Why is the weather so hot?
Newshub investigated. The closest to the truth came in this response from MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray.
“”We had 5-6degC higher than normal in some areas of the Tasman Sea. In our coastal waters it was 3-4degC for some areas as well.
“It’s going to have a big impact on life within the sea, and also on weather events. One of the ingredients for these really intense lows is these warmer sea temperatures.”
Oh I’m sure it was all done according to the letter of the law, but the influence of agribusiness over NIWA was always going to clash with its scientific and public duties.
If there’s any hint of dodginess the ERA usually sides with the employee, knowing Jim I think he’d had more than enough of the overly officious cak one has to deal with from above in such organisations anyway.
His public statements at the time indicate that the problem increased during his last few years at NIWA. Perhaps you think there’s no connection between the National Party’s hostility towards facts and this phenomenon.
At that time Key and his cronies were ramping up dairy intensification.
Something inconvenient like climate change couldn’t get in the way of those methane belching cows.
You don’t really believe that there is anything sensible in that diatribe do you?
The title would be far more accurate if it was labelled “The great big list of Blip’s lies about John Key”.
I had a look at these claims of Blips on a number of occasions. His problem is that he claims that Key said things that he didn’t actually say.
He then claims that his misinterpretation of Key’s words is somehow the real thing.
But no amount of evidence would persuade a perverse individual like yourself. Sad really.
We’re still waiting to discover whether you lied deliberately about SCF and the extended guarantee the other day.
There are plenty of open-and-shut cases on BLiP’s list. Tranzrail, Brethren, Standard & Poors, troops to Iraq, Whitechapel – itself a corrupt device, Pike River, drinking age, etc etc.
I am sorry that I have illustrated that your ridiculous beliefs about the SCF affair have not a skerrick of truth to them.
Can I suggest you give up on the topic and go back to something that will no doubt give you orgastic pleasure.
You remember that John Key was of Jewish descent. He was actualy sent to New Zealand as part of a vast Jewish plot to take over the world.
Have a look here and you will see a description of that affair. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007058
I already linked to Treasury’s information on their application for entry into the extended guarantee scheme in 2010. Your assertion that they “couldn’t be dropped” from it makes no sense, because they hadn’t been accepted into it (the extended scheme) at that time.
Still, your admission that the National Party should have exercised more oversight concedes the point. Thanks.
You really are determined to come across as rather thick, aren’t you?
I’ll break into little steps.
1. SCF were included in the guaranteed company list in 2008.
2. That guarantee scheme was going to be replaced.
3. The company, SCF, was on the verge of collapse in 2010.
4. If they were not going to be in the replacement scheme most of their funds would have immediately been withdrawn.
5. They couldn’t possibly repay their debts.
6. The original guarantee would have been called on.
7. The Government, foolishly perhaps, hoped that the company could still be salvaged.
8. The were included in the new scheme in the hope that the salvage could succeed.
9. It didn’t.
There, is that now clear to you? They couldn’t have had their Government guarantee, under one scheme or another, withdrawn without immediately inducing a collapse.
@dv
There is one thing you still don’t seem to understand.
Either that or you do understand it but aren’t willing to recognise the truth.
The National led Government did not pay out 1.6 billion to SCF as you have repeatedly been claiming.
The Government paid out nothing to SCF.
I’ll repeat it so that it might penetrate.
The Government paid out NOTHING to SCF.
Nothing, zero, zilch.
Actually I think Blip was probably overly generous – Key’s was unquestionably the worst and most corrupt government ever to blight New Zealand.
You seem to lack the perspective to appreciate that lying and stealing public assets are not a public service – no doubt because you were in some sense part of the blight.
Muldoon had a number of less than complimentary actions during his time in government amongst them
Abolishing Labour’s superannuation scheme without new legislation. In the case it was found that revoking a law in such a manner without consent of Parliament was illegal under the Bill of Rights, The Moyle Affair, Appointing Sir Keith Holyoake as Governor-General upon Sir Denis Blundell’s term ending,the constitutional crisis after the 1984 election and his ‘pissheadedness’, the Keith Allen affair etc etc…
Also NZ is not a tax haven and your continued panty bunching over National’s fundraising is quite dull. In twenty year’s time historians will see the Nat government of 2008-16 as very much a continuation of the Labour government’s actions and policies of 1999-2008. Whether they view the government as a good and the country well run will have more to do with the state of the world and that time.
New Zealand is not looked upon as being a traditional offshore financial center, nor is it known as a “tax haven,” yet the country provides all of the advantages of an established offshore jurisdiction.
If you can’t see anything problematic in Cabinet Club I shouldn’t be at all surprised.
Perhaps you think the use of NZ as a repository for criminal proceeds is a good thing. The parties involved felt sufficiently guilty about it to murder a journalist who uncovered part of what was going on.
I don’t imagine that Hubbard considered the Key government in a positive light, given that it stripped him of the wealth he built up over a lifetime without even bothering to employ legal processes.
The employees of Solid Energy, too, have reason to curse the name of that fuckwit Bill English, the ‘responsible minister’ who allowed it to be run into the ground.
Muldoon was rightwing, but neither a crook nor a traitor. The Key government abounded in both – and its leader was the worst of all.
Tragi-comedy, and yes Key and Nat ministers made an artform of short and long term memory loss – accompanied by misleading and ambiguous statements and dirty tricks . . ..
Yes there are quite a few New Zealanders whose own private assets increased as a result of the Key government
I would predict that some of the most fervent defenders of neoliberalism onnthis site have benefited from either the government stealing our assets or allowing the housing market to run out of control.
Their love of the free market is just a reflection of the greed and selfishness.
Very well put.
The middle class were happy to buy into neo-liberalism in the 1980s, not realising that once the working class had been devoured, the plutocrats would be coming for them.
OAB
…chanting AGAINST Xmas. They are bright enough to know where their interests lie. And the fact that Christmas is cherished by other NZs makes no bones with them. Any bones that fall, will not be turkey ones if they can help it.
Ed – Are you one person with two different visual symbols (I never know what to call these) or two people with the same name? I’m guessing the former, but the visual thing is confusing. Is there a way to fix it?
The Free Market has never really been that. Through the actions of the Key lead government, for instance, they weighted the employment market heavily in favor of employers. They put in employment legislation into the market to help keep wage increases artificially low.
While business had record profits they begrudgingly increased wages and some even tried some tricks to get rid of union workers to replace them with non-unionised labor at a lower price. Then there was the way the contracting fo services like transportation etc. were set up by the Key Government to allow wages and conditions of those employees helping provide the public services could be lowered by changing them from employees of the councils to employees of subcontractors.
Okay, so why don’t you do us all a favour, since we’re such witless and easily led sheep, and write up a list of Blip’s lies about the lies Key told. Go on. It’ll give you something to do that doesn’t involve making snarky remarks about anyone who says something disparaging about Saint John of Key.
I’ve done it before for representative examples of Blips claims..
Why don’t you have a look on this blog and you’ll find several examples.
I can only assume you are to lazy to do it or you just go “nah, nah, nah” when someone demonstrates that you are too foolish to read the comments carefully.
All good politicians do it. They say things that sound very open but are very carefully hedged so that they can back out of them if they want to.
Look at Grant Robertson on TV3 recently. He was asked about the pay of the New Zealand Women’s Rugby team. He said something that sounded as if he thought they should be paid the same as the All Blacks. Thrilling if you think there is a huge Gender pay gap.
People took him to say something like. “I am looking forward to talking to the Rugby Union about pay equality”.
Wonderful for women, right? What he said was “pay equity” which would allow him in the future to turn into anything at all.
Look at Winston in 2005. He said that he wouldn’t accept “the baubles of office”. People took it to mean he wasn’t demanding a Ministerial role and all the perks that go with it. What happened of course that he became Minister of Foreign Affairs and toured the world in style. When questioned he said that the Ministerial position he took wasn’t a bauble, which is a thing of little worth.
Key was just very good at it and Blip was one of the many KDS sufferers who chose to pretend things Key said didn’t mean exactly what they said.
I don’t support any political party, and have voted across the political spectrum over the years. But the left’s obsession with John Key was much the same as the right’s obsession with Helen Clark. It was born out of confusion (perhaps envy?) about how someone they despise can be some popular, and about how such a person can be so astonishingly successful.
The greatest fraud in the BIMS reports that highlight the horror of National’s 9 years in power is that the NZ mainstream media unquestioningly allowed these scumbags to get away with it for a decade!
Where the hell was the NZ media for the last 9 years when the conclusions of the BIM reports were so obvious to everyone else?
Let’s call the last 9 years of National’s rule what it really was – class-austerity. A draconian policy that destroyed the most vulnerable but because media are middle class they never saw it and allowed them to get away with it.
Of course they disliked him.
He defeated their Joan of Arc, the sainted Helen.
That could never be forgiven.
There was, of course no difference between Clark Derangement Syndrome and Key Derangement Syndrome.
Both were functions of total incomprehension that someone the sufferers couldn’t stand was so incredibly popular and successful.
The CDS sufferers recovered. Even Hooton got over it. Sooner or later the KDS group will also recover and wonder how they could have been so silly.
As far as taking Bradbury’s opinion on anything as being sensible and meaningful you would have to be crazy.
He is the only person I have ever heard of who was more than 11 without having got over the idea that a nickname of “Bomber” was not really something to be disposed of along with your teddy bear.
There is no comparison because all the Right could come up with was silly accusations about a painting that Clark signed for charity, and the speeding motorcade incident.
What else? so-called “Nanny state” stuff like lightbulbs, showerheads, anti-smacking legislation.
The National Party Herald(tm) helped with their “attack on democracy” campaign against the Electoral Funding Act. (but they forgot to mention Cabinet Club or the Nats dodgy backers like China, SkyCity, Exclusive Brethren).
Hollow Men and Dirty Politics exposed their lies, and no politician has the guts to try and sue Nicky Hager because they know they will lose.
“Both were functions of total incomprehension that someone the sufferers couldn’t stand was so incredibly popular and successful.
The CDS sufferers recovered. Even Hooton got over it. Sooner or later the KDS group will also recover and wonder how they could have been so silly.”
To be fair, Key’s popularity was incredible, and his level of popularity outlasted even Clark. That must have really lurked the left even more.
“As far as taking Bradbury’s opinion on anything as being sensible and meaningful you would have to be crazy.”
Bradbury has a sorry reputation for getting things wrong. There are many excellent left wing bloggers; he isn’t one of them.
Reminds me of a sort of joke I heard.
A confused signwriter’s big mistake.
Instead of John Key, Used Car dealer
he put –
Car Key, Used John Dealer.
We misread the signs when we voted him in!
I think the situation is that it is many-sided and hard to treat. It is difficult with some ailments, you carry them within you and by the time they break out noticeably, you’re very poorly indeed.
He was sacked for publicising ‘climate change’ when the powers that were did not want it publicised and tried to silence him. But those who, like James, do not want to see will ask for ‘evidence’. History will judge James poorly, I think.
I bet you can read between the lines when it suits you. But here you prefer prevarication based on technicality. Of course NIWA would find weasel-words to obscure the issue, and it suits you to bleat about it.
Another interesting point is in this excerpt from the Listener article.
“More alarming still, perhaps, is Joy’s suggestion that scientists have become afraid of speaking out, for fear of losing funding: “He says people are scared to voice concerns for fear of political backlash, or the ‘Jim Salinger effect’, in which a top NIWA scientist lost his job in 2009 after speaking to the media.”
The Salinger sacking clearly had an impact.
Here are video links to the ghastly Key’s shaming by Steve Sackur.
Sadly few New Zealand journalists had the courage to question this dodgy character.
Anyone who ‘idolises John Key; is either living off the ‘ill gotten gains’ his policies of sell/carpetbag/extort from the taxpayers sold/lost assets is a sick puppy.
You and our side have some ‘conscience and wish to see them gone to another planet like ‘planet key’.
Salinger was fired for ignoring company policy and talking to the media without permission on several occasions.
ZOMG, a knowledgeable person spoke to the MSM about what they know. HOW DARE HE.
See, part of the problem is that our scientists and public servants now have to get permission first. They didn’t have to previously and the government was effectively more open because of it.
We actually need these people talking openly so that we can have an open and honest society rather than one hidden behind the lies of the politicians.
And according to that article he wasn’t even warned about it which means that the employer broke the law.
This is the way that a government operating with a profit motive, not a service motive or even an efficient and effective motive on a not-for-profit basis, treats erstwhile civil servants. Most uncivilly!
Dr Salinger, 62, says he was summarily dismissed from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) at 4pm on Thursday, and given three and a half hours to clear out his Auckland office.
He told the Weekend Herald he received no formal written warnings leading to his dismissal, which followed a 27-year career as a Government scientist, and no criticism of his work.
See, part of the problem is that our scientists and public servants now have to get permission first. They didn’t have to previously and the government was effectively more open because of it.
I did some work for DOC 25 years ago, part of the employment contract was that I wasn’t allowed to say or do anything that could negatively impact the government of the day and if I did, immediate termination of employment.
My job was pretty low level so I guess that condition applied to every individual who worked for the government.
Sure, no-one wants wooden sweaty cheerleaders expressing their ignorance. Dr. Salinger doesn’t fall into that category. In fact, informing people within his area of expertise is his duty.
NZAS strongly supports the right of scientists to speak out freely in their area of scientific expertise. Any underlying institutional problem with this issue should be addressed before serious damage occurs…
Working in the private sector is probably his best option then, he’s then free to say whatever he wan about the governments( as long as it doesn’t negatively impact on his employer)
We can’t have special people, rules have to apply to everyone.
So, when thinking of the OIA, I had thought to start in happier times.
The difference between when I started 25 years ago and now is astounding when it comes to dealing with the public service. If I was writing a story which in any way touched on the public’s interaction with government, I would pick up the phone and ring an official. It really was that easy.
Receptionists would direct you to areas in departments, and staff there would know who would be best placed to fill the gaps in my knowledge. That’s what we in the media need – knowledge. We don’t need quotes, although they inevitably come with the information. We need information, unvarnished, unspun and in a form in which we can understand what it actually means.
Which is how it should be. None of this carefully crafted BS that we get now that seems designed to protect the politicians and their policies.
But the flipside of that is when the media look for quick confirmation of what turns out to be – or should obviously be – made up bullshit. A careless confirmation by someone answering off the top of their head, possibly sarcastically, becomes “confirmed by the department”.
The classic example being the (Asia Air?) flight that had a hard landing in the US west coast and got evacuated – injuries and a couple of deaths – the local station had been informed by some wag late one night that the crew names were fit for a ChCh restaurant menu. The station called the NTSB in washington, and an intern apparently confirmed that the crew names were “Sum Ting Wong, “Wi Too Lo”, “Ho Lee Fuk”, and “Bang Ding Ow”. I shit you not, the station went live with the “breaking news” because some intern said an obvious wind up was true.
Thanks for reminding us about this. I was pleasantly surprised that a NZer who was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007) chose to voice his concerns in the media. All the more courageous given that he has suffered from depression.
“NZer who was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007)”.
Gosh, that sounds terribly impressive doesn’t it?
Does that mean that he is Jim Salinger, Nobel Prize Winner?
Actually my own record is vastly more impressive. I regularly donate to the Red Cross. Does that make me a 3 time Nobel Prize winner. After all MY organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963.
Were you carefully selected by the Red Cross from a field of eminent worthies, based on your proven expertise, experience and leadership in the field of charitable donations? No? I thought not.
Well no I wasn’t, but neither was Salinger. He certainly doesn’t seem to have been “carefully selected from a field of eminent worthies”, as you seem to think.
He was one of about twenty editors of one chapter of one report, as far as I can discover. It was solely about Australia and New Zealand and the majority of the editors were Australian.
He wasn’t even the senior of the New Zealand editors He was just one of the lower level group. The leading New Zealander representative in the group was a retired Geography Professor named Fitzharris.
Congratulations to Bryce from the Rock radio for the new baby I said that the Lady’s contributions to our society is a lot greater than they are given credit for Congratulations to your lady to M8 it a lot of work raising children. Congratulations to Jens new marriage may you 2 be happy forever. It was awesome to hear the rumble crew back on air. Its awesome to hear that Joseph has got the fight all signed up and Ka pai I want to put this up before you people came back on air just to busy. Ka kite ano
Joseph will lose and then if he’s got good advisors he’ll win by quitting boxing with a very tidy sum to support him and his family through the rest of his life.
Imagine if Trump knew anything about NZ (which he doesn’t) then he would know we have a dark skinned indigenous race called “Maori” who represent a sizable proportion of our population. So much so, around half of the so-called white “Pakeha” population also have ‘Maori” blood streaming through their veins.
I guess we qualify as one of his “shithole” countries.
You argued above that Trump was talking about countries not the people that live in them. I’m asking you if someone called NZ a shithole, would you think that wasn’t about the people as well?
Trump is obviously a racist. There is probably nothing he can say at this point about non-white people that is outside of that context.
I have occasionally thought NZ was a bit of a shithole – because in my experience people like James (actually worse, our James is pretty mild really) are in the majority.
By the way James, ‘shithole’ is a metaphorical term, and calling it a fact makes you look as silly as Trump was to use the term – which he now denies doing, but who would believe him?
Though no doubt some US policies or corporates have contributed to Haiti’s problems, geographical issues and how they were managed were relevant, as were the characteristics of the ruling elites.
Does anyone, for even the briefest of moments, believe that previous US admins and leaders of western governments and institutions have held these places (and the people that live there) in less contempt than that expressed by Trump?
Because if you do, I’d argue that you really need to pick up a history book and throw away all those “ready to hand” rosy glasses that are probably strategically dotted around the show.
Trump is an ignorant racist. I don’t think anyone would seriously argue with that. But what he did was merely give expression to an attitude that is more or less ubiquitous within echelons of power and that can be traced back to at least the 1830s and Britain’s actions against Egypt… the aftermath of Haiti’s independence in 1804…the Atlantic slave trade from the 1400s onwards.
Anyone care to comment on “super-predators” or the size of the African American prison population today, or anything about colonisation or the economic and political subjugation of post colonial entities and the accompanying unprecedented transfer of wealth from “South” to “North” that’s still continuing today?
And does anyone think that the very people in positions of influence and power who are front-footing and encouraging this hue and cry over Trumps statement are somehow divorced from the deeply ingrained institutional racism that Trump guilelessly, by dint of giving voice to his own prejudice, shone a light on?
