes as well, but her arguments were clearly thought out and hung together well.
Odgers can’t write to save herself. I find her at times close to illiterate. On top of this, no matter how much she tries to dress things up for her audience, her words are invariably littered with a belief that greed is good and spiked with a hatred for anyone she thinks may impede that pursuit. I would’ve loved to have seen her in parliament, getting roasted on a daily basis, away from the safety of her computer screen. Small fish in an even smaller pond.
Maybe concentrate on the subject matter, and add some value into a discussion that way.
Small picture types are one reason this country has become a joke!
Grammar – It’s not going to halt the county’s decline!
+1
Communication is a two way street. If you want to get your point across, grammar can help.
Of all the things to talk about you are all hung up on whinging about grammar and calling me a bogan.
Little wonder Cunliffe cannot gain momentum in a working class party.
His supporters are a bunch of snobby toffs.
Fair cop.
http://paintingthegreyarea.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/literacy-privilege/
This kind of grammar policing, of anyone, really makes me cringe. The style of my writing is often poor and ungrammatical. Yet somehow, I feel entitled to have my say. If I felt insecure about all this, as so many people do, reading these kinds of comments would make me even more reticent about participating in conversations at the Standard.
Looks like you’re hung up on issues with your bad writing, too. There was this, you know:
“On top of this, no matter how much she tries to dress things up for her audience, her words are invariably littered with a belief that greed is good and spiked with a hatred for anyone she thinks may impede that pursuit.”
Who are you replying to, Mary?
I hope you aren’t implying that those who are put off speaking out by comments deriding others for their writing deficits, are just being “oversensitive”.
No, just saying, it’s a response to Cactus Kate Viper who seems to think the focus of comments here is her bad grammar. It’s not.
Have another look at of what I said and see if you can see where the emphasis is.
I’m never too bothered about clumsy or wrong grammar, but “CK’s” summary of my post as:
The silly policy to build homes for middle class kiddies screaming poverty is an excellent example of this Cunliffe v Shearer tension. “Karol” has an excellent post on this and has thought of the conspiracy that capitalism in fact is to blame in forcing this idea that owning your own home is aspirational to all.
…. is just inaccurate, whether as result of clumsy use of words, or just a poor interpretation. I was critical of the political position and policy of the current Labour caucus leadership (Team Shearer really), but I’m pretty sure I never referred to Cunliffe directly or indirectly in my ‘state housing vs home ownership’ post. And “conspiracy” is not what I think of when I am writing about the way the loose networks of the wealthy and powerful operate to further their own interests.
So she doesn’t have much of an idea of what I was thinking, but then maybe the entity that is “karol” is just a quotation, a figment of someone’s (or some group’s) imagination?
You’re being far too charitable, Karol. Anyone who refers to the poor as the “pathetic heaving underclass”, believes beneficiaries should be paid not to “breed” and thinks Slater’s blog has anything to offer other than a window into how nasty the right can get can’t be taken seriously. Just as QoT saw the hook in Fran O’Sullivan’s piece, no matter how hard she tries Odgers cannot help but let her true colours show, even when she posts on The Standard as happened again throughout today. I do not see how some on the Left can place genuine value in anything she says.
There were some points of agreement between my views on home ownership & CK’s, but she went off on her own little tangent about the (allegedly continuing) Cunliffe-Shearer tension.
I’m more curious as to why TS suddenly got so much attention over the last 24 hours or so, from CK, MH, and a Labour MP and an LP policy person. Some things seem to be bubbling away out of my sight. Yes, FO’S was still being pretty right wing, but, also seemed to shift her position somewhat.
I’m wondering if it’s part of a growing sense of uncertainty about changes happening that some political people feel they are losing control of. While some may be just trying to manoeuvre so they’ll be in a relatively favourable position when the dust settles.
And February is approaching fast.
Hi weka, the game is far bigger than February, important as that is. Leaders come and go, MPs come and go, neither Shearer nor Cunliffe will be relevant 10-15 years from now. The real sea change has to happen at the Labour membership and constitutional level. And we’ve only just started.
As I read her, she sees the Shearer/Cunliffe tension as arising from the courting of the middle class by the Shearer people, and the desire for a genuinely left orientation by a lot of left wing people. And she sees the housing policy and your response to it as exemplifying this tension. But I agree that beyond those points, she does go off on her own tangent.
