The f-wits of the week award has to go to the organizers and participants in yesterday's Right to Life "Death March" in Christchurch as reported on RNZ this morning. Big deal – the thousand who attended 'obeyed the law' by being in groups of 100. Tell that to the health workers if they all have to be tested because only one carried the Vovid-19 virus. More importantly, which of the self-entitled wankers will apologise to the team on 1.5 million in Auckland for their insensitivity or the thousands of rugby fans who were unable to attend the final match of the season, even though they could have 'obeyed the law' by being in groups of 100. No doubt the small trucking firm owner in Tauranga whose drivers are all having to self-isolate because they were at the border on legitimate business would love to offer some words of advice to the marchers on how to be part of the team of 5 million.
Were there a mass protests by BLM in NZ yesterday as well? If so was their concerned about the racist a**eholes who felt they should get on their keyboards and slag off the family who picked up Covid from a source that some of the best researchers in the country have still not been able to identify?
There will be interest on any unpaid student loans until you die, and while you may not choose to euthenasia, our let the coronavirus spread policy will leave you trapped in your home scared to get either assisted care in an old age facility or visit a doctor.
Given the number of Doctors dying from Covid 19.Doctors visits could be a thing of the past.we will have to use technology to interact with health care providers to prevent collapse of our health system.
Sure. The problem then is the net connectivity of some of the aged – some are/were not even able to order food on-line.
Then there are the many academics with tenure who are refusing to take classes in person this semester in the USA. On-line teaching is going to develop a lot further.
I fear this will happen. I enjoy a friendly as well as reliable relationship with the pair of doctors where I go. That is part of the value of the treatment.
In the situation of there being no doctors we could use the services of the highly qualified know everything keyboard experts who wanted life to carry on as usual right from the beginning of the virus. They knew so much and would have had no interventions past "You've got this new flu thing, go to the doctor."
we will have to use technology to interact with health care providers
That's not actually a bad thing.
I have a watch that measures my heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygenation. Throw in an app that records that info and asks questions about how you feel and sends that to the doctor and then a doctor/nurse can determine if you need to see the doctor or not.
Even without covid this would be a good system to implement.
Remarkable as these watches can be…we have a reasonably expensive smart watch that also does these things but it records steps..that haven't been taken. Which means it may also record blood pressure that may not be accurate and heart rates that are probably a bit off as well.
.
Was he one of the world's last Waffen-SS soldiers per se ? or one of the world's last Waffen-SS soldiers specifically in Geraldine ? … if the latter then it sounds like the South Canterbury Township might have been a more popular bolthole for Nazis than the whole of South America.
By my reckoning, that leaves just 6 remaining SS, 4 Gestapo & 2 SD Stormtroopers left in the secret Geraldine refuge-hideaway … along with 3 remaining Mussolini Blackshirts in the nearby Italian Fascist stronghold of Temuka.
There’s a plausible theory that Hitler & Von Ribbentrop are still holed up in Gore with a bottle of whisky & a couple cyanide pills. But if it’s ac hoice between Gore & suicide you’d think they would’ve gone for the latter.
Ha – it's like the opposite of an Easter Egg hunt. The trouble is that we have a different sort of diseased person that afflicts our souls, sort of passe' trying to eliminate these old germs, when there is a new lot of people as diseased in the mind circulating everywhere.
Brighten up with Crosby SNY Southern Cross – maybe we can sail away from the bad old world to something good leaving the dirty dealers streaked behind us like a comet trail burning up in our wake.
Some good words from Southern Cross for those seeking the real New Zealand.
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You understand now why you came this way
'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' day
Visited a week ago, great meal at a local restaurant then went to a NZIFF screening of Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band at the St James theatre. More class and culture there than long standing mythology would lead anyone to believe.
Good country music comes from around Gore and they have an interesting art collection. I know those things about Gore. Don't think it's Ruddygore as Gilbert and Sullivan put it.
To divert. This is Ruddigore from the Minack Theatre. Amazing
Anyone read Derek Tangye's stories about his Cornwall time there with wife Jean? Delightful, a very loving relationship in a picturesque setting, growing flowers mainly for the London market.
On Google about Derek – Derek Tangye was educated at Harrow and subsequently worked as a journalist on national newspapers. During the war and afterwards he was a member of MI5, before he and Jeannie moved to Minack. Jeannie died in 1986 and Derek in 1996.
But as I look through the info about them, I find them outed as spies to Russia!! (It isn't amazing that people believe conspiracy theories as we live the White Queen's situation of believing six impossible things before breakfast.)
But in 1949, to the total astonishment of friends and colleagues, including stars Danny Kaye, Noel Coward, Tyrone Power and Bing Crosby, the Tangyes suddenly abandoned their life as one of London's most glamorous couples and moved to a broken-down cottage in Cornwall.
The revelation that they were spying for the Soviets suggests they may have been living in fear of exposure and quit London before their treachery was discovered.
And while they were feeding the Russians (bosh or borscht?) they may have been providing a service for MI5 – we must not forget the double-switch with 'watchers'. My money would be on that, a valuable but easy to refute way of maintaining some sort of intelligence balance. Intelligent? Could be.