Bill, there’s been plenty of comment from people on this site about things like the effects of colonialism on indigenous populations, racial profiling by police, inequities in arrests, prosecutions, guilty verdicts and sentences, trade disparities and exploitation of the “developing” world by the “developed”, America’s culpability in trying to shape the world around their perceived self interest… It’s not an either/or situation. Recognising and deploring Trump’s casual racism (which, let’s remember, does actually impact his decision making and hence other people’s lives) doesn’t stop people being able to think about, comment about and work against other kinds of racism or exploitation.
If you don’t want to join in when people condemn the latest Trump fuck-up, then don’t. But dumping on people who do doesn’t achieve a lot, does it?
Oh dear. Tell me red-blooded. When you were a kid and you got one of those ‘dot to dot’ books, did you manage, after you’d put the tip of the pencil to the paper, to draw it across the paper so that dots got joined up? Or did you just sit there all day feverishly focused on the dot beneath your pencil tip…perhaps lift the pencil and set it down on the next dot?
I ask, because you’ve just more or less stated an inability to chew gum and walk at the same time – ie, it’s beyond you to contemplate Trump’s bullshit in a wider, revealing context.
And by the way – since you made the accusation, just where in the name of fuck in the comment you’ve responded to, is it that I’m dumping on people who have joined with others in condemn[ing] the latest Trump fuck-up?
Seems to me you’ve just provided an excellent variant of an observation made by Hanswurst –
I’ve noticed that it’s a particularly common trait in liberals to equate a failure to prioritise condemning whatever is most important to them with supporting or defending that particular thing.
Now sure. You’re not suggesting I’m supportive of Trump, merely that I ought to shut the fuck up if I’m not prepared to read from the script everyone’s apparently signed up to.
Bill, it’s possible to disagree with someone and rebut a comment without being abusive. Maybe you missed the memo.
And you spent a lot of time and venom yesterday dumping on people who were condemning the latest Trump fuck-up. I’d argue that you took a pretty aggressive tone with Stuart Monroe, above, too.
Nice of you to notice that I’m not accusing you of condoning Trump. In light of that, it’s hard to see the relevance of your quote from Hanswurst, though…
You can say whatever you like about Trump. Nowhere above did I suggest you shouldn’t. Just maybe be a bit less aggressive when responding to others.
Well. Seeing as how I didn’t submit a comment in response to Stuart Munro…
Anyway. It seems your not going to offer any comment on the three broad questions posed in the original comment above, nor comment on the observations made in that comment either.
R-B, like you I interpreted Bill’s summary “My enemy’s enemy can fuck off too.” as asserting that enemies of Trump should “fuck off” too, i.e. dumping on those that condemn Trump. But maybe that’s too narrow an interpretation, and Bill is saying that, when it comes to Trump, everyone should F-off.
I’m finding all the comments here (both negative and, incomprehensibly, positive) on Trump’s ‘fuck-ups’ informative. The unprecedented public circus that informs these comments will continue, and so will the comments.
I’d have thought it was pretty obvious that was aimed at liberal elites given that I was very specific in the comment (and have been in most others too) about who I consider the hypocrites to be.
Seems clarity might have nothing to do with anything afterall and reactions could just be down to straight up bias. Oh well.
Do I have to accentuate the qualifiers in that there last bit btw?
Thanks Bill, that might help, but I’m probably too disconnected from some PoVs to understand even the apparently simplest of statements. I will endeavour to keep these misinterpretations to myself in future.
Elements within the Democratic party have teamed up with neo-cons to push against Trump and get back to a situation where the US is aggressively belligerent in its foreign policy.
Now (assuming you’ve read the above link), everyone who’s following the lead offered by the unholy alliance of neo-cons/Democrats on Trump, is not only undermining and marginalising those within the US who are seeking to build something for meaningful change, but they’re also unwittingly helping some very (how to say politely?) unsavoury characters and elements gain or regain their position of primacy within US politics.
Very helpful – sincere thanks for taking the time to put it together. So, neocons (still) loathe Trump (even though he has been largely bought into line on neocon orthodoxy), but presumably aren’t completely unhappy with some of his policies/promises (repeal ‘Obamacare’), and his support for tax cuts.
Paints a depressing picture of the stranglehold the neocons have on political representation in the US (and presumably even here in NZ).
Assuming the word “neocon” is a catch-all phrase with no meaning whatsoever: so far as I can tell, the gross melange of kick-backs, tax-breaks, rorts and special interests encapsulated in US legislation is about as far from “small government” as you can get.
Describing the denizens of the US government as “neo-cons” stretches the meaning to breaking point.
Neo-con was the name given the “hawks” (that tendency) that left the Democratic Party in the 70s, aligned with the GOP and wound up in the political wilderness after Bush and Obama…but have now (it seems) gained favour and influence within the Democtaric Party.
It’s all in the Greenwald piece that is very much worth the read.
“Does anyone, for even the briefest of moments, believe that previous US admins and leaders of western governments and institutions have held these places (and the people that live there) in less contempt than that expressed by Trump?”
Yes, I do. I think that different people at different times hold differing levels of culpability. Some people try and do something good, some are utterly venal, lots of variation.
Just because other administrations are also varying levels of evil doesn’t make them all the same. Making out there is no difference is basically minimising Trump’s actions and culpability.
Did I say there was no difference or did I ask if any had held lesser contempt?
I can think of some who were more racist and whose pronouncements were at least as contemptible. And while at a push I could probably conjure up a piece of rhetoric or two, I can’t bring up an example of any western leader, government or administration that pursued or enacted foreign policies that ran counter to the inherent racism that lies beneath the economic exploitation driving liberal capitalism.
You asked if anyone believed that any other admin or govt held Haiti etc in less contempt, implication being that they hold Haiti in at least the same contempt as Trump. You’re second paragraph appears to support that.
Yup. And I’ve explained or expanded on why I asked in 4.3.2.1
I can’t think of any, who in your words, “tr[ied] to do something good” – ie, pushed back against institutional racism in foreign relations or set to compensating nations of ‘the Global South” in any way for the Norths racist colonialism and post colonial, similarly racist, imposed economic order.
Maybe I’m either over-looking or not aware of some admin, government, leader or policy.
The Kyoto Protocol is dead, no? And I’d punt that the Global South had to fight for some modicum of equity. You reckon it was an expression of altruism on the part of richer parts of the world?
Fuck knows, they’ve had to fight like bastards to have any sense of equity included in subsequent climate agreements and accords. And rhetoric, as we know, is cheap.
Decolonisation was a somewhat cynical process of replacing direct (and expensive) occupation and rule with a more remote economic domination…and even that economic “lock down” generally wasn’t just given (if “given” is in any way the right expression).
And anyone who left or attempted to leave the “economic fold” was hammered – removal of democratic government and imposition of western friendly dictatorships etc.
UDoHR maybe nice words and maybe an expression of assumed western superiority.
And how many of the above were freely entered into by “the west” with the interests of “the south” uppermost in mind?
On first blush and just a little passing thought, I’d tend towards answering “no” to your question.
If you think those things you listed are example of western leaders, governments or institutions genuinely attempting good with regards the Global South, then some level of argument or reasoned opinion is due…not some vacuous bullshit about what ‘you reckons’ of what I think.
No OAB. You obviously need to either go away and brush up on basic levels of reading comprehension or else fuck off and have a wee think about lying.
My comments here have revolved around previous US admins and leaders of western governments and institutions (4.3) any western leader, government or administration (4.3.2.1) and admin, government, leader or policy.(4.3.2.1.1.1)
Up. your. fcking. game.
I don’t mind if you disagree (however vehemently) with what I say, argue or reason. But that shit – of lying and replacing others’ arguments with spurious nonsense you yourself have just made up is going to end in a dogshit on shoe situation.
Ok then, I’ll rephrase for clarity and comprehension.
Your premise is that nobody in the group defined as
previous US admins and leaders of western governments and institutions, any western leader, government or administration, and admin, government, leader or policy tried to do anything good.
I’m sorry for any offence you may be feeling if that’s not quite right either.
I’m satisfied that you’re wrong, and I don’t feel any need or obligation to engage with you any further on the matter.
My satisfaction isn’t based on belief: that’s just some spurious nonsense you made up, which is funny, because you just got all offended when you thought I was doing the same, and compared me to a piece of dogshit on your shoe.
Massey University professor of freshwater ecology Russell Death discusses the health of our waterways.
Luckily for him John Key and Nick Smith are no longer in charge – or he might be looking for another job (as Salinger found out).
Here are some of his frank responses to some questions about the state of our rivers and lakes.
The greed of industrial farming and a slack neoliberal regime has destroyed our environment. People should be put on trial for this – not knighted.
Herald question.
“What are the principal drivers of freshwater degradation? What pollutants, from which sources, are doing the most damage?”
In New Zealand, intensified agriculture is driving the decline in freshwater.
This agriculture increases in-stream nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus – and deposited sediment.
Herald question.
“The latest stocktake by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand found that, of the 39 native fish species covered by the report, 72 per cent were either threatened with, or at risk of, extinction. How grim is the outlook for our freshwater species?”
As of right now I think the future for river ecology and Kiwis’ ability to swim and enjoy our water – just look in the news – is very grim.
But as with Steve Austin and The Six Million Dollar Man, we can rebuild, restore and save them.
We just need to do the right thing for the right stream.
Fence the correct riparian width for the farm type you have or fix the urban sewage infrastructure.
It’s not really rocket science. We just need to do it.
And perhaps if the Government and the agricultural industry was showing more leadership, we would.
Herald question.
“We’ve now seen New Zealand’s freshwater problems reported on by major outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera. Do you feel our clean, green image is sustainable if we can’t tackle the issue?”
The image is almost gone, I think.
And like virginity, once it is gone, it is gone.
We have lots of foreign students who come through the university and they are all telling me the pristine view of “Hobbiton New Zealand” is rapidly disappearing.
I always conclude my public talks by saying we can only fool people for so long.
It seems the international press has already figured it out.
… and maybe the proof is on a site called Kiwiblog. Everyday.
Whether such a clump of shithead people with shitty attitudes is representative of the whole country and is enough to term the country as a shithole I don’t know, but there they are.
Herald question.
How has this (freshwater degradation) changed over the past few decades, and why? Where are the worst parts of the country for degradation?
Russell Death
Many aspects of ecological health and water quality have declined precipitously in the last few decades because of the massive conversion of sheep and beef farms to dairy, and the further intensification of dairy farms.
In terms of severity the worst areas are still in urban and industrial areas.
But they are proportionally a very small length of stream affected.
Whereas the intensified dairy areas of Waikato, Manawatu, Taranaki, Canterbury and Southland have the greatest length of stream where ecological health is degraded.
2017 rewind: Why fiscal responsibility is the Bog of Eternal Stench
The fourth-most-read post on Boots Theory last year questioned a pretty strongly-rooted tenet of modern Labour Party faith. People have said to me since the election result, “see, it worked!” Yet National still gained 44.4% of the vote, and Labour’s boost came directly from Jacinda Ardern’s amazing personal appeal. And the question now becomes: is winning one election worth it if we don’t actually change the status quo?
The Herald has called it ‘weird weather.’
The Salinger effect means even more informed repeaters won’t call it by its proper name – c****** c*****.
35C heat for south as lightning, humidity hits north.
The solar blow torch is firmly directed on the south of the country with temperatures expected to soar to a scorching 35C.
In the north sweltering humidity, that saw temperatures barely fall under 20C overnight, is turning to yet another day of violent thunderstorms for central regions.
Already the mercury has skyrocketed to 31C at Dunedin Airport by lunchtime with many other places in mid to high 20s.
“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pours cold water on National’s highway projects.
“We’d be much better off investing in some of those neglected regional roads, and in urban areas some alternatives to roading as well,” Ardern said.
“If you ask a local mayor, they will say, ‘Can you please help us with our regional roads, particularly some of the safety issues we have?’ ”
Kiwi sausage company Bangerritos has come under fire over an Instagram post featuring a pig in happier times, which followers deemed “disgusting”.
However, the company has denied the image is in poor taste – and says people should know more about where their meat comes from.
I agree with the company. People should know more about where their meat comes from.
This is where people’s meat comes from. New Zealand Pork Industry Expose, Part 1
The company also said
Only a tiny fraction of pork sausages in NZ are free-range.
I agree with the company. Only a tiny fraction of pork sausages in NZ are free-range.
More and more eating meat is not seen as distributing surplus to your kids and furthering the winners genetic lines. More and more eating meat is seen as a trophy wall. While one meaning is easy to argue morally against the later is not.
For most people they are living in tight economic circumstances and will eat what’s available to them on the open markets because there opinions are not reflected in government policy. This is how the 1/4 acre dream came about because planners wanted kiwis to be able to afford enough land so they could grow there own crops during a Great Depression that they where trying to grow away from. But this growth brings up the problem of losing institutional knowledge as new industries retrain subsistence farmers into factory workers. So they forget how to grow food, and 50 years on a great many kiwis have forgotten what it’s like to struggle because we’ve experienced 3% economic growth, give or take, year on year, and that’s dangerous because things can go terribly wrong terribly fast. And in our finest of hubris a great many kiwis believe that 3% can be maintained year on year indefinitely. As if a sudden event like a missile destroyer off the coast has been eliminated from the human condition, or rapid deforestation due to hyper-commercialisation has been eliminated.
“I disagree completely with the company,
The right thing to do is not to eat pigs.”
No it isn’t. That’s you attempting to set the narrative according to your own agenda.
Ffs admin/moderators, do we have to have this shit foisted on us multiple times every day?
These single issue warriors are oxygen sucking the life out of daily mic.
Haven’t people been banned for carrying on campaigns of this type before?
Don’t agree with some of Ed’s comments [these days I limit my consumption of pork to the occasional delicious rasher of crispy bacon], but find many of his/her links interesting and/or informative.
The same topic multiple times every day is just too much.
It’s trolling and attention seeking, pure and simple, to get responses from those he knows will oblige.
There’s no way he’s changing people’s opinion, especially since he’s become an out and out under bridge dweller, so it’s a futile exercise, unless the object of the game is as above, in which case it’s working out great for him.
There’s gotta be a better way of raising points and topics than repeated daily blunt force trauma.
I hope someone who can, will take the spamming issue on board and edict accordingly.
Thing is, it’s a valid point. The other week someone was rounded on and criticised for posting what meat they were eating. This is the same thing.
Just like my gravy, it’s all about the consistency.
Idk what it is with this place. It’s the outrage that makes me curious. It’s about the PC Police trying to control language and censorship. Theres a reason for it. Because there only so many was to censor and the Stasi pretty much excelled at them all. Some people may think in there heads that that makes me a right wing ninja. But heh, if Yu don’t know the difference try googling it. Self educating is almost never a bad thing…
I can’t speak for others, but Ed’s comments and links here have (over time) changed my attitude to eating meat, and I am now genuinely trying to cut down with the end goal of one or at most two meat meals per week (that includes the bacon).
In this specific example, ‘the enemy’ refers to the merchants of doubt, deniers and fossil-fuel greedheads, although the thesis applies in any adversarial situation.
As for ‘the enemies of the people’, the Liberals can get in line behind Fascists, the centre-right, organised criminals and kleptocrats, insofar as these groups can be distinguished from one another.
Quite right. This idiot doesn’t seem to realise it’s not the difference of opinion that’s the problem, but the daily dose of more of the same old shit.
Your guess is dead wrong, James, at least on this occasion.
Which is surprising for someone with so much innate empathy. Did you ever consider training as a vet?
Weka, much like human animals, having a good life and being happy are not completely corelated. Animals are not machines; their behavioural responses are not completely predictable. esp. as they age.
“Weka, much like human animals, having a good life and being happy are not completely corelated. Animals are not machines; their behavioural responses are not completely predictable. esp. as they age.”
That’s self-evident and teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, but not sure what your point is exactly.
I’ll second what james said. If you can’t tell whether an animal is happy or not, whether it’s got a good life or not, then best not to have them.
I can tell the difference between my cat purring from pleasure and purring from stress. It’s not a feeling in my bones (although I’m sure intuition is part of it). It’s observation, interaction and sensitivity. Same with other animals I have been around.
Having said that, there are plenty of people who think animals are ok but the people are pretty clueless. I’ve seen people argue that fish aren’t distressed when hooked and pulled up onto a beach. That’s just daft. Not hard to see how that kind of justification can be applied to other animals being killed for food, but also pets.
And it is known animals know they are about to be slaughtered and get highly stressed.
Does James send his cows to a slaughter house? If so , that is very cruel.
Yep when I was life styling that was what we did too, and so much better. I have been reading about Carbon sequestration in soils recently and the importance of livestock in the process. The important thing to do is to ensure that grasses and all vegetation for that matter is allowed to develop and develop a good root system because it is there that the soil organisms develop and fix carbon. Grazing to severely and cutting back too much causes the plant to die back and then have to start all over again – and this actually releases carbon.
A good overview of the topic by the FAO is here: http://www.fao.org/soils-portal/soil-management/soil-carbon-sequestration/en/
and how improved grazing management increases carbon sequestration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4490272/
Extensive cropping for grains actually depletes soil carbon.
I agree Ed, or at least, some animals get stressed depending on the situation. There is a difference between home kill and sending animals to the abattoir.
All things die at some point, the ethics for me are in how we do that to the extent we have a choice.
James’ animals wouldn’t have been born at all if he wasn’t intending to eat them.
So, by that reasoning, it’s OK to farm people for organs? And people bred to be slaves should be happy that they got a chance at life? After all, they wouldn’t have been born if we didn’t intend to use them…
The fact is, we don’t need to kill animals for food. Maybe our ancestors did, but we don’t. People who continue to eat animals are making a choice. Personally, I choose not to eat animals and not to contribute to suffering and killing (eg the slaughter of bobby claves) through eating animal products.
That choice was originally based solely on the issue of animal rights. Over the years, I’ve learned more about the environmental consequences of farming animals, and that’s reinforced my decision.
“So, by that reasoning, it’s OK to farm people for organs? And people bred to be slaves should be happy that they got a chance at life? After all, they wouldn’t have been born if we didn’t intend to use them…”
Only if you think slavery is ok, which I obviously don’t.
“The fact is, we don’t need to kill animals for food.”
Depends on whether you are arguing biology, ecology, or animal welfare. Very hard for humans to reproduce over time on a vegan diet (that’s why there are no vegan cultures). Once you get past the first few generations shit goes down hill (lots of people give up during the first generation).
One of course could argue that humans should give up their ability to reproduce so freely. I’d be happy to have that conversation.
