nah Siobahn i’m home now, I replaced the phone, I got myt old number back with the kind help from 2degree’s and feel sad more, that I made so much effort over 2 days to find this.. lady of the night.. and nothing was done, sad our police seem to not want to add to their stats?
Picked up a hitchhicker in Glenfeild on a road trip 3 day’s ago..approaches me filling up with petrol and kindly asks if i’m heading towards the city centre(Auckland) being the mug I am I was kind and said yes..stole my phone and money and scammed me doing that like a pro. Ended up hunting her for 2 day’s on K’rd. I have just spent 2 day’s in the biggest shit hole I ever had to endure chasing [deleted] it turns out to get my phone back..here’s the crux. I tracked [deleted] to a corner on a K’rd. twice I phoned the police to say here she is.. right here.. SHe’s on video at the mobil on K’rd.. and still they did nothing.. NOTHING.. it took 20 minutes for them to turn up and there advise was it was only a phone go home and forget it.. They wouldn’t look at the video of all angles and previous day. Told me the video was too grainy? bullshit there, they also have multiple camera’s at garages.. he says he can only see her back..bullshit.. It was a total disgrace by the police in solving this crime., after doing all the leg work for them I get told if I touch her..I go to jail [deleted] took the piss and stood there laughing at me with my phone in her hand never changed the number either..
The police in this country are lazy, useless, uninterested in solving crime and happy to just give you a piece of paper. [deleted] will still be there, doing it to people and on K’rd it seems the police are not interested in upholding the Law. Or are they getting back handers? Next cop asks me anything can fuck right off.
In the end I had to go to Auckland central and plead fopr them to allow me to use there phone to call 2 degree’s as when your travelling and loose your phone how the hell do you phone anyone?
use a phone box..i thought that..tried the phone at Northcross takes a card.. went to dairy’s at least 12 no one had cards for the phone.. frustrated..i could have literally murdered someone by the end of this..,Bullshit.
I got so angry at the police attitude and rudeness and lack of actually helping me I nearly took the law into my own hands and smashed the living crap out of her. Problem was i’m 50 she was young and I suddenly found out if they run from me I can’t catch them anymore.
The police in this country have turned into a joke..any cop reads this, woe behold you next time you pull me over for something..
[So sure, you’re angry. But a couple of things. 1. This is a political blog, not some bloody facebook feed. 2. Sexist epithets have no place here.] – Bill
politicians have a responsibility to uphold our services, the angle I was making was our police have become useless with example. and a ho’s a ho..u think I should talk about her after what she did with manners. I’m not labelling women in general, so get off your PC soapbox and don’t be so bloody women rights and distracting from the points. I thought after reading your comment back.
The police seem to have a big lack of wanting to do anything these days.. what’s with that? Never used to be like this.
What I was expecting back on OPEN FORUM 14/1/2017 was comments about the sad state of our police after my long example.
I find this a lot here..you mods, mod in a way that stifles freedom of expression and stops talking points. You accuse people of having agenda’s they never intended and at times I think you go on like old knitting ladies tut tutting everything you can.. get a grip on IRL mate.
I’m not angry.. it’s just the way I write and you read it..and thought so, why would I be angry on the standard for something she did to me, or what the nz police seem unable to do , when you do the work for them and they still make no effort to arrest her.. that’s a talking point on politics IMHO. and not a anger outburst.
Hey Richard, good to see you back. Can you please not have a go at the mods, you will just get another ban and I like your presence on TS.
Btw, TS apparently used to be a free for all in its first few years and the place got overrun with trolls. There are good reasons for having moderation, one of which is to make the place more inclusive. We have a lot of leeway here all things considered but there are limits if we want people to enjoy the place.
Fair enough, and thanks wek a for the welcome back.. the mods, think I have anger issues from past behaviours I certainly understand that, but right there was a case of painting with brushes mate, I was not angry here, I just made a comment on what happened, to explain why I was not impressed with the service I got from the police under this National leadership. I thought it was a good talking point, however the mods went straight to the word Ho, and started acusing me of being angry. If I keep posting here I won’t tolerate unreasonable calls of me being angry as much as it’s my responsibility to remain calm after coming back from a ban.. or there is no point being here if they are running on me being angry in everything I say.
I see I put in some anger about how I felt at that time, when it was going on, it was not meant to come across as angry now.. as you could I was hoping read it and also get a glimpse of how frustrated one can get when dealing with the police who left me feeling so mad I wanted to take the law into my own hands. I see reading it back how it looks like anger, perhaps i’d ask the mods to not read comments once, but re-read them a couple of times and ask themselves, is there any other reason he could of wrote that, that way without it being unjustified anger.
Stephen Kings a great writer IMHO, and he can make you FEEL how it was when something happened, IMHO I think that is great story telling and comes across as passionate and with feelings.
So when someone writes something you have to read things a few timnes to understand all the nuances in what is written and not rush to hastey conclusions. Also feedback is good, and my comment back is good feedback they should not take it to heart but for what it is.
Perhap’s I should start voting National, if labour people can’t PC past the word HO.. then you have lost all common sense, are more interested in.. god knows what.. deleteing the word HO.. whore, prostitute? do those words offend you? They are in the bloody dictionary mate.. that is some case of overmodding right there..good day.
Violence is never the answer. Or vigilante actions.
You seem to threaten or infer physical actions when you are stressed. Not good man – try taking to someone about that – because the police are right – you take that step – you will be the one in jail.
PS she’s on video at the Wairau rd service station in Glenfeild where she approached me, and at the mobil on K’ rd where I dropped her off, and the next day as well when I caught her. The lazy bastards do nothing.. it’s all too much effort for our once glorious police.
If I write to the police complaints i’ll just get back a standard load of pre prepared excuses..Busy priorities bla bla..
Well this has turned me off people now, I used to be a nice person who would give someone a lift, no one gets anything from me anymore..
Hello from Glenfield… dunno if you’ve been following the news but the fuzz are seriously underfunded but still get some great results like the big drug bust yesterday
Well, well. Who’ da thunk it. Ex rugby player and current hockey player (female) are now our Very Own NZ Royalty. Royal Wedding MIGHT be today. News according to Herald or Stuff. Can’t remember which. Good Grief!
Looks pretty much like what the Wikipedia article says: left wingers critical of Clinton are claimed to promote Trump directly or inadvertently.
eg the stuff on Greenwald being pro Trump & pro Putin
First, I’ve seen it claimed a number of times that the headline usually doesn’t get written by the author of a piece, it’s usually an editor that chooses it. So to base a criticism of an author on the grounds that the headline is much more sensational than the actual contents is unfair.
The actual writing is much more nuanced, for instance passages such as “Unlike the aforementioned wannabe revolutionaries, most of these progressives haven’t endorsed Trump. But they nonetheless embrace the radical departure in American foreign policy that his presidency promises.”
I would also note that when someone writes a piece, in the context of an election, highlighting flaws in candidate A, without at least mentioning candidate B’s serious flaws in the same area (or worse, cherry-picking something positive about candidate B to highlight a contrast), it’s reasonable to infer support for candidate B.
Greenwald is just one that comes to mind as one who has written harsh anti-Clinton pieces, but also writes mildly positive approving passages about Trump such as “Questioning… whether it has this ongoing value and whether the U.S. should be expending the resources it is expending on NATO when we have massive income inequality and our working class is being deprived in ways previously unimaginable, those are perfectly legitimate questions to ask. NATO is not a religion,”. I can’t bring to mind any balancing pieces exposing Trump that he’s written. So if he writes a lot of anti-Clinton and includes stuff that’s pro-Trump, what’s the reasonable conclusion to draw? If his writing leaves a misleading impression of his views, whose fault is it?
OK. I’m with you on many of those points: e.g. headlines, political biases, etc.
However, the “Useful idiots” article, like the other Daily Beast one you linked to, clearly is pro-Clinton, and pro-US-exceptionalism and imperialism:
In “Useful Idiots”:
But it is the second group of progressive Trump fans, subtler in their sympathies, who warrant the most concern. These are the so-called anti-imperialists who harbor deep revulsion at the idea of American power being used for good in the world. America, they believe, is more often than not a source of evil and disorder—a jaundiced view of our global role that they share with the Republican nominee. Unlike the aforementioned wannabe revolutionaries, most of these progressives haven’t endorsed Trump. But they nonetheless embrace the radical departure in American foreign policy that his presidency promises.
…
For centuries, Americans have broadly accepted the idea that their country serves a unique world role as both a political leader and moral exemplar. This notion of American exceptionalism traces itself to the nation’s founding upon universal ideals of liberty and individual rights, garnered real sustenance through the part America played defeating fascist and then communist totalitarianism, and endures today as America remains a beacon for people living under tyranny overseas. Except, that is, on the isolationist right and anti-imperialist left, two groups the Trump campaign has united in rejection of American global leadership.
My bold. So, basically the article is selectively quoting from critics of Clinton (and other right leaning democrats – I don’t see Clinton or the views in the quotes above as left wing), to suggests any critics are in bed with the autocratic forces of evil.
The other article, “How Putin played the left”, does the same with noted critics to the left of Clinton (&Obama), including Jill Stein and Sanders.
I do agree that Greenwald does tend to be stronger in his condemnation of Clinton than Trump. However, other authors at the Intercept have been stronger critics of Trump.
Ultimately, though, the Daily Beast does seem to be a strong supporter of the US status quo (pre-Trump as POTUS), and seems to be out to discredit the left, and critiques of their imperialism and foreign policy., by aligning them with autocrats like Putin.
The author describes himself as a “conservative polemicist:”
Over the past eight years, a bevy of Republican politicians and conservative polemicists (including yours truly) have assailed Obama for disavowing American exceptionalism.
So it’s unsurprising he endorses American exceptionalism and considers the USA a force for good in the world. But he certainly won’t be a Hillary Clinton supporter…
I don’t think the piece is portraying the far left as “in bed with”, it’s saying that there are those on the far left that can be manipulated into words and actions that damage the centre-left. Thereby inadvertantly enabling the alt-right and others that strongly oppose the goals of the far-left.
Personally, my politics are very close to Stein’s on most issues. If the US had some kind if STV or proportional representation, my voting choice would have been dead easy: Stein. But in the system the US has, voting for Stein would be like buying a lottery ticket for the daydreams. Except the lottery ticket is much more likely to actually deliver the dreams. So I swallowed hard, and took a good look at the realistic choices.
Frankly, it looked to me like the main effect of the one-sided criticisms, single-issue shouting, and false equivalences put out by by the far-lefties obscured that 1) Sanders really had dragged the Dems close to his positions, 2) for everything “good” that Trump said (that got highlighted by the far-lefties) he said several things that should be horrifying to lefties 3) while a Clinton would do a lot of things lefties would disagree with, on average she would move things in the right direction, while Trump would be mostly a fukn disaster.
So to the extent that the noisy anti-Clinton far-lefties had an effect on switching some Dems to vote Stein, and turning other Dems off Clinton so they stayed home, yes the noisy far-lefties helped Trump win and were thereby “useful idiots” for Putin and Trump. And I think the Daily Beast is doing a good thing by calling it out.
So I’m super-grateful we’ve got MMP here so I can vote for someone a bit closer to my views here than I can in the US. And why I’m hot on reducing thresholds for representation so a wider range of views get represented.
Mostly agree – though there was so many different views, as far as I can see – and then the noisy interference from various journalists invested in one position or another, and the manipulations of the US & Kremlin intelligence agencies – I really am concerned that expressions of true left wing politics get plastered with the mud being thrown around.
Yes, prefer MMP. But also, the power structure is so entrenched in the US, that the least powerful are always the losers.
I suspect there’s a lot going on behind the scenes – manipulations, strong arming, strategic leaks, etc – that we truly don’t know the extent of the propaganda and surveillance warfare that is on-going.
Ok, now that’s just dishonest bullshit from Greenwald. There are plenty of people and organisations questioning the sufficiency of evidence that aren’t being accused of “loving Putin”.
The war against intelligence is only in its initial phase Carolyn_nth. Many foot-soldiers and noble banner bearers will work tirelessly to make society like a glorious formation lock-stepping confidently into the future.
And of course, the line, the direction – the arguments or perspectives that inform the unfolding of this great harmonious order…well, it’s unthinkable that any “right thinking” person would question it.
So to question is to be wrong. To be critical is to betray or willingly or unwittingly be in the service of all that the glorious formation seeks to overcome and set right.
You can already see it happening across numerous threads in the comments sections here.
Can anyone cite a single left-wing figure of any prominence who has ever expressed “solidarity” with Putin? I know of literally none.
Expressed “solidarity?” Sure, can’t say I’ve seen any myself. But “expressed solidarity” is a fairly precise criterion – comment 5 linked to an article that lays out fairly convincingly how the far left, including at least one prominent figure (Jill Stein) have put themselves in the position of endorsing or supporting Putin.
So your running with the raw news story then Psycho Milt?
Seems you are running with a very similar attack vector you used with Syria, in effect to shut people down people on a issue.
That not going to induce debate and the free exchange of ideas. But then again, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you promote debate or the free exchange of ideas.
Uh, Psycho Milt is responding to how Greenwald is presenting a distorted picture of what his critics are saying which is a kind of strawman argument. Greenwald is using a very similar technique to the Nats inquiring into misconduct by one of their own: set the terms of inquiry very narrowly in order to exclude the problem behaviour from examination.
As for trying to shut down the debate, get a mirror handy and take a good look at your reply to PM. Did you actually address the points he made?
No analysis or interpretations of events, nor perspectives on issues are to be taken on board unless an approved level of opprobrium for the commissars chosen enemies, or fealty to the commissars chosen masters is in clear evidence.
