19th and 20th century growth and development was so transformative that it now constitutes our only available inventory of intellectual history, and (understandably) dominates our expectations. When will interest rates return to normal? Why are central banks not letting interest rates rise? And, look at all these awful policy decisions preventing growth? These sentiments are artifacts; signatures of recency bias and the availability heuristic. In an excellent post last year by Neil Irwin at the New York Time’s Upshot blog, Why Very Low Interest Rates May Stick Around, it’s gently pointed out that high interest rates, not low interest rates, are history’s anomaly.
Low to no interest rates and growth are the norm. The high interest rates and high growth that we’ve had for the last couple of centuries is an anomaly. We’re now heading back to the norm and, shortly after that, we’ll be in de-growth as population declines.
Yes, the noise machine at work, but she wasn’t wearing body armour.
I think questions about her health are warranted, but of course the campaign is going to downplay any event as being inconsequential – which only eggs on their opponents who think they’re trying to cover things up. Most likely the truth is somewhere in the middle.
This is a video of the incident. She starts out lent back on a concrete barrier and is able to stand with that support. Her staff around her don’t look that concerned.
Her van pulls up and it is when she steps forward that she starts to stagger, when she no longer has the support of the concrete pillar.
More staff quickly surround her as she tries to step forward further.
Just as she reaches the van (look for her blonde bob) she goes down to her knees, perhaps off the kerb. She is helped back up to her feet into the van but at this point it is difficult to see her as her staff have totally surrounded her.
She has the close support of a female aide while leaning against the pillar. I think that the aide has to push her forward to get her staggering to the van.
Personally this still sits in the ‘not enough information’ category; but regardless these ‘incidents’ are starting to pile up. One more and I’d suggest serious questions will have to be answered.
The fact of the MSM running with this is a new development as well. Even if it does turn out to be nothing more than right wing ‘noise’ the only reason why it’s getting traction the deep underlying lack of trust in anything that comes out of the ‘establishment’ these days. Which is exactly the reason why Trump has more than two supporters.
It has to be hoped Clinton is ok. It would be an appalling turn of events at this stage for her to be forced out for this reason.
And for a woman of her age there may well be a simple and very understandable reason. Just no-one wants to say it out loud.
Yeah, these ‘incidents’ are starting to pile up.
/
Revealed last 2 days: Trump laundered donations, lied to IRS, lied about helping at Ground Zero But bad wk for HC https://t.co/mRWvdRWRlj— Scott Gilmore (@Scott_Gilmore) September 11, 2016
On the upside, Clinton’s staffer who wiped the last copy of her emails AFTER a Congressional evidence preservation subpoena has been given immunity by the Department of Justice.
You know full well that questions about a candidates health strike directly at their eligibility to run for office.
The Guardian reports:
The temperature in New York City on Sunday morning was in the low 80s fahrenheit, around 28C, with relatively low humidity of around 46% .
That is warmish by kiwi standards, but certainly not unusual or at all extreme. Clearly something has happened here. No-one but you is denying it. What none of us know yet is whether this has any physical significance for Clinton herself. It may be something trivial, or not.
Certainly given that the RW machine has already attacked her on her health, it’s a damned unfortunate coincidence that this acknowledged “medical incident’ lends credence. And as we know in politics, perception is all.
I’ve always solidly and vigorusly cheered for Sanders … I’m surprised you’ve concluded that even he is a ” dishonest racist hate-mongering narcissist”.
I’m happy to stand on my record here as being a consistent Sanders supporter. And at no point have I ever expressed any explicit support for Trump whatsoever. None. Zero.Zip.
Feel free to search this site for any comment by me explicitly and positively backing your contention. Simply being critical of Clinton does not count as being supportive of Trump by implication.
Otherwise you owe me an apology. And you can stop being sickened if it will make you feel better.
If Clinton really does have a significant health issue (and that possibility can no longer be ruled out) … then it is very much in the Democrats interests to come clean now.
She was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and was out standing in the open for an hour plus on Sunday??? Normally pneumonia (i.e. a lung infection) in an older person would require several days bed rest as a precaution.
It’s worth expanding on this a bit. I completely agree that Trump is exactly what you describe him as; a ” dishonest racist hate-mongering narcissist”. The ONLY good thing I can think to say about him is that he possibly less vile than all the other candidates the Repugs stood up in their primary.
But it’s a mistake to think this is ALL he is. I’ve loathed John Key from the moment I clapped eyes on his corporate shark, fake social smile. But equally I’ve also consistently argued here the left makes a serious mistake to underestimate him.
And we also make a serious mistake when we ignore the reasons WHY so many Amercan’s will support and vote for Trump. And the complementary set of reasons why so many are suspicious of Clinton. Or as the educated and professional young American I met some weeks back said, “It’s no longer a case of the lessor of two evils, but a choice of two frank evils”.
Trump is a vile person, but he says things that resonate with many Americans who deeply distrust their political establishment. By contrast Clinton is a way more decent human being, but she solidly represents an establishment that is far from decent.
If someone put the rhetorical Colt 45 to my head and told me to vote, I’d pick Clinton in a heartbeat or less. But equally I can understand how someone else may well come to the opposite conclusion. And I believe trying to shame and bully them into silence for making that choice probably doesn’t help.
Normally pneumonia (i.e. a lung infection) in an older person would require several days bed rest as a precaution.
Normally, people aren’t running for President.
You would have been printing up her death certificate if she’d missed turning up to commemorate 9/11, and Trump would have said she was in mourning for bin laden.
“…The fact of the MSM running with this is a new development…”
Except it isn’t. The “swift boating” noise machine has been hammering at the big lie since forever. All this does is legitimise the MSM jumping on board the rumour mill, and laundering it into mainstream fact.
The United States is completely fucked as long as it remains in a state of polarised political fantasy. The US right is the complete rejection of the enlightenment. It is very much a mirror of ISIS. If you think that is a bit strong, imagine what sort of country the USA will be if Trump wins. Mass arrests, ethnic cleansing, openly cosying up to lawless kleptocrats like Putin and the butchers of Beijing, it will all be on the table straight away, and logic of extremism would see a whole lot more as well before long.
Here is a bold prediction: If Trump wins, and he carries on like he has on campaign, the US military (as the last functioning bi-partisan organ of the US federal government) will act to remove him. It wouldn’t have to be a rebellion – the merest hint of refusing to obey orders will see him forced from office by an establishment with to much to lose in having the constitution – with it’s fat cat jobs and sinecures – shredded.
If (and there is no comment I have seen backing thecomment) that she was wearing body armour – so we’re the many police etc who were there. Didn’t see them being carried out and being dumped in a van.
Any reasonable presidential hopeful with comments about here health would have gone to the hospital and been checked out and provided a “doctors note” as opposed to hiding at her daughters home and then a weak photo opportunity later walking down the street.
This will cause more questions and she could have stopped it – but nope.
Where do people get the idea that only a seriously ill person could faint from heatstroke after standing for a while at some ceremony in 30-degree heat? Have you never seen it happen yourself?
It was actually 28 degC, and the humidity a comfortable 46%. That is warm, but definitely not oppressive. Air temperature by itself is an insufficient measure of our ability to regulate body heat, you have to take into account humidity to obtain ‘wet bulb’ temperature.
I can’t rule out that the weather did play some role in what happened, but certainly it cannot have been the dominant factor because presumably there were many other people at the same event and there are no reports of mass faintings or stumblings.
Really, CV? At what level of consciousness is this impossible? How do you know this? What duration of this reduced consciousness is required to meet your non-medical threshold of “fainted”? How are you able to diagnose this level and duration of reduced consciousness from an obstructed shot of the back of her head?
Hey McFlock, impressed with your attempts to liken Clinton’s loss of motor control, lower body strength and balance over several seconds to some kind of non-insidious fainting spell; maybe that’s all it is.
Nice deflection from the questions about your diagnostic process.
I guess if it ducks like a quack…
Hey, how do you know she experienced loss of motor control and balance issues and lower body strength? Any one of those could be functionally indistinguishable to someone observing from a distance with an obstructed view.
Usually because they’ve been required to stand rigidly at attention for hours, virtually motionless. Thermal stress is only part of it.
As I said above, if the conditions at the event were the dominant and root cause of what has happened to Clinton here, then logically we would have reports of many. many other people fainting as well.
People faint for all sorts of reasons, medical and situational. These reasons include:
…fasting long hours, taking in too little food and fluids, low blood pressure, hypoglycemia, high g-force, emotional distress, and lack of sleep. Wikipedia.
It was actually 28 degC, and the humidity a comfortable 46%. That is warm, but definitely not oppressive.
Not in Australia, maybe. Here in Palmerston North, where we’re used to a somewhat more reasonable climate, when it hits 28 degrees I turn on the air conditioning and lie on the couch.
BTW Scott Adams says that the Presidential race is effectively over now. He brings a US perspective that I should have thought of before now:
when it comes to American psychology, there is no more powerful symbol of terrorism and fear than 9-11 . When a would-be Commander-in-Chief withers – literally – in front of our most emotional reminder of an attack on the homeland, we feel unsafe. And safety is our first priority.