I choose to eat animal products for health reasons (no, don’t at me about nutrition, I am very well informed and experienced), but my original shift from being a long term vegetarian with limited dairy to eating meat was because I was reading about Peak Oil and could see that eating a diet composed of so much imported food left me at risk should we have to transition fast to a post-PO state.
That led me to looking at ethical eating more broadly than the rights of individual animals, and to ecosystem rights and the rights of nature. Vegetarians who rely on big ag do just as much damage to the planet as those who eat meat. I choose as much as I can to eat local and ethical in terms of the whole environment, with attention paid to animal welfare.
The rabbit I eat that a friend shoots is exponentially more ethical environmentally than the vegan eating monsanto grown soy that’s been industrially processed and shipped across the globe. I get good protein and I help keep the rabbits in check that are decimating the environment and my friend gets a trade (good nutrition, environmental protection and local economy with very small carbon emissions). She’s a pretty good shot, so there is limited suffering for the rabbits (they don’t even know they’re about to die).
I also practice an inclusive philosophy, so I am good with people who are omnivores, vegetarian, vegan, whatever, so long as (a) they’re not politically fundamentalist with it, and (b) they don’t misrepresent evidence around climate change and the environment (Paul regularly does both).
Love the point about your Rabbit.
I suspect my locally reared, sourced, butchered and sold meat has less of a carbon footprint than imported soy, rice and mung beans.
Regardless of the daily propaganda, being green and an omnivore are not an anathema.
It’s one of my sore points that people of conscience are choosing veganism over eating local. It’s not what we eat, but how we eat that matters in environmental terms. So yep, your local meat does far better than imported soy, providing you are not eating shitloads, and the meat is being killed locally too. Unfortunately in NZ so much local meat is sourced from animals that have been transported and then the meat transported again. The solution too that is to have local slaughtering but that needs enough people wanting it and choosing veganism takes us further from local food not closer.
Also good is if the animals are raised as part of regenag farming, and again we need local people demanding that, not vegans ignoring that and letting farmers do what they have to to survive (i.e. industrial farming). Biggest thing we could do in NZ to help restore farmland and the flow on effects is help farmers develop alternative models of selling than what they generally are locked into now.
I do know – my animals are very well cared for – and there is little else that could be done to make them happier. Lots of grass, water, shade in all paddocks.
I run less units of stock than I could to ensure that they have room and food.
With the sheep – I used to just slit their throats, and that was OK, albeit messy.
We now do them the same as the cows, which we have always used homekill professionals – a quick shot to the head and its all over.
We leave the animals in their fields until about a week before “d-day” – them I move them to a smaller field that has lots of trees around it, basically allowing the animal to relax and be comfortable in its new surroundings. The small field has an open ‘kill run’ which after a week I move the animal into the kill run – which they are happy with as they have been in and out for the last week eating.
The kill run allows the homekill guy to just walk up behind the bushes etc, reach over and BANG! – all done.
As stress free as possible – and better than any animal will get in a meat works.
the lack of Adrenalin makes the meat taste so much better – there really is a difference in quality, which is why we do it.
“the lack of Adrenalin makes the meat taste so much better – there really is a difference in quality, which is why we do it.”
As I suspected , your concern is not the welfare of the animals, but rather your own personal enjoyment.
Is there anything you do where you put the needs and concerns of others above your own selfish desires?
“And it is known animals know they are about to be slaughtered and get highly stressed.”
“As stress free as possible”
“the lack of Adrenalin makes the meat taste so much better – there really is a difference in quality, which is why we do it.”
Is there anything you do where you put the needs and concerns of others above your own selfish desires?
If you really want to moralise about other people’s diets resulting in the deaths of animals, you should ensure that your own doesn’t involve that. The only way to do that is to stop eating. Good luck with it, I wish you well.
“I read them your post and they just lose the will to live.”
Your animals understand and respond intelligently to complex human language and still you cut their throats?
Monster!
Murderer!
Thank you.
Some days it’s hard to believe this is a progressive blogsite, given the number of closed minded individuals who are not open to new thinking.
Are you saying all progressives don’t eat meat, and they can’t be one if they do?
Or all progressives are closed minded if they reject your daily anti meat propaganda posts?
I don’t get it either Ed. I would have hoped more here would be more ready to consider changing from eating animals killed by industrialised farming. But it seems not.
Labour have been reasonably clear that they weren’t going to do much about rural land sales other than tighten up the OIO process a bit. However,
“OIO approval was given in November for the purchase in the latest round of decisions for overseas investment of sensitive New Zealand land.”
so Labour barely had its feet under the table at that point. That sale process would have been going on for months, not a lot Labour could do about that. I’ll be more interested in what happens over this coming year.
But geeze, I think you’d be tough company. There is little joy in anything you have to say. It’s got a ‘Boy who cried Wolf’ thing festering.
I fear you throw your curtains open every morning and see a wretched bankrupt landscape.
Yeah there are crappy bits but we all need a taste of joy to make traversing the crappy bits worthwhile. Purveyor of Doom is not good real estate to own. It’s a position lubricated by fear.
Bring a bit of Ed joy to your posts man. We all already know we’re all gonna die.
That’s just not truthful from you. I’m very much left wing, and proud of it. I even vote for anti tory government left parties in general elections and everything. lol.
I doubt I’ve ever really sided with right wing trolls based on policy and ideology, but of course it’s a statistical anomaly that once in a while the same conclusion can be reached from different ends of the spectrum.
Funny how you always resort to lies, slurs and other insults when you get angry.
I doubt you’d find any period in New Zealand’s history where the farming was totally based on production. Even primarily based on production. It’s always required some element of capital gain for the business model to stack up, some times a lot more than others.
Apologies Joseph my last post about the Gramercy Norton show I sort of made it about me but It all about you and your team getting to where you are and to winning. Kia kaha
We’re toast if it’s 3 degrees.
Will post in more detail tomorrow.
Herald.
“So how hopeful are you, actually, that the world will avert the worst possible effects of climate change? Where do you place your optimism on a scale of one to 10?”
Professor James Renwick
“I am hopeful we can avoid the real worst-case scenario but I am pessimistic about the 1.5C or even 2C limit.
My gut feeling is that we won’t stop the warming until we are committed to 2.5C or even 3C of temperature rise.
That would lock in loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet, plus most of Greenland and part of the east Antarctic and would commit the globe to 10m or more of sea level rise.
Plus of course a big rise in extreme high temperatures, droughts, floods and crop failures.
Because of the delay time built into the climate system, it’s my feeling that we won’t take decisive action until a lot of change is baked in, so we’ll have a great deal of adapting to do.
On a scale of one to 10 for optimism, I’m about a three.”
So what your solutions One Anonymous Bloke? Because as far as I can see, there are no longer any political solutions. The only option left is direct action.
Edit: Because you link is a classical example of ” standing to close the elephant”, and what factional liberalism in action looks like. Can’t see any solution in there.
And as I said, I don’t think there are any political solutions.
When someone (eg: me, just now) says “that being so”, it means that they agree with whatever came immediately prior, which in this case is your remark that the only option left is direct action.
Lots of direct action is already taking place, from Ed’s recent conversion to a plant-based diet, to NYC’s recent decision to divest from fossil fuels, and also include monkeywrenching and cycling instead of taking the car.
I still think the weather is just going to smash things until the problem is moot though.
Well, the NYC thing is a political action. Europe and China are moving ahead at the nation level, and many of the sane bits of the states are ignoring Trump.
Trouble is, historically political action on any crisis usually came to late to completely mitigate the effects of that crisis. So we’ll have decades of extreme weather events and sea level rise, if not centuries. It won’t be as bad as if no action were taken, but it won’t be without harm (we’re already seeing it, frankly, for at least the last ten years).
Nothing will save us, and globally it might get up to black death / khmer rouge proportions. But not much worse. Veganism or not.
“Direct action” by ordinary individuals won’t do shit now. Maybe 40 years ago.
The reason I don’t have a car has nothing at all to do with carbon footprints. It’s because there was a better, cheaper substitute for my needs. And I actually do think about my purchases beyond immediate gratification.
People indoctrinated into consumerism are not going to reduce their lifestyle voluntarily, and any government that tries to make them do it is going to lose votes on a massive scale. But the AGW mitigation requires both groups to act. So the problem becomes reconciling that conflict between lifestyle preservation for the complacent middle class and elimination of carbon use.
Which revolves around technologies for energy production, storage, and use. Sort that out and the V8 or even the bunker-fuel-powered container carrier will go the way of the horse and cart. The coal-fired power plant is already on its way out.
I don’t think individual direct action is very useful generally. Collective action like the anti-war and pro-refugee stuff that has been happening in Britain has been good. Becomes more real when more people are involved.
I agree any government which cuts into peoples consumerism is going to fall, and fall quickly.
That said, one thing they could do, is a substantial cut in taxes for individuals who have never owned a car.
Iceland is a fucking tiny nation, and the discussion was about AGW.
There are many things that governments can do, but just shouting out ideas without consideration of the competing interests that would ensure such a government lost votes is not going to achieve policy change.
Tax breaks for people who have never owned a car will piss off the car industry and anyone who ever owned a car. Remember the beat-up about lightbulbs? Imagine everyone who’d ever used an incandescant bulb being told they were paying extra even if they switch.
Tax levies according to fuel use, on the other hand, might be achievable. But the really achievable policy might be making emissions tests progressively more restrictive, phasing out any carbon compound emissions by the same time as the EU bans.
The only people you piss off are the fuel sellers and the car manufacturers who were too slow off the alternative fuel mark – and they’re bad enough political enemies to have.
Luxury cars make up 65% of automakers profits and super cars make 35% of profits so production car owners are pretty much getting a free ride.
So this meme that says the 1% own 50% of the wealth and 50% of the income, all it means is the rest have zero say in how there surplus is distributed. And that’s a consequence of marginalising unions. Workers just have no power any more. They’re a modern day Luddite.
“And you missed that merely changing to lightbulbs that would save people money caused a fucking nightmare of bullshit.”
You’re wasting your time. He’s a dreamer, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, after all, most of us here spent 9 years dreaming of the day our votes changed the national government, this one’s a bit ‘épais comme deux planches courtes’.
The point was also made below that if cc is to be seriously and rapidly addressed, then having 40 green mps leading a government, for example, will effect more change than anarchic direct action, as the will of the people at the ballot box gives the mandate to act.
Yes, we can make personal decisions to use led bulbs, reduce consumption and waste, limit the use of fossil fuels, like a lot of us already do, and have for many years, but there’s no way, other than through mandated political policy, that 99% of voting kiwis will accept a rapid change in direction, therefore I conclude, the answer is to win hearts and minds to achieve cc goals before planning our adventures on fury road.
“And as I said, I don’t think there are any political solutions.”
Of course there are political solutions. If people voted green led governments instead of holding on to student dreams of changing the system, then the world would be a much better place.
Voting for a mp electorate candidate and completely ignoring the party vote, won’t do shit. If there were 40 green mps in our coalition, then maybe, yeah.
It’s hypocritical, and armchair easy, to spout the odds on climate change when you don’t take measures at elections to vote the right people in.
Try looking at the solution on offer, rather than your attempt to limit the debate again.
Do you even understand what socialism is? Because you seem confused on that, political economy? The role of outlying actors? Anything apart from this fantasy of 40 green MP’s?
Limiting the debate by expanding wider than your very short sighted, closed off ‘no political solutions’ rhetoric, and offering a common sense rebuttal that to get green policies which will seriously address CC expediently, you’ll need green led governments and the only way to get them is to vote accordingly.
So while you’re waiting for this anarchic direct action to provide you with a utopia to call your own, you’ll spend your time on the internet lecturing me about other ways of looking at the world. lol
Mate, you’re a blow hard with what appears to be sod all to blow hard about.
Keep dreaming and if us greens don’t manage to get it fixed, you’ll still have your mad max fantasy down the track.
Definitely a bit of both, probably in equal amounts lol
Anarchist library. You might as well just have posted a link to student Rik on the young ones.
Try and ignore me now, if you can, ’cause I’m pretty contemptuous of engaging further with a slogan repeating caricature and stereotype, but please promise to write a long post when your direct action gets you further than insults on the internet.
You couldn’t even jump on board the cross party change the government movement last year. Solidarity, yeah, nah. Selfish ‘look at meism’ in action. I’m not hopeful for your success, but I’ll wait. 😉
What is up with laughing at your own jokes, it’s a bit sad you know.
That said, do you hate women, is that why you won’t read Voltairine?
Or you don’t read people smarter than you?
Your shot about the young ones is rather 1980’s isn’t, and in poor taste seeing as the actor who played rick is dead. But then again, you like your other rwnj mates, have no moral compass.
Hates women, cleverphobic, rwnj and insults the memory of the dead. Anything else, Chips?
I voted green at the election, you didn’t. You lack of authority in questioning my credentials about cc or being left wing just adds to the laugh factor when reading your student times, burn it all down, grrr I’m dissected 101 philosophy.
Call me out when you vote against climate change avoiding tory governments, or got involved in the greens, or when you’ve changed that system of yours. When all 99% of labour, nat, green, nz1st neo liberal voters cast of the shackles of oppression and follow you to the land of milk and honey.
Until then, dream on, kid. 🙄
You may have voted green, but you act and think like a tory.
You have been repeated asked by me what else you do, apart from vote, and failed to respond with anything.
All you are is a one trick pony of abuse who gets all upset when people call them on their narrow world view. I’d say grow up, but I’m guessing with your last attempt at an insult, that would not help.
By the way, your analogies are at best dull, at worst like you 40% green vote, utter buffoonery.
The sandflys are that desperate that they us that they used that ass hole who abuse my wife for 9 years as bait. These idiots don’t know who they are playing with. I have all ready kicked his when I first found out he pulled a gun through I would run fuck no he put it away and tried to lie to me about the whole situation. In court he tried to say that it was my wife fault WTF he’s European and thats why it took 15 years before they took action against this parrsite because my wife Maori and he’s European like them. He had a family before my wife mothers one and he abuse those kids to his father hung himself because he got caught doing that to someone not sure who and You expect me to feel sorry for them. What about all the people in jail under bullshit charges mostly Maori. Ana to kai
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George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard EdwardsThis blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...
Last month I noted that the public policy debate was all about how we deal with covid-19. That’s changing now, and will change more over the next couple of months as the buffering impact of the wage subsidy disappears and we see starkly the economic hole out of which we ...
The mission of the New Zealand Police is to make this country the safest nation in the world. To achieve that aim, there is one important step the police need to take at the end of this month. When the evaluation of the Armed Response Teams’ trial is completed, the ...
The right of employees to strike is an internationally recognised employment right that has been a feature of New Zealand’s industrial relations system for over a century, albeit with different constraints and limitations at different times. Although more restricted, this right even continued under the anti-union Employment Contracts Act (1993-2000). ...
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...
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.nzIf we stopped oil, gas and coal extraction immediately – ...
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...
The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than other polling companies, and the ...
When miners pillage conservation land, they are typically required to "rehabilitate" it afterwards. Its not much compared to the damage they do, but its something. But apparently even that is now too much to expect. NZG Limited, a company owned by Oravida directors James Blackwell, Julia Jiyan Xu, Stone Shi, ...
Like everyone else, I've spent too much of the weekend watching the protests in America, and the increasingly brutal response to them. The overwhelming impression is of a nationwide police riot, as people speaking out against a murder and demanding change are beaten, gassed and shot by racist, militarised thugs ...
In mid-April, as New Zealand entered its fourth week of alert level 4, the Prime Minister warned us not to make comparisons with other countries over our Covid-19 pandemic response. This extraordinary advice came after Simon Bridges had urged the government to adopt a less-stringent lockdown similar to those in ...
Wales has lowered the voting age to 16: 16 and 17 year olds can now officially vote in Wales for Senedd elections. Votes at 16 & 17 come into force on Monday, as part of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020. Next year’s Senedd elections will ...
The government announced more changes to the ETS today, including to the emissions budget for 2021 - 2025. The overall budget for that period will stay at 354 million tons of CO2-equivalent. But the ETS component of that - stockpile reduction, free allocation, and credits to be auctioned - budget ...
The new National Party leader, Todd Muller, had been at pains to portray himself as a solid, serious, safe pair of hands, in contrast to the increasingly Trumpian leanings of Simon Bridges, who Muller deposed in a leadership coup last Friday. But after an uneventful, if uninspiring, first press conference, ...
Minneapolis Police StationIf you’ve been keeping an eye on recent events in the United States, you’ll likely understand why there’s so much anger on the streets at the moment. Not only did police officers murder another black man; it is patently obvious that authorities initially attempted to cover up George ...
Becoming the leader of a political party is a bit like having a baby. Not so much the screaming and sleepless nights, as the fact that you’ve waited and hope and planned for something and it’s finally here. And when that wonderful gift finally arrives, you want to be ready, ...
The US appears to be headed towards what Antonio Gramsci and other Italian political theorists call an “organic crisis of the State.” It involves the simultaneous and compounded fractures of economy, society and politics, which together constitute a tipping point in a nation’s history. Social contradictions are exacerbated, class and ...
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week...
Climate concerns as Siberia experiences record-breaking heatHeat wave sparks concerns about devastating wildfire season and melting permafrost.Satellite ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 24 through Sat, May 30, 2020Editor's ChoiceAntarctic Ocean Reveals New Signs of Rapid Melt of Ancient Ice, Clues About Future Sea Level RiseA study of seafloor ripples ...
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk A banner on the International Energy Agency website spells it out in bold font: “The global oil industry is experiencing a shock like no other in its history.” As the response to the coronavirus pandemic upends the lives of billions of ...
The ownership of newspapers and televison channels is in turmoil, and they want to redisorganise public broadcasting. *Three years ago, I expressed concern in a column about the future of the (traditional) media. Nothing has happened since to reduce the concern. It was based on an earlier column which ...
Australia's High Court has ruled that the "palace letters" between the queen and then-Governor-General John Kerr are public records rather than private papers: Historian Jenny Hocking has won her High Court bid to access the letters exchanged between then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen around the time of ...
SATURDAY MAY 30Six60: Live at Western Springs 2020 (TVNZ 1, 8.45pm). Remember live concerts? The day will come again, friends, when we will be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an uncomfortable sweaty venue with people we don’t know. It will happen. Sometimes the sound of concerts drifts over to the ...
New Zealand and its prime minister Jacinda Ardern have received international attention and praise, rightly so, for decisive leadership, clear communication and scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic. Observers point out that the nation has been through multiple crises under Ardern’s leadership – such as the Christchurch terrorist attack and ...
