Outgoing Labour MP Louisa Wall fired another broadside at the Labour Party in her valedictory speech to Parliament:
Wall also laid out her side of the story of what drove her to leave Parliament – a decision that, in Wall's telling, was not made of her own accord. Wall said she was "forced out" of her Manurewa electorate before the last election, "by the unconstitutional actions of the Party President, Claire Szabó, and some members of the Council [Labour's governing body)". Wall said the process leading to her ouster was "corrupt".
"The President accepted a late nomination [for the current Labour MP in the seat, Arena Williams], did not share the fact of its late receipt with the Council until questions were asked and then retrospectively tried to justify and legitimise her actions," Wall said.
Wall said the "devastation" was not just against herself, but "about the devastation wrought on my Manurewa Labour Electorate Committee when their voting rights were removed to ensure that a central party vote would prevail".
Szabó soon issued a statement, saying: "The processes of the Manurewa selection in 2020 were in accordance with the Labour Party constitution."
So the Labour Party constitution allows Party controllers outside the electorate to subvert the democratic process of their electorate committees. If we believe the Labour president is telling the truth, that is.
The intent of the Labour control system seems to be defeat of the locals when the locals choose someone the controllers don't like. Such closet stalinism seems a tad un-Aotearoan, but if the party rules do actually implement stalinist intent, we can't complain. I think Wall complains about it because she believes Labour ought to be democratic instead. I'd be surprised if she was alone in being that naive.
NZ Labour has long had many contradictions as per all the “cross class” Parliamentary parties. Labour rules allowed Jacinda Ardern to assume the leadership in 2017 without contest because of the proximity to a General Election.
The “Parliamentary Wing” has long dominated the ordinary members and LECs of the NZ Labour Party.
But Dennis, I question your barely disguised glee in sticking it to NZ Labour, I critique them out of years of history, and I still have a number of friends in NZ Labour, and a class left analysis rather than right opportunism.
Dunno if I really feel all that gleeful about it. I'd be quite happy to be proven wrong in my analysis. The way a Labour member could do that is to quote the relevant specific clauses from the Labour Constitution here. If they are able to prove the thing is actually democratic, I mean.
I predict that won't happen. The PM was adamant in refusing to confirm that Wall was correct in stating what the PM told her. Aversion to the truth is extremely deep-rooted in Labour political culture. That's why the commenters here who didn't like Wall telling the truth resorted to character-assassination. Evasion, the leftist way.
He will be shocked when he realises how few references to Stalin and Stalinist doctrine he’ll find in the document when he reads it. He might even be a tad disappointed. Hopefully, the NZH will soon do another (…) piece on NZLP and/or the PM and all will be well again.
Why don’t you just say that you’re not up to challenge of doing a simple search and checking? Does everything need to be spelled out to you in the NZH?
I’m so grateful for the NZH doing all the digging (in) and uncovering the cover-ups of closet Stalinism in NZLP. We’ve always known that NZLP Caucus has mandatory Kozak dance costumes in their closets in the Beehive, which they wear every Friday for drinks and the comradery of backslapping and having a good laugh at the expense of Proletariat. There’s not enough dirt in Wellington for all those cover-ups, so the best tactic is to make it appear part of the legitimate Party process of spring-cleaning and hanging out of the dirty laundry in the sunshine. Got it?
I've not seen any report that Wall was the only candidate but if so, I don't see on what basis they rejected her. She was the sitting MP, for god's sake. Seems bizarre. Or are you suggesting that nobody in the committee nominated her & the sole nominee was the current electorate MP? If the latter, I'd be inclined to agree that she must have lost local support to not get nominated Occam's razor…
Between the two articles, it does seem Wall lacked electorate support and support from the party hierarchy. That does not bode well for political longevity.
Most of the intellectual challenges I had were in my classes. Some, alas, were irrecoverable. I had to retire to dodge them. Then I discovered The Standard….
Dennis-Maybe in your posts you should compare Labour's candidate selection process with the complete and utter shambles that is National's candidate selection process (scandal after scandal) just to give some context?
I haven't actually heard of National's hierarchy intervening in local candidate selections. That could be due to successful cover-ups – or they don't. Either way, nobody can comment on political happenings that don't get reported unless they have inside knowledge or a tip-off. If some such gets into the media I'll be happy to have a go at it…
National claim to have a more democratic system than Labour but imo that is not true.
Their membership by and large is more docile than Labour's. They meekly tow the party line whatever it may be. When selecting candidates, word from above seeps quietly down the line and ordinary members soon get the message who they are to vote for. Hence less electorate battles. Its not cut and dried of course, but Labour members are more bolshie by nature 😉 so disagreements tend to be thrashed out in the public eye.
The same goes where policy decisions are concerned. Labour conducts most of its policy battles in the public eye for all to see. National does it behind closed doors and their members accept them with little to no in-put into them.
I know which I consider to be the more democratic in practice and that is Labour, where the debates are out there for everyone to see – warts and all.
Louis, LP rules are that caucus selects ministers and the PM allocates portfolios.
A National PM both selects and allocates.
I know of one National woman MP who was told by her leader she'd never make cabinet so she quit after six years. Her male replacement lasted nine years before losing his candidacy whilst still an MP to a challenger who has been there for nearly nine years. And achieved nothing.
Local word is that his supporters now regret supporting his challenge to the previous incumbent, known as the 'roi faléant", who was by my reckoning a decent man- did nothing and was just shut out of the loop.
Either way, nobody can comment on political happenings that don't get reported unless they have inside knowledge or a tip-off.
You reckon? I despair at the naïve nonsense you put out here. I’ll be happy if you don’t make a go of it because your closet Stalinism sensor seems off.
Interesting though what you find in there….. in earlier years in the Labour closet there were relics of ACTs best not spoken about, United party of one, Future now in the past, New Labour no longer so, Māori party which has not yet hung up its hat, NZFirst which didn't last, the Alliance that split, the Progressives that halted, the Pacific party that caused no waves.
They were all in the closet- but nary a Stalinist, a Leninist, a Trotskyist.
But what would you find across the hall in National's closet? Maoists, more quick ACTers, Il-Liberals, Conservatives that couldn’t bottle it, decidedly un-Christian Democrats, more dis-United now in parts, and Independent Advance NZ gone to the rear.
Labour's hierarchy didn't intervene in the local candidate selections.
"As for Wall being moved on from her Manurewa seat at the election, Ardern said it was a decision for the local Labour team – not her. "Ultimately, these are decisions that are actually made by local membership, not by me as party leader. At a local level, our members determine who will locally represent them."
We won't know the truth unless details of the vote are reported by someone who was at the selection meeting to the news media. All the evidenceless assertions coming from Mike Williams, others, and you, are never gonna change that…
Exactly, and spreading one or two too, with some pseudo-analysis and quasi-commentary soaked in strong personal beliefs, which is almost completely devoid of self-awareness and self-reflection. In other words, not too dissimilar to the likes of Mike Hosking.
What is not going to change is your attitude and agenda. You have your typical "won't know the truth unless details are reported" as the back-up defence for insinuations and implications. It's a guilt by suggestion position, a claim, as wild as is wanted, and a "prove I'm not wrong."
Do you go round claiming your neighbours are fraudsters, paedophiles or Nazi sympathisers and they can't say they're not until they prove they're not by furnishing details?