That’s how it is right now. And it goes way beyond PM, Andre and some others in the comments and way beyond some mutterings from a few authors…
…this is what liberalism looks like – lashing out as it dies.
Everything is to be feared even as everything is to be cleaved to. So everything that would seek to question or understand or shed light is to be destroyed under the commissar’s crushing boot of conformity and unity.
Just look at our supposedly pluralistic media that has become no more than what might have been expected from PRAVDA taking on some biological characteristic and dividing and multiplying into a thousand or a hundred thousand clones of itself.
Where are the alternative analyses or the critical analyses? (There are none). Where is the mainstream news outlet that expresses doubt or asks a question or two? (They don’t exist).
There’s definitely a dark foreboding emanating from ‘our’ political institutions these days and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like it. For them, it can’t but end badly. For us, it depends.
So there are some sources, such as Greenwald, that are totally exempt from scrutiny and criticism? May we have an approved list of all those sources whose pronouncements must be accepted without question? Please?
So there are some sources, such as Greenwald, that are totally exempt from scrutiny and criticism?
Nope
May we have an approved list of all those sources whose pronouncements must be accepted without question?
According to a number of flailing liberals, the BBC (and others) can, more or less, be taken at face value. They are, according to flailing liberals, pretty damned objective. In fact, to question the BBC is to be an apologist, a shill for (insert designated official enemy).
I read that piece, and it got me thinking about the difference between me and a lot of the wishy washy believe anything fringe merchants of the Green movement/anti-Clinton crowd. I think it might be that I have actually seen the old Warsaw Pact. I visited East Germany for a couple of weeks back in the 1980s. It was railway sidings of tanks, uniformed soldiers, grey food served in cold grey restaurants, scared locals and being followed everywhere you go. It was depressing, many buildings in East Berlin were frozen in time, unrepaired and scarred from the battles of 1945. I found it a scary and an awful place. After my little taste of totalitarianism, I couldn’t wait to get back to West Germany and freedom. When you realise the slighly on edge West German border police with their submachine guns were there to protect you from the hyper-aggresssive East German border guards should it all turn to custard on the border you also realise what the cost of freedom might be. After those two weeks, I had no problem identifying between “us” and “them”.
To many on the left today have no idea how awful totalitarianism is or how scary it is to suddenly realise you are not protected by the rule of law and have no human rights. Putin and his kleptocrat thugs in his gangster state are horrible people who wish us all harm. Xi Jinping and the rest of his murderous butchers of the Chinese communist party would brutally torture and kill anyone of us who stood up them, if they could get their hands on us. People like Jill Stein and the flaky occupy movement media and the rest of crackpot conspiracy theory left need to grow up. Maybe they need to spend a fortnight in North Korea, to see what life looks like in a totalitarian state.
This blog’s comments sections are currently plagued by the worst kind of false moral equivalence troll, a person so monumentally stupid, vindictive and egotisitical that he wishes to do nothing but sneer at the ideals of freedom and seek to act as the useful idiot of our enemies. I’ve seen with my own eyes what sort of place Putin and Xi Jinping want to create for us, and I have no time for people who act as traitors by supporting them.
“The term “russophobia” (the hatred and/or fear of things Russian) has become rather popular in the recent years, courtesy of the anti-Russian hysteria of the AngloZionist Empire, ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Russia
\Russia is a multi-national state with over 185 ethnic groups designated as nationalities; the populations of these groups vary enormously, from millions (e.g., Russians and Tatars) to under 10,000 (e.g., Samis and Kets).[1]
But the article above is more about discrediting people who are strongly left wing, by falsely smearing them as either Trump & Putin supporters or enablers.= are supporters of Putin or Trump.
And the people being criticised don’t actually support Trump or Putin.
…has cultivated dupes, fellow travelers, and purblind fools among plenty of American progressives…
Now in general, I agree with that about the Kremlin and Putin. But I also think that is true of the CIA, US intelligence community, and the US defenders of US imperialism and foreign policy.
There is a propaganda and surveillance/intelligence war going on between the Kremlin and the US agencies. Trump has inserted himself into it one way or another.
Meanwhile the US powers that be also use the whole situation to discredit any strong expression of left wing values, policies, campaigns and critiques.
You do not have to be the biggest fan of either Putin or Xi Jinping to think that (a) war is to be avoided, especially war with such destructive potential, and/or (b) that a multipolar world is a better thing than a world dominated by a single power. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” as the saying goes.
Further down, at comment 12, you approvingly quoted, Bill Clinton’s generation, however, believed that concentration of financial power could be virtuous, as long as that power was in the hands of experts. They largely dismissed the white working class as a bastion of reactionary racism.
Do you not think that this hubris would increase rather than abate in a world dominated by such people, with no need to negotiate or make concessions? Owen Jones thinks it increased greatly after the Berlin wall fell, and neoliberal capitalists felt they could from then on reign supreme. I do not have a link, but the claim is from his book “The Establishment & how they get away with it.”
i once spend the better part of the night at the german/german boarder with people pointing guns at us and taking the car apart.
why?
the old man driving the car, Adi – short for Adolf, was pointing to his rather long arms and large fists when the Volkspolizist asked if we had weapons in the car.
oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Also fun in Berlin, no matter how drunk one got, you could never get lost, the wall was there to guide you home. Always.
Yes, a lot of people don’t have much of an idea what it looked like, what it felt like and those that did know – family members that did make it out of East Germany after years of ‘re-education’ never much spoke about it.
Perhaps you could submit a proposal to deal with the problem direct to Merkal. The board is set for the dismantling of the left, there entire economic thesis has been discredit along with the right. Nows a great time to submit a proposal to deal with the problems you’ve out lined. Because the system can’t deal with all the refuges flowing from the Middle East. But first there’d have to be admission there’s no solution.
“…plagued by the worst kind of false moral equivalence…”
Projection and hypocrisy appear to be your ‘stock and trade’
Comments from you , Sanctuary, are some of the lowest level on this site
It is self evident that you have not a single shred of understanding about what you write. The words do tell a story about the personality behind them…
I spent 4 months in 1982 working for Topdeck Travel on their USSR/Eastern Europe camping tours. Each trip was for a month and visited East Germany, Poland, USSR, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Absolutely fascinating but very oppressive. We were among the first tourists to be allowed in Poland after the Solidarity uprising and I’ll never forget the sight of Russian soldiers goosestepping through Warsaw. I found Romania and Czechoslovakia the most oppressive. It would take 6 hours to get into and out of the USSR because they searched everything and even read peoples diaries. I wonder if it is still like that.
You mean, the “badly constructed front for the political meddling of evangelical Christians” Maxim Institute? The one of whom Bruce Logan was a former director? I’m sure they’ve nothing but our best interests at heart, more so if you happen to be homosexual.
well its all good then, they will loose their Health Care and have to go back to bankruptcy in order to receive surgery or simply just die.
In the mean time, America will be Great again! Woot Woot.
A long but worthwhile look back at the fake news in the US election. Given how successful it was and how much of it was sprayed around here on The Standard, we’ll all need to be very wary of it for our own elections coming up.
Along woth the best two paragraph summation of how and why third way, middle class identity politics has crippled the political left in the west since the 1970s – an own goal if there ever was one:
“…There’s history here: In the 1970s, a wave of young liberals, Bill Clinton among them, destroyed the populist Democratic Party they had inherited from the New Dealers of the 1930s. The contours of this ideological fight were complex, but the gist was: Before the ’70s, Democrats were suspicious of big business. They used anti-monopoly policies to fight oligarchy and financial manipulation. Creating competition in open markets, breaking up concentrations of private power, and protecting labor and farmer rights were understood as the essence of ensuring that our commercial society was democratic and protected from big money.
Bill Clinton’s generation, however, believed that concentration of financial power could be virtuous, as long as that power was in the hands of experts. They largely dismissed the white working class as a bastion of reactionary racism. Fred Dutton, who served on the McGovern-Fraser Commission in 1970 , saw the white working class as “a major redoubt of traditional Americanism and of the antinegro, antiyouth vote.” This paved the way for the creation of the modern Democratic coalition. Obama is simply the latest in a long line of party leaders who have bought into the ideology of these “new” Democrats, and he has governed likewise, with commercial policies that ravaged the heartland…”
i am sure our double dipper from Dipton, the beancounter in Chief is studying this and wonders if there is a way to apply it here 🙂
Quote: “But wait, it gets worse. Another feature of this bizarre GOP scheme gives exporters a gargantuan tax break by, in effect, not taxing their export revenues. Let’s say a corporation sells a piece of machinery to Iran for $5 million, which cost only $4 million to produce. That means $1 million in taxable profit. Under the new Republican scheme, however, that $5 million received from the mullahs wouldn’t be taxable. Instead of a $1 million profit, the corporation, for tax purposes, would have a $4 million loss. Loophole doesn’t begin to describe this “tax break.”Quote End
quote” As the tax reform debate heats up in Congress, the obscure border adjustment tax (BAT) is causing friction within the GOP.
What is the BAT? Well, Steve Forbes calls it “a nasty political and economic trap for Donald Trump” — a trap he says is being set by Republicans rather than Democrats.”
can someone explain to my why rural white is ‘heartland’ and urban brown is not?
why can we tell people that live in cities to ‘move out if they can’t afford it’, to get of benefits and ‘move to where the jobs are’, to ‘get an education if they want to earn more money’ to not ‘have children they can’t afford’ but then we turn around and don’t expect the same of white people living in the heart land?
And why do we give people like those in the US heartland a pass on voting for the same fuckwits that have been fucking(looking at Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana and so on and so on, heck even Texas) it up for them and tell the democrats that they should give up their voter base of women, people of colour, people who do not identify as heterosexual white male, low income workers, etc etc to make way for the’ white male worker’ who wants to go back to a time where women were barefeet pregnant fixing sandwiches, people of colour being segregated back into obscurity, and anyone not being a heterosexual white male going to the closet?
Please someone explain the heartland to me. I don’t get it. I honestly don’t.
Not sure what your second paragraph means, but your initial question is within the formation of New Zealand identity, economy and society through the development of extensive then intensive agriculture.
i am talking about the US. white heartland is evangelic fundamentalist. YOu know the once who think abstinence only is a good way to prevent pregnancy – even when married i would guess, that think that homosexuality etc is an abomination, and that ‘these people’ you know brown people should learn their place again. Essentially the current Republican lot led by fundamentalists that would like to become a ‘christian’ Nation again by ending the persecution of the Christians by the non Christians that live in Cities. 🙂
So what you are saying then is that a few hundred people – old NZ Farming Stock are ‘heartland’ ‘real NZ’lers’ and all the others are not?
Or are you saying that a few hundred people – old NZ white large scale Landowners are heartland and all others are not?
+1 although I would say concepts of the Heartland predate the neoliberal revolution by a long way. Sabine’s second paragraph is about the bastardisation of NZ culture that has happened since.
Sabine, was there something specific that prompted the question?
it is these articles that basically say that if Clinton would have abandoned all other democratic voter blocks in favour of the ‘disgruntled white male voter’ in the heartland she would have won. (and we often hear the same here in NZ – where Labour = urban / brown / low income / female/ non land owning etc, National = white / male / upper income/ rural / land owning
My point is why are we calling people / areas heartland – in it self a loaded term as the heart is the engine of the body – implying that all other areas of a country are of lesser importance.
combine this with things that we have heard often over the last years
if people in the city can’t afford to live there they should move.
we could equally say that if people on the country side don’t have jobs they should just move.
why are women with large families in the urban areas a drain on socity, while the white women on countrysides having large families are not?
the double standard that is applied Heartland = white , Urban = Brown.
Fwiw, the heartland in the US voted to have the Afordable Care Act gutted, they voted to have the remains of their public schools gutted, they voted to have Birth Control and Family planning replaced with abstinence only (even in marriage) as only form of Family planning, they voted to have environmental degradation be made standard operational procedures, and for what its worth non of the jobs they lost 40 years ago is gonna come back.
I don’t recall rural and urban in Germany or France or Holland to be adressed that way. I grew up on the deep bavarian country side and then went to he City as a young women. It was always just Germany. Non of that these are better then those bs.
In settler/colonial societies, like Aussie, NZ, the US, national identity has often been tied to the (freedom of the) open countryside. It features a lot in novels and movies – cowboys in the US and the man alone in rugged country in NZ.
100% pure and all that.
They’re kind of origin myths, in (implicit) opposition to the (implicitly class-based) corruption of the (much more urbanised) UK/Europe.
The “heartland” or countryside-identification is not usually the rural marae, the Aboriginal township, or the native American reservation.
No, it’s not fake, it’s real. NZ really does have a love historically for the countryside. That’s different than the politics you describe which I address below.
what are the oldest ‘urban’ centres in NZ , the oldest ports? If we apply the creation myth to ‘heartland’ one would have to include the old Port Towns at least?
i get the heartland in an emotional sense of love of the country side, especially what is left over of old NZ in Doc Parks and the like.
but heartland in the political sense i find hard to digest. It seems divisive, not only based on race, gender but also location.
so the question that i put to you then is the North Island less Heartland then the South Island?
I am not trying to be divisive, i am really trying to understand this emotional separation of a country.
example, Bavaria is a beautiful place with the Alps, the lakes, the cows and such, but it is not the heartland of Germany. It is often descriped as an industrial powerhouse as due to some quirky german legislation it is a free state within the federation of Germany and can use that to its advantage in incentivising businesses to settle there. But neither is Schleswig Holstein or Sachsen or Friesland the Heartland.