…a lot of things unrelated to the pandemic were happening. Relatively little attention was given to some major events on the global stage, so I thought I would do a quick recap of some of the high (or low) -lights, starting with something familiar. The common theme throughout is human ...
Labour's talk of gutting the RMA to push through "shovel ready" projects to boost employment after the pandemic predictably has every half-arsed pipe-dream crawling out of the woodwork demanding special treatment. Today, it's the West Coast inbreds, who are demanding a host of laws be rescinded so they can dig ...
"I can't breathe, Mama. I'm dying." - Last words of George Floyd.LOOK HARD at this image. Think about what it depicts. Ask yourself how one human-being could behave so brutally when so many eye-witnesses – and very soon millions of people online around the world – were there to watch ...
Since the government announced its pandemic wage subsidy, there have been regular stories about companies taking it and then sacking or refusing to pay their workers - essentially committing fraud. But how often does this happen? The Minister just doesn't want to know: Government ministers are not receiving up to ...
"You call that a conservative?Nah, this is a conservative!" New Zealanders are in the market for a quiet and reassuring small-c conservative political centrist. The critical question, however, is which politician is currently playing that role? Who has mastered the art of relaxed, informal and intimate political communication? Who ...
I’VE OFTEN WONDERED if South African immigrants passing through towns like Kerikeri and Kaikohe ever wonder how we do it. In their homeland, through the bitter years of Apartheid, keeping the races segregated required pass laws, Alsatian dogs, tear gas, rubber bullets and, all-too-often, live rounds. Not here. Not in ...
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from July 31, 2019 to September 30, 2019. Sports categories must be by sex, not gender identity Queer theory glossary Woke misogyny and homophobia: a gay critique of trans ideology Another unfortunate experiment? New Zealand’s transgender health policy and ...
Smart Energy Europe: A Plan to provide 100% of ALL ENERGY using Renewable Energy to EuropeIntroductionAll Energy renewable energy systems are often commented on here at Skeptical Science. Many comments suggest that it will be difficult, expensive or impossible to use renewable energy to power the world. To ...
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...
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.nzI would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...
Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonBack in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant ...
Remember KiwiBuild? Previously the government's flagship policy, it was supposed to build thousands of new homes every year for kiwi families. But instead of flooding the market, we've got a pathetic dribble: The Government's former flagship housing policy is so far behind schedule it will take more than 400 years ...
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...
George Henderson New Zealand schools have introduced a climate change resource that suggests children “eat less meat and dairy”, even though teachers will not know how much meat or dairy any child in their care has eaten. Opinion pieces in the papers have called for the reduction of meat and ...
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced two diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India and Consul-General to Hong Kong. “As New Zealand recovers from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever. That is ...
We started the week by announcing free apprenticeships to support Kiwis into work and to help get New Zealand moving again - and we ended the week by extending the wage subsidy to 40,000 more businesses, helping to protect businesses and workers alike. ...
We’re confident in the ability of Kiwi businesses to succeed in the face of COVID-19, and our Government is committed to doing our bit to enable that success. Kiwi businesses have always been innovative and resilient, and the COVID-19 pandemic has proven this yet again. Many businesses are finding new, creative ...
New Zealand First is pleased to release the names of its first tranche of candidates for the 2020 election. The includes all sitting New Zealand First Members of Parliament except Clayton Mitchell MP who earlier today announced he will not be seeking re-election. In alphabetical order they are: MP ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First List MP based in Tauranga New Zealand First MP Clayton Mitchell has decided not to seek re-election in this year’s General Election. “After serious consideration and discussion with my family, I have decided to pursue other passions in my life and spend a lot ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced that new Lockheed Martin Super Hercules aircraft would replace the outdated and costly 1960s Hercules fleet. The $1.521b project will include a flight simulator for staff training and other supporting infrastructure. "This fleet will ensure the Defence Force can continue to support New Zealand's ...
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has described Labour's original COVID-19 commercial rent dispute proposal as "poorly targeted". Justice Minister Andrew Little hasannounced a temporary law changeto force commercial landlords and renters to consider COVID-19 in disputes over rent issues, almost two months after the Government first floated the idea. But ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First acknowledges that some small businesses have been struggling to meet fixed costs due to the loss of revenue by COVID-19. We also know some businesses are at greater risk of insolvency when they cannot come to a reasonable ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First On the steps of Parliament today the Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters received a petition from registered nurse Anna Maria Coervers, requesting an amendment to the Protection for First Responders Bill which will ensure the legislation also include registered ...
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says alert level 2 restrictions have to be discussed during today's Cabinet meeting. Thousands gathered across the country, including at Parliament, yesterday forBlack Lives Matter marcheswhere social distancing and mass gathering rules were flouted. Mr Peters said the breaching of Alert Level 2 rules at ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State Owned Enterprises KiwiRail’s Northland rail upgrade steps up another gear today and will help Northland recover from the impacts of COVID-19, State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters says. The Government is investing $204.5 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to ...
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation The West Coast forests of Mount Te Kinga at Kotuku Whakaoho/Lake Brunner are the latest predator free project to receive Government funding, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Green Party is pleased to reveal its candidate list for the upcoming election. With a mix of familiar faces and fresh new talent, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to lead the Greens back into Government. ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Hon Tracey Martin, Minister for ChildrenA major increase in funding and availability of support will improve the incomes and reduce the pressure on 14,000 caregivers looking after more than 22,000 children.Children’s Minister Tracey Martin says that caregivers – all those looking after someone else’s children both in and ...
This summer presents a great opportunity for New Zealanders to get out into nature with bookings on Great Walks for 2020/21 set to open next week, says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Bookings for the Great Walks will open between 9 and 11 June, excluding Milford and Routeburn tracks which ...
Extra 40,000 businesses to be eligible for wage subsidy extension Small business cashflow support application period extended The Government is today announcing further support for businesses that continue to be affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, as the broader economy becomes one of the most open in the world following ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed five Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules transport aircraft will be purchased to replace the existing fleet, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “Last year, Cabinet selected these aircraft as the preferred option to replace the current Hercules fleet. Procurement of the Super Hercules has been ...
New public housing that will save tenants money in energy bills, and provide warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes, is setting the standard for the Government’s future public housing programme, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. Dr Woods opened the new Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities complex, which has a ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage is celebrating World Environment Day with an announcement of a major step towards Wairarapa Moana being recognised as an internationally significant wetland. “Wairarapa Moana is an ecosystem of 10,000 hectares of wetland and open water that provides a home for indigenous fish, birds and ...
A new-look Police graduation ceremony to take account of COVID19 health rules has marked the completion of training for 57 new constables. Police Minister Stuart Nash attended this afternoon's ceremony, where officers of Recruit Wing 337 were formally sworn in at the Royal New Zealand Police College without the normal support of ...
Mobile traders and truck shops must adhere to responsible lending requirements Interest rate cap on high-cost loans Lenders prohibited from offering further credit to an applicant who has taken two high-cost loans in the past 90 days The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kris Faafoi, has signalled an end ...
94% of firms say wage subsidy had positive impact on cashflow 62% of firms say support helped to manage non-wage costs like rent A survey of business that have received the Government’s wage subsidy show it has played a significant role in saving jobs, and freed up cash flow to ...
New legislation introduced to Parliament today will support growth and assist businesses on the road to economic recovery, said Revenue Minister Stuart Nash. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2020-21, Feasibility Expenditure, and Remedial Matters) Bill proposes that businesses can get tax deductions for ‘feasibility expenditure’ on new investments,” said Mr ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has welcomed the first release of funds from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced as part of Budget 2020. Sport NZ has announced that $4.6 million in funding will go to the Wellington Phoenix, NZ Warriors, Super Rugby teams and the ANZ Premiership ...
An iconic New Zealand tourism attraction and the country’s 31 Regional Tourism Organisations are the first recipients of support from the $400 million Tourism Sector Recovery Plan, to help position the sector for recovery from COVID-19, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The plan includes a Strategic Tourism Assets Protection ...
The Government will legislate to ensure businesses that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 response will get help to resolve disputes over commercial rent issues, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. A temporary amendment to the Property Law Act will insert a clause in commercial leases requiring a fair ...
The Minister for Small Business says new data from Xero highlights the urgency of prompt payment practices to small and medium enterprises as we move into economic recovery. Last month Government ministers wrote to significant private enterprises and the banking industry to request they join efforts by government agencies to ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
$196 million for Crown Research Institutes $150 million for R&D loan scheme $33 million for Māori research and development opportunities $12 million for the Nationally Significant Collections and Databases $10 million to help maintain in-house capability at Callaghan Innovation New Zealand’s entrepreneurs, innovators and crown researchers will benefit from a ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
ANALYSIS:By Denis Muller of theUniversity of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Noble, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Three quarters of a million Australian children are likely to be experiencing employment stress in the family as a result of COVID-19. This is on top of around 615,000 children whose families were ...
Spice up the classic banana muffin with a subtle touch of star anise.These muffins came about one rainy Saturday when the cupboards were bare and there was nothing much left in the fruit bowl aside from some very sad-looking bananas. Fortunately we know sad bananas result in the best kind ...
For years, Work and Income has been telling New Zealanders they couldn’t get the benefit until their redundancy payments ran out. Turns out, it was wrong.What’s all this then?Work and Income has long told New Zealanders receiving redundancy payments that they weren’t eligible for the benefit until their redundancy money ...
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...
Until the sudden closure of Bauer Media in April, Simon Farrell-Green was the editor of HOME, New Zealand’s oldest architecture magazine. Here he explains what comes next.Being the editor of a major architecture magazine was the best job I ever had. I got it in 2016, after a career spent ...
A global success story or an overly generous, unsustainable scheme that is doing lasting damage to our fish stocks? Ethan Neville looks at the ongoing debate over New Zealand’s fishing quota management system. The management of our fisheries is a touchy topic – and why wouldn’t it be? New Zealanders ...
By RNZ News Thousands of people were protesting across Australia today to oppose the deaths of Indigenous people in police custody. It comes as Black Lives Matter protests are held around the world after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in the US ...
Wrapping everyone in a blanket of love, whakapapa and mauri for Matariki is the brave, exuberant and generous fabric art of Maungarongo Te Kawa, writes Amanda Thompson.E te AtuaNau enei rau harakeke he taongaTukuna ki a matouKia tika o matou mahiKo Papatuanuku e takoto neiTuturu WhakamauaKia tina, tinaHui eTaiki e.‘Karakia ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...
It’s not often that someone graduates from university one year and becomes a senior economist commentating on national media the next. George Driver investigates the meteoric rise of the high-flying Brad Olsen.Google “senior economist Brad Olsen” and you’ll find him quoted in no fewer than 167 articles in the past ...
As public sentiment turned against Uber Eats, a new local operation emerged promising a more ethical alternative to help New Zealand’s struggling hospitality industry. But now Eat Local NZ has suspended trading after falling out with its Australian partner Mr Yum. So what happened?A dispute between local hospitality platform Eat ...
By Budi Sutrisno in Jakarta As the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died while being arrested in the United States, sparks a global outcry, Indonesian rights advocates and young people have stepped forward to remind fellow citizens that racism has long been an issue at home as ...
Edward Cullen became a vampire to survive the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Now a new Twilight novel looms and Laura Surynt, a New Zealander living in the UK, wants to live forever too. As I lay in bed this morning watching Instagram stories, Tayi Tibble told my reluctant little Capricorn ...
Over the lockdown period, thousands of people joined a Facebook group dedicated to remembering the nightlife of inner-city Auckland. Its creator Simon Grigg explains why it touched a chord in lockdown.Within a few days of The Lost Nightlife of Inner-city Auckland Facebook page accidentally going live on May 12, we ...
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...
"The countdown clock ticks 2, then 1, then the prime minister raises her drink": dystopia, by Ōtautahi writer Laura Borrowdale. You stand in the centre of the room, and around you, the guests seem to swirl and blend into one. There’s a mouth, gaping and red, filled with laughter. A ...
Martin Luther King Jr said in 1963: “America has given the Black people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’." Six generations of egregious police violence later, the sentiment out of which those bad cheques were born could be shifting. In the wake of egregious police violence, ...
WATCH: In a candid interview on Sky Sport, Dame Susan Devoy talks on her concern for rising sports stars, the state of NZ squash, and the spectre of racism. Dame Susan Devoy is proudly still “a little terrier who fights for the underdog”. “I have been doing it all my life and ...
Of the huge funding boost coming for early childhood education, Playcentre has been left with just the crumbs, writes Kate Barber. Amidst all the celebration of the $430m funding boost for early childhood education (ECE) announced in this year’s budget, little attention was paid to the plight of Playcentre. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vikrant Minhas, PhD candidate, University of Adelaide Although bacteria are single-celled and microscopically small, they still need energy to survive, just like us. One of the most efficient ways of acquiring energy for bacteria is through sweet, soluble carbohydrates: sugars. In fact, ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie Three cartoonists had especially poignant takes on the tragic and toxic political aftermath of martyr George Floyd’s brutal killing under the knee of a white American policeman in Minneapolis last week. The Boston Globe’s Christopher Weyant featured a split frame contrasting a red-capped “Make ...
Are central bankers jealous that epidemiologists are the rock stars of the current crisis?There is talk that both the British and New Zealand central banks might institute negative interest rates as part of the policy response to the Covid shock. While Sweden’s central bank ended its five year experiment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monika Sarder, Senior Strategic Analyst, Monash University Algorithmic decision-making has enormous potential to do good. From identifying priority areas for first response after an earthquake hits, to identifying those at risk of COVID-19 within minutes, their application has proven hugely beneficial. But ...
LISTEN: This week's Extra Time podcast discusses racism in sport and the role of athletes and organisations in making a stand for good. Former Silver Fern and Black Fern Louisa Wall believes today's sports stars must have a social conscience and stand up against discrimination and divisiveness. Sport and politics, once ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Thomas, Associate professor, Flinders University We have seen ten days of protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd. While thousands of people have gathered to express their outrage peacefully, some demonstrations have been marred by vandalism and ...
40 percent of millennials have one, and an increasing number of GenXers and Baby Boomers do too. Two Cents' Worth delves into the world of side hustles. ...
Auckland writer Caroline Barron has a terrific book out today called Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death. Here, she writes about the memoirs that have been a balm, a lesson, or both. Throughout my life, I’ve sought solace between the covers of books, particularly memoirs. There, I’ve learnt ...
An exclusive interview with Steve McSteverson about his traumatic and tragic ordeal this week.Many New Zealanders are struggling with the news that a children’s book not commissioned or authorised by Jacinda Ardern was advertised in a newsletter for children’s books. This horrific attack on New Zealanders whose ears are permanently ...
Air New Zealand staff are dismayed and angered at the company’s announcement to cut a further $150 million from their wage bill. On Friday, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Foran, made the announcement to employees, who are still ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr. Bodean Hedwards, Lecturer, Monash University This week the leaders of India and Australia reaffirmed their mutual interest in closer diplomatic and economic ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during their long-delayed Thursday “virtual summit”: ...
The Herald reported this morning that MediaWorks was on the verge of selling its TV assets to US TV giant Discovery – but an internal email and senior source suggest the story may have been premature.A senior MediaWorks source has emphatically denied a report in the NZ Herald that a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gery Karantzas, Associate professor in Social Psychology / Relationship Science, Deakin University Life in lockdown has been tough on many relationships. But negotiating the transition back to “normal” as restrictions continue to lift could also be a challenge for couples. So what ...
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide HomeBuilder is a good idea gone bad. It is possibly the most complex and least equitable program the government could have devised to deliver construction jobs. It gives $25,000 to people who already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Keller, Professor of Cognitive Science, Western Sydney University The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s concert halls and opera theatres. Organisations specialising in live performance face an existential crisis under current restrictions on social gatherings, with up to 75% of people ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, wearing his Sport and Recreation ministerial hat, can show he can be a big spender and draw voters’ attention to his largess each time he dispenses money from the funds under his control – or the control of an agency within his ministerial bailiwick. Yesterday he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Scott Morrison wants to overhaul the skills workforce to ensure a better post-COVID-19 recovery. But there may not be enough people with the necessary skills to do so. And travel restrictions, which ...
As we transition out of a Covid-focused world and prepare for what comes next, New Zealand’s ICT industry is gearing towards growth.From app development helping track the Covid-19 virus to website engineering keeping businesses in touch and online, ICT knowledge has been crucial to keeping New Zealand working over the ...
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...
Ten days is too long. That from insurance claimant advocate, Ali Jones. EQC has today made contact with homeowners via email after accidentally releasing confidential details of 8000 insurance claims on May 26. Jones says although she has not received ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin Classics, $24)Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. The other day, ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin. The conversation around the 2020 covid19 pandemic has been widely framed as ‘health versus the economy’. It has been quite political, with people leaning to the left emphasising ‘health’, and people leaning to the right emphasising ‘the economy’. A couple of weeks ago ...
Sam Brooks pays tribute to Alex Rider, and the new TV series that (finally) captures the spirit of the books.“What if James Bond was a teenager?”The concept for Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series is so simple but so brilliant. There’s a reason why the franchise has managed to sustain 12 ...
Analysis - The PM resists pressure to move immediately to level 1, Winston Peters' tactics play into the hands of the Opposition and the government at last works out a commercial rent solution, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHAFrom Washington DC Federal charges against the four protectors of the Venezuelan Embassy, who defended the building in Washington DC against violent opposition crowds for several weeks between April 10 and May 16 of 2019, were completely dropped in a case that ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHA Editorial TeamFrom Washington DC The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) joins the Black Alliance for Peace[1] and other pro-democracy organizations throughout the world in calling for the United Nations to address the systemic violations of human rights by the police and ...
Being shot by police had a profound, transformational effect on Rob Mokaraka’s life in more ways than you’d expect. A new documentary, airing on Māori TV at 7.30pm on Sunday, explores the work he’s done to heal his own mind and to ensure nobody has to go through the same ...
Human rights watchdog TAPOL has condemned the demand by Indonesian prosecutors seeking 17 and five years imprisonment for West Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Irwanus Uropmabin. On June 2, the Jayapura District Prosecutor’s Office issued 33 pages containing charges against the defendant Irwanus Uropmabin. In the document, the Public Prosecutor ...