(If you're so concerned about the details in Labour Electorate Committees and their operation and decision-making and want to have some impact on how they do things, maybe you could sign up.)
Labour can do their selection as they want – it's their organisation. The same as our local hockey club and bowling club run their internal affairs including selections. If I want a say in how they do their I should join. Otherwise I should f… off, it is their business.
Yep, that's an authentic example. My comment would be the dude got caught out trying it on, but doesn't necessarily mean it's endemic. Could be though. Makes sense they'd do it as part of the culture (rather than via rules). The fact that they kept him on as a regional head after forcing him off their board seems indicative. 🙄
I didn't say she does. I was merely pointing out the own-goal syndrome operating within Labour that will further corrode poll support for it.
The thing hinges on whether the candidate selection process was fair or not. Democracy, and our trust in the system, depends on fair play, right? So Labour ought not to do stuff that works contrary to that. The PM ought not to exhibit flawed leadership on the issue.
There are some things we really don't want to know. We will leave the date and time of that particular event to you. Please don't bring the subject up again.
We really don't need to know all the things you appear to be cognizant of.
Wall also laid out her side of the story of what drove her to leave Parliament – a decision that, in Wall's telling, was not made of her own accord. Wall said she was "forced out" of her Manurewa electorate before the last election, "by the unconstitutional actions of the Party President, Claire Szabó, and some members of the Council [Labour's governing body)". Wall said the process leading to her ouster was "corrupt".
That paragraph from the Herald article does not align with what I heard at the time. Granted it was only a broad brush out-line, but I was told Loiusa was a bully and she had alienated many of her local members. It must have become a serious matter for those members to take the step of requesting a new candidate.
I'm not saying that Louisa Wall does not have a genuine axe to grind over the way the matter was handled (I don't know those details) but my impression is she is over-egging what happened. We have not heard the other side of the story and I doubt we will because it is likely to turn into a she said/he said or she said/shesaid stoush as the case may be, which Labour would want to avoid at all cost.
Don't agree. Cunliffe supporters – including parliamentarians and high level members – have not been undermined or sent on their way. Some chose to go but that was their decision. I supported Cunliffe. It didn't affect my relationship with Labour.
I may need to be corrected here, but didn't Nanaia Mahuta support Cunliffe?
Yes, I did too Patricia. Having met both Nanaia and Andrew and listened to them speak, I was very impressed. I also liked David Shearer. Its just I didn't think he was politically strong enough for the leadership. I think he came to the same conclusion himself.
Covert subversion of the democratic process got described as closet stalinism in the old days. Only by those capable of detecting it, of course! Genuine kiwi males call a spade a spade. Doncha know?
No, the idea that Labour party members are dogs never crossed my mind. I've always seen them as inherently capable of adhering to the truth. A shame their party culture seems to get in between the two but that's not my problem. I wish them all the best in whatever rule-improvement process they embark on to prevent a recurrence of the shambles…
The members & the truth. I was referring to the warping effect of culture on truth (the primary structural component of culture doing the warp is the group belief system).
You can see the same thing happening in the Green caucus nowadays, sadly. Doesn't really matter if you frame it as group narcissism or collective tunnel vision, the effect is the best thing to focus on: disconnect from the body politic (voters).
A UK think-tank hired by the Department of Internal Affairs studied New Zealand's online extremist ecosystem.
"The far-right are by far the most numerous and active group online. Over half (356,170) of our 608,335 posts and just under half of the accounts (170) identified came from them. Conspiracy theorists accounted for another 226,870 posts (from 134 accounts), and had significant overlap in audience and followers with the far-right, at least on the platforms where this was able to be analysed."
The whole report is here [https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/Countering-violent-extremism-online/$file/NZ-Online-Extremism-Findings-Report.pdf]
How it spreads, how to fight it, how it bleeds into real world harm.
In my opinion an important thinker (and mover) in this sphere of study is Daniel J. Rogers,
When we see autocratic states like Russia attacking free speech under the guise of regulating against "Fake News", and at a time when our government is formulating laws against hate speech, what Rogers has to say about getting the balance right is important.
…..I do not advocate regulating disinformation directly; so-called “anti fake news” laws passed in other countries are ripe for political exploitation to suppress free speech and antagonize dissidents, activists, and political rivals. Instead, by regulating the toxic business models underpinning our information environment, we will create a healthier ecosystem that stems the flow of disinformation, mitigates harm, and leads to a freer more productive conversation.
[ Rogers is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of The Global Disinformation Index, a non-profit focused on disrupting online disinformation, as well as an Adjunct Professor at New York University's Center for Global Affairs. He is also a Fellow of the Truman National Security Project. ]
regulating the toxic business models underpinning our information environment
Sounds good in principle. In practice, there are three requirements: a design for implementing that, a method of implementation, and the political muscle to do it.
The first two elements 'design' and 'method' for implementing it, are simply technical matters, for expert advisors.
Just as any other piece of legislation, the government have to call on technical advisors on its design and method of implementation. In my opinion the government couldn't go far past some one like Daniel Rogers for expert advice on these matters.
As regards "political muscle to do it" I would have thought the current government, the first to rule the country with a simple single majority since the introduction of MMP would have more than enough 'political muscle to do it'.
Perception of power imbalance, global corporates in relation to states. Govts in thrall to neoliberalism. Tacit acceptance of market forces in hegemony status.
Comes down to political will to regulate that mix. States would need to coordinate globally to be effective in culture-change of corporate thinking.
Currently govts file social media regulation in the too-hard basket although pressure they have put on did achieve some algorithm-tweaking by Facebook & Twitter in recent years.
Basically the design challenge is almost as big a hurdle as political will. Lack of prosecutions using hate-speech laws has proved that!
According to Tablet Magazine, some progressives are uncomfortable with the Truman Project’s pro-military stance which they describe as "Republicanism lite"
With the assistance of a privately funded rocket, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will test the feasibility of redirecting an asteroid. The mission is, in NASA’s words, “to test and validate a method to protect Earth in case of an asteroid impact threat”. NASA’s spacecraft will crash head-on into a small asteroid called Dimorphos, with the aim of altering its orbit around a larger asteroid, Didymos.
In their 1964 book Islands in Space: The Challenge of the Planetoids, astronomers Dandridge Cole and Donald Cox envisioned manoeuvring asteroids to serve as the ultimate deterrent, a “planetoid bomb”.
At the time, these plans were advanced as solutions to the threat of nuclear war, specifically to the vulnerabilities of nuclear weapons based on Earth. Cole and Cox wrote that a “captured planetoid” of between 2 kilometres and 8 kilometres in diameter would have the “impact energy equivalent to several million megatons”, would create a crater 30 to 80 kilometres in diameter, and “would destroy whole countries through Earth shock effects”. They hastened to add that such devastation would “not be anything near as bad” as a general nuclear war because there would be “no nuclear fallout carried by the winds to all parts of the Earth”.
A captured planetoid would be “the ideal deterrent system”, they said, because it could not be de-orbited in less than several hours and “would not be feared by a potential enemy as a surprise attack weapon”.
The technologies to divert an asteroid away from the Earth are essentially identical to those needed to direct objects towards the Earth. If the DART mission succeeds, humanity will have demonstrated a destructive capability vastly exceeding that of nuclear weapons.