Friday, day Clinton diagnosed w pneumonia, she appeared at 2 fundraisers, ran a 2-hour natl security mtg, did a presser, sat for CNN intvu— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) September 11, 2016
@jeneps like most women, we have had to work sick, take care of children, clean the house, and feed the dog. We can relate.— Donna (@Ala4afam) September 11, 2016
The aspiring Commander and Chief staggering and nearly collapsing at the 9/11 terrorist attacks commemoration. Yeah, I think Scott Adams has got the electoral analysis of that image just about right.
He was 68 years, 23 days old when inaugurated, the oldest president to take office until Ronald Reagan in 1981. Harrison died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.
Well back in 2013 he fainted at some restaurant, due to jet lag after a holiday in Hawaii..poor man. Interestingly I think he may have been treated at a public hospital, you would think he’d go private, but I guess he’s always up for a freebie from the taxpayer.
Actually its not that I don’t think the wealthy should have free healthcare…it’s that, in the case of Key, they are willing to let whole sectors of Health care go to the dogs, safe in the knowledge that should they require serious health care they will go private.
I think all politicians should receive free health care.
I think they should stand by their work and not have Private Health care.
Alternatively:
1. Funding healthcare at a level that could get everyone seen-to for whatever their condition, within 7 days, would be prohibitively expensive for the country
2. So offer an affordable public service, that does a very good job, even if it can’t administer initial treatment to all patients within 7 days
3. Allow those who have the money, to pay the extra money to get faster treatment
Also, politicians are on the public purse. If they’re sitting around sick for 4 months off-work, then they’re not working for the public, wasting public money. Alternatively if they pay extra for the private healthcare they need, they can be on their feet quicker and back to serving the country.
This latter point suggests that Parliamentary Services should be paying for private health insurance for all MPs. Unsure if they do or not.
This latter point suggests that Parliamentary Services should be paying for private health insurance for all MPs….Politicians aren’t the only people ‘serving’ the country, so how about police, teachers, health professionals, rubbish collectors, army, etc etc.
Infact any person out of the loop of work is a hindrance to the economy…so how about, oh, I know this will sound ‘out there’, but how about Fully Publicly Funded Health care.
By the by, I’m not sure where the seven days come into it…I just mean care in a timely manner, with conditions being treated early rather than latter…which would have so many economic advantages it’s hard to know where to begin.
Politicians aren’t the only people ‘serving’ the country, so how about police, teachers, health professionals, rubbish collectors, army, etc etc.
I was answering your point when you said politicians should be banned from using private healthcare.
I know this will sound ‘out there’, but how about Fully Publicly Funded Health care.
Well, what do you mean by that? What metrics are you going to use to decide when it is Fully Funded or not? How much are you willing to spend? If that means the current mid-level rate has to go up from 17.5% to 30% to afford it, would you still support that?
By the by, I’m not sure where the seven days come into it…I just mean care in a timely manner, with conditions being treated early rather than latter…which would have so many economic advantages it’s hard to know where to begin.
I had to come up with some sort of concrete term beyond “treat people who are sick” because it could be argued that our current system does that. It’s pretty much impossible to argue that our current system will give initial treatment to anyone with any condition within 7 days of presenting, hence why I used that as a benchmark.
You will no doubt tell me these are ‘elective surgery’, but if you have a medical condition that means you cannot work it is hardly something you are selfishly ‘electing’ to do. It is necessary.
And yes, up the spending. If all companies and corporations paid their fair share of tax we could afford it.
Having people sitting at home on benefits while they magically disappear from waiting lists is not the cheap alternative.
Why? We all pay for the medical training and infrastructure that enable the system to function. How does diverting our resources to monied queue-jumpers improve matters?
Are the private hospitals going to set up their own medical schools, fully funded by their investors and clients? Or will they wait for the taxpayer to educate their staff for them?
How many doctors do you think would attend our public medical schools (for which they pay big student loans, don’t forget), if there was no private medical work available in NZ?
How many of our trained doctors do you think would fly off overseas, if we had 0 private practice available?
Most surgeons and other specialists in NZ work in both the public and private system.
As usual, it’s a complex situation, there is no single “right” answer.
OAB answer is Cuba, just don’t let them leave OAB has numerous examples and studies to show there are no unintended consequences to socialist policy, any such discussion to highlight as such will result in accusation of lies, bigotry parroting and questioning your ancestoral lineage, so don’t bother
Red, no, you can’t conceive of my opinion so don’t try. I’m not sure being subject to overt super-power bullying is a great position for any country to be in so no, I wouldn’t go the Cuban route.
Right now, the privatisation disease is rife in our health system. Cut it out, then burn it. Show Compass the door.
As the largest domestic player in the economy, we (the government, on our behalf) have every right to establish and maintain a health care system that makes private provision a very specialised market indeed. Not banned, just struggling to hold onto its market-share in the face of excellent public service provision.
The National Party has shown itself to be utterly incompetent to build houses, let alone hospitals.
That’s what I’m proposing: greedy troughers who just happen to be members of Cabinet Club can compete on the open market for a change.
If privatisation worked, it would have done so by now. It doesn’t work and if you believe it does you really need to stop lying to yourself because I got the message before the failed experiment even began.
I heard on RNZ this morning that NZ is going to give ten million dollars (from memory) to the Pacific Islands to encourage more people to play sport. Surely there are greater problems than bloody professional sport? Unbloodybelievable!
It’s a National thing – the thinking is that PIs are thickos who can’t be educated, so the only way any of them will get a well-paid job is as a professional sportsman (what the women are supposed to beats me – cook, clean, raise kids and go to church, I guess). So this is like philanthropy. And also what CV said.
Not when PI countries biggest forgein exchange earnings comes from overseas remittances, and a big and growing chunk of that been professional sportsmen. therefore it is an investment in the unique sporting capability of PIs
Not when PI countries biggest forgein exchange earnings comes from overseas remittances, and a big and growing chunk of that been professional sportsmen.
Why, if we help train professional sportsmen that can make millions who then support their families at home why is this different from any other investment in people
I do not think giving people opportunity is a bad thing, I also don’t think it’s an argument it is one or the other, this is not the only aid that goes to the islands so it’s on top of that so can’t be a bad thing
Anyone else see the correlation between Apples money in the bank and the fact they do not pay taxes fairly. I wonder how many other multinational buying sprees are funded from money that would have otherwise been paid in tax to provide the environment which enable them to make there money.
So Frank Bainimarama and his police thugs have arrested Opposition leaders and thrown them into prison. Some have been released but others are still there. Their crime? They organised a forum and talked with one one another. But its ok folks. John Key says it is a democratically elected government (yeah? I thought it was more like the voters didn’t dare vote any other way) and its quite common for governments to have a reshuffle from time to time. In other words he’s not concerned.
What the MPs fear is that under the Constitution, if any charges are laid then they cannot stand for Parliament. And under Frank’s rule charges can be laid about anything real or trumped up.
A YouGov/Economist poll in January asked respondents if they approved or disapproved of “the executive order that freed all slaves in the states that were in rebellion against the federal government.
That’s alongside the Holocaust deniers (or supporters!) and the KKK all actively endorsing Trump and Andrew Shannon, head of Breitbart, which has direct Neo-N— links and is now running Trump’s campaign.
Pro-slavery, pro-N—, pro genocide. That increasingly describes a large portion of Trump’s support and he’s knowingly capitalising on it.
Hillary Clinton Was Politically Incorrect, but She Wasn’t Wrong About Trump’s Supporters
Clinton said half of Donald Trump’s supporters were prejudiced. If anything, her numbers are too low.
[…]
Much like Trump’s alleged opposition to the Iraq War, this not an impossible claim to investigate. We know, for instance, some nearly 60 percent of Trump’s supporters hold “unfavorable views” of Islam, and 76 percent support a ban on Muslims entering the United States. We know that some 40 percent of Trump’s supporters believe blacks are more violent, more criminal, lazier, and ruder than whites. Two-thirds of Trump’s supporters believe the first black president in this country’s history is not American. These claim are not ancillary to Donald Trump’s candidacy, they are a driving force behind it.
I’m sure Clinton’s comment on half of Trump’s supporters being an irredeemable basket of deplorables is going to be a big hit with the liberal left 10% in the USA.
But it was the Democrats – Bill Clnton in fact, who signed the Omnibus Bill which criminalised Blacks for what had been minor crimes and put an extra 2M blacks into the for-profit prison system.
That’s the new Jim Crow, thanks to Clinton and the Democrats.
The Omnibus Bill and NAFTA were both terrible and should be repealed immediately.
However, every time a criticism of Trump is made or there is yet another revelation about the of his evil support base, you divert with a weird version of “But Laaaaaabour…”
So let’s be direct. Suppose the YouGov/Economist poll were being conducted.