The arrival of Dan Carter is far from the first time the ever-struggling Auckland team has hoped to turn around its fortunes with a star signing, writes Jamie Wall.New Zealand rugby Twitter is a generally desolate place, especially lately given that there’s been nothing to talk about ever since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity US President Donald Trump delivered an address this week in which he threatened military action on the nation. Then he walked to the nearby St John’s Episcopal Church ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University Why do we burp? We sometimes also burp before meals, why does this happen? — Ahaana, age 7 That is a really interesting question, Ahaana! There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Bell-James, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland After years of litigation, Australia’s highest court will today make a major decision on the fate of the controversial proposed expansion to the New Acland Coal mine in Queensland. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne Tomorrow is the first World Green Roof Day. Cities around the world will celebrate the well-documented environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs. New ground-level green spaces are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Senior Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Robodebt isn’t the only measure the government should consider withdrawing. Late last Friday, after a long press conference from the prime minister which avoided any mention of the topic, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Harvard University’s Alberto Alesina died suddenly of a heart attack on May 23. He was 63. His long-time colleague and friend Larry Summers wrote that before him, “there was no academic field of political economy. Today, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University What keeps democracies together? As America burns, Brazilians die and Europe braces for another wave of the coronavirus, the question assumes an alarming immediacy. If the answer is complicated in one way, it is ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Millions of dollars divvied up by Sport NZ, MSD’s problem with wrongly denied payments grows, and internal coalition battles emerge in time for election.It’s Friday, and there hasn’t been a lot of it recently, so we’re going to start with ...
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias.NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...
A new study indicates native plants, despite their tendency to grow more slowly than exotic species like Pinus Radiata, are better at storing carbon in the soil for longer periods of time. ...
Open Mike 15/01/2018 
You’ve got to wonder why the New Zealand Police undertook an armed response teams (ARTs) trial in the first place? Of course there was the Christchurch mosque terrorism attack, but that was an isolated incident and therefore cannot be used as an excuse to arm Police. What this trial does ...2 hours ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 31 through Sat, June 6, 2020 Editor's Choice The world must seize this opportunity to meet the climate challenge As current and former central bankers, we believe the pandemic offers ...9 hours ago
The 60 Years of New Zealand Television celebrations, such as they were, seemed to rely heavily on the classics: here we go again with Lynn of Tawa, A Week of It and the Country Calendar spoofs. Wonderful highlights of our televisual past, to be sure, but after hearing Paul Holmes’ ...1 day ago
The Two Americas Collide: You gotta love the Americans marching for George Floyd and the fragile promises of the US Constitution. But, you also gotta keep your eye on the pale rider in the White House, and understand that behind him Hell follows.THE FRAGILITY of democracy’s promise is becoming clearer ...1 day ago
Oliver Twist, famously asked for ‘more’. He did not challenge the system of workhouses – Dickens did – nor the authority of Beadle Bumble. He was only nine. I am often struck how critics of the current income maintenance system are like Oliver Twist. They ask for more, but they ...2 days ago
New Zealand’s history as a sheep-farming nation means the command “Get in behind!” has long had a particular resonance — but not usually for journalists. However, in late March, as panic over the coronavirus pandemic surged around the world, Dr Gavin Ellis — former editor-in-chief of the NZ Herald — ...2 days ago
When the New Zealand Police started using Armed Response Teams - gangs of heavily-armed police cruising Māori-Pacifica neighbourhoods in juiced-up gun-trucks - they told us it was a "trial". But it turns out that those armed police - who were mainly doing traffic stops and bail checks, rather than the ...2 days ago
Another study comparing effect in children from nonendemic areas (Dagang) and endemic fluorosis area (Jinghai) about 80km apart in the Tianjin area of China. Hardly sampling the same population. Anti-fluoride campaigners still use studies from ... 3 days ago
George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard Edwards This blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...3 days ago
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...4 days ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...4 days ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...5 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...6 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 6 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...1 week ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...2 weeks ago
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced two diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India and Consul-General to Hong Kong. “As New Zealand recovers from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever. That is ...2 days ago
We started the week by announcing free apprenticeships to support Kiwis into work and to help get New Zealand moving again - and we ended the week by extending the wage subsidy to 40,000 more businesses, helping to protect businesses and workers alike. ...2 days ago
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...2 days ago
This summer presents a great opportunity for New Zealanders to get out into nature with bookings on Great Walks for 2020/21 set to open next week, says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Bookings for the Great Walks will open between 9 and 11 June, excluding Milford and Routeburn tracks which ...1 day ago
ANALYSIS: By Denis Muller of the University of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...2 hours ago
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...3 hours ago
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...9 hours ago
Tania Tapsell is replacing MP Anne Tolley as National's candidate for the East Coast. ...18 hours ago
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...1 day ago
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...1 day ago
"The countdown clock ticks 2, then 1, then the prime minister raises her drink": dystopia, by Ōtautahi writer Laura Borrowdale. You stand in the centre of the room, and around you, the guests seem to swirl and blend into one. There’s a mouth, gaping and red, filled with laughter. A ...1 day ago
Martin Luther King Jr said in 1963: “America has given the Black people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’." Six generations of egregious police violence later, the sentiment out of which those bad cheques were born could be shifting. In the wake of egregious police violence, ...1 day ago
WATCH: In a candid interview on Sky Sport, Dame Susan Devoy talks on her concern for rising sports stars, the state of NZ squash, and the spectre of racism. Dame Susan Devoy is proudly still “a little terrier who fights for the underdog”. “I have been doing it all my life and ...1 day ago
Are central bankers jealous that epidemiologists are the rock stars of the current crisis? There is talk that both the British and New Zealand central banks might institute negative interest rates as part of the policy response to the Covid shock. While Sweden’s central bank ended its five year experiment ...2 days ago
LISTEN: This week's Extra Time podcast discusses racism in sport and the role of athletes and organisations in making a stand for good. Former Silver Fern and Black Fern Louisa Wall believes today's sports stars must have a social conscience and stand up against discrimination and divisiveness. Sport and politics, once ...2 days ago
40 percent of millennials have one, and an increasing number of GenXers and Baby Boomers do too. Two Cents' Worth delves into the world of side hustles. ...2 days ago
Air New Zealand staff are dismayed and angered at the company’s announcement to cut a further $150 million from their wage bill. On Friday, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Foran, made the announcement to employees, who are still ...2 days ago
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...2 days ago
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...2 days ago
The Government picks Waitomo caves as 'strategic tourism asset' and grants $4m to Tourism Holdings, boosting shares another 7.8 percent. Facebook staff and alumni revolt over Zuckerberg's inaction on Trump ...2 days ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan NZ bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. NON-FICTION 1 Vegful by Nadia Lim (Nude Food, $55) 2 Stop Surviving Start Fighting by Jazz Thornton (Penguin Random House, $38) 3 So Delish! by Simone Anderson ...2 days ago
A new study indicates native plants, despite their tendency to grow more slowly than exotic species like Pinus Radiata, are better at storing carbon in the soil for longer periods of time. ...2 days ago
Are Bunnings really trying to do the right thing?
Or was their parent company forced into taking action by overseas protests…
So are they going to go the whole hog and stop selling eg: neonicotinoid-based pesticides altogether, the way they plan to in Europe? Or will they try and dump product here until our regulators catch up?
Still, it’s an opportunity to put pressure on all the local retailers.
Thanks for info and good points OAB.
A couple of other things occurred to me: one, the cynicism, and two, the failure of the stenographer/journalist to check context.
Why is the weather so hot?
Newshub investigated. The closest to the truth came in this response from MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray.
“”We had 5-6degC higher than normal in some areas of the Tasman Sea. In our coastal waters it was 3-4degC for some areas as well.
“It’s going to have a big impact on life within the sea, and also on weather events. One of the ingredients for these really intense lows is these warmer sea temperatures.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/01/record-breaking-weather-why-is-it-so-hot.html
Of course Metservice spokespeople are going to be cautious.
They remember what happened to Salinger for mentioning the cc words.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10568596
Again you tell lies and deliberately try to twist things to your story.
Salinger was fired for ignoring company policy and talking to the media without permission on several occasions.
Salinger was sacked for telling the truth when NZ was governed by liars.
Any evidence to back that up?
No of course not.
At the time, Jacqueline Rowarth said there were very fine people on both sides.
So yes, Salinger told the truth.
That NZ was governed by liars at the time is well documented.
Jim is a good guy – in this case however the ERA backed the employer.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10616915
Oh I’m sure it was all done according to the letter of the law, but the influence of agribusiness over NIWA was always going to clash with its scientific and public duties.
If there’s any hint of dodginess the ERA usually sides with the employee, knowing Jim I think he’d had more than enough of the overly officious cak one has to deal with from above in such organisations anyway.
His public statements at the time indicate that the problem increased during his last few years at NIWA. Perhaps you think there’s no connection between the National Party’s hostility towards facts and this phenomenon.
😆
At that time Key and his cronies were ramping up dairy intensification.
Something inconvenient like climate change couldn’t get in the way of those methane belching cows.
Are we allowed to eat the cows if we decrease our diary herd ?
Are you comfortable with the way dairy industry treats calves?
Are you comfortable with how this vegan industry treats humans?
https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/deadly-devotion/videos/krishna-recruiting
Stalking me pm….
Are you comfortable with the way dairy industry treats calves?
Was that too subtle for you or something?
No amount of evidence would persuade a perverse individual like yourself. We have had this conversation many times.
But since you ask:
Salinger didn’t understand why he was dismissed.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-great-big-list-of-john-keys-big-fat-lies-updated/ substantiates the dishonesty of that government.
You don’t really believe that there is anything sensible in that diatribe do you?
The title would be far more accurate if it was labelled “The great big list of Blip’s lies about John Key”.
I had a look at these claims of Blips on a number of occasions. His problem is that he claims that Key said things that he didn’t actually say.
He then claims that his misinterpretation of Key’s words is somehow the real thing.
But no amount of evidence would persuade a perverse individual like yourself. Sad really.
We’re still waiting to discover whether you lied deliberately about SCF and the extended guarantee the other day.
There are plenty of open-and-shut cases on BLiP’s list. Tranzrail, Brethren, Standard & Poors, troops to Iraq, Whitechapel – itself a corrupt device, Pike River, drinking age, etc etc.
I am sorry that I have illustrated that your ridiculous beliefs about the SCF affair have not a skerrick of truth to them.
Can I suggest you give up on the topic and go back to something that will no doubt give you orgastic pleasure.
You remember that John Key was of Jewish descent. He was actualy sent to New Zealand as part of a vast Jewish plot to take over the world.
Have a look here and you will see a description of that affair.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007058
I already linked to Treasury’s information on their application for entry into the extended guarantee scheme in 2010. Your assertion that they “couldn’t be dropped” from it makes no sense, because they hadn’t been accepted into it (the extended scheme) at that time.
Still, your admission that the National Party should have exercised more oversight concedes the point. Thanks.
You really are determined to come across as rather thick, aren’t you?
I’ll break into little steps.
1. SCF were included in the guaranteed company list in 2008.
2. That guarantee scheme was going to be replaced.
3. The company, SCF, was on the verge of collapse in 2010.
4. If they were not going to be in the replacement scheme most of their funds would have immediately been withdrawn.
5. They couldn’t possibly repay their debts.
6. The original guarantee would have been called on.
7. The Government, foolishly perhaps, hoped that the company could still be salvaged.
8. The were included in the new scheme in the hope that the salvage could succeed.
9. It didn’t.
There, is that now clear to you? They couldn’t have had their Government guarantee, under one scheme or another, withdrawn without immediately inducing a collapse.
Yep Alwyn, that what I said a couple of days ago.
Th NATZ paid out 1.6Billion to SCF.
@dv
There is one thing you still don’t seem to understand.
Either that or you do understand it but aren’t willing to recognise the truth.
The National led Government did not pay out 1.6 billion to SCF as you have repeatedly been claiming.
The Government paid out nothing to SCF.
I’ll repeat it so that it might penetrate.
The Government paid out NOTHING to SCF.
Nothing, zero, zilch.
“Foolishly”.
Thanks for conceding the point again.
Actually I think Blip was probably overly generous – Key’s was unquestionably the worst and most corrupt government ever to blight New Zealand.
You seem to lack the perspective to appreciate that lying and stealing public assets are not a public service – no doubt because you were in some sense part of the blight.
“Key’s was unquestionably the worst and most corrupt government ever to blight New Zealand.”
Comedy gold or lack of long term memory ?
Why, did Muldoon turn the country into a tax haven and run a cash-for-access scheme for Ministers?
😆
Muldoon had a number of less than complimentary actions during his time in government amongst them
Abolishing Labour’s superannuation scheme without new legislation. In the case it was found that revoking a law in such a manner without consent of Parliament was illegal under the Bill of Rights, The Moyle Affair, Appointing Sir Keith Holyoake as Governor-General upon Sir Denis Blundell’s term ending,the constitutional crisis after the 1984 election and his ‘pissheadedness’, the Keith Allen affair etc etc…
Also NZ is not a tax haven and your continued panty bunching over National’s fundraising is quite dull. In twenty year’s time historians will see the Nat government of 2008-16 as very much a continuation of the Labour government’s actions and policies of 1999-2008. Whether they view the government as a good and the country well run will have more to do with the state of the world and that time.
New Zealand is a tax haven.
Or perhaps this is false advertising:
If you can’t see anything problematic in Cabinet Club I shouldn’t be at all surprised.
…. And Mossack fonseka were not tax haven pimps founded by a real nazi …. with those nazi ‘grey area’ ethics
And they were not pimping John Keys little tax haven …
oh hang on …. yes they were.
Stunned discord ……… Cognitive Mullet
Talk to the Mossack … fool
Sorry fourth worst government.
1. Massey’s government 1912 – 1925
2. Douglas’s government 1984 – 1988
3. Richardson’s government 1990 – 1993
Perhaps you think the use of NZ as a repository for criminal proceeds is a good thing. The parties involved felt sufficiently guilty about it to murder a journalist who uncovered part of what was going on.
I don’t imagine that Hubbard considered the Key government in a positive light, given that it stripped him of the wealth he built up over a lifetime without even bothering to employ legal processes.
The employees of Solid Energy, too, have reason to curse the name of that fuckwit Bill English, the ‘responsible minister’ who allowed it to be run into the ground.
Muldoon was rightwing, but neither a crook nor a traitor. The Key government abounded in both – and its leader was the worst of all.
Tragi-comedy, and yes Key and Nat ministers made an artform of short and long term memory loss – accompanied by misleading and ambiguous statements and dirty tricks . . ..
Yes there are quite a few New Zealanders whose own private assets increased as a result of the Key government
I would predict that some of the most fervent defenders of neoliberalism onnthis site have benefited from either the government stealing our assets or allowing the housing market to run out of control.
Their love of the free market is just a reflection of the greed and selfishness.
I predict they’re mostly middle-class turkeys chanting for Xmas.
I predict both your fine self and Ed undertake bukake parties with goats.
Very well put.
The middle class were happy to buy into neo-liberalism in the 1980s, not realising that once the working class had been devoured, the plutocrats would be coming for them.
OAB
…chanting AGAINST Xmas. They are bright enough to know where their interests lie. And the fact that Christmas is cherished by other NZs makes no bones with them. Any bones that fall, will not be turkey ones if they can help it.
I predict that Stunned Mullet will get banned from TS and go over to Yawnz to moan about it
Ed – Are you one person with two different visual symbols (I never know what to call these) or two people with the same name? I’m guessing the former, but the visual thing is confusing. Is there a way to fix it?
The Free Market has never really been that. Through the actions of the Key lead government, for instance, they weighted the employment market heavily in favor of employers. They put in employment legislation into the market to help keep wage increases artificially low.
While business had record profits they begrudgingly increased wages and some even tried some tricks to get rid of union workers to replace them with non-unionised labor at a lower price. Then there was the way the contracting fo services like transportation etc. were set up by the Key Government to allow wages and conditions of those employees helping provide the public services could be lowered by changing them from employees of the councils to employees of subcontractors.
Okay, so why don’t you do us all a favour, since we’re such witless and easily led sheep, and write up a list of Blip’s lies about the lies Key told. Go on. It’ll give you something to do that doesn’t involve making snarky remarks about anyone who says something disparaging about Saint John of Key.
I’ve done it before for representative examples of Blips claims..
Why don’t you have a look on this blog and you’ll find several examples.
I can only assume you are to lazy to do it or you just go “nah, nah, nah” when someone demonstrates that you are too foolish to read the comments carefully.
All good politicians do it. They say things that sound very open but are very carefully hedged so that they can back out of them if they want to.
Look at Grant Robertson on TV3 recently. He was asked about the pay of the New Zealand Women’s Rugby team. He said something that sounded as if he thought they should be paid the same as the All Blacks. Thrilling if you think there is a huge Gender pay gap.
People took him to say something like. “I am looking forward to talking to the Rugby Union about pay equality”.
Wonderful for women, right? What he said was “pay equity” which would allow him in the future to turn into anything at all.
Look at Winston in 2005. He said that he wouldn’t accept “the baubles of office”. People took it to mean he wasn’t demanding a Ministerial role and all the perks that go with it. What happened of course that he became Minister of Foreign Affairs and toured the world in style. When questioned he said that the Ministerial position he took wasn’t a bauble, which is a thing of little worth.
Key was just very good at it and Blip was one of the many KDS sufferers who chose to pretend things Key said didn’t mean exactly what they said.
Hi Alwyn
I don’t support any political party, and have voted across the political spectrum over the years. But the left’s obsession with John Key was much the same as the right’s obsession with Helen Clark. It was born out of confusion (perhaps envy?) about how someone they despise can be some popular, and about how such a person can be so astonishingly successful.
Not confused why he was popular.
The corporate media ran a 9 year propaganda campaign for him.
Martin Bradbury explains it perfectly.
Where the hell was the NZ media for the last 9 years?
Exactly. The Left despises Key’s dishonesty and gutter ethics, and the Right despises Clark’s gender.
Of course they disliked him.
He defeated their Joan of Arc, the sainted Helen.
That could never be forgiven.
There was, of course no difference between Clark Derangement Syndrome and Key Derangement Syndrome.
Both were functions of total incomprehension that someone the sufferers couldn’t stand was so incredibly popular and successful.
The CDS sufferers recovered. Even Hooton got over it. Sooner or later the KDS group will also recover and wonder how they could have been so silly.
As far as taking Bradbury’s opinion on anything as being sensible and meaningful you would have to be crazy.
He is the only person I have ever heard of who was more than 11 without having got over the idea that a nickname of “Bomber” was not really something to be disposed of along with your teddy bear.
There is no comparison because all the Right could come up with was silly accusations about a painting that Clark signed for charity, and the speeding motorcade incident.