Mmmhmmm. You seem desperate with all this talk of German boarder crack downs. Can I suggest you have a sleep before going out again and pointing fingers and words at men with guns
3 days in Auckland left me, seriously, wondering how they can put up with the place. The roads were a nightmare, the people I found rude, and when they heard my please’s and thank you’s they all smiled and looked at me like I was a weirdo. I have left Auckland flummoxed as to why oh why would you put up with the place. To many cars, people riding your bumper, cutting lanes, crowds at beaches like I had not seen since Greece..i left Auckland shocked at it’s transformation since 2000 when I left there it was nothing like that, and Asians.., OMG not dissing Asians just commenting..it was like being in Asia. I felt the minority for the first time in my life, in my own country of birth, I felt we had been overrun. just a feeling I got and I cannot get over the fact it did that to me.
Most people stay here for the work. And some people don’t like being too far removed from family — and if all their family lives in Auckland…
I went to Putaruru a couple of years back for a birthday. The air was fresh, the grass was green and everyone was so laid back. But there was bugger all to do. If you took a bunch of kids from Auckland and plopped them down in a place like Putaruru, they’d be climbing the walls within a week.
“Can we go to Westfield, Dad?”
“This is Putaruru, sweetpea. There is no Westfield.”
Can’t say I missed the clogged roads, awful driving and generally shitty attitudes of Auckland, though.
Well, there’s the swing bridge at Arapuni, the sanctuary at Maungatautari, complete with tuatara, the toy museum in the castle at Tirau, and the lovely little shops and cafes in that village, the lovely carvings all up and down the streets of Tokoroa, the gorgeous hot springs at Okoroire, and Rotorua and Taupo are an hour or less away. Westfield – very boring by comparison! 🙂
I think what your are describing isn’t about concepts of the heartland though, at least not in NZ. Those dynamics strike me as ftom the neoliberal decades. And it’s not like we have farmers coming on to TS running alt-right or anti-identity politics 😉 One of the classic example she of what you describe comes from Chris Trotter and his Waitakere Man myth. Haven’t heard it for a while so hopefully it was discredited but what we have now is another version.
From what I cannot tell it’s the politics of dudes who don’t actually care about racism, sexism etc, or who in facts oppose advances in those areas and are now feeling encouraged to be bolder about that post-Obama.
There are some valid politics around working class and poor people and what has been done to them while others thrived but I also don’t understand the need to roll back advances for women, Māori, gay people etc in order to address that. The identity politics I’ve been involved in my whole adult life has been inclusive. What we are seeing now is the disintegration of society and a whole bunch of nasty coming out. Some of that is latent until now.
Also, the whole thing about stop whining and move where capitalism want and you has a modern bent to it, but several generations ago Māori were pressured to move from country to city. It’s a big part on NZ’s history, look it up I think you will find it interesting.Since the 80s it’s been the norm for Pakeha in rural areas to also move to town. This is the neoliberal agenda in the economy and is different from the racist, sexist politics you describe.
it always seemed to me that ‘heartland’ applied by journos/politicians is more a code for a livestyle long gone, nuclear family and such. And in that sense one could argue that the live on the country side is more ‘traditional’ then in an urban centre where people can to some extend hide and live in anonymity.
but i find it interesting as this notion is applied in politics and how in some publications it is argued that the vote of the heartland is morally superior to the vote of the non heartland.
thanks for answering, this was quite interesting to me.
I think you’d have to give some examples of those usages Sabine. To me you are mixing a number of complex phenomena up, they’re not all about the Heartland.
weka, I agree that there are complex things in the mix. But the term “heartland” does get used in reports on NZ politics, and it does traditionally relate to more rural areas associated with conservative values..
As I’ve tried to indicate, there’s old origin myths that have long been incorporated in NZ identity. They do keep getting revived in various forms, from Speight’s Southern Man in the 1990s, to the #8 wire metaphor of NZ identity in the 21st century, and Trotter’s re-working of the Southern man stereotype in his Waitakere Man.
That old rural NZ identity is one where resourceful white men dominated, and were usually located in rural areas – once considered to be the backbone of the country. I think it still gets revisited to reclaim a time when white men dominated.
Despite the fact that the country was now largely urban, New Zealand’s rural mythology remained alive and well. Although New Zealand’s traditional farm exports had some difficulties from the mid-1960s, governments continued to provide subsidies and tax relief to encourage farm production. There was growing investment in education, but it was still assumed that farming was the backbone of the nation. In politics the long-serving prime ministers in these years, Sid Holland and Keith Holyoake, were both claimed to be farmers.
National identity
The farming life remained central to the nation’s identity. When in 1953 Queen Elizabeth II visited New Zealand her guidebook told her that ‘the dominion is essentially a farming country’. The pioneers had transformed ‘a waste of fern, bush and swamp’ into ‘the rich productive area it is today’.
They then go on to say urban culture took over post 1975.
“But the myth of NZ identity being based in rural locations has long been commented on.”
Not sure what you are meaning there Carolyn. There is no single NZ identity, but the connection between NZers and the land isn’t a myth. It still exists despite the problems that neoliberalism has created.
Well, there are dominant NZ identities and the association between NZ’s countryside and NZ national identity has long been represented in ads and various cultural forms.
the connection between NZers and the land isn’t a myth
hmmm… but you’ve been saying most Kiwis these days live in urban contexts. The rural myth of NZ identity continued long after urbanisation. The Te Ara link that I included in an earlier comment talks about that. There is some reality about connection with land, but it’s been raised to a mythical level in various cultural representations.
And the connection between land and NZ identity has been more commonly associated with white (male) Kiwis… ie not being located in the long history of tangata whenua association with the land.
Are you using the word myth to mean cultural story of fake construct?
Kind of – a cultural story, maybe based in some kind of reality, but very skewed to misrepresent reality/realities. And raised to some high status within a culture – mainly to represent to interest of the dominant group/s.
So for instance, the rural myth of NZ identity is one of hard working pioneers who created farms and built the country. It ignores the earlier presence of tangata whenua, and hides the brutal processes of colonisation – let alone the actiivities in towns and the growth of cities.
New Zealand national identity is usually shown in terms of the great outdoors, ignoring the diverse activities around the country. I searched on google images for “New Zealand”. I largely got images of NZ’s great outdoors, with a small number of more urban images thrown in.
7 minutes of images accompanying the singing of the NZ National anthem – must have been for the 2011 RWC. I hadn’t seen the vid before. But most of the 7 minutes is images of pristine, glorious outdoor vistas. there’s a few shots of Auckland/Waitemata harbour, a bit of barbed wire, a cross, a building (maybe a church, sports stadia.
But note what is not there in this representation of NZ to ourselves and internationally – nothing of the diverse multi-cultural Asia-Pacific country we now are; nothing of the diverse fauna; nothing of Te Tiriti; no urban and/or rural marae; none of our diverse cultural and work/business activities . Certainly no polluted rivers; no homeless people; no women who have been victims of violence; no beggars; no Wellington cafes or Otago history… etc.
It’s pretty much open, breath-taking, majestic landscape without people. NZ is very often represented like this – sometimes they include farms.
I think of the man alone means rural masculine NZ national identity myth as something like in the Speight’s Southern Man” ads.
To me, Trotter’s “Waitakere man” echoed the Southern Man stereotype – and Trotter is a man from the south. It’s like he was re-locating the rural identity to somewhere on the fringes of a major urban centre.
Waitakere, while being partly blue-collar urban, also includes hilly bush country.
”Yep NZ is a racist country.”
I agree i got told once i wasn’t bad for a balhead,
have been randomly assaulted twice by brown people,
joined a softball team once but gave up after 3 weeks of being ignored and not touching the ball.
some lefties need to get over them selves , there are horrible bastards in all races.
I will try to help you Sabine, you see the world the way you want it not the way it really is, and you class every one into and identity and then assume they all think the same way if they are that identify, rather than individuals, hope this helps 😀
Because often people in the cities or their parents etc migrated from these heartland towns, its where the family connection are, not sure why you are so exercised over it
hmmm, how much money is made in the Cities? And the people that come from the heartland to live and work in the Cities, are they still heartland?
I can understand the regional thinking i.e. the beauty of the contry, the mountains and that, but then you also have stunning coastlines and such and Fishery is a good business in NZ, and Tourism is a good income in NZ. etc etc.
I don’t try to diminish the value of farmers or their work, don’t get me wrong,
I am trying to understand the political importance of Heartland, when in fact ‘Heartland’ does not even cover 50% of he population.
The moment the crown seized Tainui land, commerce in New Zealand started flowing from Waikato, to Auckland in around the 1860-1880s, and then onto the rest of the world, people started betting on those future prices. So the three enterprises are one and the same.
Great I live in the Heartland.. you will obey my wishes then… Sabines point is.. what make Heartland so special they should get preferential treatment I agree with her totally, it’s supposed to be about ALL kiwi’s not one group and to put any justification for it, even if they are critical to industry whatever, is her point made. They shouldn’t, they should be valued, not preferentially treated over others, that nuance is the crux of it IMHO.
Material units are being forward deployed so soldiers and tankers can fall on them. Meaning instead of taking 2 months to deploy brigade sized elements and begin operations it takes 2 weeks. This information was glimed from the dragon trails which tested how long it takes a stricter brigade to travel across European held NATO territory
Happy to see myself as aligned with outstanding journalists such as Pilger and Greenwald.
Guess you connect more with the propagandists at CNN and the Washington Post.
Didn’t you learn anything frm the lies about WMD and Iraq?
You really should learn your political history, it was the west who shafted Russia at the end of the second world war and caused the great cold war, not the Russians. I’m not going into it, but merely to say Russia got shafted by the US, as soon as they had the bomb. They used it to get their way in almost everything and Russia at that stage was on our team. It caused a cold war that went on for years, and the west’s propaganda machine I see still claims a few victims who haven’t watched any good doco’s on the second WW.
They stole all the scientists, V2 project, and reneged on many deals they had agreed too once they had the bomb and no one else did, in fact they even shafted the English they were so cocky..
Albania was meant to be western they dropped it and let it fall to Enver Hoxha’s communists. My country folk will never forget it.
Paul, this has been in the making since the annexation of Crimea by the Russia and it appears that the Poles invited the US to come and hang out.
One should remember that the ‘eastern’ countries after the second world war got their fare share of Russian interference and occupation and might not be so happy about Russia going around flexing muscle. They might even fear, that they will be ‘annexed’ and again get disappeared behind the great iron curtain.
” The US and Poland are discussing the deployment of American heavy weapons in eastern Europe in response to Russian expansionism and sabre-rattling in the region in what represents a radical break with post-cold war military planning.”
“Poland and the countries that border Russia are becoming increasingly concerned with Russia’s aggression in the region as it continues to provoke Ukraine and occupy Crimea. Many Baltic countries fear Russia’s provocative behavior will spread to inside their own borders.
Macierewicz added that the Polish military would “especially” like to evaluate cooperation in the context of hybrid warfare on land and sea and with special forces.
Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine have been characterized as hybrid warfare.”
http://english.almanar.com.lb/94576
” Poland’s president urged US President-elect Donald Trump to keep Washington’s promise to deploy troops on NATO’s eastern flank amid tensions with Russia.
“Polish-American relations have become an important pillar of the European and transatlantic stability,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in a letter of congratulations.
“We are particularly pleased that during this year’s NATO Summit in Warsaw the US decided to increase its military presence in Poland, thereby strengthening the Alliance’s Eastern flank.
“We sincerely hope that your leadership will open new opportunities for our cooperation based on mutual commitment.””
“Atlantic Resolve was launched in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which sparked fears in the Baltic nations that Vladimir Putin was planning a similar land-grab there.
Under that banner, the US Army in Europe has been conducting training operations since May 2014.”
Despite the Polish celebrations, clouds hung over the historic moment. As the AP puts it, “there are anxieties that the enhanced security could eventually be undermined by the pro-Kremlin views of President-elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Russia appears provoked by the deployment of American troops on its doorstep.”
“We perceive it as a threat,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “These actions threaten our interests, our security. Especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “It’s not even a European state.”
Poles still feel betrayed by Obama’s “reset” with Russia early on in his administration, which involved abandoning plans for a major U.S. missile defense system in Poland and replacing it with plans for a less ambitious system, still not in place.
“All recent U.S. presidents have thought there can be a grand bargain with Russia,” said Marcin Zaborowski, a senior associate at Visegrad Insight, an analytic journal on Central Europe. “Trump has a proclivity to make deals, and Central and Eastern Europe have reason to worry about that.”
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski expressed hope this week that any new effort at reconciliation with Russia “does not happen at our expense.”
Anyone who’s “preparing for war with Russia” had better send a hell of a lot more than 4000 soldiers into Poland – a couple of orders of magnitude more. This is about making Poland and the Baltic Republics feel a bit better, nothing more than that (because physically incapable of anything more than that). I guess it does come in handy for lackwit pro-Putin propagandists to squawk about “preparing for WW3” though…
What, you’re posting stuff about “preparing for war with Russia” and “preparing for WW3” but me pointing out it’s bullshit is “McCarthyism” and “paranoia?” Try googling “arse about face.”
Rising temperatures and crop farming mean birds are disappearing from parts of England, says study, while butterflies and dragonflies are faring better
Two things you don’t want happening to your environment. There’s a reason why people fear swarming locusts and excess insects will have the same effect although over a longer period of time.
Wonder how much damage NZs farming community is doing to our bird species.
Have a look at the large dairy conversions in the waikato and count the birds.
there are not many left, cause there are no trees, no shrubs, nothing but baked soil with a few strands of grass.
you will find flies. lots and lots of flies.
I recall as a child being told how good it was to see the farms. To see the cleared fields.
But I’ve also been reading Scifi and fantasy for my entire life and in all of them they describe lush green forests as the epitome of a healthy environment. Green fields aren’t and neither are cities.
IMO, we know in our heart of hearts that farming is destructive.
This land of ours used to be covered in birds. It’s entire fertility was based upon sea birds flying and shitting from the coast all the way inland carrying the minerals that the sea provided.