Do you:
(A) Support slavery
(B) Think the Holocaust never happened
(C) Think the Holocaust was cool
(D) A and B
(E) A and C
(F) Shrug, don’t mind being associated with the above
(G) Dread the resurgence in support for N—sm and slavery
I gave up on the Left’s internal social qualification scheme of needing to jump up and down in outrage over this and that irrelevancy at every opportunity, or else you are a bad bad person.
And I’ve been opposing the West’s billion dollar support of the unconstitutional neo-Nzi far right Banderist backed junta in Kiev for a couple of years now while most Standardistas just let it sail by without remark because you know, anti-Russia.
Concern about active support in the Trump campaign for N–sm, genocide and slavery is “Irrelevant” and worthy of a “Shrug” and yet another disingenuous diversion.
As I said, I’ve given up on the left’s internal social qualification scheme of outrage at this, condemning that, etc.
Clinton is backed by neocon banksters, corporations and weapon manufacturers who impoverish, kill, maim and poison millions of people in the developing world, implode entire countries and are intent on escalating nuclear military tensions with China and Russia.
Rhinocrates….I think that we who can’t back Hillary know that Trump is a bloody loud-mouthed idiot and makes the most ridiculous comments etc….. but we also believe he won’t get to carry them out, through a variety of reasons . The small glimmer of hope for him is that he wants to stick it to the Establishment (and I’ll admit that’s not enough to hang on to).
The problem with that ” oh so genuine ” Hillary is that she is more than capable of covertly being worse than Trump and, basically, is such a warmongering bitch that she will set off nuclear obliteration. It is very hard to see any glimmer of hope of Hillary being a good President.
The only hope we had was Sanders.
So ,imo, neither Clinton nor Trump are acceptable. If I had to pick the lesser of two evils ( which is still evil) I would probably opt for stupid bloody Trump in the feint hope he will stick it to Wall St et al.
Garibaldi, you won’t see any defence of Hillary from me and I think that Sanders should have been the nominee. I don’t see Clinton doing anything better than kicking problems further down the road – at best.
OK, I want to have a look at a couple of points you make here:
but we also believe he won’t get to carry them out, through a variety of reasons
I don’t know what these reasons are, but evil and stupid can be as dangerous as evil and competent.
However, even assuming Trump is ineffectual, as I’ve repeatedly said, he’s riding a wave of outright, unashamed f*scism. If he were to be abducted by aliens tomorrow, the forces that he have sponsored have already been unleashed. There are plenty now, some even worse, who see themselves legitimised already.
The small glimmer of hope for him is that he wants to stick it to the Establishment (and I’ll admit that’s not enough to hang on to).
All very well, but there will inevitably be collateral damage. Bloody collateral damage. Unfortunately the elites have got where they are by ensuring that damage is always diverted to those who have the least resources and who make the most convenient scapegoats. Jews for example have been the historical favourite.
If President Trump fails in his plans and finds his support slipping, his hounds will go hunting. They’re already howling.
Also, really do not overfocus on particular personalities, either Clinton as the Wicked Witch of the West or Trump as knight in gilded armour or useful battering ram. We know what’s behind Clinton, but what’s behind Trump is far greater than him too. Take either of them away and others will fill their place and those scarecrows will be worshipped as idols too, and they too will be replaceable. Look instead at the forces behind both of them.
The American f*scist/”alt-right” is a diverse rabble, running from Silicon Valley trolls to Christian Dominionists and in their apocalyptic fantasies, nuclear war is a necessity. You’ll just see worse capitalism and cronyism if the first side dominates and if the other does, well… they think that God will take them away to Heaven if it all turns to radioactive custard. Pity about everyone else.
Nihilism? You’re clever but don’t outsmart yourself. Clinton is the warmonger neocon who will keep ratcheting up tensions with Russia in Eastern Europe and China in the South China Sea to the nth degree simply to sell more weapons, even at the risk of starting a nuclear exchange.
Trump’s been saying for a while that NATO partners should be paying more for their defence. That’s sure to please Lockheed Martin’s shareholders. They won’t be spending money on local programmes – America used its muscle to kill local programmes like Canada’s Avro Arrow and Britain’s TSR 2 so they could sell American weapons. Even now Britain’s Queen Elizabeth class carriers will have F-35s, not navalised Eurofighters or second generation Harriers.
Meanwhile one interpretation of Japan’s Mitsubishi X-2 programme is that it’s to demonstrate a command of stealth technology so they can be trusted with F-22s sold or built under license (as the F-15J was) The USAF has been asking about reopening the F-22 production line. Again, an escalation of Japanese military presence is within Trump’s declared intention.
Clinton won’t be any better than her predecessors, but Trump’s the one who said that they should buy more… and that means American.
@ rhino crates – Nearly 20% of Trump supporters consider the abolition of slavery a mistake:
30 years of Charter schools in the US. That’s what happens when you allow ‘special schools’ teaching their own curriculum with no oversights to be allowed to flourish. i.e. Poorly educated population who want to bring back slavery.
Although some might argue that neoliberalism has bought back slavery anyway, just not in plain sight.
Of course they are. Bright aligns best with what the left broadly want to achieve in Auckland. But people aren’t ever going to get behind her since she mostly just grandstands and refuses to even pay her rates.
He was 68 years, 23 days old when inaugurated, the oldest president to take office until Ronald Reagan in 1981. Harrison died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.
So, Clinton’s doctor has said the coughing early last week was due to allergies she’s been struggling with over the summer culminating in a bout of pneumonia, diagnosed on Friday.
But she’s keeping people in the dark on her health.
Mr Trump’s odd reaction – “I know nothin’ ” … when he did know already:
Trump was also at the 9/11 service. He spent part of the morning with his supporter Rudy Giuliani, who was Mayor of New York during the terror attacks — and has repeatedly attacked Clinton’s health.
Trump told an NBC News reporter he wasn’t aware of Clinton’s health scare that morning.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said.
But a Washington Post reporter said otherwise. He said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told him Trump knew about the incident soon after Clinton left.
“The condemnation from Mr. Trump’s critics across the political spectrum was deep. On Twitter, the conservative writer John Podhoretz, in a series of posts, wrote that Mr. Trump had implied that all Second Amendment supporters were “potential assassins.” He added that a president’s words “CANNOT MEAN NOTHING. They are the most important words spoken in the world.” ” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0
That is disingenuous CV. Mr Trump was at a rally of his own supporters. They were whipping up hatred as he spoke. When he made that comment, the looks on the faces of his OWN SUPPORTERS around him, show immediate understanding of the meaning. The video is at the link above.
Sounds like his advisors told him to stay away from trying to take electioneering shots against Clinton at a 9/11 commemoration. He is slowly, smartening up politically.
This is an interesting view written by Rob Howse (posted on the International Law and Policy Blog) of the possibility of TPP with US ISDS reservation being pushed through congress. It still leaves the dead rats of higher pharmaceutical prices, extended copyright and USA-written standards on food, no country of origin labels on beef, etc so is still a bad deal that we should continue to oppose.
“Could the Critics of ISDS Save TPP? An opportunity for Hillary Clinton to strike a new national bargain on trade”
Proposing to President Obama that he present TPP to Congress on the basis of an ISDS reservation would turn Hillary Clinton from a perceived insincere opponent of TPP into an authentic supporter of better, more progressive trade agreements. Being handed the opportunity to secure his legacy in Asia on such reasonable terms, President Obama would appear obstinate, inflexible and unaccommodating if he were to reject the reservation. ( In the case of the Iran deal, the administration was endlessly inventive in the way it adjusted the structure of the accord to address critics and get Congressional approval.)
My own view is that I share many of the critics’ concerns with investor-state arbitration (lack of predictable jurisprudence, no arbitrator accountability and professional standards, weak conflict of interest and ethics rules, lack of diversity in the arbitrator pool etc.) but I would prefer an alternative that preserves international dispute settlement accessible to non-state actors including investors while addressing these problems. An ISDS reservation might well speed up and fortify efforts to find a different way of guaranteeing international norms of non-discrimination, due process and access to justice in the investment area. For me the problem is that an ISDS reservation is not enough to make TPP a meritorious agreement, in the sense of moving in a progressive direction on trade. But add a couple of additional reservations/declarations and I could be persuaded to regard TPP as a worthy compromise, the basis for a united Democratic front against Trump’s aggressive protectionist stance.
How about the massive silence in the Media generally about The Dakaota Pipeline protests, and now the arrest warrant for the journalist Amy Goodman who dared to film the whole incident. Oh yes, and an arrest warrant for Jill Stein, a candidate in the Gloriously Democratic American Elections. Though she is a tagger and I know how property owners feel about that.
I’ve seen so many posts on Facebook crowing about how Obama is stepping up to the plate over this issue…yet the message here is ‘Journalists stand clear…DO NOT report the news that doesn’t fit the narrative’.
And where is dear Hilary on this issue.
Sure, I don’t expect to see her at the protest, the heat is more than enough to give her the vapours…but surely it’s an excellent issue for a apparent Liberal such as herself.
Land of the Free…..unlike Fiji. But only by the slimmest of margins.
