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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Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...
It looks like the government has won over the public on its vehicle feebate scheme:A feebate scheme that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from buyers of higher-emission cars into the pockets of people buying EVs and other more fuel-efficient vehicles has been winning favour with submitters, the Government ...
When people suggest lowering the voting age, others argue that the young are too uneducated or silly to exercise the duties of citizenship. Australian John Quiggin has just blown that argument out of the water:Looking at the array of ignorant and vindictive old men attacking Greta Thunberg and other young ...
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on August 19 that her government is likely to impose new restrictions on prisoners’ rights to send letters. She said the law could be changed in “weeks.” ...
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...
Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
Negotiations between Port Otago workers represented by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and management failed today and the unions have issued notice of an overtime ban from Saturday 7th September. ...
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sean Docking, Post-doctoral researcher, La Trobe University Basketball fans around the world were recently sickened by the footage of NBA star Kevin Durant’s Achilles tendon rupturing during a game. But while many think it’s only elite athletes who suffer from Achilles tendon ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University The possibility of blackouts affecting half of Victoria has attracted plenty of attention to a document once read only by industry insiders and policy wonks: the Electricity Statement of Opportunities. The Statement, updated ...
George Clooney sold his tequila company for a billion dollars – but is the stuff any good? The Spinoff finds out. Imagine being so stupidly sexy you sneeze and sell a billion-dollar booze company. That’s what George Clooney did last year, flicking off the tequila business he started accidentally with an ...
The departure of "two Pākehā men" from the government's justice reform group will not hurt the quality of its final report, another member of the team says. ...
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...
Current leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]Michelle Grattan talks about the sad news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer with University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini. They also discuss Scott Morrison’s recent announcement about joining ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...
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 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...
A new poem by Oamaru-born poet Nick Ascroft.SupermanHalfway up the ascent zigzagging from Royal Terrace to upper Stuart Street carrying four too-heavy grocery bags I begin to understand that I will not make it. My huffing personage – from the fingers, white with the strain, to a face the colour of rhubarb – will ooze into the pavement and roll slowly ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.Sound the alarm, because it’s time for another absolute chaos pod. We’re talking haunted dolls in Waipu, we’re talking giant hands taking over Wellington, we’re talking soft serve cones dipped in powdered Milo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Press, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania This week, the ABC revealed that the Australian Defence Force wants to roll out military technology in Antarctica. The article raises the issue of what is, or is not, ...
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...
The lanky sidekick from Jono and Ben journeys around New Zealand trying to solve small town problems. Does he succeed?Guy Williams, hardly a shy, retiring type, has been screaming out for his own vehicle for years. A loud, lanky, fearless comic, he’s spent nearly a decade in MediaWorks purgatory, sat ...
Ballot Box.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The nature of New Zealand general election campaigns could be significantly changed with the proposed establishment of an “umpire” to adjudicate over political party manifesto policies. A suggestion has been put forward by the Government for the establishment of a parliamentary watchdog ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Ihumātao Delphine Herbert and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Tainui to buy Ihumātao land – sources Danielle ...
Extinction Rebellion takes a tour of downtown Wellington to point out the coal industry stalwarts and ask why they’re still there in the face of a climate emergency. “There are coal companies in Wellington??”That’s the incredulous response every single time we mention taking the public on a tour of the biggest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel A. Ankeny, Professor of History and Philosophy, and Deputy Dean Research (Faculty of Arts), University of Adelaide The South Australian government recently announced its intention to lift the long-standing statewide moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops, following a statutory six-week consultation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Law, UNSW Being strip searched by the police can be intrusive, humiliating and harmful. Typically, strip searches involve being required to strip naked in front of police officers, who often give the direction to “squat and cough”, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Remond, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Hi, I was just wondering if something’s wrong with me because I’m never happy and never want to do anything and I’m getting really lazy and I really hate school. Thanks – Anonymous ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland’s IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland From as early as Grade 3 teachers start teaching children how to put across their own points of view. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW It’s four years since then Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned Australia had been heading to “a Greek-style economic future”. He was referring to what he said had been happening under the previous Labor government. When Labor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samia Khatun, Senior Lecturer, SOAS, University of London Some 1,000 kilometres inland from Sydney, over the Blue Mountains, past the trees that drink the tributaries of the Darling River, there stands a little, red mosque. It marks where the desert begins. The ...
Online gambling is growing fast in New Zealand, but critics say new government ideas for regulating websites focus on what's good for the industry, rather than protecting people from harm. ...
An "extreme pro-Beijing" writer has caused controversy in the Chinese community and awkwardness for the Labour Party by standing for political office in Auckland. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Concern about slow progress for major transport projects, smoking researcher under pressure over funding, and hikoi marches from Ihumātao to Ardern’s office.NZTA is struggling to get spending out the door, so the money isn’t flowing through the economy, reports Thomas Coughlan ...
Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard will look at whether people making submissions on proposed law changes should be forced to disclose conflicts of interest. ...
Rugby and league legend Honey Hireme has put all her careers on hold - including her Warriors debut - to take care of her mum, who has terminal cancer. ...
In the ongoing battle to prevent 480 houses being built on ancestral land, a petition with more than 26,000 signatures was delivered to the Prime Minister’s Mt Albert office yesterday. Leonie Hayden was there.Lead by the inimitable Pania Newton, about 100 kaitiaki set off from Ihumātao near Māngere yesterday morning ...
Every scholarship exam and approximately every two external assessments are wrapped in their own single-use plastic bag. We’re asking the NZQA to cut it out, writes year-13 student Sophia HoneyEvery year after an exam, I see the same conversation happen. Friends turn to each other, talk about how difficult that ...
Open Mike 15/01/2018 
Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...50 mins ago
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...2 hours ago
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...7 hours ago
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Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...9 hours ago
Spark is bracing for a customer backlash as rugby fans all across the country struggle to get a picture on their wireless router. With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, an elderly Taranaki couple are furious after being told that they still won’t be able to watch the tournament, even ...22 hours ago
Several explosions have been reported across Auckland, as well-meaning environmentalists have already begun purchasing too much petrol Starting from next week, customers will no longer need a car to purchase petrol directly from the pump, a development that two major fuel providers are billing as an opportunity to help fight ...23 hours ago
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 1 day ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...2 days ago
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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.
/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.
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-direct-action.pdf
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