There are load carrying capacities of land but not all land is commodified, just the land that is valuable to cities and complex cities, the rest is not mentioned so there are limits to how many immigrants New Zealand can accept. Once the load carrying capacity has been reached, conflict increases in warfare and politics proceeded by depopulation.
It’s possible to find atomised groups of people in all sectors. Such cases do not quarrel with neighbours to conquer or subjugate, only at state level does that become a dominant type of conflict.
The natural fertility cycle dictates the carrying capacity and the lush forests that used to be here were part of that cycle. By cutting them down and replacing them with farms we’ve actually decreased our carrying capacity as the land can no longer handle the pollutants that we’re putting into it.
The first President to enter the White House under Senate investigation?.
Intelligence Committee will investigate possible Russia-Trump links
The Senate panel will use ‘subpoenas if necessary’ to secure testimony from Obama administration officials as well as Trump’s team, Richard Burr and Mark Warner said.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said late Friday that his committee would investigate possible contacts between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, reversing himself one day after telling reporters that the issue would be outside of his panel’s ongoing probe into Moscow’s election-disruption efforts.
I have already been sought out and approached by senior Grey Power members, who are deeply concerned about the lack of transparency and the proven bribery and corruption associated with the vast spending of public rates and taxes at local and central government on private consultants and contractors.
My long-standing policy and proven track record on transparency in public spending and ‘whistle-blowing’ against corruption, goes back TEN years.
Politically, support for transparency (and accountability) in public spending cuts across the entire political spectrum.
I’ve also been in Kingsland for the last 26 years.
In my view – anyone who thinks Jacinda Adern is going to sleep walk into becoming the MP for Mt Albert, needs to think again?
Why would people in Mt Albert waste their vote, voting for someone to become their MP – who is already an MP?
I’m not an MP.
(Yet 🙂
What have Labour / Green members/ supporters got to lose, by strategically voting for proven anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner Penny Bright as the (fiercely) Independent MP for Mt Albert?
Jacinda and Julie Anne will still be MPs, and the House will have a fiery new Independent MP, who will be able to rattle the Parliamentary cage from the inside, asking the stinking hard questions about corruption that others will not – under Parliamentary privilege.
……”
In my view, this National Government is very vulnerable on this growing issue of corruption.
If corruption were to become a major election issue in 2017, in my opinion,
it would be far easier to achieve a change of Government.
What better way to help achieve that outcome than for a strategic vote in the Mt Albert by-election for a proven anti-corruption campaigner, in order to make a huge fuss INSIDE the House?
In my view, this is bigger than what will be best for the Labour and Green parties – it’s what will be best for New Zealand and the New Zealand 99%?
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
I actually think it would be worth voting for you. At this point in the electoral cycle it won’t change much but it would send the message that we’re really pissed off with the corruption and lack of transparency that we’re seeing in both local and national politics.
National Geographic’s Genographic Project, launched in 2005, uses science to bring people together where politics have failed.
Through DNA analysis, the project is answering people’s questions regarding ethnicity, race, and the overall origins of the human population and how we came to populate the Earth.
The Genographic Project lists a group of reference populations, where the typical national of each country is described according to genetic makeup. These are based on hundreds of DNA samples and advanced DNA analysis. Four Arab countries were part of the reference population list.
Here are some surprising discoveries on the genetic makeup of these four Arab nationalities.
The video at the end is a must watch.
And, no, I don’t like that headline or the focus on Arabia.
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Shouldn't That Be: "Wrong White Crowd"? Rather than apportion guilt, would it not have been wiser for the makers of Land Of The Long White Cloud to accept that the Pakeha of 2019 are not – and never will be – “Europeans”? Just as contemporary Maori are not – and ...
One, Two, Many Truths: With the collapse of “actually existing socialism” in 1991, the universities of the West found themselves saddled with a new mission. With their ideological competitors now soundly defeated they were no longer required to demonstrate the superiority of capitalist values. Their job now was to cement ...
by the Council of Disobedient Women We call on the Council of Trade Unions to show some fortitude and take a stand with your sisters. Unionists know that there is a material world, otherwise workers could simply identify out of poverty. They could declare themselves Well Paid. Why stop ...
I spent some time reading the Regulatory Impact Statement and Bill of Rights Act advice for the government's odious control order scheme today. I am not impressed with either of them. Starting with the RIS, it is built on some pretty questionable assumptions. For example:Unless individuals have been convicted of ...
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We all know that NZ First is a party of and for old people who hate the young. But they've topped their previous pedophobia with a proposal that all young people be forced to do 100 hours community work:NZ First wants all young people to do 100 hours of community ...
A couple days ago the NZ Herald published a story with the headline, “Science says Bella Hadid is world’s most beautiful woman“, and followed up with the ridiculous statement that Supermodel Bella Hadid has been declared as the world’s most beautiful woman following a scientific study into what constitutes as ...
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Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...
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As Brexit comes to a grisly conclusion (perhaps) people on all sides are saying intemperate and uwise things. Some, like the Daly Mail, have been doing it for years.People as normally level headed as Jon Lansman are calling for automatic deselection of MPs who vote against a (likely) Labour three ...
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So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Hassan Vally, La Trobe UniversityWho doesn’t want to know if drinking that second or third cup of coffee a day will improve your memory, or if sleeping too much increases your risk of a heart attack? We’re invested in staying healthy and many of us are interested in reading ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones has hit back at those who are upset over a change in approach to partnership visas. There has been a specific government directive to stop waiving requirements such as couples needing to have lived together for 12 months - a test Indian couples who have ...
The North Auckland Line rejuvenation kicks off with teams surveying the rail corridor and Northland construction contractors are showing interest in the project.KiwiRail provided an industry briefing for Northland contracting and construction companies about future work opportunities on rejuvenating Northland’s rail lines. The briefing session in Whangarei was held to ...
Journalist Andrew Dickens, reporting from the 2019 New Zealand First Conference, states that the Party once again proved “they are more than a sideshow”. In his op-ed article for NewstalkZB, Mr Dickens said he has always been an admirer of the Party, saying they are “a true centrist party”. “[NZ ...
New Zealand First's potential policy of compulsory community service for ages 15-19 years old has been getting support from those in the industry. A policy remit was passed during their recent Conference in Christchurch, gaining the support of a majority of its membership. Party leader Winston Peters has been talking ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the Party hopes to decide it’s stance pill testing at music festivals "before the season of concern", with festivals generally held during the summer months. Mr Peters' comments come in an interview with TVNZ's Q+A and follow a remit from the party's youth ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says he has been told to be "alert" to potential cost blowouts for the light rail project in Auckland. Mr Peters said no such concerns were raised with him from ministerial colleagues, including Transport Minister Phil Twyford of the Labour Party. He suggested that ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters Leader of New Zealand First The Benefits of having New Zealand First in the Centre: Security, Experience & Balance 2.00pm, 20th October 2019 Ladies and Gentlemen Thank you all for your warm welcome to this, the party’s 26thConvention. Speaking on behalf of caucus colleagues, it’s great to ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Fletcher Tabuteau is travelling to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu this week to continue toadvance important bilateral relationships in our region consistent with thePacific Reset. Mr Tabuteau will engage in a range of bilateral meetings and visit New Zealand development ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson departs tomorrow for events and meetings in Japan and Vietnam. While in Japan, he will discuss economic and fiscal issues including meeting with the Minister of Finance, Taro Aso, and Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy, Yasutoshi Nishimura. He will meet with the Minister of Education, ...
The Government’s Housing Dashboard released today confirms record numbers of state houses are under construction and shows the Government build programme is gaining momentum. “After nine years of inaction, and a hands-off attitude from the previous government we’re starting to see things move in the right direction for housing,” says ...
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a ministerial statement relating to the Auckland fire. The Government is closely monitoring the situation with the fire at the NZ International Convention Centre and is thankful that everyone is now safe. Firefighters are doing an incredible job managing the fire and bringing it ...
The Government is investing in ambitious research that will digitise Te Reo, grow the low-carbon protein efficient aquaculture industry, help interpret environmental trends, and large data sets says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The four projects range from teaching Siri to speak Te Reo to crunching large environmental ...
A new education-to-employment brokerage service to strengthen connections between local employers and schools. Funding for more trades focused ‘speed-dating’ events to connect schools with employers. Promotional campaign to raise profile of vocational education. The Government is taking action to increase the number of young people taking up vocational education and ...
A Bill to improve prison security and ensure the fair, safe, and humane treatment of people in prison while upholding public safety has passed its third reading. Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the Corrections Amendment Bill makes a number of changes to ensure the Corrections Act 2004 is fit for ...
Minister for Māori Development, Nanaia Mahuta, has selected Arihia Bennett MNZM, Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, as the Te Puni Kōkiri appointed representative on the New Zealand-China Council. The New Zealand-China Council (the Council) was established in 2012 as a New Zealand led and funded organisation ...
Responsibility for processing the small number of Southern Response claims still to be settled will be transferred to EQC by the end of the year. “As claim numbers reduce, it no longer makes sense for the Crown to have two organisations processing the remaining Canterbury claims,” Grant Robertson says. “Since ...
Health Minister David Clark is encouraging Whanganui residents to take up the opportunity for free bowel screening, which can detect cancer early when it’s easier to treat. Over the next two years 12,000 Whanganui locals, aged 60 to 74 will be invited to participate in the National Bowel Screening ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, heads to Oslo today to represent New Zealand at the sixth Our Ocean Conference, which is being hosted by the Norwegian Government from the 23-24 October. “The Our Ocean Conference mobilises real action on issues like marine plastic pollution and the impacts of ...
Two secondary-school initiatives are being expanded as part of the Government’s plan to see more young New Zealanders take up a trade to help close the skills gap. This includes the largest single increase in Trades Academy places in recent years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris ...
Session 4: Pacific Connectivity – Youth, Media and New Opportunities Kia ora tatou katoa and Warm Pacific greetings to one and all. Representatives of Tainui, the local people of the land, or manawhenua – the indigenous peoples of this area – have welcomed you this morning in accordance with ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has finally seen off John Setka from the ALP, with the militant construction union leader capitulating and quitting the party. Setka, who lost a court case he brought in his fight ...
New Zealanders will almost certainly face a referendum next year on whether to legalise voluntary euthanasia after a make-or-break vote in Parliament cleared the way. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Nationals leader Michael McCormack has admitted his party should have handled better agriculture minister Bridget McKenzie’s bring-forward of the planned dairy code. Some Nationals were furious when McKenzie suddenly sped up the code’s preparation in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra While the drought continues to hit the Nationals’ constituents hard, the party faces a testing terrain on a political level. In this episode of Politics with Michelle Grattan, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack acknowledges the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy – in the job for for just weeks after moving across from the department of infrastructure last month – has dismissed talk of spending big on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Downie, Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, Australian National University It’s time we started talking about the principal opponents to action on climate change – fossil fuel industries. If history has taught us anything, it is when oil, gas and coal industries ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodie Grigg, Research Associate at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University My friends are taking ecstasy at raves and music festivals. Is it safe? — Anonymous Key points no drug use, including ecstasy, is 100% safe festivals can present ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Transport Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Light Rail: Goff says it’s the Government’s call Richard Harman ...
It isn't the first time Tiwai Point's owners have warned they may close the aluminium smelter, but this Government is unlikely to be handing out financial assistance. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says APEC will definitely still be held in Auckland in 2021, despite the destruction caused by the fire at the NZ International Convention Centre. ...
The headline said it all. Stats NZ has released 2018 census data on New Zealanders’ commuting habits and, guess what, we love a motorised polluter. “Car streets ahead for travel to work and education” was the heading. It should have been “cars rule, all other options drool”.New cycleways are under construction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Liu, Chancellors Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Fashion and Textiles Designer, University of Technology Sydney The tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook have all begun to use machine learning to give you tips on what to wear. Is fashion styling the next field ...
Prime Minister is meeting with officials at the scene of a massive blaze in Auckland's CBD. Watch a live video of a media stand-up with FENZ and the PM. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Bowden, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Newcastle It is becoming increasingly possible that sea-level rise of a metre or more will occur this century. You might expect this threat to preoccupy coastal homeowners. But many deny the need to act, for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chloe Watfern, Scientia PhD scholar, UNSW At Studio A, on the fourth floor of the Crows Nest community centre, a group of artists is working quietly. An occasional burst of laughter erupts from a corner of the studio. It makes its way ...
In response to Meghan Markle’s admission that she’s finding it a struggle to be a new mother in the media spotlight, columnists across the globe have banded together to launch a charity to support all those women who ‘have it worse’, Emily Writes can exclusively reveal.Meghan Markle – duchess, new ...
Will New Zealand’s largest construction firm have to write off yet more money over the troubled International Convention Centre project?Both Fletcher Building and SkyCity’s share prices have felt the impact of the devastating fire that has raged at Auckland’s half completed convention centre for over a day now. More than ...
The new and spectacular atlas We Are Here is page after page of haunting, hella beautiful visual data, each chapter introduced with an essay. This one, Lost in the Forest, opens the section on people. At some point in the 1990s, one of the creators of this book tried to impress ...
Kassie Hartendorp (Ngāti Raukawa) has been looking to Māori stories and storytellers to learn more about our gender identities before colonisation. There’s a lot to be read between the lines, she writes.Te ao Māori can be a very gendered place to be. In some settings, your gender can tell you ...
The Shouting Valley is a powerful group exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland that interrogates and gives voice to the people caught between borders. But is the real paradox of this politically charged show the limit of what art can do? Lana Lopesi reviews. “What’s bad about borders?” asked ...
The future of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is under question again as majority owner, mining giant Rio Tinto, is reviewing the plant's future. ...
There will be another crucial vote for the voluntary euthanasia bill later today - whether or not a referendum will be held at the 2020 general election. ...