Macho thinking still trendy eh? No, physics rules out such an effect on the sun but impact here would produce a nuclear winter (without radiation) due to magma droplets in the upper atmosphere shading sunlight, producing global crop failure.
I think the old warfare scenario of the 1960s is secondary. Current planning would be partly to upskill around impact-diversion technique plus orbit-shifting into proximity suitable for asteroid mining. Big money!!
Allowed by whom? The ETs?? Elon is inclined to boldly go where others are too timid to. Heavy metal prices could drive him forward…
surveys have detected about 8,000; therefore, NASA officials think it is imperative to develop an effective plan should a near-Earth object threaten Earth.
It might be nice to have an option if a collision looked likely.
It is generally accepted that it was a collision of this sort with an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. Along with about 75% of all the life on earth. I doubt if global warming or a nuclear winter is going to be as bad as that.
A few interesting developments in the war in Ukraine.
Firstly, the weather over there is terrible at the moment. That is important because the ground is turning to an absolute bog. I have seen reports of Russian tanks sinking up to their turrets in the stuff.
One of the reasons that the Russians have decided to focus their forces on the Donbas area is because the topography of the area is more suited to their tank style of warfare. However, spring in Ukraine is probably the worst time to conduct open warfare. It is recommended to attack in the winter when the ground is frozen, or in summer when the ground is dry and hard.
So, Russian forces are still confined largely to roads which makes them vulnerable to Ukranian attacks. Because the Ukranians are a lot more nimble, and know the territory, the lack of mobility of Russian forces is giving the Ukranians the opportunity to counter attack and disrupt while the Russian forces are confined to roads. For instance, they have just blown a bridge to Izium while a Russian convoy was crossing.
Izium was captured by the Russian a couple of weeks ago, and was considered a point of attack for the Russians. So, disrupting supplies to this area is a really good strategy.
Also, the Ukranians have been carrying out attacks on logistics within Russia. The latest endeavour was to take out a rail bridge that was an important supply line for the Russians to bring supplies and equipment to Ukraine. The Russians have not been happy about this, so are threatening to attack Ukrainian command centres. Apparently it is OK for the Russians to invade Ukraine, destroy Ukranian cities and kill civilians. But it is not OK for Ukraine to inflict a few pin pricks inside Russia. Go figure.
So interesting times ahead. The Russian flagship, Moskva, is badly damaged but still afloat. However, it is definitely out of the game, which is a big blow for the Russians. The rest of the Russian fleet has moved much further to the South, obviously fearing further attacks from Ukraine. So, the attack on the Moskva not only took out one of the important Russian naval assets, but also has restricted the capability of the remaining ships.
A big problem for the Russians with their naval assets is that Turkey is not allowing any more military ships to enter the conflict zone. So what the Russians have there now is all they can get.
Interesting times. I think the weather definitely favours the Ukranians. Not only does it allow them to pick away at Russian assets through special ops missions and the like. It also gives more time for Western heavy military assets to arrive. For instance, the US is supplying a package including artillery and helicopters at the moment.
It is going to be very difficult for Putin to meet his objective of a victory by 9th May. It will be interesting to see what their military parade will be like this year given all the assets they have lost, or have stationed in Ukraine.
It took two days for HMS Sheffield to sink but she was a burnt out wreck within hours of her Exocet hit. Moskva was a total loss before she sank, it is almost irrelevant if she sank or not. I only hope the loss of life isn't as horrendous as some early reports indicate.
Putin obviously wasn't happy about losing his ship. I don't know why he is taking it out on Ukraine though. According to Russia it was just due to a fire on board.
Yeah I thought that was peculiar too. Amazing that they would expect anyone to be taken in by such an obvious bullshit threat. Still, if a rocket takes out Zelensky in the next few days we ought to believe their restraint hitherto.
"Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families."
Yeah. Haidt wields a triad (Neptune wielded a trident):
Social scientists have identified at least three major forces that collectively bind together successful democracies: social capital (extensive social networks with high levels of trust), strong institutions, and shared stories.
Social media has weakened all three. To see how, we must understand how social media changed over time—and especially in the several years following 2009… Once social-media platforms had trained users to spend more time performing and less time connecting, the stage was set for the major transformation, which began in 2009: the intensification of viral dynamics… research showed that posts that trigger emotions––especially anger at out-groups––are the most likely to be shared.
This new game encouraged dishonesty and mob dynamics: Users were guided not just by their true preferences but by their past experiences of reward and punishment, and their prediction of how others would react to each new action. One of the engineers at Twitter who had worked on the “Retweet” button later revealed that he regretted his contribution because it had made Twitter a nastier place. As he watched Twitter mobs forming through the use of the new tool, he thought to himself, “We might have just handed a 4-year-old a loaded weapon.”
As a social psychologist who studies emotion, morality, and politics, I saw this happening too. The newly tweaked platforms were almost perfectly designed to bring out our most moralistic and least reflective selves.
All good, but does pose a profound question: why do morality issues online get adults acting like 4-year-olds? Somehow, belief-systems kick in and we get tribalism being reinvented. Social Darwinism 2.0 I guess…
Trust is the glue that produces societal cohesion:
The most recent Edelman Trust Barometer (an international measure of citizens’ trust in government, business, media, and nongovernmental organizations) showed stable and competent autocracies (China and the United Arab Emirates) at the top of the list, while contentious democracies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and South Korea scored near the bottom (albeit above Russia).
The issue is not so much a humanity problem as an unregulated tech-bro problem. The internet was the wild west (but wasn't it nice, back in the forum days) and cowboys have taken over. They've eroded trust for cash. These owners of all the data know exactly what's happening to the populace. The trending to the right is convenient for capitalists such as these.
The truth can't be restored without controlling social media. This passage from the same article explains:
"I think we can date the fall of the tower to the years between 2011 (Gurri’s focal year of “nihilistic” protests) and 2015, a year marked by the “great awokening” on the left and the ascendancy of Donald Trump on the right. Trump did not destroy the tower; he merely exploited its fall. He was the first politician to master the new dynamics of the post-Babel era, in which outrage is the key to virality, stage performance crushes competence, Twitter can overpower all the newspapers in the country, and stories cannot be shared (or at least trusted) across more than a few adjacent fragments—so truth cannot achieve widespread adherence."
“A mean tweet doesn’t kill anyone; it is an attempt to shame or punish someone publicly while broadcasting one’s own virtue, brilliance, or tribal loyalties. It’s more a dart than a bullet, causing pain but no fatalities. Even so, from 2009 to 2012, Facebook and Twitter passed out roughly 1 billion dart guns globally. We’ve been shooting one another ever since.”
"When everyone was issued a dart gun in the early 2010s, many left-leaning institutions began shooting themselves in the brain. And unfortunately, those were the brains that inform, instruct, and entertain most of the country."
And look at the power of the Tech-bro toddler. Those whom are Deified.
Musk just offered to buy Twitter outright, so he can make it private. "I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe" he reckons.
The article points out a few obvious (thus fixable) features:
Facebook's 'like' and 'share' buttons.
Twitters 'retweet' button.
Sociopathic attention seekers crawling over others to gain followings.
We should burn the fucking influencers to the ground.
My brief foray on twitter saw me decide it's not for me. I love it for getting early signals of news, but as a community, it's stacked against being social. (for early signals enter the right search terms and use the recent and refresh buttons).