The US has always been a dictatorship of the rich and the freedom that they espouse only applies to the rich. Everybody else is oppressed and cowed into submission.
This week our tv news thought footage of two American drug addicted parents comatosed in their car with their kid in the backseat was worth 6pm air time instead…
I have to agree a US oil company deliberating bulldozing native indian sacred sites and unleashing dogs on protestors was much, much more important.
“@realDonaldTrump: I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2013
All I can say is luckily Clinton wasn’t up on a roof painting. In case that’s a big obscure, all the speculation about Clinton’s health and ignoring of her doctor’s opinions is exactly the same shit that people on medical benefits face all the time and that has serious negative real world consequences for them. People feel entitled to diagnose others based on looking at them. That’s a form of discrimination, ableism and bigotry.
If people want to talk about Clinton having pneumonia and how that might affect her ability to run for president, have at it. Clinton’s doctors have put that medical diagnosis into the public domain, presumably with her consent. But the online and MSM armchair diagnosing sets dangerous precedents and is yet another example of left wing debate throwing vulnerable people under the bus each time it suits them. The only people who know shit about Clinton’s health are Clinton, her doctors and the people she chooses to share with.
btw Red, at 69 it’s most likely that Clinton is post-menopausal not menopausal. Unless she uses HRT (which is quite likely given it’s the US), in which case she suspended menopause. The issues raised above stand, as does pointing out that menopause is not an illness.
If she’s not fit to be President she should just come forward and admit it.
Being out at public events on the campaign trail just 2 days after being diagnosed with pneumonia (a serious lung infection) is nothing short of bad judgement about her own health.
And people have a right to question this and question this hard.
Oh do leave off CV. I’m getting sick of your bashing disabled people.
Many USA presidents have had disabilities, one even won a pretty big damn war! Not to mention the New Deal, or other programs.
Others too, have done really well, whist some able bodies presidents have been total idiots. James Buchanan comes to mind. He was of sound mind and body – that did stop him from being a dam fool when it came to the issues of slavery and states rights.
h.r.c may be unlikable for a mutilated of reasons, and I have no problem listing them. Voting record and her association with Wall Street just too name two. BUT, and it’s a big BUT, her disability is not one of them.
So leave off C.V. because this line of argument makes you look like a retard. (retard – def: an able body person who thinks its OK to abuse disabled people)
Oh do leave off CV. I’m getting sick of your bashing disabled people.
Explain to me how Hillary Clinton is a disabled person just because she has pneumonia?
Instead of resting after she is diagnosed with pneumonia she keeps pushing herself on the campaign trail and almost keels over, in public, at a 9/11 terrorist attack commemoration.
If I thought you were genuinely interested CV, I’d explain the dynamic. But watcing you push this abelist shit from the place your politics sit currently doesn’t lead me to believe that explaining it would mean it would be comprehended.
“Colin Craig trial: Jordan Williams breaks down in tears as mother takes stand”
“(Jordans mum) also said that Hager’s book had not harmed her son’s reputation because the claims were false, but agreed he had not taken any legal action relating to those claims.”
Excerpt from the Herald- reminds me of some Trump-like TV soap I’ve seen but can’t recall the name of it.
‘Williams’ older sister, Catherine Murray.’….’an HR consultant and employment relations advocate also took the stand;
“When I first heard that Mr Craig was suing my little brother I was like, ‘Oh my gosh who is this big mean guy with lots of money suing him?” ‘
Guillain-Barrē Syndrome patient admitted to hospital.
A Havelock North woman, in her forties, was admitted to Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital on Friday, with symptoms that have been confirmed as Guillain-Barrē Syndrome.
The patient is in a stable condition and is progressing well with the treatment she has received.
Hawke’s Bay Hospital Physician Andrew Burns said the patient had diarrhoeal symptoms during the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak in August.
Two thirds of people with Guillain–Barré syndrome have experienced an infection before the onset of the condition. Most commonly these are episodes of gastroenteritis or a respiratory tract infection. In many cases, the exact nature of the infection can be confirmed.Approximately 30% of cases are provoked by Campylobacter jejuni bacteria, which cause diarrhea. A further 10% are attributable to cytomegalovirus (CMV, HHV-5). Despite this, only very few people with Campylobacter or CMV infections develop Guillain–Barré syndrome (0.25–0.65 per 1000 and 0.6–2.2 per 1000 episodes, respectively). The strain of Campylobacter involved may determine the risk of GBS; different forms of the bacteria have different lipopolysaccharides on their surface, and some may induce illness (see below) while others will not.
WTF? They take money off women who won’t identify the father of their child? I know it’s opening up a can of worms/right winger wet dream but here’s a petition for anyone interested.
“These sections impose a weekly sanction of $22 or more on beneficiary sole mothers who have not identified the father of their child. This sanction (in its current form of Section 70A of the Social Security Act) is putting into further hardship families already struggling to survive.
Currently there are approximately 17,000 children in Aotearoa New Zealand for which this sanction is imposed. Of the 13,616 parents, 13,298 are women, and only 318 are men. 52.8% are Māori. This policy severely disproportionately effects women and Māori. “
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
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Brilliant cartoon.
‘A problem that is bigger than The Chiefs – In fact bigger than NZ rugby.’
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsBP7CJVIAAhETr.jpg:large
Pity David cunliffe didn’t become pm, he would’ve sorted it.
Your views only make the cartoon’s point stronger.
Pungent commentary in that cartoon. Nasty picture.
I enjoyed this one, which was put up as weekend reading on TransportBlog:
http://gregor.us/coal/the-big-pivot-interest-rates-and-emissions-as-global-population-growth-hits-a-turning-point/
LPrent has commented on similar patterns before.
Ad. A decline in population numbers would be a good thing for humanity, though the Economists demand growth to feed the Economy.
Quoting article:
Low to no interest rates and growth are the norm. The high interest rates and high growth that we’ve had for the last couple of centuries is an anomaly. We’re now heading back to the norm and, shortly after that, we’ll be in de-growth as population declines.
I think cv’s comments about Clinton’s health might have some weight.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11707846
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/hillary-clinton-911-ceremony-ill-overheated-fainted-medical-episode-latest-a7237211.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/11/hillary-clinton-leaves-911-ceremony-after-feeling-overheated
On a close to 30°C August day a woman wearing body armour feels crook – RWNJ noise machine goes nuts.
/
Yes, the noise machine at work, but she wasn’t wearing body armour.
I think questions about her health are warranted, but of course the campaign is going to downplay any event as being inconsequential – which only eggs on their opponents who think they’re trying to cover things up. Most likely the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Two more months of campaigning to go and the physical pace is only increasing from here.
At a public memorial service, really?.
Yes.
This is a video of the incident. She starts out lent back on a concrete barrier and is able to stand with that support. Her staff around her don’t look that concerned.
Her van pulls up and it is when she steps forward that she starts to stagger, when she no longer has the support of the concrete pillar.
More staff quickly surround her as she tries to step forward further.
Just as she reaches the van (look for her blonde bob) she goes down to her knees, perhaps off the kerb. She is helped back up to her feet into the van but at this point it is difficult to see her as her staff have totally surrounded her.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1764586/dramatic-video-captures-moment-hillary-clinton-faints-at-911-ceremony-before-being-bundled-into-a-car-and-whisked-away/
She has the close support of a female aide while leaning against the pillar. I think that the aide has to push her forward to get her staggering to the van.
Personally this still sits in the ‘not enough information’ category; but regardless these ‘incidents’ are starting to pile up. One more and I’d suggest serious questions will have to be answered.
The fact of the MSM running with this is a new development as well. Even if it does turn out to be nothing more than right wing ‘noise’ the only reason why it’s getting traction the deep underlying lack of trust in anything that comes out of the ‘establishment’ these days. Which is exactly the reason why Trump has more than two supporters.
It has to be hoped Clinton is ok. It would be an appalling turn of events at this stage for her to be forced out for this reason.
And for a woman of her age there may well be a simple and very understandable reason. Just no-one wants to say it out loud.
Yeah, these ‘incidents’ are starting to pile up.
/
On the upside, Clinton’s staffer who wiped the last copy of her emails AFTER a Congressional evidence preservation subpoena has been given immunity by the Department of Justice.
You know full well that questions about a candidates health strike directly at their eligibility to run for office.
The Guardian reports:
The temperature in New York City on Sunday morning was in the low 80s fahrenheit, around 28C, with relatively low humidity of around 46% .
That is warmish by kiwi standards, but certainly not unusual or at all extreme. Clearly something has happened here. No-one but you is denying it. What none of us know yet is whether this has any physical significance for Clinton herself. It may be something trivial, or not.
Certainly given that the RW machine has already attacked her on her health, it’s a damned unfortunate coincidence that this acknowledged “medical incident’ lends credence. And as we know in politics, perception is all.
Saying a woman felt crook and noting that the noise machine is cranking up is a denial, really?.
On a close to 30°C August day a woman wearing body armour feels crook – RWNJ noise machine goes nuts.