It was never intended that state owned enterprises should use their monopoly commercial or regulatory power to stifle competition, yet it is at least arguable that is what has happened says Peter Dunne. ...
Go Bus drivers in South Auckland will continue refusing to collect fares tomorrow as their protest continues with the intent of avoiding disruption to passengers while highlighting the need for fair wage negotiations with their employer, FIRST Union ...
Smoke continues to billow in downtown Auckland 24 hours after fire broke out in the incomplete complex.Shortly after 1pm yesterday came the first reports of a fire on the site of the SkyCity New Zealand International Convention Centre in central Auckland. That brought a massive mobilisation of emergency services, evacuations ...
He Kākano Ahau is a podcast by writer and activist Kahu Kutia (Ngāi Tūhoe) that explores stories of Māori in the city, and weaves together strands of connection. In episode one: the legacy of urban marae Tapu te Ranga.I grew up where the tarseal on the road crumbles away into ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australians are divided over whether the nation’s universities have too many foreign students, according to the Australian National University’s ANUpoll, released Wednesday. In the polling, 52.8% said the mix between foreign and domestic students was ...
National's leader Simon Bridges says a bill imposing restrictions on people returning after fighting for extremist groups would only keep New Zealanders "half safe". ...
Alex Casey talks to Leigh Hart about the return of Late Night Big Breakfast, the finest morning TV parody show New Zealand has ever made. Late Night Big Breakfast is set to return to TVNZ in 2020 after a five year hiatus, creator and comedian Leigh Hart has confirmed. Filmed in ...
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Open Mike 14/01/2017 
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LAUGH. It’s good for you.
I think this post should be moved down one. Rawsharks in some pain . Serious pain…
nah Siobahn i’m home now, I replaced the phone, I got myt old number back with the kind help from 2degree’s and feel sad more, that I made so much effort over 2 days to find this.. lady of the night.. and nothing was done, sad our police seem to not want to add to their stats?
Picked up a hitchhicker in Glenfeild on a road trip 3 day’s ago..approaches me filling up with petrol and kindly asks if i’m heading towards the city centre(Auckland) being the mug I am I was kind and said yes..stole my phone and money and scammed me doing that like a pro. Ended up hunting her for 2 day’s on K’rd. I have just spent 2 day’s in the biggest shit hole I ever had to endure chasing [deleted] it turns out to get my phone back..here’s the crux. I tracked [deleted] to a corner on a K’rd. twice I phoned the police to say here she is.. right here.. SHe’s on video at the mobil on K’rd.. and still they did nothing.. NOTHING.. it took 20 minutes for them to turn up and there advise was it was only a phone go home and forget it.. They wouldn’t look at the video of all angles and previous day. Told me the video was too grainy? bullshit there, they also have multiple camera’s at garages.. he says he can only see her back..bullshit.. It was a total disgrace by the police in solving this crime., after doing all the leg work for them I get told if I touch her..I go to jail [deleted] took the piss and stood there laughing at me with my phone in her hand never changed the number either..
The police in this country are lazy, useless, uninterested in solving crime and happy to just give you a piece of paper. [deleted] will still be there, doing it to people and on K’rd it seems the police are not interested in upholding the Law. Or are they getting back handers? Next cop asks me anything can fuck right off.
In the end I had to go to Auckland central and plead fopr them to allow me to use there phone to call 2 degree’s as when your travelling and loose your phone how the hell do you phone anyone?
use a phone box..i thought that..tried the phone at Northcross takes a card.. went to dairy’s at least 12 no one had cards for the phone.. frustrated..i could have literally murdered someone by the end of this..,Bullshit.
I got so angry at the police attitude and rudeness and lack of actually helping me I nearly took the law into my own hands and smashed the living crap out of her. Problem was i’m 50 she was young and I suddenly found out if they run from me I can’t catch them anymore.
The police in this country have turned into a joke..any cop reads this, woe behold you next time you pull me over for something..
[So sure, you’re angry. But a couple of things. 1. This is a political blog, not some bloody facebook feed. 2. Sexist epithets have no place here.] – Bill
politicians have a responsibility to uphold our services, the angle I was making was our police have become useless with example. and a ho’s a ho..u think I should talk about her after what she did with manners. I’m not labelling women in general, so get off your PC soapbox and don’t be so bloody women rights and distracting from the points. I thought after reading your comment back.
The police seem to have a big lack of wanting to do anything these days.. what’s with that? Never used to be like this.
What I was expecting back on OPEN FORUM 14/1/2017 was comments about the sad state of our police after my long example.
I find this a lot here..you mods, mod in a way that stifles freedom of expression and stops talking points. You accuse people of having agenda’s they never intended and at times I think you go on like old knitting ladies tut tutting everything you can.. get a grip on IRL mate.
I’m not angry.. it’s just the way I write and you read it..and thought so, why would I be angry on the standard for something she did to me, or what the nz police seem unable to do , when you do the work for them and they still make no effort to arrest her.. that’s a talking point on politics IMHO. and not a anger outburst.
Hey Richard, good to see you back. Can you please not have a go at the mods, you will just get another ban and I like your presence on TS.
Btw, TS apparently used to be a free for all in its first few years and the place got overrun with trolls. There are good reasons for having moderation, one of which is to make the place more inclusive. We have a lot of leeway here all things considered but there are limits if we want people to enjoy the place.
Fair enough, and thanks wek a for the welcome back.. the mods, think I have anger issues from past behaviours I certainly understand that, but right there was a case of painting with brushes mate, I was not angry here, I just made a comment on what happened, to explain why I was not impressed with the service I got from the police under this National leadership. I thought it was a good talking point, however the mods went straight to the word Ho, and started acusing me of being angry. If I keep posting here I won’t tolerate unreasonable calls of me being angry as much as it’s my responsibility to remain calm after coming back from a ban.. or there is no point being here if they are running on me being angry in everything I say.
I see I put in some anger about how I felt at that time, when it was going on, it was not meant to come across as angry now.. as you could I was hoping read it and also get a glimpse of how frustrated one can get when dealing with the police who left me feeling so mad I wanted to take the law into my own hands. I see reading it back how it looks like anger, perhaps i’d ask the mods to not read comments once, but re-read them a couple of times and ask themselves, is there any other reason he could of wrote that, that way without it being unjustified anger.
Stephen Kings a great writer IMHO, and he can make you FEEL how it was when something happened, IMHO I think that is great story telling and comes across as passionate and with feelings.
So when someone writes something you have to read things a few timnes to understand all the nuances in what is written and not rush to hastey conclusions. Also feedback is good, and my comment back is good feedback they should not take it to heart but for what it is.
Perhap’s I should start voting National, if labour people can’t PC past the word HO.. then you have lost all common sense, are more interested in.. god knows what.. deleteing the word HO.. whore, prostitute? do those words offend you? They are in the bloody dictionary mate.. that is some case of overmodding right there..good day.
” I nearly took the law into my own hands”
Violence is never the answer. Or vigilante actions.
You seem to threaten or infer physical actions when you are stressed. Not good man – try taking to someone about that – because the police are right – you take that step – you will be the one in jail.
PS she’s on video at the Wairau rd service station in Glenfeild where she approached me, and at the mobil on K’ rd where I dropped her off, and the next day as well when I caught her. The lazy bastards do nothing.. it’s all too much effort for our once glorious police.
If I write to the police complaints i’ll just get back a standard load of pre prepared excuses..Busy priorities bla bla..
Well this has turned me off people now, I used to be a nice person who would give someone a lift, no one gets anything from me anymore..
Hello from Glenfield… dunno if you’ve been following the news but the fuzz are seriously underfunded but still get some great results like the big drug bust yesterday
That’s a really shitty thing to happen RR. Ropata is right, the cops are under resourced big time, as a result their moral is super low, and they can’t be bothered.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/84905273/nelson-police-morale-continues-to-fall
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/69210055/police-morale-in-hawkes-bay-hits-a-new-low
Whole police system needs a shake up. I’d give the hooker a shake up for you but I’m still working on the teleporter.
Well, well. Who’ da thunk it. Ex rugby player and current hockey player (female) are now our Very Own NZ Royalty. Royal Wedding MIGHT be today. News according to Herald or Stuff. Can’t remember which. Good Grief!
+1
The MSM is leading us down the garden path with celebrity worship.
I saw Jamie farrar the tickle film guy come out of the garage when I was chasing Ho’s for phones on K’rd, he looked tall and was blowing on a pie…
OI Farrar ur famous I yelled out, he kept walking..
my claim to meet fame was over…
Looking at how Putin plays the far left as well as the alt-right…
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/13/how-putin-played-the-far-left.html
A bit like the Daily Beast’s “useful idiots” story, then?
That wikipedia article you linked to gives quite a different impression than the actual Daily Beast story.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/15/beware-the-hillary-clinton-loathing-donald-trump-loving-useful-idiots-of-the-left.html
Really? Please explain?
Looks pretty much like what the Wikipedia article says: left wingers critical of Clinton are claimed to promote Trump directly or inadvertently.
eg the stuff on Greenwald being pro Trump & pro Putin
First, I’ve seen it claimed a number of times that the headline usually doesn’t get written by the author of a piece, it’s usually an editor that chooses it. So to base a criticism of an author on the grounds that the headline is much more sensational than the actual contents is unfair.
The actual writing is much more nuanced, for instance passages such as “Unlike the aforementioned wannabe revolutionaries, most of these progressives haven’t endorsed Trump. But they nonetheless embrace the radical departure in American foreign policy that his presidency promises.”
I would also note that when someone writes a piece, in the context of an election, highlighting flaws in candidate A, without at least mentioning candidate B’s serious flaws in the same area (or worse, cherry-picking something positive about candidate B to highlight a contrast), it’s reasonable to infer support for candidate B.
Greenwald is just one that comes to mind as one who has written harsh anti-Clinton pieces, but also writes mildly positive approving passages about Trump such as “Questioning… whether it has this ongoing value and whether the U.S. should be expending the resources it is expending on NATO when we have massive income inequality and our working class is being deprived in ways previously unimaginable, those are perfectly legitimate questions to ask. NATO is not a religion,”. I can’t bring to mind any balancing pieces exposing Trump that he’s written. So if he writes a lot of anti-Clinton and includes stuff that’s pro-Trump, what’s the reasonable conclusion to draw? If his writing leaves a misleading impression of his views, whose fault is it?
OK. I’m with you on many of those points: e.g. headlines, political biases, etc.
However, the “Useful idiots” article, like the other Daily Beast one you linked to, clearly is pro-Clinton, and pro-US-exceptionalism and imperialism:
In “Useful Idiots”:
My bold. So, basically the article is selectively quoting from critics of Clinton (and other right leaning democrats – I don’t see Clinton or the views in the quotes above as left wing), to suggests any critics are in bed with the autocratic forces of evil.
The other article, “How Putin played the left”, does the same with noted critics to the left of Clinton (&Obama), including Jill Stein and Sanders.
I do agree that Greenwald does tend to be stronger in his condemnation of Clinton than Trump. However, other authors at the Intercept have been stronger critics of Trump.
Ultimately, though, the Daily Beast does seem to be a strong supporter of the US status quo (pre-Trump as POTUS), and seems to be out to discredit the left, and critiques of their imperialism and foreign policy., by aligning them with autocrats like Putin.
The author describes himself as a “conservative polemicist:”
Over the past eight years, a bevy of Republican politicians and conservative polemicists (including yours truly) have assailed Obama for disavowing American exceptionalism.
So it’s unsurprising he endorses American exceptionalism and considers the USA a force for good in the world. But he certainly won’t be a Hillary Clinton supporter…
Well, he’s more of a Clinton supporter than one for the likes of Sanders or Stein.
Maybe more of a never-Trumper.
I don’t think the piece is portraying the far left as “in bed with”, it’s saying that there are those on the far left that can be manipulated into words and actions that damage the centre-left. Thereby inadvertantly enabling the alt-right and others that strongly oppose the goals of the far-left.
Personally, my politics are very close to Stein’s on most issues. If the US had some kind if STV or proportional representation, my voting choice would have been dead easy: Stein. But in the system the US has, voting for Stein would be like buying a lottery ticket for the daydreams. Except the lottery ticket is much more likely to actually deliver the dreams. So I swallowed hard, and took a good look at the realistic choices.
Frankly, it looked to me like the main effect of the one-sided criticisms, single-issue shouting, and false equivalences put out by by the far-lefties obscured that 1) Sanders really had dragged the Dems close to his positions, 2) for everything “good” that Trump said (that got highlighted by the far-lefties) he said several things that should be horrifying to lefties 3) while a Clinton would do a lot of things lefties would disagree with, on average she would move things in the right direction, while Trump would be mostly a fukn disaster.
So to the extent that the noisy anti-Clinton far-lefties had an effect on switching some Dems to vote Stein, and turning other Dems off Clinton so they stayed home, yes the noisy far-lefties helped Trump win and were thereby “useful idiots” for Putin and Trump. And I think the Daily Beast is doing a good thing by calling it out.
So I’m super-grateful we’ve got MMP here so I can vote for someone a bit closer to my views here than I can in the US. And why I’m hot on reducing thresholds for representation so a wider range of views get represented.
Mostly agree – though there was so many different views, as far as I can see – and then the noisy interference from various journalists invested in one position or another, and the manipulations of the US & Kremlin intelligence agencies – I really am concerned that expressions of true left wing politics get plastered with the mud being thrown around.
Yes, prefer MMP. But also, the power structure is so entrenched in the US, that the least powerful are always the losers.
I suspect there’s a lot going on behind the scenes – manipulations, strong arming, strategic leaks, etc – that we truly don’t know the extent of the propaganda and surveillance warfare that is on-going.