Paying homage to a greater being, self preservation being the aim. That’s the base level she operates on.
I think I’m meant to be hurt that “Cactus Kate” has noticed I get angry sometimes. How very unladylike of me.
(And interestingly *I* don’t get scarequotes on my name, which is nice and revealing about why “Kate” applies them to karol.)
It’s a white flag QoT. CK doesn’t want to get into any debate she is guaranteed to lose and that’s any debate with you.
Take it as a compliment.
Oh, I do. It would be quite a debate though, the epic battle of Chaotic Good vs Chaotic Neutral.
Maye because she knows that Karol wont tell her to Fark off!! đ
The same here. Now I too want to know who wrote that article because it dont look at all like the usual “Cactus Kate” stuff.
Queue some b/s about ck’s post being proof positive that ‘misguided’ types of the left are unwittingly in cahoots with portions of the right and in effect undermining the ‘nice’ Labour Party just as the ‘right’ wants, and how every one counted within the ‘misguided left’ ought now, and once and for all, STFU.
In fact. Haven’t I already read that line somewhere here at ts?
Indeed.
And if you replace “STFU” with “resign the leadership”, you’ll have it in both directions.
Does ‘indeed’ indicate you think that’s a reasonable line to spin, McFlock? The reason I ask is your follow-on, which I guess is attempting to posit the opposite of what I’d call a b/s line. And it’s another b/s line. No-one is calling on DS to resign the leadership. But lots of people are wanting to see democracy really exist within the Labour Party. And, I guess, pressure might be applied to mp’s who’d rather deny democracy in Feb.
Now, you might not agree with that sentiment or goal. Fine. But don’t mis-call it as a call for DS to resign.
Well, I have seen arguments that posit Hooten’s support for shearer is evidence that shearer is not fit to be leader.
If I were to make a similar quibble about your phrasing, I don’t recall seeing anyone here specifically demand that critics of the Labour party should “STFU”.
Fran is off the reservation, calling for the “the top personal tax break” to be cancelled amoungst other heresies: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10858589
Another impostor!
Must have banged Her head on something, Fran is just about demanding a Socialist solution to ‘youth unemployment’ from a Tory Government no less,
Wonder if Slippery lost control of His bowels when He read that lot this morning…
Ah, but if you read carefully, bad, you’ll see that Fran’s concerns are actually about “gaps in the NZ workforce”.
So solving youth unemployment is really just a side effect of her real goal, helping NZ businesses recruit.
Wonder if Slippery lost control of His bowels when He read that lot this morningâŠ
That could lead to an awful mess, considering the lack of toilets on Planet Key.
đ
Yep things are getting really strange. Chris Trotter thinks the nats have a mandate to sell our assets and the right are calling for tax increases for the wealthy.
What is going on?
Has it ever occurred to any of you lot that most people don’t have a blindly ideological approach to every issue unlike yourselves – that there are good points and bad points to both sides of most given arguments? That most peoples views may shift back and forth somewhat over time?
I guess it is because you lot are in constant battle mode fighting the good war against the forces of evil, you have developed an us vs them mentality – “you are either with us or against us!”.
You are left exasperated an confused when you can’t squeeze someone into one of a few pigeon holes.
Has it ever occurred to you that us lot don’t give one big fat f**k what you ‘think’ and we only tolerate you as an object of mirth to bestow the odd piece of spittle upon when we have run out of jokes about the Prime Minister Slippery’s bad habit of public displays of ‘spastic dancing’…
Yet another good illustration of why the Left is so broken it can’t even grab the ball of a team of drop kicks ie the Nats.
Goran Therborn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6ran_Therborn
Neo marxism is dead in the water – who’s suppose to be the Agent of change since the proletariat failed to turn up to the party? Why should anyone believe that knowledge is only ever Historical never Universal?
So tell me KP is unfettered capitalism in a healthy state and just what this world needs?
Has it ever occurred to any of you lot that most people donât have a blindly ideological approach to every issue unlike yourselves â that there are good points and bad points to both sides of most given arguments? That most peoples views may shift back and forth somewhat over time?
Sounds like poststructuralist mumbo-jumbo to me…isn’t that usually your target?