/
OK so ‘denial’ was the wrong word. How about ‘defensive’?
Nah, sickened.
Sickened to the back teeth by the way supposedly decent left leaning folk are cheering for a dishonest racist hate-mongering narcissist.
+ 1 joe90.
I’ve always solidly and vigorusly cheered for Sanders … I’m surprised you’ve concluded that even he is a ” dishonest racist hate-mongering narcissist”.
That’s you being willfully disingenuous, dude….
I’m happy to stand on my record here as being a consistent Sanders supporter. And at no point have I ever expressed any explicit support for Trump whatsoever. None. Zero.Zip.
Feel free to search this site for any comment by me explicitly and positively backing your contention. Simply being critical of Clinton does not count as being supportive of Trump by implication.
Otherwise you owe me an apology. And you can stop being sickened if it will make you feel better.
If Clinton really does have a significant health issue (and that possibility can no longer be ruled out) … then it is very much in the Democrats interests to come clean now.
I suppose had I referred explicitly to you cheering, you’d have a point. But I didn’t.
btw, here’s the doctors note
And now you want to tell me Hillary Clinton is perfectly healthy, but she’s just had pneumonia?
At her age that can be pretty serious. Why the hell is she working at all?
And just to be clear … you really were not implying I’m a Trump supporter in any shape or form?
She was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and was out standing in the open for an hour plus on Sunday??? Normally pneumonia (i.e. a lung infection) in an older person would require several days bed rest as a precaution.
No.
@ joe
It’s worth expanding on this a bit. I completely agree that Trump is exactly what you describe him as; a ” dishonest racist hate-mongering narcissist”. The ONLY good thing I can think to say about him is that he possibly less vile than all the other candidates the Repugs stood up in their primary.
But it’s a mistake to think this is ALL he is. I’ve loathed John Key from the moment I clapped eyes on his corporate shark, fake social smile. But equally I’ve also consistently argued here the left makes a serious mistake to underestimate him.
And we also make a serious mistake when we ignore the reasons WHY so many Amercan’s will support and vote for Trump. And the complementary set of reasons why so many are suspicious of Clinton. Or as the educated and professional young American I met some weeks back said, “It’s no longer a case of the lessor of two evils, but a choice of two frank evils”.
Trump is a vile person, but he says things that resonate with many Americans who deeply distrust their political establishment. By contrast Clinton is a way more decent human being, but she solidly represents an establishment that is far from decent.
If someone put the rhetorical Colt 45 to my head and told me to vote, I’d pick Clinton in a heartbeat or less. But equally I can understand how someone else may well come to the opposite conclusion. And I believe trying to shame and bully them into silence for making that choice probably doesn’t help.
Normally, people aren’t running for President.
You would have been printing up her death certificate if she’d missed turning up to commemorate 9/11, and Trump would have said she was in mourning for bin laden.
btw – 28C usually stuffs me completely.
+ 1 they arent decent joe they are fake fakes
She’s not that bad.
If she is forced out by an” appalling turn of events” would Kaine step in or will they talk to Bernie ?
A Bernie-Kaine ticket, or a Kaine-Bernie ticket?
Having said that, whoever the nominee is traditionally gets their choice of running mate…
Actually I take that back, I think the Democratic Party would come in behind Joe Biden.
Yes, Biden is the stand-in.
CV Biden did not campaign and win any states in the primary, are you saying Biden would be a compromise candidate ?
Is that how the rules read ?
I have just answered my own question.
http://heavy.com/news/2016/09/who-would-bernie-replace-hillary-clinton-if-dropped-out-democratic-nominee-health-kaine-biden-videos-pneumonia/
Interesting scenario’s with the American system.
“…The fact of the MSM running with this is a new development…”
Except it isn’t. The “swift boating” noise machine has been hammering at the big lie since forever. All this does is legitimise the MSM jumping on board the rumour mill, and laundering it into mainstream fact.
The United States is completely fucked as long as it remains in a state of polarised political fantasy. The US right is the complete rejection of the enlightenment. It is very much a mirror of ISIS. If you think that is a bit strong, imagine what sort of country the USA will be if Trump wins. Mass arrests, ethnic cleansing, openly cosying up to lawless kleptocrats like Putin and the butchers of Beijing, it will all be on the table straight away, and logic of extremism would see a whole lot more as well before long.
Here is a bold prediction: If Trump wins, and he carries on like he has on campaign, the US military (as the last functioning bi-partisan organ of the US federal government) will act to remove him. It wouldn’t have to be a rebellion – the merest hint of refusing to obey orders will see him forced from office by an establishment with to much to lose in having the constitution – with it’s fat cat jobs and sinecures – shredded.
If (and there is no comment I have seen backing thecomment) that she was wearing body armour – so we’re the many police etc who were there. Didn’t see them being carried out and being dumped in a van.
Any reasonable presidential hopeful with comments about here health would have gone to the hospital and been checked out and provided a “doctors note” as opposed to hiding at her daughters home and then a weak photo opportunity later walking down the street.
This will cause more questions and she could have stopped it – but nope.
Where do people get the idea that only a seriously ill person could faint from heatstroke after standing for a while at some ceremony in 30-degree heat? Have you never seen it happen yourself?
28 deg C heat, low humidity (46%), a medium light crowd (it wasn’t a mosh pit).
A healthy person should be able to regulate their own body temp pretty easily in those circumstances without staggering and falling to their knees.
Older people have a lot more trouble regulating their body heat than younger people.
Hope it wasn’t the booze. Its lonely at the top.
It was actually 28 degC, and the humidity a comfortable 46%. That is warm, but definitely not oppressive. Air temperature by itself is an insufficient measure of our ability to regulate body heat, you have to take into account humidity to obtain ‘wet bulb’ temperature.
http://www.bom.gov.au/info/thermal_stress/
I can’t rule out that the weather did play some role in what happened, but certainly it cannot have been the dominant factor because presumably there were many other people at the same event and there are no reports of mass faintings or stumblings.
People faint, haven’t you watched clips of highly trained soldiers fainting, what is wrong with them?
She didn’t faint, she didn’t lose consciousness.
How do you know
because you can’t walk to and climb into a van after you have lost consciousness
There are many ways to faint including and up to collapsing.
Really, CV? At what level of consciousness is this impossible? How do you know this? What duration of this reduced consciousness is required to meet your non-medical threshold of “fainted”? How are you able to diagnose this level and duration of reduced consciousness from an obstructed shot of the back of her head?
Hey McFlock, impressed with your attempts to liken Clinton’s loss of motor control, lower body strength and balance over several seconds to some kind of non-insidious fainting spell; maybe that’s all it is.
Nice deflection from the questions about your diagnostic process.
I guess if it ducks like a quack…
Hey, how do you know she experienced loss of motor control and balance issues and lower body strength? Any one of those could be functionally indistinguishable to someone observing from a distance with an obstructed view.
You’re just making shit up.
Usually because they’ve been required to stand rigidly at attention for hours, virtually motionless. Thermal stress is only part of it.
As I said above, if the conditions at the event were the dominant and root cause of what has happened to Clinton here, then logically we would have reports of many. many other people fainting as well.
But we don’t do we?
People faint for all sorts of reasons, medical and situational. These reasons include:
…fasting long hours, taking in too little food and fluids, low blood pressure, hypoglycemia, high g-force, emotional distress, and lack of sleep. Wikipedia.
None of this can be diagnosed by video.
How is it even a “faint”? She was walking, though staggering, and was able to step up into a van with help.
Marty already answered this question. So did McFlock. I suggest you try Wikipedia or a search for syncope at Google Scholar.
Nah, ask your gut, your gut has more nerve endings than your brain.
I personally have no doubt that there will be more health incidents over the next 2 months as her public schedule intensifies significantly.
Not quite true, but not entirely false either. The enteric nervous system has a massive neuronal network.
*whoosh*
😆
It was actually 28 degC, and the humidity a comfortable 46%. That is warm, but definitely not oppressive.
Not in Australia, maybe. Here in Palmerston North, where we’re used to a somewhat more reasonable climate, when it hits 28 degrees I turn on the air conditioning and lie on the couch.
Take a look at the Thermal Stress link I gave above at 3.1.3.1.2
28 degC at close to 100% humidity is exactly as you describe it … awful.
The same dry bulb air temperature at 46% is not … it’s actually quite pleasant.
Palmerston North, nice town.
BTW Scott Adams says that the Presidential race is effectively over now. He brings a US perspective that I should have thought of before now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq2g6UhLbb0
I hope this is the right link…I’m at work with no sound on the computer…anyway, it’s Family Guy the 9/11 episode.
Though more important is this piece in the Guardian, Hilary is, weirdly, onto a winner with the whole 9/11 thing.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/09/hillary-clinton-9-11-attacks-response
Ya reckon….
https://twitter.com/Ala4afam/status/775103805495140352
The aspiring Commander and Chief staggering and nearly collapsing at the 9/11 terrorist attacks commemoration. Yeah, I think Scott Adams has got the electoral analysis of that image just about right.