Greenwald, on his twitter feed today, has been strongly attacking the claims that the anti-imperialist left is supporting Putin.
eg:
Can anyone cite a single left-wing figure of any prominence who has ever expressed “solidarity” with Putin? I know of literally none.
And
Right. If you question sufficiency of evidence for govt claims about Russia, they accuse you of “loving Putin”: as dumb as it is dishonest.
Ok, now that’s just dishonest bullshit from Greenwald. There are plenty of people and organisations questioning the sufficiency of evidence that aren’t being accused of “loving Putin”.
The war against intelligence is only in its initial phase Carolyn_nth. Many foot-soldiers and noble banner bearers will work tirelessly to make society like a glorious formation lock-stepping confidently into the future.
And of course, the line, the direction – the arguments or perspectives that inform the unfolding of this great harmonious order…well, it’s unthinkable that any “right thinking” person would question it.
So to question is to be wrong. To be critical is to betray or willingly or unwittingly be in the service of all that the glorious formation seeks to overcome and set right.
You can already see it happening across numerous threads in the comments sections here.
It’s Red Scare. It’s McCarthyism.
Can anyone cite a single left-wing figure of any prominence who has ever expressed “solidarity” with Putin? I know of literally none.
Expressed “solidarity?” Sure, can’t say I’ve seen any myself. But “expressed solidarity” is a fairly precise criterion – comment 5 linked to an article that lays out fairly convincingly how the far left, including at least one prominent figure (Jill Stein) have put themselves in the position of endorsing or supporting Putin.
So your running with the raw news story then Psycho Milt?
Seems you are running with a very similar attack vector you used with Syria, in effect to shut people down people on a issue.
That not going to induce debate and the free exchange of ideas. But then again, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you promote debate or the free exchange of ideas.
Uh, Psycho Milt is responding to how Greenwald is presenting a distorted picture of what his critics are saying which is a kind of strawman argument. Greenwald is using a very similar technique to the Nats inquiring into misconduct by one of their own: set the terms of inquiry very narrowly in order to exclude the problem behaviour from examination.
As for trying to shut down the debate, get a mirror handy and take a good look at your reply to PM. Did you actually address the points he made?
Raw news to obscure for the likes of you Andre?
And obviously I don’t need a mirror because you joined in. 🙂
No analysis or interpretations of events, nor perspectives on issues are to be taken on board unless an approved level of opprobrium for the commissars chosen enemies, or fealty to the commissars chosen masters is in clear evidence.
That’s how it is right now. And it goes way beyond PM, Andre and some others in the comments and way beyond some mutterings from a few authors…
…this is what liberalism looks like – lashing out as it dies.
Everything is to be feared even as everything is to be cleaved to. So everything that would seek to question or understand or shed light is to be destroyed under the commissar’s crushing boot of conformity and unity.
Just look at our supposedly pluralistic media that has become no more than what might have been expected from PRAVDA taking on some biological characteristic and dividing and multiplying into a thousand or a hundred thousand clones of itself.
Where are the alternative analyses or the critical analyses? (There are none). Where is the mainstream news outlet that expresses doubt or asks a question or two? (They don’t exist).
There’s definitely a dark foreboding emanating from ‘our’ political institutions these days and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like it. For them, it can’t but end badly. For us, it depends.
So there are some sources, such as Greenwald, that are totally exempt from scrutiny and criticism? May we have an approved list of all those sources whose pronouncements must be accepted without question? Please?
So there are some sources, such as Greenwald, that are totally exempt from scrutiny and criticism?
Nope
May we have an approved list of all those sources whose pronouncements must be accepted without question?
According to a number of flailing liberals, the BBC (and others) can, more or less, be taken at face value. They are, according to flailing liberals, pretty damned objective. In fact, to question the BBC is to be an apologist, a shill for (insert designated official enemy).
I never question my cat’s pronouncements.
I read that piece, and it got me thinking about the difference between me and a lot of the wishy washy believe anything fringe merchants of the Green movement/anti-Clinton crowd. I think it might be that I have actually seen the old Warsaw Pact. I visited East Germany for a couple of weeks back in the 1980s. It was railway sidings of tanks, uniformed soldiers, grey food served in cold grey restaurants, scared locals and being followed everywhere you go. It was depressing, many buildings in East Berlin were frozen in time, unrepaired and scarred from the battles of 1945. I found it a scary and an awful place. After my little taste of totalitarianism, I couldn’t wait to get back to West Germany and freedom. When you realise the slighly on edge West German border police with their submachine guns were there to protect you from the hyper-aggresssive East German border guards should it all turn to custard on the border you also realise what the cost of freedom might be. After those two weeks, I had no problem identifying between “us” and “them”.
To many on the left today have no idea how awful totalitarianism is or how scary it is to suddenly realise you are not protected by the rule of law and have no human rights. Putin and his kleptocrat thugs in his gangster state are horrible people who wish us all harm. Xi Jinping and the rest of his murderous butchers of the Chinese communist party would brutally torture and kill anyone of us who stood up them, if they could get their hands on us. People like Jill Stein and the flaky occupy movement media and the rest of crackpot conspiracy theory left need to grow up. Maybe they need to spend a fortnight in North Korea, to see what life looks like in a totalitarian state.
This blog’s comments sections are currently plagued by the worst kind of false moral equivalence troll, a person so monumentally stupid, vindictive and egotisitical that he wishes to do nothing but sneer at the ideals of freedom and seek to act as the useful idiot of our enemies. I’ve seen with my own eyes what sort of place Putin and Xi Jinping want to create for us, and I have no time for people who act as traitors by supporting them.
Yeah. I visited Czechoslavakia as an invited guest for a sporting event in the early 80s. It was deeply uncomfortable and depressing.
http://thesaker.is/the-ancient-spiritual-roots-of-russophobia/
http://thesaker.is/could-there-be-a-grain-of-truth-in-the-ukrainian-propaganda/
The piece is ridiculous, so i guess it fits you perfectly.
“The term “russophobia” (the hatred and/or fear of things Russian) has become rather popular in the recent years, courtesy of the anti-Russian hysteria of the AngloZionist Empire, ”
Oh the irony….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Russia
\Russia is a multi-national state with over 185 ethnic groups designated as nationalities; the populations of these groups vary enormously, from millions (e.g., Russians and Tatars) to under 10,000 (e.g., Samis and Kets).[1]
please define Russians? Or are you talking Putin?
But the article above is more about discrediting people who are strongly left wing, by falsely smearing them as either Trump & Putin supporters or enablers.= are supporters of Putin or Trump.
And the people being criticised don’t actually support Trump or Putin.
The article says – “…Putin has cultivated dupes, fellow travelers, and purblind fools among plenty of American progressives…”
Accurate, IMHO.
See my response to Andre above at 10.56am.
…has cultivated dupes, fellow travelers, and purblind fools among plenty of American progressives…
Now in general, I agree with that about the Kremlin and Putin. But I also think that is true of the CIA, US intelligence community, and the US defenders of US imperialism and foreign policy.
There is a propaganda and surveillance/intelligence war going on between the Kremlin and the US agencies. Trump has inserted himself into it one way or another.
Meanwhile the US powers that be also use the whole situation to discredit any strong expression of left wing values, policies, campaigns and critiques.
Thank you. My sentiments exactly.
You do not have to be the biggest fan of either Putin or Xi Jinping to think that (a) war is to be avoided, especially war with such destructive potential, and/or (b) that a multipolar world is a better thing than a world dominated by a single power. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” as the saying goes.
“… (b) that a multipolar world is a better thing than a world dominated by a single power….”
Yet people look back with nostalgia at the Pax Romana, or the Pax Britannica, or the golden age of the Han dynasty.
A multipolar world is a dangerously unstable one, which historically result in large scale wars of alliances.
Further down, at comment 12, you approvingly quoted, Bill Clinton’s generation, however, believed that concentration of financial power could be virtuous, as long as that power was in the hands of experts. They largely dismissed the white working class as a bastion of reactionary racism.
Do you not think that this hubris would increase rather than abate in a world dominated by such people, with no need to negotiate or make concessions? Owen Jones thinks it increased greatly after the Berlin wall fell, and neoliberal capitalists felt they could from then on reign supreme. I do not have a link, but the claim is from his book “The Establishment & how they get away with it.”
i once spend the better part of the night at the german/german boarder with people pointing guns at us and taking the car apart.
why?
the old man driving the car, Adi – short for Adolf, was pointing to his rather long arms and large fists when the Volkspolizist asked if we had weapons in the car.
oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Also fun in Berlin, no matter how drunk one got, you could never get lost, the wall was there to guide you home. Always.
Yes, a lot of people don’t have much of an idea what it looked like, what it felt like and those that did know – family members that did make it out of East Germany after years of ‘re-education’ never much spoke about it.
Perhaps you could submit a proposal to deal with the problem direct to Merkal. The board is set for the dismantling of the left, there entire economic thesis has been discredit along with the right. Nows a great time to submit a proposal to deal with the problems you’ve out lined. Because the system can’t deal with all the refuges flowing from the Middle East. But first there’d have to be admission there’s no solution.
mate, what ever you smoke its good. i give you that.
Yep that dude’s supply is the good shit alright.. did you understand any of it?
nope, i am stone sober.
he ain’t sharing i tell ya.
“…plagued by the worst kind of false moral equivalence…”
Projection and hypocrisy appear to be your ‘stock and trade’
Comments from you , Sanctuary, are some of the lowest level on this site
It is self evident that you have not a single shred of understanding about what you write. The words do tell a story about the personality behind them…
I spent 4 months in 1982 working for Topdeck Travel on their USSR/Eastern Europe camping tours. Each trip was for a month and visited East Germany, Poland, USSR, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Absolutely fascinating but very oppressive. We were among the first tourists to be allowed in Poland after the Solidarity uprising and I’ll never forget the sight of Russian soldiers goosestepping through Warsaw. I found Romania and Czechoslovakia the most oppressive. It would take 6 hours to get into and out of the USSR because they searched everything and even read peoples diaries. I wonder if it is still like that.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/88399075/like-a-bickering-couple-we-need-to-find-healthy-ways-to-disagree-about-politics
interesting read for your mornng
Written by the CEO of the Maxim Institute, an organisation responsible for some of the most divisive ideas around.
You mean, the “badly constructed front for the political meddling of evangelical Christians” Maxim Institute? The one of whom Bruce Logan was a former director? I’m sure they’ve nothing but our best interests at heart, more so if you happen to be homosexual.
Or you could tell me what’s wrong with what he wrote
I like the irony, don’t you? “Like a bickering couple, we need to find healthy ways to disagree about politics”, lolz.
Do you even read things and make a comment – or do you go “I don’t like the author so I’ll just ignore and keep reading my echo chambers ?”
Way to learn.
What the Democrats are up to. And why a good number of Democrat voters didn’t bother to show up to vote for Hillary.
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/139825/cory-booker-not-friend
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/12/sanders-slams-democrats-who-voted-pharmaceutical-industry/96506340/
Cory Booker may have just given his 2020 chances a big black eye with that one.
well its all good then, they will loose their Health Care and have to go back to bankruptcy in order to receive surgery or simply just die.
In the mean time, America will be Great again! Woot Woot.
A long but worthwhile look back at the fake news in the US election. Given how successful it was and how much of it was sprayed around here on The Standard, we’ll all need to be very wary of it for our own elections coming up.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/tabloid-newspapers-trump-media-propaganda-214627
heh
Yum.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hey-would-you-eat-this-golden-shower-burger-inspired-by-trump_us_5878fd80e4b09281d0ea7aeb?ew2tgmv4nhotro1or
Except Trump liked it.
https://media.giphy.com/media/l4xVGOegQxqe9za4E/giphy.gif
bwahahahahahahahah
someone might be a wee bit touchy…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dons-johns-inauguration-trump_us_58792908e4b0b3c7a7b1291b?mh8q4h827rezmpldi
Bans for TRP and Lanthanide are up today …
Thanks ms.
I hope they both return.
+ 1
All hail dear leader, or else!
/
(1 of 7)
An excellent summation of Obama here –
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/12/democrats-cant-win-until-they-recognize-how-bad-obamas-financial-policies-were/?utm_term=.7a00bfce6274&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
Along woth the best two paragraph summation of how and why third way, middle class identity politics has crippled the political left in the west since the 1970s – an own goal if there ever was one:
“…There’s history here: In the 1970s, a wave of young liberals, Bill Clinton among them, destroyed the populist Democratic Party they had inherited from the New Dealers of the 1930s. The contours of this ideological fight were complex, but the gist was: Before the ’70s, Democrats were suspicious of big business. They used anti-monopoly policies to fight oligarchy and financial manipulation. Creating competition in open markets, breaking up concentrations of private power, and protecting labor and farmer rights were understood as the essence of ensuring that our commercial society was democratic and protected from big money.
Bill Clinton’s generation, however, believed that concentration of financial power could be virtuous, as long as that power was in the hands of experts. They largely dismissed the white working class as a bastion of reactionary racism. Fred Dutton, who served on the McGovern-Fraser Commission in 1970 , saw the white working class as “a major redoubt of traditional Americanism and of the antinegro, antiyouth vote.” This paved the way for the creation of the modern Democratic coalition. Obama is simply the latest in a long line of party leaders who have bought into the ideology of these “new” Democrats, and he has governed likewise, with commercial policies that ravaged the heartland…”
i am sure our double dipper from Dipton, the beancounter in Chief is studying this and wonders if there is a way to apply it here 🙂
Quote: “But wait, it gets worse. Another feature of this bizarre GOP scheme gives exporters a gargantuan tax break by, in effect, not taxing their export revenues. Let’s say a corporation sells a piece of machinery to Iran for $5 million, which cost only $4 million to produce. That means $1 million in taxable profit. Under the new Republican scheme, however, that $5 million received from the mullahs wouldn’t be taxable. Instead of a $1 million profit, the corporation, for tax purposes, would have a $4 million loss. Loophole doesn’t begin to describe this “tax break.”Quote End
http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2017/01/11/omg-house-republicans-are-preparing-to-hit-consumers-with-a-horrible-new-tax-that-will-harm-trump-and-hurt-the-economy/#6d2bfc3b641e
hat tip red state,
http://www.redstate.com/california_yankee/2017/01/13/a-nasty-political-and-economic-trap-for-trump/
quote” As the tax reform debate heats up in Congress, the obscure border adjustment tax (BAT) is causing friction within the GOP.