No its not poststructurlist, its Humanist. I believe there is an objective reality and objective universal values about ethics/justice.
Post structuralists/Deconstructionist/various Feminists splinter groups/Neo Marxists/Cultural Relativists/Multiculturalists – they all suffer from hyper relativism and symptoms of solipsism of varying severity.
Makes it hard to pin that lot down as they twist and squirm, grabbing a bit of this and a bit of that to create what can only be described as very bad philosophy.
well, that is where we part ways friend; existence precedes essence; consider the “existence” of people born with profound impairments (at Templeton there were “patients” that resembled sun-fish, to put it politely); consider the “essence” of so-called “schizophrenics”; I have followed your comments over the year, and like mine, there is nothing “objective” about them. (we need new lock-nuts)
You are putting forward an Existential argument, not a Post Modernist one.
Good example again of how the Left is in disarray.
Existentialism enjoyed brief popularity post WWII thanks to a French philosopher or 2. It descended into Nihilism fast and sank out of sight.
ciao
I believe there is an objective reality and objective universal values about ethics/justice.
Interesting statement.
It would be interesting to know where you stand – I’m picking neo-marxist, not that flakey Post Modernist stuff which I think QofT suffers from.
But like I said before you lot dart here and there depending on the direction of fire. Good tactic I guess as its harder to hit a moving target.
Ah, k-p, why so keen to put people in boxes? I do have difficulty following a party line or any one theory – the best still have their weaknesses. It depends on the context and the issue as to which is most useful. I am a little bit neo-Marxist and quite a bit post-structuralist. There are some things in postmodernism I agree with. There is no theory of everything. But I am for democratic socialism, social and economic justice/fairness, and am against violence, prejudice, persecution and oppression.
And I am for evidence-based research, knowledge, understanding and argument.
I do think there is an objectively (scientifically) verifiable material reality. I see objectivity as a process, not an end point. And it doesn’t necessarily cancel out subjectivity, especially when it comes to human activities and communications. Objectivity is haunted by subjectivity, as you demonstrated with that sentence of yours I quoted above. But, that’s the thing about language and human communications.
You seem to miss your own contradictions. “believing” in something is a subjective statement.
Yep. I’d say it’s an odd sort of humanism that fails to recognise that humans interpret reality both subjectively, and through socially constructed lenses.
not that flakey Post Modernist stuff which I think QofT suffers from.
No, please, do go on.
I’ll just be over here having a chuckle that you managed to get from “you stupid lefties just want to pigeonhole everyone” into “I bet you’re a neo-Marxist” in a mere six comments.
”i have never read the book,(Marx),tho i was told to take a look,i lifted my pool hall cue for another game”,
(Thanks to the Clash for the lines which i have gleefully altered with the addition of the Social/economists moniker),
LOLZ, my pidgeon hole is somewhere in the vicinity of Pol Pot, a Communizing Fascist,
Thanks to the good old New Zealand education tho i have the ability to realize that getting KP’s relatives to bang a four inch nail into the back of His head at gun-point just isn’t acceptable human behaviour so good old Post-Modernist,(whatever the fuck that means), me has had to accept simply being a Socialist…
PS, i think it all got lost in the translation for poor old Pol Pot, He thought it meant retribution when He was reading redistribution…
Trotter must have holidayed in one of those Batchs that have 50 year old lumpy couches!
He didn’t get a good rest and over stretched some of the points he was making.
Shearer should front foot the mercenary thing so that it is yesterday’s news by the time the Nats get their research ready for leaking through their usual channels
This is twilight zone stuff…are Right Wing commentators giving Key and English room to launch one or two definitively Left Wing policies? Can their strategy for 2014 be really this cunning? Mix in one or two headline Left Wing policies (top tax rate hike and youth employment/youth training programmes), and use it as cover for austerity and asset sell downs elsewhere?
I wonder if they have found in their polling that a lot of ordinary NZers – including the middle class – are worried that their kids can’t seem to get ahead and that there is a shortage of decent jobs and training opportunities.