DNC Calling ‘Emergency Meeting’ To Consider Replacing Hillary Clinton
http://bipartisanreport.com/2016/09/11/breaking-dnc-calling-emergency-meeting-to-consider-replacing-hillary-clinton-details/
In NYC you only collapse from heat if an aeroplane hits you.
I really shouldn’t laugh.
In New York you only collapse on the 9th September 2001.
Never beforehand.
Never afterwards.
The birther nonsense started when folk who were just asking questions demanded that Obama release his birth certificate.
How did that work out for him?
Sanders was always the stronger candidate, and the Democratic hierarchy should have picked him.
Remember that Reagan was suffering dementia in his 2nd term and carried on being President. Crazy that he could?
Not really, he just did what he was told.
Its getting worse: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/84152219/us-presidential-candidate-hillary-clinton-has-pneumonia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison
He was 68 years, 23 days old when inaugurated, the oldest president to take office until Ronald Reagan in 1981. Harrison died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.
😉
Nice historical reference. You are a mischievious little imp you know, chris73.
🙂
I’m sure Trump will bring this up.
Lots to work with.
http://starship.python.net/crew/manus/Presidents/faq/causes.html
I’m sure Trump will bring it up too – I gather he is ill with “Clintonitis” and has had just about as much as he can stomach.
The pair should just pull out and leave it to someone who can do the job.
Yeah CV Nancy really was the first ( non sworn) female president.
John key has suffered a couple of ‘pass outs’ and still carries on. ( sorry can’t find sources as in a rush.)
I think its because people realise how hard he works and as such are more forgiving
Well back in 2013 he fainted at some restaurant, due to jet lag after a holiday in Hawaii..poor man. Interestingly I think he may have been treated at a public hospital, you would think he’d go private, but I guess he’s always up for a freebie from the taxpayer.
“but I guess he’s always up for a freebie from the taxpayer.”
John Key does pay a fair amount of tax, so he’s no more or less deserving of public healthcare than any other member of society.
Also, public hospitals deal with all emergency care; private only deal with non-emergency stuff.
Actually its not that I don’t think the wealthy should have free healthcare…it’s that, in the case of Key, they are willing to let whole sectors of Health care go to the dogs, safe in the knowledge that should they require serious health care they will go private.
I think all politicians should receive free health care.
I think they should stand by their work and not have Private Health care.
Alternatively:
1. Funding healthcare at a level that could get everyone seen-to for whatever their condition, within 7 days, would be prohibitively expensive for the country
2. So offer an affordable public service, that does a very good job, even if it can’t administer initial treatment to all patients within 7 days
3. Allow those who have the money, to pay the extra money to get faster treatment
Also, politicians are on the public purse. If they’re sitting around sick for 4 months off-work, then they’re not working for the public, wasting public money. Alternatively if they pay extra for the private healthcare they need, they can be on their feet quicker and back to serving the country.
This latter point suggests that Parliamentary Services should be paying for private health insurance for all MPs. Unsure if they do or not.
This latter point suggests that Parliamentary Services should be paying for private health insurance for all MPs….Politicians aren’t the only people ‘serving’ the country, so how about police, teachers, health professionals, rubbish collectors, army, etc etc.
Infact any person out of the loop of work is a hindrance to the economy…so how about, oh, I know this will sound ‘out there’, but how about Fully Publicly Funded Health care.
By the by, I’m not sure where the seven days come into it…I just mean care in a timely manner, with conditions being treated early rather than latter…which would have so many economic advantages it’s hard to know where to begin.
I was answering your point when you said politicians should be banned from using private healthcare.
Well, what do you mean by that? What metrics are you going to use to decide when it is Fully Funded or not? How much are you willing to spend? If that means the current mid-level rate has to go up from 17.5% to 30% to afford it, would you still support that?
I had to come up with some sort of concrete term beyond “treat people who are sick” because it could be argued that our current system does that. It’s pretty much impossible to argue that our current system will give initial treatment to anyone with any condition within 7 days of presenting, hence why I used that as a benchmark.
This is a reply to Lanthanide’s comment,
“It’s pretty much impossible to argue that our current system will give initial treatment to anyone with any condition within 7 days of presenting”, it’s hard to know where to start, but how about this article http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/73956930/hip-and-knee-patients-asked-to-endure-more-pain-before-surgery–labour
or this
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/78945273/Cantabrians-wait-in-crippling-pain-for-elective-surgery
You will no doubt tell me these are ‘elective surgery’, but if you have a medical condition that means you cannot work it is hardly something you are selfishly ‘electing’ to do. It is necessary.
And yes, up the spending. If all companies and corporations paid their fair share of tax we could afford it.
Having people sitting at home on benefits while they magically disappear from waiting lists is not the cheap alternative.
“And yes, up the spending. If all companies and corporations paid their fair share of tax we could afford it.”
That money has to come from somewhere. Where are you proposing the money will come from?
Most of those brand new US dollars are issued by the Federal Reserve to the tune of hundreds of millions a month.
Why? We all pay for the medical training and infrastructure that enable the system to function. How does diverting our resources to monied queue-jumpers improve matters?
Sorry, not sure what you’re talking about.
Are the private hospitals going to set up their own medical schools, fully funded by their investors and clients? Or will they wait for the taxpayer to educate their staff for them?
How many doctors do you think would attend our public medical schools (for which they pay big student loans, don’t forget), if there was no private medical work available in NZ?
How many of our trained doctors do you think would fly off overseas, if we had 0 private practice available?
Most surgeons and other specialists in NZ work in both the public and private system.
As usual, it’s a complex situation, there is no single “right” answer.
In our health system as it stands today? Moot point.
OAB answer is Cuba, just don’t let them leave OAB has numerous examples and studies to show there are no unintended consequences to socialist policy, any such discussion to highlight as such will result in accusation of lies, bigotry parroting and questioning your ancestoral lineage, so don’t bother
Red, no, you can’t conceive of my opinion so don’t try. I’m not sure being subject to overt super-power bullying is a great position for any country to be in so no, I wouldn’t go the Cuban route.
Right now, the privatisation disease is rife in our health system. Cut it out, then burn it. Show Compass the door.
As the largest domestic player in the economy, we (the government, on our behalf) have every right to establish and maintain a health care system that makes private provision a very specialised market indeed. Not banned, just struggling to hold onto its market-share in the face of excellent public service provision.
The National Party has shown itself to be utterly incompetent to build houses, let alone hospitals.
Why not private and public side by side forcing each other to compete and be efficient
🙄
That’s what I’m proposing: greedy troughers who just happen to be members of Cabinet Club can compete on the open market for a change.
If privatisation worked, it would have done so by now. It doesn’t work and if you believe it does you really need to stop lying to yourself because I got the message before the failed experiment even began.
I heard on RNZ this morning that NZ is going to give ten million dollars (from memory) to the Pacific Islands to encourage more people to play sport. Surely there are greater problems than bloody professional sport? Unbloodybelievable!
Sounds like a soft, unaccountable bribe
It’s a National thing – the thinking is that PIs are thickos who can’t be educated, so the only way any of them will get a well-paid job is as a professional sportsman (what the women are supposed to beats me – cook, clean, raise kids and go to church, I guess). So this is like philanthropy. And also what CV said.
Not when PI countries biggest forgein exchange earnings comes from overseas remittances, and a big and growing chunk of that been professional sportsmen. therefore it is an investment in the unique sporting capability of PIs
What a weird and unlikely rationale.
Why, if we help train professional sportsmen that can make millions who then support their families at home why is this different from any other investment in people
Note also CV not my rationale but Samoan primeminster on announcement of investment with Jk this morning on One
I guess his people didn’t need that money for water treatment or cyclone defences
I do not think giving people opportunity is a bad thing, I also don’t think it’s an argument it is one or the other, this is not the only aid that goes to the islands so it’s on top of that so can’t be a bad thing
Anyone else see the correlation between Apples money in the bank and the fact they do not pay taxes fairly. I wonder how many other multinational buying sprees are funded from money that would have otherwise been paid in tax to provide the environment which enable them to make there money.
Did you see my post on Apple yesterday?
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11092016/#comment-1229483
Yes. Started watching but did not get time to finish. Shame more people in power do not pay attention to the commentary.
They are in on it.
So Frank Bainimarama and his police thugs have arrested Opposition leaders and thrown them into prison. Some have been released but others are still there. Their crime? They organised a forum and talked with one one another. But its ok folks. John Key says it is a democratically elected government (yeah? I thought it was more like the voters didn’t dare vote any other way) and its quite common for governments to have a reshuffle from time to time. In other words he’s not concerned.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201815753
What the MPs fear is that under the Constitution, if any charges are laid then they cannot stand for Parliament. And under Frank’s rule charges can be laid about anything real or trumped up.
Ugh.