The biography/signature features on twitter and FB are also a problem. Especially twitter, that fancy they're intellectually superior to facebook. No really, NZ twitter has a cult following of itself to itself. I saw a trend of rubbishing FB so I rubbished it and people followed me. Daft!
Everyone wears their political heart on their sleeve. The majority have lost sight of presenting themselves as Joe Bloggs from Podunkville. Not today:
Joe (Go Blow) Bloggs. Podunkville, best town in the west. Libtard masher, All Lives Matter. Flag, another flag, laughy face.
But the left are just as bad.
Joe (You Should Know) Bloggs. Podunkville, full of podunks. BLM, LBGT. Rainbow, unicorn, rainbow.
Both versions are tribal before they open their mouths. They're just red rags to each other, pointless horseshit.
Haidt is one of my intellectual lodestones; more than anyone else he cemented my sense that while differing values and ideas are essential to a healthy society, that there are boundaries. That extremism of any kind is corrosive and dangerous.
The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.
More than a few people have pointed the finger at the rise of social media.
An interesting article about the government apparently considering splitting the supermarket duopoly:
Commerce Minister David Clark told Newsroom he would respond next month to the commission's report on competition – or the lack of it – between the two big supermarket chains, Foodstuffs and Woolworths.
He wants to move quickly on agreed changes, most likely a code of conduct to prevent the chains exploiting farmers and other suppliers, and consistent unit pricing so shoppers can compare how much different products really cost.
But the big questions his officials are discussing with the Commerce Commission is whether lawmakers can go further than the commission was able to, under its constrained deadlines. The Government is understood to be considering whether it can break open the wholesale duopoly or, more likely, the cosy club of retailers.
Promising stuff, I'd be very pleased to see some action in this area. I've always seen supermarkets as unnecessary middlemen. It would be fantastic to imagine supermarket buildings being repurposed, housing multiple individual businesses and stalls, the car parks too for special occasions. Maybe becoming buyer co-operatives, connecting consumers directly with the local producers… I'm sure there are many more ways to improve our relations with food, each other and our environment. We may well see this happen!
" I've always seen supermarkets as unnecessary middlemen".
Why don't you say the same things about all shops? After all what is special about the little ones? They tend to be more expensive than supermarkets and have smaller ranges of goods so we should get rid of them too.
Then we can do all our shopping by going out to buy our food from the original producer. You want a couple of carrots? Go to a grower and dig them up yourself. You want 4 lamb chops? Collect up some friends who want other parts of the lamb, buy one and slaughter it and then split the butchered beast up between you.
Supermarkets have aggregated what were once numerous separate businesses, butchers, greengrocers and now liquor stores and tobacconists. The issue we have now is that there are only two dominant supermarket companies who have been determined to be unnecessarily expensive by the Commerce Commission. Many little businesses have to compete for customers, this leads to lower prices, isn't that basic economics to you?
As to your scenario; Sounds good, there exist models of similar schemes:
Community-supported agriculture (CSA model) or cropsharing is a system that connects the producer and consumers within the food system more closely by allowing the consumer to subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms. It is an alternative socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution that allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming. The model is a subcategory of civic agriculture that has an overarching goal of strengthening a sense of community through local markets
"Many little businesses have to compete for customers, this leads to lower prices, isn't that basic economics to you?".
No, and I can't think of any Economist I know who would agree with it. There is nothing at all in the theory that says that small is always more efficient than large which is what you are suggesting. There is plenty of evidence for economies of scale though.
Basic economic theory demonstrates that when firms have to compete for customers, it leads to lower prices, higher quality goods and services, greater variety, and more innovation.
It's hilarious to see you now arguing for monopoly due to efficiencies of scale. I'd expect you to now advocate for the nationalisation of our natural monopolies like power generation and supply.
But in all seriousness this just further demonstrates the bad faith in which you argue.
It was people in the White House spruiking the actions of their boss. Hardly a neutral, expert opinion was it?
However please tell me which of these two cases you think would be best for the general New Zealand member of the public.
200 firms produce a product, They vigorously compete for sales, sell their product at a price where marginal cost is equal to marginal revenue and sell their product at $10/unit.
Alternatively there are three firms. They also compete and sell similar quantities of their product at $8/unit. They are much bigger businesses of course and have lower cost more efficient plants so they make more profit, and pay more taxes than the 200 minnows. Their price is more than the marginal cost of what they produce but so what.
Which one is better for the consumer, and for the country?
You really are reaching now, and I’m not into your irrelevant hypotheticals other than to bring it back to the original post and ask: What products do supermarkets produce exactly?
Enjoy the mental gymnastics. Helps to warm up first to avoid injurious and inconsistent contradictions.
The provide you with the ability to go to a single shop and to get all the food and vegetables and basic household goods you want in the quantities you want and when you want them.
That is the service they provide, and one most of us use and want.
Yet to be confirmed but if true, Poots' treatment of high ranking officers perceived to have failed seems a little purge-ish.
Admiral Igor Osipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, is arrested by people in civilian clothes. Witnesses report that the detention was rather harsh – the admiral's adjutant was beaten very badly.
Well the buzz is on low-level news sites according to the Google front page of my search – but it's a lively rumour in Ukraine. And it fits the pattern:
Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian-Israeli businessman who fled the country in 2003 after being targeted by Putin, said yesterday that 20 Russian generals have been arrested over the military's failings along with 150 FSB officers for providing false information about Ukraine's defences.
The Moskva is supposed to be equipped with powerful radar arrays to guide its anti-ship, anti-air and anti-submarine missiles which are also used to operate six 'close-in weapons systems' that are designed to take out incoming missiles.
It is not clear exactly how the Ukrainians were able to penetrate these defences. Sources linked to Russia's Wagner group suggest Bayraktar drones may have been used to distract or overwhelm radar before the attack, though it is also possible the drones were being used as spotters to direct the incoming missiles on to target.
The same Russian military sources claim the Moskva was hit twice on its port side by the missiles, rolled over and caught fire.
I found one low level site that was saying that the dated radar system on the Moskva was capable of only tracking targets in one sector only at at time. Apparently while the radars were tracking the drone it was blind to the Neptunes coming in from another direction.
I have no idea if this is true or not, but however unlikely it seems we have to stand this up against the general incompetence of the Russian forces to date.
Ukraine has shown just how vulnerable armoured vehicles are to hand held anti-tank weapons and UAVs. Now the Moskva, supposedly well protected by anti-missile systems, has been distracted by a UAV and sunk by a domestically produced Ukrainian anti-ship missile system.
Imagine the consternation of PRC naval planners about how any attempt to attack Taiwan by sea, or indeed attempts by the US and allies to send warships anywhere near the Chinese coast, might pan out.
Taiwan to mass produce extended range anti-ship missiles
New Hsiung Feng III missile able to travel 400 km, will be outfitted on mobile launchers
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
With The Stroke Of A Pen:Populism, especially right-wing populism, invests all the power of an electoral/parliamentary majority in a single political leader because it no longer trusts the bona fides of the sprawling political class among whom power is traditionally dispersed. Populism eschews traditional politics, because, among populists, traditional politics ...
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. ...
Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Climate denial is dead. Renewable energy denial is here. As “alternative facts” become the norm, it’s worth looking at what actual facts tell us about how renewable energy sources like solar and wind are lowering the price of electricity. As ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
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Outgoing Labour MP Louisa Wall fired another broadside at the Labour Party in her valedictory speech to Parliament:
So the Labour Party constitution allows Party controllers outside the electorate to subvert the democratic process of their electorate committees. If we believe the Labour president is telling the truth, that is.
The intent of the Labour control system seems to be defeat of the locals when the locals choose someone the controllers don't like. Such closet stalinism seems a tad un-Aotearoan, but if the party rules do actually implement stalinist intent, we can't complain. I think Wall complains about it because she believes Labour ought to be democratic instead. I'd be surprised if she was alone in being that naive.
NZ Labour has long had many contradictions as per all the “cross class” Parliamentary parties. Labour rules allowed Jacinda Ardern to assume the leadership in 2017 without contest because of the proximity to a General Election.
The “Parliamentary Wing” has long dominated the ordinary members and LECs of the NZ Labour Party.
But Dennis, I question your barely disguised glee in sticking it to NZ Labour, I critique them out of years of history, and I still have a number of friends in NZ Labour, and a class left analysis rather than right opportunism.
Dunno if I really feel all that gleeful about it. I'd be quite happy to be proven wrong in my analysis. The way a Labour member could do that is to quote the relevant specific clauses from the Labour Constitution here. If they are able to prove the thing is actually democratic, I mean.
I predict that won't happen. The PM was adamant in refusing to confirm that Wall was correct in stating what the PM told her. Aversion to the truth is extremely deep-rooted in Labour political culture. That's why the commenters here who didn't like Wall telling the truth resorted to character-assassination. Evasion, the leftist way.
The NZLP Constitution is available freely on line. Google those words and you will find a 111 page document, clearly indexed.
Your answer is in there. 3.9.3 in the Schedules.
Tiger Mountain is right about 3 month proximity to an election.
I'm impressed you didn't provide the answer to readers here. Very shrewd! Totally finessed my intellectual challenge. You must be a lawyer.
Nah, just gave you the opportunity to look it up yourself so that you can be truly happy.
"I'd be quite happy to be proven wrong in my analysis." Happy Easter.
He will be shocked when he realises how few references to Stalin and Stalinist doctrine he’ll find in the document when he reads it. He might even be a tad disappointed. Hopefully, the NZH will soon do another (…) piece on NZLP and/or the PM and all will be well again.
IIRC, mac1 is/was a teacher, and by the looks of it, he was a good one too.
Yep, few teachers are any good at dodging an intellectual challenge.
Why don’t you just say that you’re not up to challenge of doing a simple search and checking? Does everything need to be spelled out to you in the NZH?
You can lead a horse to water
https://www.labour.org.nz/constitution
but you cannot make it think.
Why don't you think about what went wrong with the candidate selection process & why Labour defaults to a cover-up?? Honesty is the best policy.
I’m so grateful for the NZH doing all the digging (in) and uncovering the cover-ups of closet Stalinism in NZLP. We’ve always known that NZLP Caucus has mandatory Kozak dance costumes in their closets in the Beehive, which they wear every Friday for drinks and the comradery of backslapping and having a good laugh at the expense of Proletariat. There’s not enough dirt in Wellington for all those cover-ups, so the best tactic is to make it appear part of the legitimate Party process of spring-cleaning and hanging out of the dirty laundry in the sunshine. Got it?
BTW, have you read the document already?
What "went wrong" for Wall was that there was only one nomination for the candidacy, which required the NZ Council to make a decision.
Read 8.9, p46
I've not seen any report that Wall was the only candidate but if so, I don't see on what basis they rejected her. She was the sitting MP, for god's sake. Seems bizarre. Or are you suggesting that nobody in the committee nominated her & the sole nominee was the current electorate MP? If the latter, I'd be inclined to agree that she must have lost local support to not get nominated Occam's razor…
OK, fair call, it turns out the selection had three candidates, but was delayed to check the eligibility of some members. And Wall eventually withdrew her candidacy after NZ Council felt that Williams' nomination was in keeping with the LP constitution.
Between the two articles, it does seem Wall lacked electorate support and support from the party hierarchy. That does not bode well for political longevity.
Most of the intellectual challenges I had were in my classes. Some, alas, were irrecoverable. I had to retire to dodge them. Then I discovered The Standard….
At times, you must feel at home here. At other times, you must feel like you’re back in class.
Happy Easter.
Dennis-Maybe in your posts you should compare Labour's candidate selection process with the complete and utter shambles that is National's candidate selection process (scandal after scandal) just to give some context?
I haven't actually heard of National's hierarchy intervening in local candidate selections. That could be due to successful cover-ups – or they don't. Either way, nobody can comment on political happenings that don't get reported unless they have inside knowledge or a tip-off. If some such gets into the media I'll be happy to have a go at it…
National claim to have a more democratic system than Labour but imo that is not true.
Their membership by and large is more docile than Labour's. They meekly tow the party line whatever it may be. When selecting candidates, word from above seeps quietly down the line and ordinary members soon get the message who they are to vote for. Hence less electorate battles. Its not cut and dried of course, but Labour members are more bolshie by nature 😉 so disagreements tend to be thrashed out in the public eye.
The same goes where policy decisions are concerned. Labour conducts most of its policy battles in the public eye for all to see. National does it behind closed doors and their members accept them with little to no in-put into them.
I know which I consider to be the more democratic in practice and that is Labour, where the debates are out there for everyone to see – warts and all.
Anne, apart from the PM, what is the input of caucus when selecting ministers? How much say do they have on who should be ministers?
Louis, LP rules are that caucus selects ministers and the PM allocates portfolios.
A National PM both selects and allocates.
I know of one National woman MP who was told by her leader she'd never make cabinet so she quit after six years. Her male replacement lasted nine years before losing his candidacy whilst still an MP to a challenger who has been there for nearly nine years. And achieved nothing.
Local word is that his supporters now regret supporting his challenge to the previous incumbent, known as the 'roi faléant", who was by my reckoning a decent man- did nothing and was just shut out of the loop.
Thank you for that interesting information mac1.
You reckon? I despair at the naïve nonsense you put out here. I’ll be happy if you don’t make a go of it because your closet Stalinism sensor seems off.
+100 incog
🙄
"your closet Stalinism sensor". Mine must be off, too. It hasn't gone off during fifty years as a member of the Labour Party.
Maybe it is just a little dusty?
Nothing dusty in my closet.
Interesting though what you find in there….. in earlier years in the Labour closet there were relics of ACTs best not spoken about, United party of one, Future now in the past, New Labour no longer so, Māori party which has not yet hung up its hat, NZFirst which didn't last, the Alliance that split, the Progressives that halted, the Pacific party that caused no waves.
They were all in the closet- but nary a Stalinist, a Leninist, a Trotskyist.
But what would you find across the hall in National's closet? Maoists, more quick ACTers, Il-Liberals, Conservatives that couldn’t bottle it, decidedly un-Christian Democrats, more dis-United now in parts, and Independent Advance NZ gone to the rear.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka-jumping
Labour's hierarchy didn't intervene in the local candidate selections.