Nah, it just won’t happen via a lift in the top tax rate, the Fed crowd would string English up by a very sensitive part of His anatomy in a rotary shed at the very thought of it,
The only invite Slippery would get from now until the little Shyster is given the kick would be from those wishing to have Him behave naturally,(dance like a clown),in their presence while they took pics to show off to the Grand-kids in their dotage,
The Bizness lobby would immediately stop calling, i think that if they are going to spend money on any sort of employment initiative,(or pretend to), the usual suspect will be trotted out, asset sales proceeds will have yet another attachment of ‘youth employment’ attached to it along with the continuously growing list of roading,health,schools,debt, blah blah blah,
Other than that if the Slippery little Shyster has half a brain He will be offering employers a years worth of dole payments as a ‘training allowance’ to actually employ a large number of the 24% of unemployed youth, possibly with a slight hint at a top tax rate rise…
Have people forgotten about the youth changes for 16-17 year olds?
Does one think it’s possible that that was setting the scene for harsher benefit conditions for all youth and more privatisation?
The right taketh more than they giveth so creating an enviornment where it seems that they are taking positive steps to address the issue may simply be a way of saying to people well now there’s no excuse to be on a benefit.
Bootcamps won’t work this time to get that 5% of swinging vote but the strategy surely won’t change – we’re offering this but if you don’t avail yourself of our wonderful opportunity then benefit damnation is yours.
Can their strategy really be this cunning? It sounds eerily like their 2008 me-to strategy. The must be getting a bit of polling feedback telling them to DO something.
This is what I reckon. Also, any PR headline increase in the top personal tax rate can be more than compensated for by drops in corporate and trust tax rates, see how it works đ
http://asianinvasion2006.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/labour-struggles-with-its-direction.html?m=1
No, o revered one. I would not read Cactus Kate that way.
While she can be snappy, she never comes across as being anyone’s poodle.
Or they have all finally figured out that the Emperor really has no clothes
may I just pop in here?
I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter đ
(The last thing on knows when constructing a work is what to put first; continual eloquence is tedious) ;)-Blaise
WHAT WE CAN NEVER KNOW,or the collapsing hermeneutic (there’s your spiral)
-David Germez
“one could in the light of the fact that the divine life is itself a continued variation,,, apply to divinity in the most exalted sense the name of time. The old mythology of Chronos as primordial being and first divine principle seems thereby to be somehow in contact with the truth”
-Franz Bretano :Philosophical Investigations on Space Time and the Continuum.
“All created things are God’s speech. The being of a stone speaks and manifests the same as does my mouth about God: and people understand more by what is done than by what is said”
-Meister Eckhart : The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defence.
Invasion of the body snatchers. A pod has got her – there’s a reason why they call Mars the “Red Planet”
scaloppine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Screpanti
Let just get this out there. A person in receipt of a benefit, if they earn more than $3,400 are pushed up into the second lowest band of taxation. Key did this because obviously he never read the convention on human rights, that if someone is so in need that they receive a benefit then they cannot be treated differently, that everyone should receive the same amount of welfare. Yet Key believes that progressive taxation should kick on those on welfare!
Looking at it another way. People who earn $100,000 pay 10.5% on the first $14,000 they earn.
People who earn $3,400 pay only at the 10.5% rate. Those in receipt of a welfare
check, and have no income, get the full entitlement, pay no tax on income. But Key in
his infinite stupidity believes that those individuals who do have some paltry $3,400+
of income should not get the full welfare entitlement (as effectively they pay more tax,
pay the 17.5% rate on their measly income after the first $3,400).
Just for a moment imagine the cost of filing tax returns as all those people on welfare
whose taxation just became a complicated mess. Whatever happened to keeping
government taxation simple. But worse, how can government argue that families
on welfare should not get family tax credit when there is clearly income tax
bands for those on welfare. I mean whatever happened to equal treatment in taxation.
You pay a higher rate of tax makes you eligible for the programs its funds to those who
also pay higher rates of tax.
“whatever happened to equal treatment in taxation”, only when the main beneficiaries of such treatment are those at the top of the food chain or those who vote to put them there,
The Working for Families fiasco where the Clark Government deemed the middle class,(and quite high up in that decile), to be more ‘in need’ of relief from taxation than beneficiaries with children was the final straw for me that broke my connection with Labour,
Incidently the ‘loud noise’ us lot at the Standard have been making over housing affordability has obviously attracted the attention of Labour so much so that Annette King has paid a visit and at least aquainted herself with the concerns many of us here have regarding State owned rentals being provided to the decile of lower waged workers so there is a small glimmer of hope of seeing some specific and substantial gains in that area when Labour release it’s completed election policy,(hopefully sooner rather than later),
My view is that the next ‘issue’ that we as the Standard need to address is just that of ‘working for Families’ and just how grossly unfair is it to tax the benefits of welfare dependent children and then refuse to offer them the ‘tax relief’ offered to the children of the upper echelons of the middle class…
The money spent on some of WFF would be better off being spent on a) a universal family benefit, and b) an increase in the state housing stock. The same outcome would be achieved.