Nearly 20% of Trump supporters consider the abolition of slavery a mistake:
http://www.vox.com/2016/2/24/11105552/trump-supporters-slavery
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-supporters-for-intolerance.html?smid=tw-share
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ctucuikdsj/econToplines.pdf
A YouGov/Economist poll in January asked respondents if they approved or disapproved of “the executive order that freed all slaves in the states that were in rebellion against the federal government.
That’s alongside the Holocaust deniers (or supporters!) and the KKK all actively endorsing Trump and Andrew Shannon, head of Breitbart, which has direct Neo-N— links and is now running Trump’s campaign.
Pro-slavery, pro-N—, pro genocide. That increasingly describes a large portion of Trump’s support and he’s knowingly capitalising on it.
Ta-Nehisi Coates weighs in.
Hillary Clinton Was Politically Incorrect, but She Wasn’t Wrong About Trump’s Supporters
Clinton said half of Donald Trump’s supporters were prejudiced. If anything, her numbers are too low.
[…]
Much like Trump’s alleged opposition to the Iraq War, this not an impossible claim to investigate. We know, for instance, some nearly 60 percent of Trump’s supporters hold “unfavorable views” of Islam, and 76 percent support a ban on Muslims entering the United States. We know that some 40 percent of Trump’s supporters believe blacks are more violent, more criminal, lazier, and ruder than whites. Two-thirds of Trump’s supporters believe the first black president in this country’s history is not American. These claim are not ancillary to Donald Trump’s candidacy, they are a driving force behind it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/basket-of-deplorables/499493/
I’m sure Clinton’s comment on half of Trump’s supporters being an irredeemable basket of deplorables is going to be a big hit with the liberal left 10% in the USA.
And more than 50% of all Americans believe in Ghosts, Heaven and Hell.
And the world was created in ten days, 10,000 years ago. The dumbness… it hurts.
But it was the Democrats – Bill Clnton in fact, who signed the Omnibus Bill which criminalised Blacks for what had been minor crimes and put an extra 2M blacks into the for-profit prison system.
That’s the new Jim Crow, thanks to Clinton and the Democrats.
The Omnibus Bill and NAFTA were both terrible and should be repealed immediately.
However, every time a criticism of Trump is made or there is yet another revelation about the of his evil support base, you divert with a weird version of “But Laaaaaabour…”
So let’s be direct. Suppose the YouGov/Economist poll were being conducted.
Do you:
(A) Support slavery
(B) Think the Holocaust never happened
(C) Think the Holocaust was cool
(D) A and B
(E) A and C
(F) Shrug, don’t mind being associated with the above
(G) Dread the resurgence in support for N—sm and slavery
Unless I’m mistaken, you’ve indicated F already.
I gave up on the Left’s internal social qualification scheme of needing to jump up and down in outrage over this and that irrelevancy at every opportunity, or else you are a bad bad person.
And I’ve been opposing the West’s billion dollar support of the unconstitutional neo-Nzi far right Banderist backed junta in Kiev for a couple of years now while most Standardistas just let it sail by without remark because you know, anti-Russia.
Concern about active support in the Trump campaign for N–sm, genocide and slavery is “Irrelevant” and worthy of a “Shrug” and yet another disingenuous diversion.
Sickening. Probably sick.
As I said, I’ve given up on the left’s internal social qualification scheme of outrage at this, condemning that, etc.
Clinton is backed by neocon banksters, corporations and weapon manufacturers who impoverish, kill, maim and poison millions of people in the developing world, implode entire countries and are intent on escalating nuclear military tensions with China and Russia.
Ahead of this, I pick Trump any day of the week.
Rhinocrates….I think that we who can’t back Hillary know that Trump is a bloody loud-mouthed idiot and makes the most ridiculous comments etc….. but we also believe he won’t get to carry them out, through a variety of reasons . The small glimmer of hope for him is that he wants to stick it to the Establishment (and I’ll admit that’s not enough to hang on to).
The problem with that ” oh so genuine ” Hillary is that she is more than capable of covertly being worse than Trump and, basically, is such a warmongering bitch that she will set off nuclear obliteration. It is very hard to see any glimmer of hope of Hillary being a good President.
The only hope we had was Sanders.
So ,imo, neither Clinton nor Trump are acceptable. If I had to pick the lesser of two evils ( which is still evil) I would probably opt for stupid bloody Trump in the feint hope he will stick it to Wall St et al.
Garibaldi, you won’t see any defence of Hillary from me and I think that Sanders should have been the nominee. I don’t see Clinton doing anything better than kicking problems further down the road – at best.
OK, I want to have a look at a couple of points you make here:
but we also believe he won’t get to carry them out, through a variety of reasons
I don’t know what these reasons are, but evil and stupid can be as dangerous as evil and competent.
However, even assuming Trump is ineffectual, as I’ve repeatedly said, he’s riding a wave of outright, unashamed f*scism. If he were to be abducted by aliens tomorrow, the forces that he have sponsored have already been unleashed. There are plenty now, some even worse, who see themselves legitimised already.
The small glimmer of hope for him is that he wants to stick it to the Establishment (and I’ll admit that’s not enough to hang on to).
All very well, but there will inevitably be collateral damage. Bloody collateral damage. Unfortunately the elites have got where they are by ensuring that damage is always diverted to those who have the least resources and who make the most convenient scapegoats. Jews for example have been the historical favourite.
If President Trump fails in his plans and finds his support slipping, his hounds will go hunting. They’re already howling.
Also, really do not overfocus on particular personalities, either Clinton as the Wicked Witch of the West or Trump as knight in gilded armour or useful battering ram. We know what’s behind Clinton, but what’s behind Trump is far greater than him too. Take either of them away and others will fill their place and those scarecrows will be worshipped as idols too, and they too will be replaceable. Look instead at the forces behind both of them.
The American f*scist/”alt-right” is a diverse rabble, running from Silicon Valley trolls to Christian Dominionists and in their apocalyptic fantasies, nuclear war is a necessity. You’ll just see worse capitalism and cronyism if the first side dominates and if the other does, well… they think that God will take them away to Heaven if it all turns to radioactive custard. Pity about everyone else.
There’s an old proverb: If you desire vengeance, first dig two graves.
If Trump is an instrument of vengeance against evil, don’t assume that there won’t be evil consequences.
However, it’s quite clear that CV’s resentment has turned to obsessive nihilism.
Nihilism? You’re clever but don’t outsmart yourself. Clinton is the warmonger neocon who will keep ratcheting up tensions with Russia in Eastern Europe and China in the South China Sea to the nth degree simply to sell more weapons, even at the risk of starting a nuclear exchange.
That’s nihilism.
Whereas Trump’s attempt at international diplomacy went so well that the minister who invited him to Mexico had to resign.
And this is the guy you want to negotiate with the Russians, Chinese and North Koreans. What can possibly go wrong /sarc
Trump’s been saying for a while that NATO partners should be paying more for their defence. That’s sure to please Lockheed Martin’s shareholders. They won’t be spending money on local programmes – America used its muscle to kill local programmes like Canada’s Avro Arrow and Britain’s TSR 2 so they could sell American weapons. Even now Britain’s Queen Elizabeth class carriers will have F-35s, not navalised Eurofighters or second generation Harriers.
Meanwhile one interpretation of Japan’s Mitsubishi X-2 programme is that it’s to demonstrate a command of stealth technology so they can be trusted with F-22s sold or built under license (as the F-15J was) The USAF has been asking about reopening the F-22 production line. Again, an escalation of Japanese military presence is within Trump’s declared intention.
Clinton won’t be any better than her predecessors, but Trump’s the one who said that they should buy more… and that means American.
In short, Trump wouldn’t put a stop to weapons proliferation, indeed his policy entails the opposite.
@ rhino crates – Nearly 20% of Trump supporters consider the abolition of slavery a mistake:
30 years of Charter schools in the US. That’s what happens when you allow ‘special schools’ teaching their own curriculum with no oversights to be allowed to flourish. i.e. Poorly educated population who want to bring back slavery.
Although some might argue that neoliberalism has bought back slavery anyway, just not in plain sight.
Debt slavery, and sweatshops offshore. It’s a hydra-headed monster for sure.
Which candidate in the Auckland mayoralty race do you think most aligns with the desires of the left?
Penny Bright?
Probably (sigh) Penny Bright.
Yet, City Vision (the coalition of Labour, Greens and community independents) are endorsing Goff. Go figure?
Of course they are. Bright aligns best with what the left broadly want to achieve in Auckland. But people aren’t ever going to get behind her since she mostly just grandstands and refuses to even pay her rates.
“Bright aligns best with what the left broadly want to achieve in Auckland. But people aren’t ever going to get behind her…”
Which tends to be the problem with the left. If we aren’t prepared to support those standing for us, we’ll never get the outcomes we desire.
People will support a strong candidate on the left, but Bright is not a strong candidate.
Goff isn’t a strong candidate for the left, yet he’s getting the endorsement and is expected to win.
So now Hillary Clintons doctor is saying she has pneumonia.
Her health will continue to be in the spotlight for the rest of the campaign.