What else? so-called “Nanny state” stuff like lightbulbs, showerheads, anti-smacking legislation.
The National Party Herald(tm) helped with their “attack on democracy” campaign against the Electoral Funding Act. (but they forgot to mention Cabinet Club or the Nats dodgy backers like China, SkyCity, Exclusive Brethren).
Hollow Men and Dirty Politics exposed their lies, and no politician has the guts to try and sue Nicky Hager because they know they will lose.
“The corporate media ran a 9 year propaganda campaign for him.”
That’s the same nonsense the right ran about Helen Clark. It’s simply another form of the sort of denial I mentioned above.
“Both were functions of total incomprehension that someone the sufferers couldn’t stand was so incredibly popular and successful.
The CDS sufferers recovered. Even Hooton got over it. Sooner or later the KDS group will also recover and wonder how they could have been so silly.”
To be fair, Key’s popularity was incredible, and his level of popularity outlasted even Clark. That must have really lurked the left even more.
“As far as taking Bradbury’s opinion on anything as being sensible and meaningful you would have to be crazy.”
Bradbury has a sorry reputation for getting things wrong. There are many excellent left wing bloggers; he isn’t one of them.
“There is no comparison…”
There is a direct comparison. The lefts obsession with ‘dirty politics’ is a case in point. As if the left never engaged in dirty politics.
Please give an example of “the left” engaging in Dirty Politics.
“Please give an example of “the left” engaging in Dirty Politics.“
The so called ‘pledge card’. BTW, in my view ‘dirty politics’ is just ‘politics’.
“National is not going to raise GST. National wants to cut taxes – not raise taxes.” – Saint John of Key on the campaign trail, 2008.
2010, Key raises GST from 12.5% to 15%.
“I am not interested in selling assets – I’m all about building assets.” – Saint John of Key on the campaign trail, 2008.
Goes on to sell a metric butt-load of assets, despite an opposing referendum, including… state houses. And then plays a shell game with the proceeds: https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/285835/have-asset-sale-funds-gone-where-promised
Now, you can dance around mendacious crap like that all you want, Alwyn, but the fact is a lie, is a lie, is a lie. Key was a serial liar. Fact.
But, hey, go crazy trying to defend the indefensible. It’s your time to waste.
Reminds me of a sort of joke I heard.
A confused signwriter’s big mistake.
Instead of John Key, Used Car dealer
he put –
Car Key, Used John Dealer.
We misread the signs when we voted him in!
I see John Slater, Whaleoil’s dad and Jenny Shipley, a woman of substance, encouraged him to come here and bring his money magic.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11760707
David Farrar is either tongue in cheek or is embedded in a culture of his own cognisance, like a raspberry in jelly.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/06/the_john_key_biography_-_the_early_years.html
Some interesting background on John Key that may have slipped by unread.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/250525/Who-is-John-Key
What sort of substance is that Jenny Shipley. I’d love to know so I can find out what sort of antiseptic to use if I ever come across it
I think the situation is that it is many-sided and hard to treat. It is difficult with some ailments, you carry them within you and by the time they break out noticeably, you’re very poorly indeed.
He was sacked for publicising ‘climate change’ when the powers that were did not want it publicised and tried to silence him. But those who, like James, do not want to see will ask for ‘evidence’. History will judge James poorly, I think.
Again you cannot point to him being fired for that because that’s not what happened.
Sorry that the evidence points to you being wrong again.
I bet you can read between the lines when it suits you. But here you prefer prevarication based on technicality. Of course NIWA would find weasel-words to obscure the issue, and it suits you to bleat about it.
Key’s wretched government was particularly embarrassed by an infamous interview by the BBC Programme Hardtalk.
One line stood out from the interview that displayed Key’s contempt for independent scientific research.
“He’s one academic, and like lawyers, I can provide you with another one that will give you a counterview.”
The transcript of part of the interview is on this link.
http://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2011/john-keys-unhappy-week-at-the-bbc/
Another interesting point is in this excerpt from the Listener article.
“More alarming still, perhaps, is Joy’s suggestion that scientists have become afraid of speaking out, for fear of losing funding: “He says people are scared to voice concerns for fear of political backlash, or the ‘Jim Salinger effect’, in which a top NIWA scientist lost his job in 2009 after speaking to the media.”
The Salinger sacking clearly had an impact.
Here are video links to the ghastly Key’s shaming by Steve Sackur.
Sadly few New Zealand journalists had the courage to question this dodgy character.
100% Ed,
Anyone who ‘idolises John Key; is either living off the ‘ill gotten gains’ his policies of sell/carpetbag/extort from the taxpayers sold/lost assets is a sick puppy.
You and our side have some ‘conscience and wish to see them gone to another planet like ‘planet key’.
ZOMG, a knowledgeable person spoke to the MSM about what they know. HOW DARE HE.
See, part of the problem is that our scientists and public servants now have to get permission first. They didn’t have to previously and the government was effectively more open because of it.
We actually need these people talking openly so that we can have an open and honest society rather than one hidden behind the lies of the politicians.
And according to that article he wasn’t even warned about it which means that the employer broke the law.
How can that happen under the SOE model?
This is the way that a government operating with a profit motive, not a service motive or even an efficient and effective motive on a not-for-profit basis, treats erstwhile civil servants. Most uncivilly!
From link Ed provided above.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10568596
24 April 2009, 11.59pm
See, part of the problem is that our scientists and public servants now have to get permission first. They didn’t have to previously and the government was effectively more open because of it.
I did some work for DOC 25 years ago, part of the employment contract was that I wasn’t allowed to say or do anything that could negatively impact the government of the day and if I did, immediate termination of employment.
My job was pretty low level so I guess that condition applied to every individual who worked for the government.
Sure, no-one wants wooden sweaty cheerleaders expressing their ignorance. Dr. Salinger doesn’t fall into that category. In fact, informing people within his area of expertise is his duty.
NZ Association of Scientists.
Working in the private sector is probably his best option then, he’s then free to say whatever he wan about the governments( as long as it doesn’t negatively impact on his employer)
We can’t have special people, rules have to apply to everyone.
😆
The Cabinet Manual, for example.
People should be able to speak out freely as long as they’re speaking the truth.
Anything else is oppression.
EDIT: David Fisher: OIA a bizarre arms race
Which is how it should be. None of this carefully crafted BS that we get now that seems designed to protect the politicians and their policies.
But the flipside of that is when the media look for quick confirmation of what turns out to be – or should obviously be – made up bullshit. A careless confirmation by someone answering off the top of their head, possibly sarcastically, becomes “confirmed by the department”.
The classic example being the (Asia Air?) flight that had a hard landing in the US west coast and got evacuated – injuries and a couple of deaths – the local station had been informed by some wag late one night that the crew names were fit for a ChCh restaurant menu. The station called the NTSB in washington, and an intern apparently confirmed that the crew names were “Sum Ting Wong, “Wi Too Lo”, “Ho Lee Fuk”, and “Bang Ding Ow”. I shit you not, the station went live with the “breaking news” because some intern said an obvious wind up was true.
100% Draco,
BM comment hit a raw nerve with us all.
‘We can’t have special people, rules have to apply to everyone.’
In the right wing bloggers world this effectively means “as long as it is anyone outside the right wing beltway” – it seems.
Thanks for reminding us about this. I was pleasantly surprised that a NZer who was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007) chose to voice his concerns in the media. All the more courageous given that he has suffered from depression.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Salinger
Why was/is informing the public, via the media, against the policies of SoEs and other corporates? What/who does that silencing seek to protect?
Thankfully, Dr Mike Joy doesn’t work for NIWA.
Those are the big questions.
“NZer who was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007)”.
Gosh, that sounds terribly impressive doesn’t it?
Does that mean that he is Jim Salinger, Nobel Prize Winner?
Actually my own record is vastly more impressive. I regularly donate to the Red Cross. Does that make me a 3 time Nobel Prize winner. After all MY organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, 1944 and 1963.
Were you carefully selected by the Red Cross from a field of eminent worthies, based on your proven expertise, experience and leadership in the field of charitable donations? No? I thought not.
Well no I wasn’t, but neither was Salinger. He certainly doesn’t seem to have been “carefully selected from a field of eminent worthies”, as you seem to think.
He was one of about twenty editors of one chapter of one report, as far as I can discover. It was solely about Australia and New Zealand and the majority of the editors were Australian.
He wasn’t even the senior of the New Zealand editors He was just one of the lower level group. The leading New Zealander representative in the group was a retired Geography Professor named Fitzharris.
That’s some magnificent spin, Alwyn – all I had to offer was facts and questions.
Perhaps you bowled for Aussie in another life?
100% Drowsy M. Kram
Alwyn is one of the ‘key’ partners in the right wing junk science spin machine.
ignore the idiotic spin.
Congratulations to Bryce from the Rock radio for the new baby I said that the Lady’s contributions to our society is a lot greater than they are given credit for Congratulations to your lady to M8 it a lot of work raising children. Congratulations to Jens new marriage may you 2 be happy forever. It was awesome to hear the rumble crew back on air. Its awesome to hear that Joseph has got the fight all signed up and Ka pai I want to put this up before you people came back on air just to busy. Ka kite ano
I’m with you on the fight – looking forward to watching it. Good to see a kiwi boy doing so well on the world boxing stage.
The sweet science is beautiful
James – you should have been a science teacher. Our children need inspiring enthusiasts.
I’ve taught boxing in a prev life – so I guess I was 🙂
I think Joshuas height and reach advantage and generally better knock out capabilities will be to much for Parker to overcome, what do you think?
Joseph will lose and then if he’s got good advisors he’ll win by quitting boxing with a very tidy sum to support him and his family through the rest of his life.
Hopefully
Ah! Punch-drunk that’s it!
Jacinda Ardern nails it nicely:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/would-new-zealand-feel-jacinda-ardern-says-trumps-alleged-shithole-remark-hugely-offensive?auto=5711045042001
Imagine if Trump knew anything about NZ (which he doesn’t) then he would know we have a dark skinned indigenous race called “Maori” who represent a sizable proportion of our population. So much so, around half of the so-called white “Pakeha” population also have ‘Maori” blood streaming through their veins.
I guess we qualify as one of his “shithole” countries.
Edit: here’s the complete interview
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/01/donald-trump-s-s-thole-comments-hugely-offensive-ardern.html
No because he was talking about the countries not the people.
I know people like to try and spin it as a racial issue but it’s not – note Jacinda wouldn’t say it was either.
And the truth is – those countries are shitholes.
No, he was talking about the people – specifically their migration to the USA.
To put it another way, “why don’t people from nice places want to come and live here?”
Your man’s an idiot.
Even your quote identifies that he was saying the country was the shithole nothing to do with the people – which is the point.
Explain why they’re undesirable as potential citizens then. Dear White Supremacist Leader makes a clear connection between country and people.
The reason you can’t see it is that he’s your man.
+111
So if someone said NZ was a shithole you wouldn’t think it was a comment about the people as well?
This. Deliberate incomprehension from James but no surprise – these people must fein denseness to defend their position.
James has an interest in saying Trump is not racist.
He’s trying to wriggle out of a clear statement that when you refer to a place as a shit-hole you are not talking about the people in it.
It’s pretty pathetic, but that’s James.
Well there have been commenters on here who have called nz a shithold and I didn’t assume that they were racist.
Given the lack of outrage at the comment I assume that others readers didn’t as well.
You argued above that Trump was talking about countries not the people that live in them. I’m asking you if someone called NZ a shithole, would you think that wasn’t about the people as well?
Trump is obviously a racist. There is probably nothing he can say at this point about non-white people that is outside of that context.
I have occasionally thought NZ was a bit of a shithole – because in my experience people like James (actually worse, our James is pretty mild really) are in the majority.
By the way James, ‘shithole’ is a metaphorical term, and calling it a fact makes you look as silly as Trump was to use the term – which he now denies doing, but who would believe him?
But James (4.1) a nation is its people. Or put another way, the people are the nation.
Trump was without doubt slagging off the people from those countries he called shitholes!
Haiti is a shithole, why else would its people be trying to leave (and going to ‘murica)
Well Haiti is a shithole country but then maybe its because of american involvement
http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/13/politics/bill-clinton-denies-accusations-foundation-funds-wedding/index.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37826098
https://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-suppressed-haitis-minimum-wage/
Haiti has been a shit hole for many years it has however improved a little bit from the hell hole it was previously.
Well thats a glass half full way of looking at it 🙂
Haiti has had some appalling (and I mean truly appalling) shit served up to its population by various thugs over the years.
Including in no small part the US.
Yep
Though no doubt some US policies or corporates have contributed to Haiti’s problems, geographical issues and how they were managed were relevant, as were the characteristics of the ruling elites.
https://www.theglobalist.com/haiti-and-the-dominican-republic-one-island-two-worlds/
Does anyone, for even the briefest of moments, believe that previous US admins and leaders of western governments and institutions have held these places (and the people that live there) in less contempt than that expressed by Trump?
Because if you do, I’d argue that you really need to pick up a history book and throw away all those “ready to hand” rosy glasses that are probably strategically dotted around the show.
Trump is an ignorant racist. I don’t think anyone would seriously argue with that. But what he did was merely give expression to an attitude that is more or less ubiquitous within echelons of power and that can be traced back to at least the 1830s and Britain’s actions against Egypt… the aftermath of Haiti’s independence in 1804…the Atlantic slave trade from the 1400s onwards.
Anyone care to comment on “super-predators” or the size of the African American prison population today, or anything about colonisation or the economic and political subjugation of post colonial entities and the accompanying unprecedented transfer of wealth from “South” to “North” that’s still continuing today?
And does anyone think that the very people in positions of influence and power who are front-footing and encouraging this hue and cry over Trumps statement are somehow divorced from the deeply ingrained institutional racism that Trump guilelessly, by dint of giving voice to his own prejudice, shone a light on?
In short, my enemy’s enemy can fuck off too.
Bill, there’s been plenty of comment from people on this site about things like the effects of colonialism on indigenous populations, racial profiling by police, inequities in arrests, prosecutions, guilty verdicts and sentences, trade disparities and exploitation of the “developing” world by the “developed”, America’s culpability in trying to shape the world around their perceived self interest… It’s not an either/or situation. Recognising and deploring Trump’s casual racism (which, let’s remember, does actually impact his decision making and hence other people’s lives) doesn’t stop people being able to think about, comment about and work against other kinds of racism or exploitation.
If you don’t want to join in when people condemn the latest Trump fuck-up, then don’t. But dumping on people who do doesn’t achieve a lot, does it?
Oh dear. Tell me red-blooded. When you were a kid and you got one of those ‘dot to dot’ books, did you manage, after you’d put the tip of the pencil to the paper, to draw it across the paper so that dots got joined up? Or did you just sit there all day feverishly focused on the dot beneath your pencil tip…perhaps lift the pencil and set it down on the next dot?
I ask, because you’ve just more or less stated an inability to chew gum and walk at the same time – ie, it’s beyond you to contemplate Trump’s bullshit in a wider, revealing context.
And by the way – since you made the accusation, just where in the name of fuck in the comment you’ve responded to, is it that I’m dumping on people who have joined with others in condemn[ing] the latest Trump fuck-up?
Seems to me you’ve just provided an excellent variant of an observation made by Hanswurst –
Now sure. You’re not suggesting I’m supportive of Trump, merely that I ought to shut the fuck up if I’m not prepared to read from the script everyone’s apparently signed up to.
No matter how many times you have said trump is drop kick (politest phrase I could think of).
Intersectional comments which bring in the wider economic issues or historical analysis , will get you told off Bill – did you miss the memo?
Was that memo circulated by the liberals4U crowd?
I got excommunicated a good number of years ago for mentioning the five letter C word. So yeah, nah – I missed it 🙂
Bill, it’s possible to disagree with someone and rebut a comment without being abusive. Maybe you missed the memo.
And you spent a lot of time and venom yesterday dumping on people who were condemning the latest Trump fuck-up. I’d argue that you took a pretty aggressive tone with Stuart Monroe, above, too.
Nice of you to notice that I’m not accusing you of condoning Trump. In light of that, it’s hard to see the relevance of your quote from Hanswurst, though…
You can say whatever you like about Trump. Nowhere above did I suggest you shouldn’t. Just maybe be a bit less aggressive when responding to others.
Well. Seeing as how I didn’t submit a comment in response to Stuart Munro…
Anyway. It seems your not going to offer any comment on the three broad questions posed in the original comment above, nor comment on the observations made in that comment either.
Just another sub-thread running down the drain….
R-B, like you I interpreted Bill’s summary “My enemy’s enemy can fuck off too.” as asserting that enemies of Trump should “fuck off” too, i.e. dumping on those that condemn Trump. But maybe that’s too narrow an interpretation, and Bill is saying that, when it comes to Trump, everyone should F-off.
I’m finding all the comments here (both negative and, incomprehensibly, positive) on Trump’s ‘fuck-ups’ informative. The unprecedented public circus that informs these comments will continue, and so will the comments.
I’d have thought it was pretty obvious that was aimed at liberal elites given that I was very specific in the comment (and have been in most others too) about who I consider the hypocrites to be.
Seems clarity might have nothing to do with anything afterall and reactions could just be down to straight up bias. Oh well.
Do I have to accentuate the qualifiers in that there last bit btw?
Thanks Bill, that might help, but I’m probably too disconnected from some PoVs to understand even the apparently simplest of statements. I will endeavour to keep these misinterpretations to myself in future.
Elements within the Democratic party have teamed up with neo-cons to push against Trump and get back to a situation where the US is aggressively belligerent in its foreign policy.
spikeyboy provided a link to a very good article on the goings on. (Here it is again – Glen Greenwald writing at The Intercept.)
Now (assuming you’ve read the above link), everyone who’s following the lead offered by the unholy alliance of neo-cons/Democrats on Trump, is not only undermining and marginalising those within the US who are seeking to build something for meaningful change, but they’re also unwittingly helping some very (how to say politely?) unsavoury characters and elements gain or regain their position of primacy within US politics.
Very helpful – sincere thanks for taking the time to put it together. So, neocons (still) loathe Trump (even though he has been largely bought into line on neocon orthodoxy), but presumably aren’t completely unhappy with some of his policies/promises (repeal ‘Obamacare’), and his support for tax cuts.
Paints a depressing picture of the stranglehold the neocons have on political representation in the US (and presumably even here in NZ).
Assuming the word “neocon” is a catch-all phrase with no meaning whatsoever: so far as I can tell, the gross melange of kick-backs, tax-breaks, rorts and special interests encapsulated in US legislation is about as far from “small government” as you can get.