What is the BAT? Well, Steve Forbes calls it “a nasty political and economic trap for Donald Trump” — a trap he says is being set by Republicans rather than Democrats.”
lol. lol. lol.
can someone explain to my why rural white is ‘heartland’ and urban brown is not?
why can we tell people that live in cities to ‘move out if they can’t afford it’, to get of benefits and ‘move to where the jobs are’, to ‘get an education if they want to earn more money’ to not ‘have children they can’t afford’ but then we turn around and don’t expect the same of white people living in the heart land?
And why do we give people like those in the US heartland a pass on voting for the same fuckwits that have been fucking(looking at Kansas, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana and so on and so on, heck even Texas) it up for them and tell the democrats that they should give up their voter base of women, people of colour, people who do not identify as heterosexual white male, low income workers, etc etc to make way for the’ white male worker’ who wants to go back to a time where women were barefeet pregnant fixing sandwiches, people of colour being segregated back into obscurity, and anyone not being a heterosexual white male going to the closet?
Please someone explain the heartland to me. I don’t get it. I honestly don’t.
Not sure what your second paragraph means, but your initial question is within the formation of New Zealand identity, economy and society through the development of extensive then intensive agriculture.
i am talking about the US. white heartland is evangelic fundamentalist. YOu know the once who think abstinence only is a good way to prevent pregnancy – even when married i would guess, that think that homosexuality etc is an abomination, and that ‘these people’ you know brown people should learn their place again. Essentially the current Republican lot led by fundamentalists that would like to become a ‘christian’ Nation again by ending the persecution of the Christians by the non Christians that live in Cities. 🙂
So what you are saying then is that a few hundred people – old NZ Farming Stock are ‘heartland’ ‘real NZ’lers’ and all the others are not?
Or are you saying that a few hundred people – old NZ white large scale Landowners are heartland and all others are not?
+1 although I would say concepts of the Heartland predate the neoliberal revolution by a long way. Sabine’s second paragraph is about the bastardisation of NZ culture that has happened since.
Sabine, was there something specific that prompted the question?
it is these articles that basically say that if Clinton would have abandoned all other democratic voter blocks in favour of the ‘disgruntled white male voter’ in the heartland she would have won. (and we often hear the same here in NZ – where Labour = urban / brown / low income / female/ non land owning etc, National = white / male / upper income/ rural / land owning
My point is why are we calling people / areas heartland – in it self a loaded term as the heart is the engine of the body – implying that all other areas of a country are of lesser importance.
combine this with things that we have heard often over the last years
if people in the city can’t afford to live there they should move.
we could equally say that if people on the country side don’t have jobs they should just move.
why are women with large families in the urban areas a drain on socity, while the white women on countrysides having large families are not?
the double standard that is applied Heartland = white , Urban = Brown.
Fwiw, the heartland in the US voted to have the Afordable Care Act gutted, they voted to have the remains of their public schools gutted, they voted to have Birth Control and Family planning replaced with abstinence only (even in marriage) as only form of Family planning, they voted to have environmental degradation be made standard operational procedures, and for what its worth non of the jobs they lost 40 years ago is gonna come back.
I don’t recall rural and urban in Germany or France or Holland to be adressed that way. I grew up on the deep bavarian country side and then went to he City as a young women. It was always just Germany. Non of that these are better then those bs.
In settler/colonial societies, like Aussie, NZ, the US, national identity has often been tied to the (freedom of the) open countryside. It features a lot in novels and movies – cowboys in the US and the man alone in rugged country in NZ.
100% pure and all that.
They’re kind of origin myths, in (implicit) opposition to the (implicitly class-based) corruption of the (much more urbanised) UK/Europe.
The “heartland” or countryside-identification is not usually the rural marae, the Aboriginal township, or the native American reservation.
thanks.
that makes sense to me.
a fake creations myth to hold up stereotypes that never existed.
No, it’s not fake, it’s real. NZ really does have a love historically for the countryside. That’s different than the politics you describe which I address below.
sorry not being clear enough.
what are the oldest ‘urban’ centres in NZ , the oldest ports? If we apply the creation myth to ‘heartland’ one would have to include the old Port Towns at least?
i get the heartland in an emotional sense of love of the country side, especially what is left over of old NZ in Doc Parks and the like.
but heartland in the political sense i find hard to digest. It seems divisive, not only based on race, gender but also location.
so the question that i put to you then is the North Island less Heartland then the South Island?
I am not trying to be divisive, i am really trying to understand this emotional separation of a country.
example, Bavaria is a beautiful place with the Alps, the lakes, the cows and such, but it is not the heartland of Germany. It is often descriped as an industrial powerhouse as due to some quirky german legislation it is a free state within the federation of Germany and can use that to its advantage in incentivising businesses to settle there. But neither is Schleswig Holstein or Sachsen or Friesland the Heartland.
Lol. If you had followed my comments over the last few weeks you would know all that
i am not stoned enough to understand what you say.
this was probably the most ‘english’ phrase you typed all week.
and my english is limited i tell ya.
Mmmhmmm. You seem desperate with all this talk of German boarder crack downs. Can I suggest you have a sleep before going out again and pointing fingers and words at men with guns
Oldest European port? kororareka? Bay of islands?
oldest urban centre? Dunedin/Otago was a very dominant centre in the late 19th and early 20th century.
suspect the term is just a synonym for rural areas that has been adopted, often for marketing that has been pinched by the politicians.
as to north v south being more heartland than the other that would simply be an extension of the North South parochialism
3 days in Auckland left me, seriously, wondering how they can put up with the place. The roads were a nightmare, the people I found rude, and when they heard my please’s and thank you’s they all smiled and looked at me like I was a weirdo. I have left Auckland flummoxed as to why oh why would you put up with the place. To many cars, people riding your bumper, cutting lanes, crowds at beaches like I had not seen since Greece..i left Auckland shocked at it’s transformation since 2000 when I left there it was nothing like that, and Asians.., OMG not dissing Asians just commenting..it was like being in Asia. I felt the minority for the first time in my life, in my own country of birth, I felt we had been overrun. just a feeling I got and I cannot get over the fact it did that to me.
On Auckland buses, passengers usually say thank-you to the driver when they get off.
OMG thank you, thank you, for a minute I thought they had completely lost the meaning of manners up there. There is a glimmer of hope.
Well, rr, there probably is a lot of rudeness in Auckland. But there is also politeness about, too.
i don’t think us Aucklanders are ruder then people on the country side. 🙂 We might just be a bit more stressed but that can be blamed on the traffic.
Most people stay here for the work. And some people don’t like being too far removed from family — and if all their family lives in Auckland…
I went to Putaruru a couple of years back for a birthday. The air was fresh, the grass was green and everyone was so laid back. But there was bugger all to do. If you took a bunch of kids from Auckland and plopped them down in a place like Putaruru, they’d be climbing the walls within a week.
“Can we go to Westfield, Dad?”
“This is Putaruru, sweetpea. There is no Westfield.”
Can’t say I missed the clogged roads, awful driving and generally shitty attitudes of Auckland, though.
Well, there’s the swing bridge at Arapuni, the sanctuary at Maungatautari, complete with tuatara, the toy museum in the castle at Tirau, and the lovely little shops and cafes in that village, the lovely carvings all up and down the streets of Tokoroa, the gorgeous hot springs at Okoroire, and Rotorua and Taupo are an hour or less away. Westfield – very boring by comparison! 🙂
Yep NZ is a racist country.
I think what your are describing isn’t about concepts of the heartland though, at least not in NZ. Those dynamics strike me as ftom the neoliberal decades. And it’s not like we have farmers coming on to TS running alt-right or anti-identity politics 😉 One of the classic example she of what you describe comes from Chris Trotter and his Waitakere Man myth. Haven’t heard it for a while so hopefully it was discredited but what we have now is another version.
From what I cannot tell it’s the politics of dudes who don’t actually care about racism, sexism etc, or who in facts oppose advances in those areas and are now feeling encouraged to be bolder about that post-Obama.
There are some valid politics around working class and poor people and what has been done to them while others thrived but I also don’t understand the need to roll back advances for women, Māori, gay people etc in order to address that. The identity politics I’ve been involved in my whole adult life has been inclusive. What we are seeing now is the disintegration of society and a whole bunch of nasty coming out. Some of that is latent until now.
Also, the whole thing about stop whining and move where capitalism want and you has a modern bent to it, but several generations ago Māori were pressured to move from country to city. It’s a big part on NZ’s history, look it up I think you will find it interesting.Since the 80s it’s been the norm for Pakeha in rural areas to also move to town. This is the neoliberal agenda in the economy and is different from the racist, sexist politics you describe.
hence my question.
it always seemed to me that ‘heartland’ applied by journos/politicians is more a code for a livestyle long gone, nuclear family and such. And in that sense one could argue that the live on the country side is more ‘traditional’ then in an urban centre where people can to some extend hide and live in anonymity.
but i find it interesting as this notion is applied in politics and how in some publications it is argued that the vote of the heartland is morally superior to the vote of the non heartland.
thanks for answering, this was quite interesting to me.
I think you’d have to give some examples of those usages Sabine. To me you are mixing a number of complex phenomena up, they’re not all about the Heartland.
weka, I agree that there are complex things in the mix. But the term “heartland” does get used in reports on NZ politics, and it does traditionally relate to more rural areas associated with conservative values..
As I’ve tried to indicate, there’s old origin myths that have long been incorporated in NZ identity. They do keep getting revived in various forms, from Speight’s Southern Man in the 1990s, to the #8 wire metaphor of NZ identity in the 21st century, and Trotter’s re-working of the Southern man stereotype in his Waitakere Man.
That old rural NZ identity is one where resourceful white men dominated, and were usually located in rural areas – once considered to be the backbone of the country. I think it still gets revisited to reclaim a time when white men dominated.
Here a report is of John Key “at ease” in the Southland “heartland” in 2010.
Todd Barclay in Gore “heartland” in 2016, where his commitment to rural people is being questioned.
Q@A questions people in the “Wairarapa heartland” about our next PM Dec 11, 2016.
Though, in this 2014 article, South Auckland is referred to as “Labour heartland”. – which contradicts what I’ve been saying.
And in this Jan 2016 article it says Auckland has become National “heartland”.
So… hmmm.
Always found the Speights add rather funny.
Drink Speights and you, a young male, will prefer a hoary old sheep herder to a pretty young barmaid.
Not the message they wanted to get across! LOL.
Well to some extent, I think they were a bit tongue in cheek – but, at the same time, affirming a certain kind of NZ masculinity.
I agree that there’s a whole lot changed since the “neoliberal” revolution in the 1980s. I agreee with your final paragraph, weka.
But the myth of NZ identity being based in rural locations has long been commented on.
TeAra (NZ Encyclopedia has seveal pages on it.
They claim the myth of NZ rural identity persisted into the 1970s.
They then go on to say urban culture took over post 1975.
I do think there is some connection between the rural mythology of NZ identity, and the man alone myths associated with settler societies like NZ.
“But the myth of NZ identity being based in rural locations has long been commented on.”
Not sure what you are meaning there Carolyn. There is no single NZ identity, but the connection between NZers and the land isn’t a myth. It still exists despite the problems that neoliberalism has created.
Well, there are dominant NZ identities and the association between NZ’s countryside and NZ national identity has long been represented in ads and various cultural forms.
the connection between NZers and the land isn’t a myth
hmmm… but you’ve been saying most Kiwis these days live in urban contexts. The rural myth of NZ identity continued long after urbanisation. The Te Ara link that I included in an earlier comment talks about that. There is some reality about connection with land, but it’s been raised to a mythical level in various cultural representations.
And the connection between land and NZ identity has been more commonly associated with white (male) Kiwis… ie not being located in the long history of tangata whenua association with the land.
Are you using the word myth to mean cultural story of fake construct?
Are you using the word myth to mean cultural story of fake construct?
Kind of – a cultural story, maybe based in some kind of reality, but very skewed to misrepresent reality/realities. And raised to some high status within a culture – mainly to represent to interest of the dominant group/s.
So for instance, the rural myth of NZ identity is one of hard working pioneers who created farms and built the country. It ignores the earlier presence of tangata whenua, and hides the brutal processes of colonisation – let alone the actiivities in towns and the growth of cities.
New Zealand national identity is usually shown in terms of the great outdoors, ignoring the diverse activities around the country. I searched on google images for “New Zealand”. I largely got images of NZ’s great outdoors, with a small number of more urban images thrown in.
I picked a nice outdoor image randomly, and it took me to this site, and this youtube video.
7 minutes of images accompanying the singing of the NZ National anthem – must have been for the 2011 RWC. I hadn’t seen the vid before. But most of the 7 minutes is images of pristine, glorious outdoor vistas. there’s a few shots of Auckland/Waitemata harbour, a bit of barbed wire, a cross, a building (maybe a church, sports stadia.
But note what is not there in this representation of NZ to ourselves and internationally – nothing of the diverse multi-cultural Asia-Pacific country we now are; nothing of the diverse fauna; nothing of Te Tiriti; no urban and/or rural marae; none of our diverse cultural and work/business activities . Certainly no polluted rivers; no homeless people; no women who have been victims of violence; no beggars; no Wellington cafes or Otago history… etc.