As I posted earlier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Harrison
He was 68 years, 23 days old when inaugurated, the oldest president to take office until Ronald Reagan in 1981. Harrison died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.
😉
I wonder how Trump will play this out
So, Clinton’s doctor has said the coughing early last week was due to allergies she’s been struggling with over the summer culminating in a bout of pneumonia, diagnosed on Friday.
But she’s keeping people in the dark on her health.
//
Mr Trump’s odd reaction – “I know nothin’ ” … when he did know already:
Trump was also at the 9/11 service. He spent part of the morning with his supporter Rudy Giuliani, who was Mayor of New York during the terror attacks — and has repeatedly attacked Clinton’s health.
Trump told an NBC News reporter he wasn’t aware of Clinton’s health scare that morning.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said.
But a Washington Post reporter said otherwise. He said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told him Trump knew about the incident soon after Clinton left.
“It was actually Trump who told me what was going on,” King reportedly said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hillary-clinton-left-9-11-service-feeling-overheated-article-1.2787381
I am reminded that at the time that he invited the gun lobby to take Hillary out, her health was still fine.
That was the paranoid liberal lefty interpretation, yes.
“The condemnation from Mr. Trump’s critics across the political spectrum was deep. On Twitter, the conservative writer John Podhoretz, in a series of posts, wrote that Mr. Trump had implied that all Second Amendment supporters were “potential assassins.” He added that a president’s words “CANNOT MEAN NOTHING. They are the most important words spoken in the world.” ” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0
Yes, the Republican hierarchy disgruntled at Trump’s candidacy took the opportunity to have a go at him as well.
That is disingenuous CV. Mr Trump was at a rally of his own supporters. They were whipping up hatred as he spoke. When he made that comment, the looks on the faces of his OWN SUPPORTERS around him, show immediate understanding of the meaning. The video is at the link above.
Sounds like his advisors told him to stay away from trying to take electioneering shots against Clinton at a 9/11 commemoration. He is slowly, smartening up politically.
Leopards… spots
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0
Yep he’s turning into what you despise — but not quick enough.
This is an interesting view written by Rob Howse (posted on the International Law and Policy Blog) of the possibility of TPP with US ISDS reservation being pushed through congress. It still leaves the dead rats of higher pharmaceutical prices, extended copyright and USA-written standards on food, no country of origin labels on beef, etc so is still a bad deal that we should continue to oppose.
“Could the Critics of ISDS Save TPP? An opportunity for Hillary Clinton to strike a new national bargain on trade”
http://worldtradelaw.typepad.com/
How about the massive silence in the Media generally about The Dakaota Pipeline protests, and now the arrest warrant for the journalist Amy Goodman who dared to film the whole incident. Oh yes, and an arrest warrant for Jill Stein, a candidate in the Gloriously Democratic American Elections. Though she is a tagger and I know how property owners feel about that.
I’ve seen so many posts on Facebook crowing about how Obama is stepping up to the plate over this issue…yet the message here is ‘Journalists stand clear…DO NOT report the news that doesn’t fit the narrative’.
And where is dear Hilary on this issue.
Sure, I don’t expect to see her at the protest, the heat is more than enough to give her the vapours…but surely it’s an excellent issue for a apparent Liberal such as herself.
Land of the Free…..unlike Fiji. But only by the slimmest of margins.
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/10/breaking_arrest_warrant_issued_for_amy
The US has always been a dictatorship of the rich and the freedom that they espouse only applies to the rich. Everybody else is oppressed and cowed into submission.
NZ is going the same way.
How about the massive silence in the Media generally about The Dakaota Pipeline protests…
I only know about it because I saw it on TV news a few days’ back, can’t remember whether TV1 or 3 but it hardly constitutes “silence.”
Yes Draco (sigh)
We’re following in the US’ footsteps and thus the result will be the same.
@Siobhan +1
This week our tv news thought footage of two American drug addicted parents comatosed in their car with their kid in the backseat was worth 6pm air time instead…
I have to agree a US oil company deliberating bulldozing native indian sacred sites and unleashing dogs on protestors was much, much more important.
All class.
/
Sounds like a tweet from the Natz.
But change haters and losers to
bludgers and losers.
All I can say is luckily Clinton wasn’t up on a roof painting. In case that’s a big obscure, all the speculation about Clinton’s health and ignoring of her doctor’s opinions is exactly the same shit that people on medical benefits face all the time and that has serious negative real world consequences for them. People feel entitled to diagnose others based on looking at them. That’s a form of discrimination, ableism and bigotry.
If people want to talk about Clinton having pneumonia and how that might affect her ability to run for president, have at it. Clinton’s doctors have put that medical diagnosis into the public domain, presumably with her consent. But the online and MSM armchair diagnosing sets dangerous precedents and is yet another example of left wing debate throwing vulnerable people under the bus each time it suits them. The only people who know shit about Clinton’s health are Clinton, her doctors and the people she chooses to share with.
btw Red, at 69 it’s most likely that Clinton is post-menopausal not menopausal. Unless she uses HRT (which is quite likely given it’s the US), in which case she suspended menopause. The issues raised above stand, as does pointing out that menopause is not an illness.
If she’s not fit to be President she should just come forward and admit it.
Being out at public events on the campaign trail just 2 days after being diagnosed with pneumonia (a serious lung infection) is nothing short of bad judgement about her own health.
And people have a right to question this and question this hard.
Speaking about not fit…….(yes, I know, I know, cheap shot)
Oh do leave off CV. I’m getting sick of your bashing disabled people.
Many USA presidents have had disabilities, one even won a pretty big damn war! Not to mention the New Deal, or other programs.
Others too, have done really well, whist some able bodies presidents have been total idiots. James Buchanan comes to mind. He was of sound mind and body – that did stop him from being a dam fool when it came to the issues of slavery and states rights.
h.r.c may be unlikable for a mutilated of reasons, and I have no problem listing them. Voting record and her association with Wall Street just too name two. BUT, and it’s a big BUT, her disability is not one of them.
So leave off C.V. because this line of argument makes you look like a retard. (retard – def: an able body person who thinks its OK to abuse disabled people)
Post script: joe90 same goes for your cheap shot.
Explain to me how Hillary Clinton is a disabled person just because she has pneumonia?
Instead of resting after she is diagnosed with pneumonia she keeps pushing herself on the campaign trail and almost keels over, in public, at a 9/11 terrorist attack commemoration.
That bad judgement is worth a bash.
Just like the painter on the roof. Bash away.
how is it you believe that Hillary is somehow disabled or chronically sick like the painter on the roof?
If I thought you were genuinely interested CV, I’d explain the dynamic. But watcing you push this abelist shit from the place your politics sit currently doesn’t lead me to believe that explaining it would mean it would be comprehended.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11707904
weed vs alcohol , harm and addiction levels
‘News’ is manufactured to create specific responses within the reader
Some here are so invested in manufactured ‘news’ stories and then argue with others about which poison will kill less people
Attachment and reaction are the objectives with divide and conquer being the outcome
Look out, it’s a trap….
Now ‘Dirty Politics’ the book/emails are getting mentioned in the very bizzarre case of ‘moral’ Williams & ‘magic hands’ Craig. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11708048
“Colin Craig trial: Jordan Williams breaks down in tears as mother takes stand”
“(Jordans mum) also said that Hager’s book had not harmed her son’s reputation because the claims were false, but agreed he had not taken any legal action relating to those claims.”
Excerpt from the Herald- reminds me of some Trump-like TV soap I’ve seen but can’t recall the name of it.
‘Williams’ older sister, Catherine Murray.’….’an HR consultant and employment relations advocate also took the stand;
“When I first heard that Mr Craig was suing my little brother I was like, ‘Oh my gosh who is this big mean guy with lots of money suing him?” ‘
They do it so well…More popcorn anyone?
Guillain-Barrē Syndrome patient admitted to hospital.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11708187
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain%E2%80%93Barr%C3%A9_syndrome#Causes
WTF? They take money off women who won’t identify the father of their child? I know it’s opening up a can of worms/right winger wet dream but here’s a petition for anyone interested.
http://www.aaap.org.nz/stopthesanctions
http://www.aaap.org.nz/stop_the_sanctions_faq
“These sections impose a weekly sanction of $22 or more on beneficiary sole mothers who have not identified the father of their child. This sanction (in its current form of Section 70A of the Social Security Act) is putting into further hardship families already struggling to survive.
Currently there are approximately 17,000 children in Aotearoa New Zealand for which this sanction is imposed. Of the 13,616 parents, 13,298 are women, and only 318 are men. 52.8% are Māori. This policy severely disproportionately effects women and Māori. “
Onenews poll just released has Andrew Little calling it a “rouge poll”.
Poor guy…at 26% its as bad as it gets. Oh wait maybe we need to wait until 20% comes up 🙂
It seems NZF are the winners. National steady as she goes…
Have you started drinking already Chuck?
“rouge?” Colmar Brunton is usually more of a blue poll than ‘rouge’ I think.
1000 people sampled with a a margin of error at …oh ..let’s say 100%