Describing the denizens of the US government as “neo-cons” stretches the meaning to breaking point.
Then again, anyone can “paint a picture”.
Neo-con was the name given the “hawks” (that tendency) that left the Democratic Party in the 70s, aligned with the GOP and wound up in the political wilderness after Bush and Obama…but have now (it seems) gained favour and influence within the Democtaric Party.
It’s all in the Greenwald piece that is very much worth the read.
“Does anyone, for even the briefest of moments, believe that previous US admins and leaders of western governments and institutions have held these places (and the people that live there) in less contempt than that expressed by Trump?”
Yes, I do. I think that different people at different times hold differing levels of culpability. Some people try and do something good, some are utterly venal, lots of variation.
Just because other administrations are also varying levels of evil doesn’t make them all the same. Making out there is no difference is basically minimising Trump’s actions and culpability.
Did I say there was no difference or did I ask if any had held lesser contempt?
I can think of some who were more racist and whose pronouncements were at least as contemptible. And while at a push I could probably conjure up a piece of rhetoric or two, I can’t bring up an example of any western leader, government or administration that pursued or enacted foreign policies that ran counter to the inherent racism that lies beneath the economic exploitation driving liberal capitalism.
You asked if anyone believed that any other admin or govt held Haiti etc in less contempt, implication being that they hold Haiti in at least the same contempt as Trump. You’re second paragraph appears to support that.
Yup. And I’ve explained or expanded on why I asked in 4.3.2.1
I can’t think of any, who in your words, “tr[ied] to do something good” – ie, pushed back against institutional racism in foreign relations or set to compensating nations of ‘the Global South” in any way for the Norths racist colonialism and post colonial, similarly racist, imposed economic order.
Maybe I’m either over-looking or not aware of some admin, government, leader or policy.
imposed economic order
The Kyoto Protocol exempted “the Global South” from emissions targets at least partly on that basis.
Obviously it doesn’t say “imposed economic order”; it’s more diplomatic 😉
The UN decolonialization program?
The UDoHR?
Are these not attempts to “do something good”?
The Kyoto Protocol is dead, no? And I’d punt that the Global South had to fight for some modicum of equity. You reckon it was an expression of altruism on the part of richer parts of the world?
Fuck knows, they’ve had to fight like bastards to have any sense of equity included in subsequent climate agreements and accords. And rhetoric, as we know, is cheap.
Decolonisation was a somewhat cynical process of replacing direct (and expensive) occupation and rule with a more remote economic domination…and even that economic “lock down” generally wasn’t just given (if “given” is in any way the right expression).
And anyone who left or attempted to leave the “economic fold” was hammered – removal of democratic government and imposition of western friendly dictatorships etc.
UDoHR maybe nice words and maybe an expression of assumed western superiority.
And how many of the above were freely entered into by “the west” with the interests of “the south” uppermost in mind?
On first blush and just a little passing thought, I’d tend towards answering “no” to your question.
That’s more-or-less what I figured you’d say. Personally I think it’s toxic; a similar “burn it all down” “logic” to that applied at Ben Tre.
What you “figured” I’d say is irrelevant.
If you think those things you listed are example of western leaders, governments or institutions genuinely attempting good with regards the Global South, then some level of argument or reasoned opinion is due…not some vacuous bullshit about what ‘you reckons’ of what I think.
Your premise is that no-one “tr[ied] to do something good”. Nobody.
I’m satisfied that you’re wrong.
No OAB. You obviously need to either go away and brush up on basic levels of reading comprehension or else fuck off and have a wee think about lying.
My comments here have revolved around previous US admins and leaders of western governments and institutions (4.3) any western leader, government or administration (4.3.2.1) and admin, government, leader or policy.(4.3.2.1.1.1)
Up. your. fcking. game.
I don’t mind if you disagree (however vehemently) with what I say, argue or reason. But that shit – of lying and replacing others’ arguments with spurious nonsense you yourself have just made up is going to end in a dogshit on shoe situation.
Ok then, I’ll rephrase for clarity and comprehension.
Your premise is that nobody in the group defined as
I’m sorry for any offence you may be feeling if that’s not quite right either.
I’m satisfied that you’re wrong, and I don’t feel any need or obligation to engage with you any further on the matter.
Belief’s sometimes like that OAB – groundless satisfaction necessarily nursed along by the act of “shutting up shop”,
Belief…
😆
An unexpectedly self effacing or aware comment from you there OAB… 😮
Too cryptic for you, eh.
My satisfaction isn’t based on belief: that’s just some spurious nonsense you made up, which is funny, because you just got all offended when you thought I was doing the same, and compared me to a piece of dogshit on your shoe.
I hope that’s clearer.
So no self awareness afterall. Ah well.
(The “shoe” was a metaphor for the site btw)
Will you be ok?
He needs to clean up his own backyard before criticising other people’s backyards I would think. He has tunnel vision.
For the “but but but…….” crowd:
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-death-cult-of-trumpism/
Massey University professor of freshwater ecology Russell Death discusses the health of our waterways.
Luckily for him John Key and Nick Smith are no longer in charge – or he might be looking for another job (as Salinger found out).
Here are some of his frank responses to some questions about the state of our rivers and lakes.
The greed of industrial farming and a slack neoliberal regime has destroyed our environment. People should be put on trial for this – not knighted.
Herald question.
“What are the principal drivers of freshwater degradation? What pollutants, from which sources, are doing the most damage?”
Herald question.
“The latest stocktake by the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand found that, of the 39 native fish species covered by the report, 72 per cent were either threatened with, or at risk of, extinction. How grim is the outlook for our freshwater species?”
Herald question.
“We’ve now seen New Zealand’s freshwater problems reported on by major outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera. Do you feel our clean, green image is sustainable if we can’t tackle the issue?”
Read the rest of the interview here.
50 questions about the environment: Our rivers
Can’t argue if anyone ever describes NZ as a shithole country…
… and maybe the proof is on a site called Kiwiblog. Everyday.
Whether such a clump of shithead people with shitty attitudes is representative of the whole country and is enough to term the country as a shithole I don’t know, but there they are.
New Zealand certainly has an ugly underbelly with racist views that would not go unnoticed in Queensland, Warsaw or Alabama.
Herald question.
How has this (freshwater degradation) changed over the past few decades, and why? Where are the worst parts of the country for degradation?
Russell Death
The Herald has given up on saying we have a pristine environment.
Apparently, according to them, we now have pristine beaches.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11975358
The Herald must have been ignoring these news stories…..
Faeces to blame for 16 Auckland beaches too filthy for swimming
Dirty Auckland beaches to avoid this summer
It clearly doesn’t even read its own articles.
Auckland’s polluted beaches: the five big questions
This heading caught my eye.
Stephanie Rodgers on Boots Theory makes some good points to continue thinking about for the next 3 years, and these were made presciently, in March 2017.
https://bootstheory.nz/2018/01/15/2017-rewind-why-fiscal-responsibility-is-the-bog-of-eternal-stench/
The Herald has called it ‘weird weather.’
The Salinger effect means even more informed repeaters won’t call it by its proper name – c****** c*****.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11975241
Good news.
“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pours cold water on National’s highway projects.
“We’d be much better off investing in some of those neglected regional roads, and in urban areas some alternatives to roading as well,” Ardern said.
“If you ask a local mayor, they will say, ‘Can you please help us with our regional roads, particularly some of the safety issues we have?’ ”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11975332
If this has happened then what is going to happen to Onehunga wharf? Seeing as it’s owned by the transport agency.
FREE AHED!!!
How many of this family can the state of israel arrest ? Well all of them of course.
Now they just arrested another teen.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-arrests-another-tamimi-teenager
Edit: If you don’t know the story.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/ahed-tamimi-speaks-of-her-struggle-all-i-wish-is-for-palestine-to-be-free/5625807
Maybe you saw this story on the Herald online.
Kiwi sausage company grilled over ‘foul, disgusting’ image
I agree with the company.
People should know more about where their meat comes from.
This is where people’s meat comes from.
New Zealand Pork Industry Expose, Part 1
The company also said
I agree with the company.
Only a tiny fraction of pork sausages in NZ are free-range.
The vast majority of pigs in New Zealand live like this.
New Zealand Pork Industry Expose, Part 2
The company also said.
It’s a this stage that I part company with the company.
There is no way an animal about to be slaughtered would be happy.
As you can see from the video linked below, pigs are certainly not happy as they are about to be slaughtered. They are in extreme pain and distress.
A brave pig tries to save another from slaughter
The company also said.
I disagree completely with the company,
The right thing to do is not to eat pigs.
Encouragingly, the negative responses on Instagram to the sausage post would suggest many people would agree with me.
However, on the whole, the public in New Zealand have no idea where there meat comes from.
As Paul McCartney famously said,
So here are pig factory farms in New Zealand – with the walls removed.
More and more eating meat is not seen as distributing surplus to your kids and furthering the winners genetic lines. More and more eating meat is seen as a trophy wall. While one meaning is easy to argue morally against the later is not.
For most people they are living in tight economic circumstances and will eat what’s available to them on the open markets because there opinions are not reflected in government policy. This is how the 1/4 acre dream came about because planners wanted kiwis to be able to afford enough land so they could grow there own crops during a Great Depression that they where trying to grow away from. But this growth brings up the problem of losing institutional knowledge as new industries retrain subsistence farmers into factory workers. So they forget how to grow food, and 50 years on a great many kiwis have forgotten what it’s like to struggle because we’ve experienced 3% economic growth, give or take, year on year, and that’s dangerous because things can go terribly wrong terribly fast. And in our finest of hubris a great many kiwis believe that 3% can be maintained year on year indefinitely. As if a sudden event like a missile destroyer off the coast has been eliminated from the human condition, or rapid deforestation due to hyper-commercialisation has been eliminated.
1/4 acre dream
More like a mirage: all the so-called 1/4 acre sections I have checked are actually 1/5ths. Someone got royally ripped off.
“I disagree completely with the company,
The right thing to do is not to eat pigs.”
No it isn’t. That’s you attempting to set the narrative according to your own agenda.
Ffs admin/moderators, do we have to have this shit foisted on us multiple times every day?
These single issue warriors are oxygen sucking the life out of daily mic.
Haven’t people been banned for carrying on campaigns of this type before?
Don’t agree with some of Ed’s comments [these days I limit my consumption of pork to the occasional delicious rasher of crispy bacon], but find many of his/her links interesting and/or informative.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/05/402584436/tales-of-pig-intelligence-factory-farming-and-humane-bacon
Who decides what topics and ‘agendas’ are un/acceptable for Open Mike?
The same topic multiple times every day is just too much.
It’s trolling and attention seeking, pure and simple, to get responses from those he knows will oblige.
There’s no way he’s changing people’s opinion, especially since he’s become an out and out under bridge dweller, so it’s a futile exercise, unless the object of the game is as above, in which case it’s working out great for him.
There’s gotta be a better way of raising points and topics than repeated daily blunt force trauma.
I hope someone who can, will take the spamming issue on board and edict accordingly.
I’m actually really curious about how I survived the right wing ninja purge of 2017 😂😂😂😂
You must be a hero in a half shell. Heh.
Thing is, it’s a valid point. The other week someone was rounded on and criticised for posting what meat they were eating. This is the same thing.
Just like my gravy, it’s all about the consistency.
Idk what it is with this place. It’s the outrage that makes me curious. It’s about the PC Police trying to control language and censorship. Theres a reason for it. Because there only so many was to censor and the Stasi pretty much excelled at them all. Some people may think in there heads that that makes me a right wing ninja. But heh, if Yu don’t know the difference try googling it. Self educating is almost never a bad thing…
If that’s to me? I don’t know who you are, but you do make some points.
I can’t speak for others, but Ed’s comments and links here have (over time) changed my attitude to eating meat, and I am now genuinely trying to cut down with the end goal of one or at most two meat meals per week (that includes the bacon).
“We see things not as they are, but as we are.”
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/03/09/as-we-are/
I believe Paul was.
Some say he came back as another poster ….
Will you be eating meat tonight..?
Just did, and with vegetables.
Yup. Beef Wellington this evening. All home made – fav way to eat beef fillet.
You really like your echo chamber pure, ah union city greens.
Another topic you struggle with, if people have a point of view different from yours. Telling really.
You’ve got nothing but an angry chip on your shoulder.
And I’m not interested in enabling your twisted bitterness.
You have a nice day now. lol
Still not willing to see, or tolerate other people’s opinions. Nice to see you think your better than everyone else, you rwnj.
🙄
Can you use your words?
Or am I to assume your juvenile?
No, you can assume I’m the Judean Peoples’ Front.
Your a purist?
No, I think internicine conflict is another thing that provides ‘comfort to the enemy’.
Echo chambers are a dangerous place. Who the enemy by the way?
Personally I consider liberalism the enemy of people, you?
In this specific example, ‘the enemy’ refers to the merchants of doubt, deniers and fossil-fuel greedheads, although the thesis applies in any adversarial situation.
As for ‘the enemies of the people’, the Liberals can get in line behind Fascists, the centre-right, organised criminals and kleptocrats, insofar as these groups can be distinguished from one another.
” 🙄 ”
Quite right. This idiot doesn’t seem to realise it’s not the difference of opinion that’s the problem, but the daily dose of more of the same old shit.
Light weight arguments from chippy.
🙄 indeed.
ucg close minded on plant based diet, climate change, and more…
This is very poor-quality flamebait. I suggest next time you include a little bit of reality.
Ed/Paul is a troll.
The end.
“There is no way an animal about to be slaughtered would be happy.”
Really? – I know my animals are happy and free range right up to the point I have them slaughtered.
They are all happy and out in the fields like any other day – then nothing. Easy as anything.
You seem to have a good rapport with your future meals, but how do you know they’re happy? Feel it in your bones?
I was happy today, much like any other day – then nothing?
That’s the way to go – easy as, one day at a time, and best not to overthink it.
If you cannot tell is an animal is well cared for and happy – then you probably should not have animals.
So it’s an innate thing, something you and some others can ‘feel’, but not put into words? Maybe you can put yourself in their hooves/trotters?
Cats purr when they’re content, and sometimes when they’re in pain, sick and/or about to die.
BTW, Jacinda’s having a great time on ‘The Project’ tonight. Cat’s got the cream.
Yeah – Im guessing animals are not for you. esp cats from the sound of it.
Your guess is dead wrong, James, at least on this occasion.
Which is surprising for someone with so much innate empathy. Did you ever consider training as a vet?
Weka, much like human animals, having a good life and being happy are not completely corelated. Animals are not machines; their behavioural responses are not completely predictable. esp. as they age.
“Weka, much like human animals, having a good life and being happy are not completely corelated. Animals are not machines; their behavioural responses are not completely predictable. esp. as they age.”
That’s self-evident and teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, but not sure what your point is exactly.
I’ll second what james said. If you can’t tell whether an animal is happy or not, whether it’s got a good life or not, then best not to have them.
I can tell the difference between my cat purring from pleasure and purring from stress. It’s not a feeling in my bones (although I’m sure intuition is part of it). It’s observation, interaction and sensitivity. Same with other animals I have been around.
Having said that, there are plenty of people who think animals are ok but the people are pretty clueless. I’ve seen people argue that fish aren’t distressed when hooked and pulled up onto a beach. That’s just daft. Not hard to see how that kind of justification can be applied to other animals being killed for food, but also pets.
And it is known animals know they are about to be slaughtered and get highly stressed.
Does James send his cows to a slaughter house? If so , that is very cruel.
No – I have them killed out the back.
Yep when I was life styling that was what we did too, and so much better. I have been reading about Carbon sequestration in soils recently and the importance of livestock in the process. The important thing to do is to ensure that grasses and all vegetation for that matter is allowed to develop and develop a good root system because it is there that the soil organisms develop and fix carbon. Grazing to severely and cutting back too much causes the plant to die back and then have to start all over again – and this actually releases carbon.
A good overview of the topic by the FAO is here:
http://www.fao.org/soils-portal/soil-management/soil-carbon-sequestration/en/
and how improved grazing management increases carbon sequestration.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4490272/
Extensive cropping for grains actually depletes soil carbon.
I agree Ed, or at least, some animals get stressed depending on the situation. There is a difference between home kill and sending animals to the abattoir.
All things die at some point, the ethics for me are in how we do that to the extent we have a choice.
James’ animals wouldn’t have been born at all if he wasn’t intending to eat them.
So, by that reasoning, it’s OK to farm people for organs? And people bred to be slaves should be happy that they got a chance at life? After all, they wouldn’t have been born if we didn’t intend to use them…
The fact is, we don’t need to kill animals for food. Maybe our ancestors did, but we don’t. People who continue to eat animals are making a choice. Personally, I choose not to eat animals and not to contribute to suffering and killing (eg the slaughter of bobby claves) through eating animal products.
That choice was originally based solely on the issue of animal rights. Over the years, I’ve learned more about the environmental consequences of farming animals, and that’s reinforced my decision.
“So, by that reasoning, it’s OK to farm people for organs? And people bred to be slaves should be happy that they got a chance at life? After all, they wouldn’t have been born if we didn’t intend to use them…”
Only if you think slavery is ok, which I obviously don’t.
“The fact is, we don’t need to kill animals for food.”
Depends on whether you are arguing biology, ecology, or animal welfare. Very hard for humans to reproduce over time on a vegan diet (that’s why there are no vegan cultures). Once you get past the first few generations shit goes down hill (lots of people give up during the first generation).
One of course could argue that humans should give up their ability to reproduce so freely. I’d be happy to have that conversation.
I choose to eat animal products for health reasons (no, don’t at me about nutrition, I am very well informed and experienced), but my original shift from being a long term vegetarian with limited dairy to eating meat was because I was reading about Peak Oil and could see that eating a diet composed of so much imported food left me at risk should we have to transition fast to a post-PO state.
That led me to looking at ethical eating more broadly than the rights of individual animals, and to ecosystem rights and the rights of nature. Vegetarians who rely on big ag do just as much damage to the planet as those who eat meat. I choose as much as I can to eat local and ethical in terms of the whole environment, with attention paid to animal welfare.
The rabbit I eat that a friend shoots is exponentially more ethical environmentally than the vegan eating monsanto grown soy that’s been industrially processed and shipped across the globe. I get good protein and I help keep the rabbits in check that are decimating the environment and my friend gets a trade (good nutrition, environmental protection and local economy with very small carbon emissions). She’s a pretty good shot, so there is limited suffering for the rabbits (they don’t even know they’re about to die).