Though I agree with the sentiments leveled at Labour, my point was this, that Key introduced a second progressive tax in the middle of the welfare. Imagine for a moment that we pay benefit to help people out of poverty only to tax them more if they do the right thing on welfare!
Save or get some part time work????
But worse, by taxing them on welfare we also don’t pay them WFF, which is blatantly unfair.
But its even worse, the 10.5% tax rate is a farce since its really just a tax relief for the rich, those who don’t get welfare don’t the relief since unlike everyone else the MSD take the first
10.5% tax band when they provide welfare. So the low tax band had no effect except for the
free who live off assets with little income (and can’t claim benefit), those geared to reduce their
taxes using trusts – the super rich.
Merging Madness and Reason (it’s the DSM V season)
“you have never been diagnosed as mad-this is the shifting sand upon which you erect your sanity. Yet, your illness has gone unrecognized…you have been deprived of treatment because the steady, sure advance of science has taken too long to reach you.”
“Beneath the (can’t read my handwriting, some adjective) labels of consensus there is just the homogenous zone-our common origins and physiology bind us together; we are a crowd of open-eyed children staring with wonder at the world. This vast assembly of “thrown” people is the homogenous zone-a coat of many (red) colours”.
“Reason too, recognized itself as being duplicated and dispossessed of itself; it thought itself wise and it was and it was mad; it thought it knew and it knew nothing; it thought itself righteous and it was insane; knowledge led one to the forbidden world when one thought one was being led by it to eternal light.” (thats “progress” for ya’s; Get Ya YaYa’s Out) (those art-school rockers aye)
-Foucault :Mental Illness and Psychology
According to Scheff, relative to the rate of treated “mental illness” the rate of unrecorded residual rule breaking of societal norms is extremely high.
-consider this continual self-absorbed flouting of cell -phone /driving legislation, and it’s on the increase; BodyCount’s in the house.Listen to how close people are to stress thresholds in their daily discourse with children, family, associates, witness the behavioural temperature on the roads, the anasthetization and subsequent harms carried out; that’s why I drank alone in the end; Dos Gusanos was fun though, all those years ago đ (an I’m not surprised productivity is tanking when I observe people ostensibly working yet using their work p.c for shopping and such-like)
“Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of ‘world history’, but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed and the clever beasts had to die-One might invent such a fable and yet still it would not have adequately illustrated how miserable, how shadowy and transient, how aimless and arbitrary the human intellect looks within nature.
-Friedrich Nietzsche :On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense
“Madness and sanity are variants of the same phenomena; everything that we see and fear in the madman can also be seen and feared in ourselves. We are all mad children, we are all autistic, we are all deluded, we are all abstract and solipsistic and we all madly cobble together systems of absurd beliefs on this lost planet of fools; perhaps a fundamental truth about our humanity can be found in the instability, ‘throwness’ and madness of the homogenous zone.”
(Baudrillard places his hopes in terrorism, viruses and catastrophe)
i read today of an analysts perspective on FIVE potential Asian Shocks
-Taiwanese Independence asserted by the democratic vote
-Islamic unrest reaching China
-US Defence (Naval) cuts
-Thailand destabilized
-Territorial disputes in E and S China seas (we do live in interesting times)
Exit Strategy
-Why, thou sayest well; I do now remember a saying, “The fool doth think he is wise, yet the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
-As You Like It (if you are ruled by mind, you are a king, if by body, a slave-Cato)
WHAT WE CAN NEVER KNOW- David Gamez. I whole-heartedly recommend this little book; I read it this afternoon at the library (air-con and I cannot afford to pay my fees, yet;)
HBT-10 more hot dry days forecast, little rain since August, Irrigation Ban on the way, Farmers may ‘dry out’
-if you’re walking a dog, they cannot eat anything they find in or around rivers or ponds, (cyano-bacteria) meanwhile we are going to supply more dairy to another Infant Formula Manufacturer establishing in NI
Dom-The Children’s Commissioner, a HB paediatrician,Russell Wills,, is “incredulous” about child poverty and inequality in our country…
from your friendly neighbourhood “madman” (hyper-rationally and reflexively yours)
now what am I gonna do for a crust. hmmm
11.29 By faith the people passed through the RED Sea, as on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. đ
This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For
đ It’s a Mad Mad World, btw D, I’m gettin “bored” again, don’t wanna write a book, there’s enough been written already, might start an Anarchist Commune ala
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin đ
It was Kropotkin’s Conquest of Bread that introduced me to anarchism.