"As for Wall being moved on from her Manurewa seat at the election, Ardern said it was a decision for the local Labour team – not her. "Ultimately, these are decisions that are actually made by local membership, not by me as party leader. At a local level, our members determine who will locally represent them."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/07/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-s-rationale-for-excluding-experienced-labour-mp-louisa-wall-from-cabinet.html
We won't know the truth unless details of the vote are reported by someone who was at the selection meeting to the news media. All the evidenceless assertions coming from Mike Williams, others, and you, are never gonna change that…
I don't think you want to see the truth, as it doesn't fit your narrative.
I don't have a narrative. I'm not telling a story. I'm doing political commentary on political events. Analysis. It's why TS exists.
Analysis? You are telling a story though.
Exactly, and spreading one or two too, with some pseudo-analysis and quasi-commentary soaked in strong personal beliefs, which is almost completely devoid of self-awareness and self-reflection. In other words, not too dissimilar to the likes of Mike Hosking.
What is not going to change is your attitude and agenda. You have your typical "won't know the truth unless details are reported" as the back-up defence for insinuations and implications. It's a guilt by suggestion position, a claim, as wild as is wanted, and a "prove I'm not wrong."
Do you go round claiming your neighbours are fraudsters, paedophiles or Nazi sympathisers and they can't say they're not until they prove they're not by furnishing details?
(If you're so concerned about the details in Labour Electorate Committees and their operation and decision-making and want to have some impact on how they do things, maybe you could sign up.)
Nope, my attitude would change if Labour did democratic candidate selection & proved it. Or proved that Wall is lying.
Doubt that. You wouldn't believe it anyway.
Labour can do their selection as they want – it's their organisation. The same as our local hockey club and bowling club run their internal affairs including selections. If I want a say in how they do their I should join. Otherwise I should f… off, it is their business.
There is another explanation, Dennis Frank. Dare I say that you are being a little… 'binary'?
The 'happening' just might not have happened which would explain why, ah, you never heard of it.
Did you ever meet a man on the stair, btw?
“Actually” depends on your source(s) of information, choosing to listen, and whether you have a ‘decent’ memory – there's something about Mervyn.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/nz-election-2020-senior-national-party-figure-merv-from-manurewa-aka-roger-bridge-still-in-leadership.html
Yep, that's an authentic example. My comment would be the dude got caught out trying it on, but doesn't necessarily mean it's endemic. Could be though. Makes sense they'd do it as part of the culture (rather than via rules). The fact that they kept him on as a regional head after forcing him off their board seems indicative. 🙄
It's like Slater, Ede, Lusk and Collins never ever happened.
Must be great living in a parallel universe.
And then there is the payoff for candidates to finish up when it has been decided they are past their use by date.
Dennis, there you are dissing again. The PM is not responsible for Louisa's take on things. The PM does not have to "prove" anything.
Louisa has always said she is a maverick. (If I may speculate as well?) One time too many?
The use of emotive language is telling. "forced out, corrupt, devastation".
Then you accuse us of "character-assassination" "Evasion, the leftist way"
I'm sure someone more erudite than I am will prove the case to you….. but, will you accept it?
( Thanks Mac1)
The PM does not have to "prove" anything.
I didn't say she does. I was merely pointing out the own-goal syndrome operating within Labour that will further corrode poll support for it.
The thing hinges on whether the candidate selection process was fair or not. Democracy, and our trust in the system, depends on fair play, right? So Labour ought not to do stuff that works contrary to that. The PM ought not to exhibit flawed leadership on the issue.
In other words, you want to know when the PM stopped fucking pigs.
"In other words, you want to know ….."
NO. NO.NO.
There are some things we really don't want to know. We will leave the date and time of that particular event to you. Please don't bring the subject up again.
We really don't need to know all the things you appear to be cognizant of.
That paragraph from the Herald article does not align with what I heard at the time. Granted it was only a broad brush out-line, but I was told Loiusa was a bully and she had alienated many of her local members. It must have become a serious matter for those members to take the step of requesting a new candidate.
I'm not saying that Louisa Wall does not have a genuine axe to grind over the way the matter was handled (I don't know those details) but my impression is she is over-egging what happened. We have not heard the other side of the story and I doubt we will because it is likely to turn into a she said/he said or she said/she said stoush as the case may be, which Labour would want to avoid at all cost.
a she said/he said or she said/she said stoush
I think that's a reasonable framing if the discord hinged on competing interpretations of the party rules & how they got applied to the situation.
However it does send this message to the electorate: Labour doesn't do local democracy. Can't see how this signalling works to Labour's benefit…
She supported Cunliffe not Robertson….that probably explains why she had to go in a nutshell. The rest is just theatrics
Don't agree. Cunliffe supporters – including parliamentarians and high level members – have not been undermined or sent on their way. Some chose to go but that was their decision. I supported Cunliffe. It didn't affect my relationship with Labour.
I may need to be corrected here, but didn't Nanaia Mahuta support Cunliffe?
+1 Anne.
I also supported Cunliffe.
And Nania Mahuta and Andrew Little lol Go figure.
Yes, I did too Patricia. Having met both Nanaia and Andrew and listened to them speak, I was very impressed. I also liked David Shearer. Its just I didn't think he was politically strong enough for the leadership. I think he came to the same conclusion himself.
"I supported Cunliffe"
And you kept your Labour selection for your Parliamentary seat did you? Or may we take it you weren't really in Wall's position?
BTW I supported Cunliffe too Anne.
Support for Cunliffe had nothing to do with it. Walls had lost the support of the LEC.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/departing-mp-louisa-walls-claims-countered-by-ex-labour-party-president/VVNV3ODSHS3REZGSNDTQ3RBJQQ/
Stalinist? What planet are you on?
https://twitter.com/paultudor/status/1513008840916504580
Covert subversion of the democratic process got described as closet stalinism in the old days. Only by those capable of detecting it, of course! Genuine kiwi males call a spade a spade. Doncha know?
Ahah! You were dog-whistling. And here I was thinking that you were after the truth.
+1
No, the idea that Labour party members are dogs never crossed my mind. I've always seen them as inherently capable of adhering to the truth. A shame their party culture seems to get in between the two but that's not my problem. I wish them all the best in whatever rule-improvement process they embark on to prevent a recurrence of the shambles…
" A shame their party culture seems to get in between the two" you wrote.
Two what? Minds? Ideas? Truths?
If you are going to be binary, what are the two that party culture seems to get between?
I hope it's not the dogs you've been whistling at……. that's far too binary for me.
The members & the truth. I was referring to the warping effect of culture on truth (the primary structural component of culture doing the warp is the group belief system).
You can see the same thing happening in the Green caucus nowadays, sadly. Doesn't really matter if you frame it as group narcissism or collective tunnel vision, the effect is the best thing to focus on: disconnect from the body politic (voters).
Cue Oscar Wilde, (on the National Party?)
" I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.”
A UK think-tank hired by the Department of Internal Affairs studied New Zealand's online extremist ecosystem.
Disinformation:
How it spreads, how to fight it, how it bleeds into real world harm.
In my opinion an important thinker (and mover) in this sphere of study is Daniel J. Rogers,
When we see autocratic states like Russia attacking free speech under the guise of regulating against "Fake News", and at a time when our government is formulating laws against hate speech, what Rogers has to say about getting the balance right is important.
regulating the toxic business models underpinning our information environment
Sounds good in principle. In practice, there are three requirements: a design for implementing that, a method of implementation, and the political muscle to do it.
Kia ora Dennis,
The first two elements 'design' and 'method' for implementing it, are simply technical matters, for expert advisors.