It’s pretty much open, breath-taking, majestic landscape without people. NZ is very often represented like this – sometimes they include farms.
Some parts promote it shit(s) and all.
Nice one, Poission!
I think of the man alone means rural masculine NZ national identity myth as something like in the Speight’s Southern Man” ads.
To me, Trotter’s “Waitakere man” echoed the Southern Man stereotype – and Trotter is a man from the south. It’s like he was re-locating the rural identity to somewhere on the fringes of a major urban centre.
Waitakere, while being partly blue-collar urban, also includes hilly bush country.
”Yep NZ is a racist country.”
I agree i got told once i wasn’t bad for a balhead,
have been randomly assaulted twice by brown people,
joined a softball team once but gave up after 3 weeks of being ignored and not touching the ball.
some lefties need to get over them selves , there are horrible bastards in all races.
that’s not what I meant by racism.
What’s a balhead?
It’s baldhead – Rasta man for someone who’s not a Rasta man.
edit: what bwaghorn said about horrible bastards in all races, too.
According to Bob Marley a balhead is a con man with crazy ideas of prisons and schools and education that teaches crazy ideas of his false idols. He goes on to say we should chase them out of town https://genius.com/Bob-marley-and-the-wailers-crazy-baldheads-lyrics
I will try to help you Sabine, you see the world the way you want it not the way it really is, and you class every one into and identity and then assume they all think the same way if they are that identify, rather than individuals, hope this helps 😀
bullshit.
this really is something i don’t get.
What is heartland. Why is Dipton more heartland then say Auckland or Tauranga?
Because often people in the cities or their parents etc migrated from these heartland towns, its where the family connection are, not sure why you are so exercised over it
when we are elevating one group over another it becomes an abusive statement.
simple as that.
and we are hearing over and over again, how the majority that lives and large/medium/smaller centres should yield to the few that live in heartland.
and i ask why and based on what. not exersised just intrigued. 🙂
Heartland
A central region, especially one that is politically, economically, or militarily vital to a nation, region, or culture.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/heartland
Dairy and other primary goods are what makes NZ most of its money, therefore the country is the heartland.
hmmm, how much money is made in the Cities? And the people that come from the heartland to live and work in the Cities, are they still heartland?
I can understand the regional thinking i.e. the beauty of the contry, the mountains and that, but then you also have stunning coastlines and such and Fishery is a good business in NZ, and Tourism is a good income in NZ. etc etc.
I don’t try to diminish the value of farmers or their work, don’t get me wrong,
I am trying to understand the political importance of Heartland, when in fact ‘Heartland’ does not even cover 50% of he population.
The moment the crown seized Tainui land, commerce in New Zealand started flowing from Waikato, to Auckland in around the 1860-1880s, and then onto the rest of the world, people started betting on those future prices. So the three enterprises are one and the same.
Great I live in the Heartland.. you will obey my wishes then… Sabines point is.. what make Heartland so special they should get preferential treatment I agree with her totally, it’s supposed to be about ALL kiwi’s not one group and to put any justification for it, even if they are critical to industry whatever, is her point made. They shouldn’t, they should be valued, not preferentially treated over others, that nuance is the crux of it IMHO.
thank you for saying it so much better then me.
And here was me thinking it was tourism!
Actually, most of the value added exports come from Auckland.
But. I don’t want to burst your bubble.
What are you talking about? Who is saying this?
also i would guess that Auckland, Dunedin are very old towns by NZ standards.
So if old rural towns are Heartland, should the same not be applied to old Urban tows.
‘heartland’ means ‘flyover’. An area to pay lip service to that can otherwise be safely ignored.
still makes no sense, as the people in the city are equally only getting lip service and are otherwise safely ignored.
The US and NATO preparing for war with Russia
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/us-and-nato-preparing-for-ww3-with.html?m=1
Officially reported from Paulsky NZ RT correspondent and pilger greenwald sock puppet
Material units are being forward deployed so soldiers and tankers can fall on them. Meaning instead of taking 2 months to deploy brigade sized elements and begin operations it takes 2 weeks. This information was glimed from the dragon trails which tested how long it takes a stricter brigade to travel across European held NATO territory
Happy to see myself as aligned with outstanding journalists such as Pilger and Greenwald.
Guess you connect more with the propagandists at CNN and the Washington Post.
Didn’t you learn anything frm the lies about WMD and Iraq?
Nyet Comrad Paulsky, but I d agree history has shown the west has not been able to trust the Russians for oh about 80 years
You really should learn your political history, it was the west who shafted Russia at the end of the second world war and caused the great cold war, not the Russians. I’m not going into it, but merely to say Russia got shafted by the US, as soon as they had the bomb. They used it to get their way in almost everything and Russia at that stage was on our team. It caused a cold war that went on for years, and the west’s propaganda machine I see still claims a few victims who haven’t watched any good doco’s on the second WW.
They stole all the scientists, V2 project, and reneged on many deals they had agreed too once they had the bomb and no one else did, in fact they even shafted the English they were so cocky..
Albania was meant to be western they dropped it and let it fall to Enver Hoxha’s communists. My country folk will never forget it.
Twenty five years ago this week.
Paul, this has been in the making since the annexation of Crimea by the Russia and it appears that the Poles invited the US to come and hang out.
One should remember that the ‘eastern’ countries after the second world war got their fare share of Russian interference and occupation and might not be so happy about Russia going around flexing muscle. They might even fear, that they will be ‘annexed’ and again get disappeared behind the great iron curtain.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/14/us-poland-weapons-deployment-eastern-europe-russia
” The US and Poland are discussing the deployment of American heavy weapons in eastern Europe in response to Russian expansionism and sabre-rattling in the region in what represents a radical break with post-cold war military planning.”
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense-news/2016/06/07/anakonda-kicks-off-poland-major-us-army-involvement/85541328/
“Poland and the countries that border Russia are becoming increasingly concerned with Russia’s aggression in the region as it continues to provoke Ukraine and occupy Crimea. Many Baltic countries fear Russia’s provocative behavior will spread to inside their own borders.
Macierewicz added that the Polish military would “especially” like to evaluate cooperation in the context of hybrid warfare on land and sea and with special forces.
Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine have been characterized as hybrid warfare.”
http://english.almanar.com.lb/94576
” Poland’s president urged US President-elect Donald Trump to keep Washington’s promise to deploy troops on NATO’s eastern flank amid tensions with Russia.
“Polish-American relations have become an important pillar of the European and transatlantic stability,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in a letter of congratulations.
“We are particularly pleased that during this year’s NATO Summit in Warsaw the US decided to increase its military presence in Poland, thereby strengthening the Alliance’s Eastern flank.
“We sincerely hope that your leadership will open new opportunities for our cooperation based on mutual commitment.””
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-us-troops-nato-mission-poland-message-obama-putin-a7517281.html
“Atlantic Resolve was launched in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which sparked fears in the Baltic nations that Vladimir Putin was planning a similar land-grab there.
Under that banner, the US Army in Europe has been conducting training operations since May 2014.”
Despite the Polish celebrations, clouds hung over the historic moment. As the AP puts it, “there are anxieties that the enhanced security could eventually be undermined by the pro-Kremlin views of President-elect Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Russia appears provoked by the deployment of American troops on its doorstep.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-12/american-troops-roll-poland-largest-deployment-cold-war
“We perceive it as a threat,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “These actions threaten our interests, our security. Especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “It’s not even a European state.”
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-troops-enter-poland-1st-deployment-russias-doorstep-44728112
Worries about the permanence of the new U.S. security commitments are rooted in a tragic national history in which Poland has often lost out in deals made by the great powers.
Poles still feel betrayed by Obama’s “reset” with Russia early on in his administration, which involved abandoning plans for a major U.S. missile defense system in Poland and replacing it with plans for a less ambitious system, still not in place.
“All recent U.S. presidents have thought there can be a grand bargain with Russia,” said Marcin Zaborowski, a senior associate at Visegrad Insight, an analytic journal on Central Europe. “Trump has a proclivity to make deals, and Central and Eastern Europe have reason to worry about that.”
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski expressed hope this week that any new effort at reconciliation with Russia “does not happen at our expense.”
Anyone who’s “preparing for war with Russia” had better send a hell of a lot more than 4000 soldiers into Poland – a couple of orders of magnitude more. This is about making Poland and the Baltic Republics feel a bit better, nothing more than that (because physically incapable of anything more than that). I guess it does come in handy for lackwit pro-Putin propagandists to squawk about “preparing for WW3” though…
Your arguments sound like McCarthyism of the post WW2 era.
Rods under the beds!
Paranoia.
Time to get out of basement Paul reality and sun light awaits
What, you’re posting stuff about “preparing for war with Russia” and “preparing for WW3” but me pointing out it’s bullshit is “McCarthyism” and “paranoia?” Try googling “arse about face.”
Mr Trump –
I am the only one. Trust me. I can build a wall around your homes that nothing can penetrate.
Bird species vanish from UK due to climate change and habitat loss
Two things you don’t want happening to your environment. There’s a reason why people fear swarming locusts and excess insects will have the same effect although over a longer period of time.
Wonder how much damage NZs farming community is doing to our bird species.
Have a look at the large dairy conversions in the waikato and count the birds.
there are not many left, cause there are no trees, no shrubs, nothing but baked soil with a few strands of grass.
you will find flies. lots and lots of flies.
I recall as a child being told how good it was to see the farms. To see the cleared fields.
But I’ve also been reading Scifi and fantasy for my entire life and in all of them they describe lush green forests as the epitome of a healthy environment. Green fields aren’t and neither are cities.
IMO, we know in our heart of hearts that farming is destructive.
This land of ours used to be covered in birds. It’s entire fertility was based upon sea birds flying and shitting from the coast all the way inland carrying the minerals that the sea provided.
There are load carrying capacities of land but not all land is commodified, just the land that is valuable to cities and complex cities, the rest is not mentioned so there are limits to how many immigrants New Zealand can accept. Once the load carrying capacity has been reached, conflict increases in warfare and politics proceeded by depopulation.
It’s possible to find atomised groups of people in all sectors. Such cases do not quarrel with neighbours to conquer or subjugate, only at state level does that become a dominant type of conflict.
The natural fertility cycle dictates the carrying capacity and the lush forests that used to be here were part of that cycle. By cutting them down and replacing them with farms we’ve actually decreased our carrying capacity as the land can no longer handle the pollutants that we’re putting into it.
This war on nature or crimes against humanity, call it what ever, does have to do with building a proper land rights system.
The first President to enter the White House under Senate investigation?.
Intelligence Committee will investigate possible Russia-Trump links
The Senate panel will use ‘subpoenas if necessary’ to secure testimony from Obama administration officials as well as Trump’s team, Richard Burr and Mark Warner said.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said late Friday that his committee would investigate possible contacts between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, reversing himself one day after telling reporters that the issue would be outside of his panel’s ongoing probe into Moscow’s election-disruption efforts.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/burr-says-intel-panel-will-investigate-possible-russia-trump-links-233621
Dont you love the US checks and measures , unfortunatel we don’t see the same in Paul’s Russia
oh good grief, please don’t give Mrs. Bennett ideas.
guy lives for two month in a storage unit.
Good to see that Martyn Bradbury published my following comment on The Daily Blog.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/01/14/for-everyone-claiming-gareth-morgan-couldnt-win-the-mt-albert-by-election/
PENNY BRIGHT says:
JANUARY 14, 2017 AT 2:46 PM
I have already been sought out and approached by senior Grey Power members, who are deeply concerned about the lack of transparency and the proven bribery and corruption associated with the vast spending of public rates and taxes at local and central government on private consultants and contractors.
My long-standing policy and proven track record on transparency in public spending and ‘whistle-blowing’ against corruption, goes back TEN years.
Politically, support for transparency (and accountability) in public spending cuts across the entire political spectrum.
I’ve also been in Kingsland for the last 26 years.
In my view – anyone who thinks Jacinda Adern is going to sleep walk into becoming the MP for Mt Albert, needs to think again?
Why would people in Mt Albert waste their vote, voting for someone to become their MP – who is already an MP?
I’m not an MP.
(Yet 🙂
What have Labour / Green members/ supporters got to lose, by strategically voting for proven anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner Penny Bright as the (fiercely) Independent MP for Mt Albert?
Jacinda and Julie Anne will still be MPs, and the House will have a fiery new Independent MP, who will be able to rattle the Parliamentary cage from the inside, asking the stinking hard questions about corruption that others will not – under Parliamentary privilege.
……”
In my view, this National Government is very vulnerable on this growing issue of corruption.
If corruption were to become a major election issue in 2017, in my opinion,
it would be far easier to achieve a change of Government.
What better way to help achieve that outcome than for a strategic vote in the Mt Albert by-election for a proven anti-corruption campaigner, in order to make a huge fuss INSIDE the House?
In my view, this is bigger than what will be best for the Labour and Green parties – it’s what will be best for New Zealand and the New Zealand 99%?
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
I actually think it would be worth voting for you. At this point in the electoral cycle it won’t change much but it would send the message that we’re really pissed off with the corruption and lack of transparency that we’re seeing in both local and national politics.
Great!
Are you in the Mt Albert electorate?
Would you like a sign on your fence?
If so – send me a personal
message on Facebook?
Cheers!
Penny Bright 🙂
No, I’m not in the Mt Albert electorate.
McCarthyism alive and well in the USA
http://professorwatchlist.org/
http://www.propornot.com/p/home.html
DNA analysis proves Arabs aren’t entirely Arab
The video at the end is a must watch.
And, no, I don’t like that headline or the focus on Arabia.