Well, The Standard sure has evolved. That’s all from me, and that’s all from him. (a little birdy messaged me that a “challenge” is a moot point).
Adios Amigos, I’ll watch on from the High Plains from now on. đ đ đ
Don’t go too far away, mon ami đ
?
Oh, Clint, you’re back. It read like you were heading off along the ridge and leaving this little village behind.
High Plains Drifter
Great movie.
And The Two Ronnies
This is too much – I really going to miss you.
I assumed your “watch from the High Plains” remark meant that you weren’t going to be actively commenting for the moment, forgive me if I misinterpreted.
No I am going CV, it has been fun, and I have learned a lot (Thank You All and One and All A Good Night)
John James Elijah (Ha, comment 101 ers) đ
Farewell mate, take good care.
Nooooo, don’t go away!
Oh alright, if you must. I can’t force you to stay… but know that I’ve loved your contributions.
Take good care, as CV says. Fare thee well.
Loved your stuff, trooper, a message from Nu-Earth?
“And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And his name that sat on him was Death
And Hell followed with him.”
Great Clint Eastwood movie!!!
“What is happening at the moment? Because the Falklands are back in the news. Belfast is back in the news. It’s like some sort of hideous 80s revival, isn’t it? All we need is a heartless Conservative prime minister attacking the unemployed and demonising the poor, bankers making obscene profits, David Bowie releasing a single…”–Sandi Toksvig, The News Quiz
mickysavage -> So tell me KP is unfettered capitalism in a healthy state and just what this world needs?
Obviously not. I was never a supporter of neo liberalism, except back in the 80s when I was in my middle teens. But everyone was entranced by it then, Muldoon was gone, the Cold War over, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was on TV.
This is an interesting piece by a contemporary philosopher I like, applying some Humanist qualities – imagination, intuition, memory, ethics – to the current morass:
“I can only ask: is there a single example in Western civilisation over the past 2500 years when a broad policy of austerity has pulled a civilisation out of crisis and set it on the road to wellbeing, prosperity or growth? No. There is no example. There is no evidence. Only ideological conviction – romanticism – coming out of a political-economic theory packed into an apparently inevitable force called globalisation…
…Crises usually strike when ideologies have been around too long and the elites that serve them have lost their ability for critical thought…
…Instead of retreating inside a received wisdom, which has already revealed that it doesn’t work, we could turn to some basic, helpful human qualities…
…Ethics, for example, are a simple, practical reminder that the primary obligation of a civilisation is to its citizens’ wellbeing, not to the protection of commercial contracts or the servicing of debts. The fact that most of these debts were incurred by the commercial sector and its financiers reinforces this point…
…Memory is an essential tool of education. You can’t deal with a crisis if you are in the hands of economists, managers and business elites who don’t know the history of debt. They don’t know the history of competition. Very few read anything of consequence. They are the briefing paper generation. Many are, in reality, functionally illiterate, except on very narrow topics. They don’t know what has worked and not worked in their own society. In fact, they don’t seem to understand the concept of either society or civilisation…
…As for Imagination, it is not the privileged domain of the arts. Good financial policy is an expression of imagination. Throughout history great financiers and great ministers of finance have usually also been great consumers of culture, intellectuals, men of imagination. I think of Solon in Athens 2600 years ago, of Sully at the side of Henry IV in 1600, of Siegmund Warburg after World War II, of Jean Monet rebuilding Europe. As they would explain: you must imagine your way out of an economic cul de sac, just as a good general imagines his way out of a military stalemate. Bad generals stick to trench warfare…
…History is clear. When faced by unsustainable debts, the fools, the weak, the degenerate civilisations become obsessed by what they owe. They convince themselves that money is real, not an agreed-upon convention. They become its slave. And they destroy themselves. Successful civilisations make these impossible debts disappear – clearly, intentionally, massively. In this way they protect what needs to be protected, such as the savings of real people and their pensions. They clear the decks and the result is raw, new human energy to deal with society’s needs. History is filled with examples of this being done on purpose. It is also filled with the carcasses of those who refused to face reality and so caused their societies to commit suicide.”