Just as any other piece of legislation, the government have to call on technical advisors on its design and method of implementation. In my opinion the government couldn't go far past some one like Daniel Rogers for expert advice on these matters.
As regards "political muscle to do it" I would have thought the current government, the first to rule the country with a simple single majority since the introduction of MMP would have more than enough 'political muscle to do it'.
But I could be wrong.
What do you think is the road block?
What do you think is the road block?
Perception of power imbalance, global corporates in relation to states. Govts in thrall to neoliberalism. Tacit acceptance of market forces in hegemony status.
Comes down to political will to regulate that mix. States would need to coordinate globally to be effective in culture-change of corporate thinking.
Currently govts file social media regulation in the too-hard basket although pressure they have put on did achieve some algorithm-tweaking by Facebook & Twitter in recent years.
Basically the design challenge is almost as big a hurdle as political will. Lack of prosecutions using hate-speech laws has proved that!
A cog in the machine.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/truman-doctrine
https://www.disinformationindex.org/about
In September "an event of planetary importance" is scheduled: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/dream-walking-towards-the-planetoid-bomb
Nuclear winter, climate change, asteroid mis-direction, our methods of destroying the planet are getting more grandiose every day.
What could possibly top slamming an asteroid into the Earth?
Inducing a supernova in the Sun perhaps?
Macho thinking still trendy eh? No, physics rules out such an effect on the sun but impact here would produce a nuclear winter (without radiation) due to magma droplets in the upper atmosphere shading sunlight, producing global crop failure.
I think the old warfare scenario of the 1960s is secondary. Current planning would be partly to upskill around impact-diversion technique plus orbit-shifting into proximity suitable for asteroid mining. Big money!!
High kinetic weapons like this was the core plot element of Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Humans are going to have to be a lot better at self-governance before we are allowed seriously into space.
Allowed by whom? The ETs?? Elon is inclined to boldly go where others are too timid to. Heavy metal prices could drive him forward…
It might be nice to have an option if a collision looked likely.
It is generally accepted that it was a collision of this sort with an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. Along with about 75% of all the life on earth. I doubt if global warming or a nuclear winter is going to be as bad as that.
A few interesting developments in the war in Ukraine.
Firstly, the weather over there is terrible at the moment. That is important because the ground is turning to an absolute bog. I have seen reports of Russian tanks sinking up to their turrets in the stuff.
One of the reasons that the Russians have decided to focus their forces on the Donbas area is because the topography of the area is more suited to their tank style of warfare. However, spring in Ukraine is probably the worst time to conduct open warfare. It is recommended to attack in the winter when the ground is frozen, or in summer when the ground is dry and hard.
So, Russian forces are still confined largely to roads which makes them vulnerable to Ukranian attacks. Because the Ukranians are a lot more nimble, and know the territory, the lack of mobility of Russian forces is giving the Ukranians the opportunity to counter attack and disrupt while the Russian forces are confined to roads. For instance, they have just blown a bridge to Izium while a Russian convoy was crossing.
Izium was captured by the Russian a couple of weeks ago, and was considered a point of attack for the Russians. So, disrupting supplies to this area is a really good strategy.
Also, the Ukranians have been carrying out attacks on logistics within Russia. The latest endeavour was to take out a rail bridge that was an important supply line for the Russians to bring supplies and equipment to Ukraine. The Russians have not been happy about this, so are threatening to attack Ukrainian command centres. Apparently it is OK for the Russians to invade Ukraine, destroy Ukranian cities and kill civilians. But it is not OK for Ukraine to inflict a few pin pricks inside Russia. Go figure.
So interesting times ahead. The Russian flagship, Moskva, is badly damaged but still afloat. However, it is definitely out of the game, which is a big blow for the Russians. The rest of the Russian fleet has moved much further to the South, obviously fearing further attacks from Ukraine. So, the attack on the Moskva not only took out one of the important Russian naval assets, but also has restricted the capability of the remaining ships.
A big problem for the Russians with their naval assets is that Turkey is not allowing any more military ships to enter the conflict zone. So what the Russians have there now is all they can get.
Interesting times. I think the weather definitely favours the Ukranians. Not only does it allow them to pick away at Russian assets through special ops missions and the like. It also gives more time for Western heavy military assets to arrive. For instance, the US is supplying a package including artillery and helicopters at the moment.
It is going to be very difficult for Putin to meet his objective of a victory by 9th May. It will be interesting to see what their military parade will be like this year given all the assets they have lost, or have stationed in Ukraine.
An update on my comments above. According to the Russians the Moskva has sunk while being towed back to port.
It took two days for HMS Sheffield to sink but she was a burnt out wreck within hours of her Exocet hit. Moskva was a total loss before she sank, it is almost irrelevant if she sank or not. I only hope the loss of life isn't as horrendous as some early reports indicate.
Air raid alert across the whole of Ukraine at once.
Putin obviously wasn't happy about losing his ship. I don't know why he is taking it out on Ukraine though. According to Russia it was just due to a fire on board.
Moscow sinking… Incompetence or enemy action, either way it’s indicative of their general course in this war.
New PZ:
Thank you for that. Interesting.
For a laugh in a very grim situation: the last picture of the Moskva:
https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/1514716451856343051
It's but a scratch.
Pretty good summary.
I love the idea that the Russians have been mounting a full-scale invasion without targetting enemy command centres.
Yeah I thought that was peculiar too. Amazing that they would expect anyone to be taken in by such an obvious bullshit threat. Still, if a rocket takes out Zelensky in the next few days we ought to believe their restraint hitherto.
Powerful Stuff.
"Babel is not a story about tribalism; it’s a story about the fragmentation of everything. It’s about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It’s a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/?
Yeah. Haidt wields a triad (Neptune wielded a trident):
All good, but does pose a profound question: why do morality issues online get adults acting like 4-year-olds? Somehow, belief-systems kick in and we get tribalism being reinvented. Social Darwinism 2.0 I guess…
Trust is the glue that produces societal cohesion:
Trust is the glue – absolutely.
The issue is not so much a humanity problem as an unregulated tech-bro problem. The internet was the wild west (but wasn't it nice, back in the forum days) and cowboys have taken over. They've eroded trust for cash. These owners of all the data know exactly what's happening to the populace. The trending to the right is convenient for capitalists such as these.
The truth can't be restored without controlling social media. This passage from the same article explains:
"I think we can date the fall of the tower to the years between 2011 (Gurri’s focal year of “nihilistic” protests) and 2015, a year marked by the “great awokening” on the left and the ascendancy of Donald Trump on the right. Trump did not destroy the tower; he merely exploited its fall. He was the first politician to master the new dynamics of the post-Babel era, in which outrage is the key to virality, stage performance crushes competence, Twitter can overpower all the newspapers in the country, and stories cannot be shared (or at least trusted) across more than a few adjacent fragments—so truth cannot achieve widespread adherence."
“A mean tweet doesn’t kill anyone; it is an attempt to shame or punish someone publicly while broadcasting one’s own virtue, brilliance, or tribal loyalties. It’s more a dart than a bullet, causing pain but no fatalities. Even so, from 2009 to 2012, Facebook and Twitter passed out roughly 1 billion dart guns globally. We’ve been shooting one another ever since.”
Nail after nail ( or is it dart) on the head.