I also practice an inclusive philosophy, so I am good with people who are omnivores, vegetarian, vegan, whatever, so long as (a) they’re not politically fundamentalist with it, and (b) they don’t misrepresent evidence around climate change and the environment (Paul regularly does both).
Love the point about your Rabbit.
I suspect my locally reared, sourced, butchered and sold meat has less of a carbon footprint than imported soy, rice and mung beans.
Regardless of the daily propaganda, being green and an omnivore are not an anathema.
It’s one of my sore points that people of conscience are choosing veganism over eating local. It’s not what we eat, but how we eat that matters in environmental terms. So yep, your local meat does far better than imported soy, providing you are not eating shitloads, and the meat is being killed locally too. Unfortunately in NZ so much local meat is sourced from animals that have been transported and then the meat transported again. The solution too that is to have local slaughtering but that needs enough people wanting it and choosing veganism takes us further from local food not closer.
Also good is if the animals are raised as part of regenag farming, and again we need local people demanding that, not vegans ignoring that and letting farmers do what they have to to survive (i.e. industrial farming). Biggest thing we could do in NZ to help restore farmland and the flow on effects is help farmers develop alternative models of selling than what they generally are locked into now.
“James’ animals wouldn’t have been born at all if he wasn’t intending to eat them.”
That’s incorrect- they were already born when I purchased them. I don’t breed.
If people weren’t buying them (i.e. we were all vegan), then they would never be bred.
I get that and agree.
No you don’t know that jimbo. In the unlikely event that you’re a lot less callous than you seem, you hope they aren’t. A bit.
Gabs
I do know – my animals are very well cared for – and there is little else that could be done to make them happier. Lots of grass, water, shade in all paddocks.
I run less units of stock than I could to ensure that they have room and food.
and I can afford a vet when there is a problem.
I’m curious how you do the slaughter too. Is it home kill?
Yes – Homekill. We keep animals that we eat.
With the sheep – I used to just slit their throats, and that was OK, albeit messy.
We now do them the same as the cows, which we have always used homekill professionals – a quick shot to the head and its all over.
We leave the animals in their fields until about a week before “d-day” – them I move them to a smaller field that has lots of trees around it, basically allowing the animal to relax and be comfortable in its new surroundings. The small field has an open ‘kill run’ which after a week I move the animal into the kill run – which they are happy with as they have been in and out for the last week eating.
The kill run allows the homekill guy to just walk up behind the bushes etc, reach over and BANG! – all done.
As stress free as possible – and better than any animal will get in a meat works.
the lack of Adrenalin makes the meat taste so much better – there really is a difference in quality, which is why we do it.
“the lack of Adrenalin makes the meat taste so much better – there really is a difference in quality, which is why we do it.”
As I suspected , your concern is not the welfare of the animals, but rather your own personal enjoyment.
Is there anything you do where you put the needs and concerns of others above your own selfish desires?
“And it is known animals know they are about to be slaughtered and get highly stressed.”
“As stress free as possible”
“the lack of Adrenalin makes the meat taste so much better – there really is a difference in quality, which is why we do it.”
Two cows with one stone.
+1.
It’s a win – win.
Happy cow. Happy James. Wailing Ed.
Dead cow.
Happy James.
Yep. Especially when bbqing said cow with friends and family.
Is there anything you do where you put the needs and concerns of others above your own selfish desires?
If you really want to moralise about other people’s diets resulting in the deaths of animals, you should ensure that your own doesn’t involve that. The only way to do that is to stop eating. Good luck with it, I wish you well.
Thanks for the explanation James. Sounds pretty good.
How are your cows slaughtered?
Shotgun ?
.44 Magnum ?
A .30-30 Rifle ?
https://www.wikihow.com/Slaughter-Cattle
I read them your post and they just lose the will to live.
lolz
You are hilarious
Thank you.
“I read them your post and they just lose the will to live.”
Your animals understand and respond intelligently to complex human language and still you cut their throats?
Monster!
Murderer!
Captive bolt.
Thanks Ed, I agree with a lot of what you post, and you keep the place ticking over too. Ignore the naysayers.
Thank you.
Some days it’s hard to believe this is a progressive blogsite, given the number of closed minded individuals who are not open to new thinking.
Funny how this “new thinking” of which you speak has been familiar to me since the 1980s.
You must be a prophet or a visionary!
Nope, just paying attention. For example…
Are you saying all progressives don’t eat meat, and they can’t be one if they do?
Or all progressives are closed minded if they reject your daily anti meat propaganda posts?
I don’t get it either Ed. I would have hoped more here would be more ready to consider changing from eating animals killed by industrialised farming. But it seems not.
That doesn’t follow: James, for example, doesn’t eat animals killed by industrialised farming, whereas I only eat weasels.
😆
New Zealand.
For sale.
Canterbury farm sold for $17m to Canadian government approved by Overseas Investment Office
New boss, same as the old boss.
You’d have to be feeling a bit stiffed if you voted Labour or NZ First, no wonder people have no faith in politics.
Labour have been reasonably clear that they weren’t going to do much about rural land sales other than tighten up the OIO process a bit. However,
“OIO approval was given in November for the purchase in the latest round of decisions for overseas investment of sensitive New Zealand land.”
so Labour barely had its feet under the table at that point. That sale process would have been going on for months, not a lot Labour could do about that. I’ll be more interested in what happens over this coming year.
I’m in support of most of your barrows Ed.
But geeze, I think you’d be tough company. There is little joy in anything you have to say. It’s got a ‘Boy who cried Wolf’ thing festering.
I fear you throw your curtains open every morning and see a wretched bankrupt landscape.
Yeah there are crappy bits but we all need a taste of joy to make traversing the crappy bits worthwhile. Purveyor of Doom is not good real estate to own. It’s a position lubricated by fear.
Bring a bit of Ed joy to your posts man. We all already know we’re all gonna die.
What do you love?
I love nature.
Tramping
Philosophy
Eds one of those back whipping, hair shirting types of socialists.
He’s only happy when he’s miserable.
Actually a happy positive person…
And proud to be a socialist.
Ed’s socialist Paradise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_in_Venezuela_(2012%E2%80%93present)
james, telling more lies to make himself feel better. Why do the people of Venezuela keep voting in a socialist government if its so shit? Odd that.
And who can not forget that the exit polls in Venezuela match the polls – unlike some recent elections.
Edit: your link is just propaganda james, but hey, whats new.
Anyone who doesn’t believe there is a crisis in Venezuela is an idiot denyer.
No crisis in Nicolás Maduro’s kitchen.
Funny how you always side with the right wing trolls.
Just an observation.
That’s just not truthful from you. I’m very much left wing, and proud of it. I even vote for anti tory government left parties in general elections and everything. lol.
I doubt I’ve ever really sided with right wing trolls based on policy and ideology, but of course it’s a statistical anomaly that once in a while the same conclusion can be reached from different ends of the spectrum.
Funny how you always resort to lies, slurs and other insults when you get angry.
Just an accurate observation.
lol
prize for second goes too….
Whereas anyone who pretends Ed rates Venezuela over say, Finland, is a lying troll.
I don’t believe that’s true BM, as above. But you feeling that way was what I was getting at.
The way to win my heart Ed is tell me of the close to extinction bird you saw while out tramping. Describe what you saw and how you felt.
Then drop the link for the work people are doing to assist the specie’ survival.
I’ll click.
The world needs more Eds in my opinion.
It comes over as negative because his morals are being confronted every day and he is a seeker of truth not bullshit.
The fact that you’re attacking him shows Ed has already won.
Ed’s enthusiasm doesn’t come across as negative – it comes across as the zealotry of a relatively recent convert.
Short term thinking that leads to all the forests and farms owned by overseas corporations, employing cheap foreign labour, and paying no tax.
The New Zealand economy is not based on actual production any more. It’s based on farming for Capital Gains.
I doubt you’d find any period in New Zealand’s history where the farming was totally based on production. Even primarily based on production. It’s always required some element of capital gain for the business model to stack up, some times a lot more than others.
From the Daily Blog
A very effective message and image, don’t you think
So for 38 minutes the people of Hawaii knew what it felt like to live in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen & other places US + allies bomb
Apologies Joseph my last post about the Gramercy Norton show I sort of made it about me but It all about you and your team getting to where you are and to winning. Kia kaha
Have just discovered a new independent source of news.
May be worth a try when looking for non partisan sources for world events.
https://www.newsbud.com/
Sibel Edmonds is the founder and editor-in-chief of NewsBud,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds
We’re toast if it’s 3 degrees.
Will post in more detail tomorrow.
Herald.
“So how hopeful are you, actually, that the world will avert the worst possible effects of climate change? Where do you place your optimism on a scale of one to 10?”
Professor James Renwick
“I am hopeful we can avoid the real worst-case scenario but I am pessimistic about the 1.5C or even 2C limit.
My gut feeling is that we won’t stop the warming until we are committed to 2.5C or even 3C of temperature rise.
That would lock in loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet, plus most of Greenland and part of the east Antarctic and would commit the globe to 10m or more of sea level rise.
Plus of course a big rise in extreme high temperatures, droughts, floods and crop failures.
Because of the delay time built into the climate system, it’s my feeling that we won’t take decisive action until a lot of change is baked in, so we’ll have a great deal of adapting to do.
On a scale of one to 10 for optimism, I’m about a three.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11962099
The implications of 3° are old news.
The same can be said for reality-based pessimism.
I hazard a wild guess that you will propose plant based diets and eliminating fossil fuels as solutions to these problems.
So what your solutions One Anonymous Bloke? Because as far as I can see, there are no longer any political solutions. The only option left is direct action.
That being so, revisiting the science is a little redundant, no?
So your solution is?
Edit: Because you link is a classical example of ” standing to close the elephant”, and what factional liberalism in action looks like. Can’t see any solution in there.
And as I said, I don’t think there are any political solutions.
When someone (eg: me, just now) says “that being so”, it means that they agree with whatever came immediately prior, which in this case is your remark that the only option left is direct action.
Lots of direct action is already taking place, from Ed’s recent conversion to a plant-based diet, to NYC’s recent decision to divest from fossil fuels, and also include monkeywrenching and cycling instead of taking the car.
I still think the weather is just going to smash things until the problem is moot though.
Well, the NYC thing is a political action. Europe and China are moving ahead at the nation level, and many of the sane bits of the states are ignoring Trump.
Trouble is, historically political action on any crisis usually came to late to completely mitigate the effects of that crisis. So we’ll have decades of extreme weather events and sea level rise, if not centuries. It won’t be as bad as if no action were taken, but it won’t be without harm (we’re already seeing it, frankly, for at least the last ten years).
Nothing will save us, and globally it might get up to black death / khmer rouge proportions. But not much worse. Veganism or not.
So your happy to wait then? Enjoy you life style, drive your car and bask in the slow decline?
Is it to much to ask for you to actually do somthing?
You agree that politics is way behind the eightball on this issue, so the thing to do is direct action, no?
“Direct action” by ordinary individuals won’t do shit now. Maybe 40 years ago.
The reason I don’t have a car has nothing at all to do with carbon footprints. It’s because there was a better, cheaper substitute for my needs. And I actually do think about my purchases beyond immediate gratification.
People indoctrinated into consumerism are not going to reduce their lifestyle voluntarily, and any government that tries to make them do it is going to lose votes on a massive scale. But the AGW mitigation requires both groups to act. So the problem becomes reconciling that conflict between lifestyle preservation for the complacent middle class and elimination of carbon use.
Which revolves around technologies for energy production, storage, and use. Sort that out and the V8 or even the bunker-fuel-powered container carrier will go the way of the horse and cart. The coal-fired power plant is already on its way out.
Doesn’t work, does it?
‘Iceland’s ‘pots and pans revolution’: Lessons from a nation that people power helped to emerge from its 2008 crisis all the stronger’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/icelands-pots-and-pans-revolution-lessons-from-a-nation-that-people-power-helped-to-emerge-from-its-10351095.html
I don’t think individual direct action is very useful generally. Collective action like the anti-war and pro-refugee stuff that has been happening in Britain has been good. Becomes more real when more people are involved.
I agree any government which cuts into peoples consumerism is going to fall, and fall quickly.
That said, one thing they could do, is a substantial cut in taxes for individuals who have never owned a car.
Iceland is a fucking tiny nation, and the discussion was about AGW.
There are many things that governments can do, but just shouting out ideas without consideration of the competing interests that would ensure such a government lost votes is not going to achieve policy change.
Tax breaks for people who have never owned a car will piss off the car industry and anyone who ever owned a car. Remember the beat-up about lightbulbs? Imagine everyone who’d ever used an incandescant bulb being told they were paying extra even if they switch.
Tax levies according to fuel use, on the other hand, might be achievable. But the really achievable policy might be making emissions tests progressively more restrictive, phasing out any carbon compound emissions by the same time as the EU bans.
The only people you piss off are the fuel sellers and the car manufacturers who were too slow off the alternative fuel mark – and they’re bad enough political enemies to have.
You missed the subtally of my point, a reduction in tax for people who never owned a car. Not an increase of tax for others, a reduction.
And you missed that merely changing to lightbulbs that would save people money caused a fucking nightmare of bullshit.
Crosby Textor would spontaneously orgasm at the thought of your proposal.
Luxury cars make up 65% of automakers profits and super cars make 35% of profits so production car owners are pretty much getting a free ride.
So this meme that says the 1% own 50% of the wealth and 50% of the income, all it means is the rest have zero say in how there surplus is distributed. And that’s a consequence of marginalising unions. Workers just have no power any more. They’re a modern day Luddite.
“And you missed that merely changing to lightbulbs that would save people money caused a fucking nightmare of bullshit.”
You’re wasting your time. He’s a dreamer, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, after all, most of us here spent 9 years dreaming of the day our votes changed the national government, this one’s a bit ‘épais comme deux planches courtes’.
The point was also made below that if cc is to be seriously and rapidly addressed, then having 40 green mps leading a government, for example, will effect more change than anarchic direct action, as the will of the people at the ballot box gives the mandate to act.
Yes, we can make personal decisions to use led bulbs, reduce consumption and waste, limit the use of fossil fuels, like a lot of us already do, and have for many years, but there’s no way, other than through mandated political policy, that 99% of voting kiwis will accept a rapid change in direction, therefore I conclude, the answer is to win hearts and minds to achieve cc goals before planning our adventures on fury road.
“And as I said, I don’t think there are any political solutions.”
Of course there are political solutions. If people voted green led governments instead of holding on to student dreams of changing the system, then the world would be a much better place.
Voting for a mp electorate candidate and completely ignoring the party vote, won’t do shit. If there were 40 green mps in our coalition, then maybe, yeah.
It’s hypocritical, and armchair easy, to spout the odds on climate change when you don’t take measures at elections to vote the right people in.
Try looking at the solution on offer, rather than your attempt to limit the debate again.
Do you even understand what socialism is? Because you seem confused on that, political economy? The role of outlying actors? Anything apart from this fantasy of 40 green MP’s?
Limiting the debate by expanding wider than your very short sighted, closed off ‘no political solutions’ rhetoric, and offering a common sense rebuttal that to get green policies which will seriously address CC expediently, you’ll need green led governments and the only way to get them is to vote accordingly.
Ah McCain, you’ve done it again 🙄
Sheesh learn some other ways at looking at the world.
Ever heard of intersectionality?
Here some reading for you, she one of the smartest people ever to live, may just open your mind.
So while you’re waiting for this anarchic direct action to provide you with a utopia to call your own, you’ll spend your time on the internet lecturing me about other ways of looking at the world. lol
Mate, you’re a blow hard with what appears to be sod all to blow hard about.
Keep dreaming and if us greens don’t manage to get it fixed, you’ll still have your mad max fantasy down the track.
Plank 🙄
I see you didn’t read it then, should have guessed. Is it becasue your to lazy? Or that you’re a smug tosser?
My guess, the later.
Definitely a bit of both, probably in equal amounts lol
Anarchist library. You might as well just have posted a link to student Rik on the young ones.
Try and ignore me now, if you can, ’cause I’m pretty contemptuous of engaging further with a slogan repeating caricature and stereotype, but please promise to write a long post when your direct action gets you further than insults on the internet.
You couldn’t even jump on board the cross party change the government movement last year. Solidarity, yeah, nah. Selfish ‘look at meism’ in action. I’m not hopeful for your success, but I’ll wait. 😉
What is up with laughing at your own jokes, it’s a bit sad you know.
That said, do you hate women, is that why you won’t read Voltairine?
Or you don’t read people smarter than you?
Your shot about the young ones is rather 1980’s isn’t, and in poor taste seeing as the actor who played rick is dead. But then again, you like your other rwnj mates, have no moral compass.
Hates women, cleverphobic, rwnj and insults the memory of the dead. Anything else, Chips?
I voted green at the election, you didn’t. You lack of authority in questioning my credentials about cc or being left wing just adds to the laugh factor when reading your student times, burn it all down, grrr I’m dissected 101 philosophy.
Call me out when you vote against climate change avoiding tory governments, or got involved in the greens, or when you’ve changed that system of yours. When all 99% of labour, nat, green, nz1st neo liberal voters cast of the shackles of oppression and follow you to the land of milk and honey.
Until then, dream on, kid. 🙄
You may have voted green, but you act and think like a tory.
You have been repeated asked by me what else you do, apart from vote, and failed to respond with anything.
All you are is a one trick pony of abuse who gets all upset when people call them on their narrow world view. I’d say grow up, but I’m guessing with your last attempt at an insult, that would not help.
By the way, your analogies are at best dull, at worst like you 40% green vote, utter buffoonery.
OAB is relentlessly negative.
Always grumpy- always dismissive of solutions – always knows more than the rest of us.
What do you think of my thesis that sloppily presented tautologies ‘comfort the enemy’?
Edit: “knowledge is not wisdom”, “ignorance is a condition we all share”.
The sandflys are that desperate that they us that they used that ass hole who abuse my wife for 9 years as bait. These idiots don’t know who they are playing with. I have all ready kicked his when I first found out he pulled a gun through I would run fuck no he put it away and tried to lie to me about the whole situation. In court he tried to say that it was my wife fault WTF he’s European and thats why it took 15 years before they took action against this parrsite because my wife Maori and he’s European like them. He had a family before my wife mothers one and he abuse those kids to his father hung himself because he got caught doing that to someone not sure who and You expect me to feel sorry for them. What about all the people in jail under bullshit charges mostly Maori. Ana to kai
Rugged mate. Hope the family is OK