http://www.johnralstonsaul.com/eng/articles_detail.php?id=98&lang=eng
Wow, just as I’m signing off, kiwi_prometheus posts a relevant comment đ
postscript
http://philosophynow.org/issues/74/What_We_Can_Never_Know_by_David_Gamez
subscription only
Sound familiar?
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13852-latvias-economic-disaster-as-a-neoliberal-success-story-a-model-for-europe-and-the-us
For some reason no reply buttons are showing for Pascal or karol, so here goes:
Pascal -> “Yep. Iâd say itâs an odd sort of humanism that fails to recognise that humans interpret reality both subjectively, and through socially constructed lenses.”
Where did I deny any subjectivity? It’s the post structuralists/post modernists who go the hyper relativistic route.
You end up with crazy feminists calling Newton’s Laws of Physics a ‘rape manual’, and prattling on about “Rape Culture”. Science is dismissed or supposedly ‘improved’ via “Critical Theory” to “Feminist Science” or “Post Modernest Science”.
It’s all very poor philosophy and embodies atrociously low Academic standards.
There are silly things said in all schools.
You don’t necessarily “end up with crazy feminists calling Newtonâs Laws of Physics a ârape manualâ” if you accept a lot of what PM theorists say. And to equate that sort of thing with rape culture’ is just asinine.
Do you think that cultural norms are socially constructed, partially through the way we talk about things? And that cultural norms affect individuals thoughts about behavior and blameworthiness?
If so, then it’s no stretch to say that the way a society talks about rape, will affect the incidence of rape. ie, that some ways of talking about rape could increase the incidence of rape by creating cultural norms that support rapists interpretations of reality.
You end up with crazy feminists calling Newtonâs Laws of Physics a ârape manualâ, and prattling on about âRape Cultureâ. Science is dismissed or supposedly âimprovedâ via âCritical Theoryâ to âFeminist Scienceâ or âPost Modernest Scienceâ.
Oops, k_p’s brain overloaded and it’s back to copy-pasting MRA propaganda which he’s already been informed multiple times is inaccurate. Balance has been restored to the Force.
karol -> “Ah, k-p, why so keen to put people in boxes? ”
Just want to know where you stand is all, nothing wrong with that.
“I do have difficulty following a party line or any one theory â the best still have their weaknesses.”
I don’t follow a part line and I get MOBBED on here for it – especially by your girl pals.
“It depends on the context and the issue as to which is most useful.”
It’s not good enough to go with what is “useful”. Marxism for example is a theory of everything, the guy was a genius obviously, nevertheless his philosophical system crashed and burned. Why should anyone believe you have the intellectual ability to uplift a fragment of it, remove it from context and claim it is “useful” for contemporary application.
“I am a little bit neo-Marxist and quite a bit post-structuralist. There are some things in postmodernism I agree with.”
The main tenet in postmodernism is that language is meaningless. Apparently Focault back tracked from that to the position that the meaning the reader gets from a text may differ from the author’s intention. In which case he hasn’t made any insight that authors and readers haven’t been aware of already.
As for Derrida, he’s been called an intellectual fraudster by some luminary academic types. Anyone who says they have read Derrida is lying, its incomprehensible – worse than Hegel.
The fact that Post-structuralist professors still hand out As Bs and Cs to their students submitted essays suggest the whole exercise is an insider’s joke.
“There is no theory of everything. But I am for democratic socialism, social and economic justice/fairness, and am against violence, prejudice, persecution and oppression.”
“And I am for evidence-based research, knowledge, understanding and argument.”
You are keeping the word “science” out of it. Are you referring to science, if not why not, and to what are you referring, Karol?