"When everyone was issued a dart gun in the early 2010s, many left-leaning institutions began shooting themselves in the brain. And unfortunately, those were the brains that inform, instruct, and entertain most of the country."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
And look at the power of the Tech-bro toddler. Those whom are Deified.
Musk just offered to buy Twitter outright, so he can make it private. "I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe" he reckons.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/04/14/elon-musk-offers-to-buy-twitter-for-us43-billion/
Looks like Twitter will be going even more abysmal pretty soon, then.
The article points out a few obvious (thus fixable) features:
Facebook's 'like' and 'share' buttons.
Twitters 'retweet' button.
Sociopathic attention seekers crawling over others to gain followings.
We should burn the fucking influencers to the ground.
My brief foray on twitter saw me decide it's not for me. I love it for getting early signals of news, but as a community, it's stacked against being social. (for early signals enter the right search terms and use the recent and refresh buttons).
The biography/signature features on twitter and FB are also a problem. Especially twitter, that fancy they're intellectually superior to facebook. No really, NZ twitter has a cult following of itself to itself. I saw a trend of rubbishing FB so I rubbished it and people followed me. Daft!
Everyone wears their political heart on their sleeve. The majority have lost sight of presenting themselves as Joe Bloggs from Podunkville. Not today:
Joe (Go Blow) Bloggs. Podunkville, best town in the west. Libtard masher, All Lives Matter. Flag, another flag, laughy face.
But the left are just as bad.
Joe (You Should Know) Bloggs. Podunkville, full of podunks. BLM, LBGT. Rainbow, unicorn, rainbow.
Both versions are tribal before they open their mouths. They're just red rags to each other, pointless horseshit.
A capitalist isn't going to "fix" the problems that capitalism has spawned and profited off.
Haidt is one of my intellectual lodestones; more than anyone else he cemented my sense that while differing values and ideas are essential to a healthy society, that there are boundaries. That extremism of any kind is corrosive and dangerous.
More than a few people have pointed the finger at the rise of social media.
Good find thank you.
An interesting article about the government apparently considering splitting the supermarket duopoly:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/talks-to-fast-track-supermarket-regulation-and-break-apart-stores
Promising stuff, I'd be very pleased to see some action in this area. I've always seen supermarkets as unnecessary middlemen. It would be fantastic to imagine supermarket buildings being repurposed, housing multiple individual businesses and stalls, the car parks too for special occasions. Maybe becoming buyer co-operatives, connecting consumers directly with the local producers… I'm sure there are many more ways to improve our relations with food, each other and our environment. We may well see this happen!
Here's hoping!
" I've always seen supermarkets as unnecessary middlemen".
Why don't you say the same things about all shops? After all what is special about the little ones? They tend to be more expensive than supermarkets and have smaller ranges of goods so we should get rid of them too.
Then we can do all our shopping by going out to buy our food from the original producer. You want a couple of carrots? Go to a grower and dig them up yourself. You want 4 lamb chops? Collect up some friends who want other parts of the lamb, buy one and slaughter it and then split the butchered beast up between you.
Way to go baby.
Supermarkets have aggregated what were once numerous separate businesses, butchers, greengrocers and now liquor stores and tobacconists. The issue we have now is that there are only two dominant supermarket companies who have been determined to be unnecessarily expensive by the Commerce Commission. Many little businesses have to compete for customers, this leads to lower prices, isn't that basic economics to you?
As to your scenario; Sounds good, there exist models of similar schemes:
So yes, this could well be the way to go, baby.
"Many little businesses have to compete for customers, this leads to lower prices, isn't that basic economics to you?".
No, and I can't think of any Economist I know who would agree with it. There is nothing at all in the theory that says that small is always more efficient than large which is what you are suggesting. There is plenty of evidence for economies of scale though.
What is competition alwyn?
It's hilarious to see you now arguing for monopoly due to efficiencies of scale. I'd expect you to now advocate for the nationalisation of our natural monopolies like power generation and supply.
But in all seriousness this just further demonstrates the bad faith in which you argue.
You did notice the source of your link I suppose?
It was people in the White House spruiking the actions of their boss. Hardly a neutral, expert opinion was it?
However please tell me which of these two cases you think would be best for the general New Zealand member of the public.
200 firms produce a product, They vigorously compete for sales, sell their product at a price where marginal cost is equal to marginal revenue and sell their product at $10/unit.
Alternatively there are three firms. They also compete and sell similar quantities of their product at $8/unit. They are much bigger businesses of course and have lower cost more efficient plants so they make more profit, and pay more taxes than the 200 minnows. Their price is more than the marginal cost of what they produce but so what.
Which one is better for the consumer, and for the country?
You really are reaching now, and I’m not into your irrelevant hypotheticals other than to bring it back to the original post and ask: What products do supermarkets produce exactly?
Enjoy the mental gymnastics. Helps to warm up first to avoid injurious and inconsistent contradictions.
The provide you with the ability to go to a single shop and to get all the food and vegetables and basic household goods you want in the quantities you want and when you want them.
That is the service they provide, and one most of us use and want.
Where do you get your food from?
Why do you think most people go there?
Ouch, could have warmed up more I see.
Yes, you really should limit your comments to things you know something about.
When, as you have done here, you try and comment on something you clearly know nothing about you are only going to make yourself look foolish.
Try and get to grips with the topic you are talking about and warm up on the topic a bit better in the future and you may do better.
Yet another torturous contortion, cf. alwyn @ 6.2.1.1
Oof. You do have the long weekend to recover though.
https://twitter.com/Tom_Fowdy/status/1514787062955732998
Yet to be confirmed but if true, Poots' treatment of high ranking officers perceived to have failed seems a little purge-ish.
Admiral Igor Osipov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, is arrested by people in civilian clothes. Witnesses report that the detention was rather harsh – the admiral's adjutant was beaten very badly.
https://twitter.com/IsraelThreads/status/1514694443345092611
"Yet to be confirmed but if true"…..that statement encapsulates much of your Ukrainian commenting quite nicely Joe90.
Well the buzz is on low-level news sites according to the Google front page of my search – but it's a lively rumour in Ukraine. And it fits the pattern:
The numbers given by this source suggest he's had the inside word from someone in the know in the Russian military or political hierarchy…
Found this further down that page:
Moskva…what Moskva?
I don't believe it. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov is still alive, at the age of about 130. Surely he is the middle one of the 3 in the photograph?
I found one low level site that was saying that the dated radar system on the Moskva was capable of only tracking targets in one sector only at at time. Apparently while the radars were tracking the drone it was blind to the Neptunes coming in from another direction.
I have no idea if this is true or not, but however unlikely it seems we have to stand this up against the general incompetence of the Russian forces to date.
Ukraine has shown just how vulnerable armoured vehicles are to hand held anti-tank weapons and UAVs. Now the Moskva, supposedly well protected by anti-missile systems, has been distracted by a UAV and sunk by a domestically produced Ukrainian anti-ship missile system.
Imagine the consternation of PRC naval planners about how any attempt to attack Taiwan by sea, or indeed attempts by the US and allies to send warships anywhere near the Chinese coast, might pan out.
Taiwan to mass produce extended range anti-ship missiles
New Hsiung Feng III missile able to travel 400 km, will be outfitted on mobile launchers
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4290059
Incidentally that photo above is very droll.