“I do think there is an objectively (scientifically) verifiable material reality.”
Ok you do bring up science now. Don’t know how you can claim to believe in science but claim to be “quite a bit post-structuralist”
“I see objectivity as a process, not an end point. And it doesnât necessarily cancel out subjectivity, especially when it comes to human activities and communications. Objectivity is haunted by subjectivity, as you demonstrated with that sentence of yours I quoted above. But, thatâs the thing about language and human communications.”
I never denied that there is subjectivity, it is postmodernist who deny the objective.
“You seem to miss your own contradictions. âbelievingâ in something is a subjective statement.”
Is it? Does it matter? Like I said I don’t deny there is subjectivity eg “Chocolate tastes better than vanilla!” [ proviso – scientist discover genetic basis for varying tastes ]
[lprent: There is no “partY line” – it is every person’s argument for themselves. However there is a moderation line.
Personally I tend to view you as having a problem with dealing with women (what is it with that?) and indeed with anyone who thinks. You have that kind of “I’m just a poor victim” mentality (as you have amply demonstrated in this comment) that makes it difficult for you to deal with anyone disagreeing with you. And to top it off you seem to be a poor excuse for a psuedo-intellectual. Generally a waste of bandwidth and a bit of a luser in social media terms.
But these are just my opinions – they don’t enter into moderation.
Most of the time you pick up bans for either personally attacking authors or peristently going off topic in posts – usually the female authors. Right now you’re on most moderators “watch for stupidity” lists, and includes r0b’s list (about your only NOTABLE acheivement to date). ]
âI am a little bit neo-Marxist and quite a bit post-structuralist. There are some things in postmodernism I agree with.”
To be very blunt and clear, to me you are the typical KIWI IDIOT, I frown on, you have neither any understanding of complex history, socialism, social science, alternative social agendas and even scientifically evidenced social data.
I am totally flabber-ghasted about what brought you here.
Sorry, my impression is, you know too little of what goes down.
My comment was not really directed at the quote “kiwi_prometheus” used re what Karol may have commented on before, it was just totally incoherent, confusing, contradictory and much senseless, what “kiwi_prometheus” commented on in a wider context, also using that particular quote.
I tried to read his truly bizarre comments a few times, and I still cannot make that much sense at all out of what “k_p” tried to say or argue. Sorry for the frustration that lead to anger and some over the top comment I made in return.
You are not even just that “Kiwi idiot” I sometimes dismissably refer to, you are a totally ignorant, one sided coffin slicer of sorts, getting another angle on why some people may have died.
That is the lowest and cheapest crap I ever read and heard, man. Rot in fucking hell for that.
HC
I AM HAPPY TO BE BANNED AFTER SUCH IGNORANT POST AND ME GOING OVER THE TOP. SORRY, I COULD NOT HELP MYSELF. ALL THE BEST.
Have you ever considered that’s because you say really stupid things about girls?
There’s only one thing to say here and it was said by Marx himself:
I don’t know what I am but I know that I’m not a Marxist.
Marx considered that Marxists had twisted his teachings. This can most clearly be seen by his writings on the Paris Commune of 1871 which was anarchist. It was destroyed by military attack from the government.
Yes it does. Opinion and belief cannot change objective fact. This is something that the RWNJs and economists can’t seem to grasp.
“The main tenet in postmodernism is that language is meaningless. Apparently Focault back tracked from that to the position that the meaning the reader gets from a text may differ from the authorâs intention. In which case he hasnât made any insight that authors and readers havenât been aware of already.”
Hi xtasy. This paragraph pretty much sums things up. Every point made here is complete and utter bullshit and incorrect no matter how you look at it. So much so it’s impossible to engage with. I’d tell kp sayonara.
A great experience I had today, or rather yesterday (12.01.) to visit and view the NEW Rainbow Warrior vessel down at Princes Wharf. I am IMPRESSED, Greenpeace got their shit together, had I not been a member of sorts, I would have signed up right way.
I am worried for the ones who do not get it, how much NZ, Australian and Antarctic environmen is in danger! It is damned serious.
I left the vessel in doubt and worry, who is going to keep them alive to fight, I asked, being myself in dire straits.
I can only hope they get donations, manage and do more good, as that is what Greenpeace are here for. I would dread the day they die. I would want to die also.