It is not cluster or hotspot to the best of my knowledge. I don't come from Gore, and I shouldn't react to unjustified cheapshots but someone has to stand up for the place. Yes, I know it’s satire but I don’t joke about suicides. Other than that I love Swordfish's posts 🙂
Poor old Denis Glover – was he thinking of this when he wrote sardonically:
"I dream of what may yet be seen / in Johnsonville and Geraldine"
Is Herman Goering in Johnsonville? It is part of the Ohariu electorate and Herman was known as something of a dandy. (Now scanning the photographic archive for any images of him wearing a bow tie, bouffant hairdo etc..)
That was quite an impressive diversion, from a post expressing disgust about us harbouring and delivering glowing whitewashed obituaries for an actual Nazi, turning it into a slagfest on Gore.
Yet the left gives safe harbour to any number of openly unapologetic marxists. Even here at TS they're either indulged as 'harmless' relics, or we leave unchallenged their endless weasel excuses about why every actual marxist state has been a humiliating, dangerous and miserable failure.
It's cheap and rewarding to do outrage at right wing fascists and race supremacists, but the willful hypocrisy of also remaining blind to those who go too far on the left does rather invite a some pointed mockery IMHO.
"Yet the left gives safe harbour to any number of openly unapologetic marxists"..what is even more surprising around here is the number of unapologetic free market liberals who still have the gall to call themselves Left.
"It must be tough, being "the only leftie in the village".
No it isn't… though it is quite sad seeing so many good people being first blinded then turned by the greed mechanism that is inbuilt into the very heart of the ideology of liberalism… witnessing them abandoning bit by bit their core principles and critical thinking abilities to justify to their inner being the reason that they now follow an ideology that they know deep inside is one of insatiable and ultimately suicidal endless growth regardless of the consequences to humans or the planet….that part is a bit hard at times Tbh.
But I consol myself by just being grateful that I haven’t succumbed to the undeniable allure of that short term free market liberalism trap….that will leave most of our children and grandchildren never owning their own home and without long term job security etc and so forth.
If that's an attempt to segue into another crack at BLM for being marxist, I think you're a long way off the mark on that one. This Politico piece explains why and delves into the background of how that "BLM is marxist " thing came about as a Repug attempt to damp down the heat they were getting over it.
What I find funny is that "Marxist" covers everything from Stalinism to Democratic Socialism and a few more mild flavours at that. I can understand why the yanks shit a brick at the mere word, but anyone with a glancing knowl;edge of the history of the NZLP should know better.
It's foolishness of barely undergraduate level – probably inspired by Jordan Peterson. If I can blame Marx for Stalinism, can I also blame Jesus for the Spanish Inquisition and Nietzsche for the Holocaust?
It is, however, convenient for people whose real issue is with the name of the movement but can't express that without coming across as more than a bit racist.
AB Your argument seems to be logical. But who am I to attempt my individual understanding when there are so many learned people here. Perhaps there could be a hold on ordinary transmission of political theoretical jibes until after the election. Does anyone know whether there is going to be an attempt by Nats and JC to bring the Court into delaying the election? Please correct me severely if that has been discussed elsewhere and direct me to it. Thanks.
I read Gulag Archipelago shortly after it was first published, and my first trip to Russia was 20 years ago. That was the one when I got to visit the Gulag Museum at Perm. Peterson merely puts the case, a case I had long believed, far more eloquently than I could.
As for your 'undergraduate foolishness' crack, I can only note that it was the so-called intellectual left in Europe and America who were most completely sucked in by Stalin for decades, obdurately refusing to acknowledge the undeniable and inescapable suffering of those who died by the tens of millions in his Marxist utopia.
And now the truth cannot be whitewashed away, they pretend "it wasn't real marxism". After my experiences I read that with the same gut reaction as if someone tried to defend National Socialism by claiming "Hitler wasn't a real nazi'.
I've previously linked to the 2015 video where one of the two co-founders openly and unambiguously describes both of themselves as "trained marxists" and links this training to their motivation and vision for the organisation they were creating.
Bravo, scintillating and convincing argument there.
Many millions of people who have visited the Holocaust memorial's at Auschwitz come away from the experience with not only a deep emotional impact, but a much broader understanding of exactly what happened. In one sense it opens their minds and hearts, and in another it creates a determination to draw a line in the political sands, a boundary that says fascism and race supremacy theories are unquestionably off limits.
I never really planned to go to Perm, it was a spur of the moment decision based on a chance conversation I had while on the train returning from a work trip. It's the same experience as Auschwitz, but one that's far less accessible to most Westerners, and it's spare grim horror remains a chill memory.
And again the more recent trip to Magadan was another work trip commissioning a gold processing plant at Polyus. The highway you travel on to get from Magadan to site (it's a long trip) is known as the "Road of Bones". You have to be oblivious to history not to feel something of the past slipping into your soul, while riding on that bus.
Whether these experiences (and others) opened my mind to marxism, or closed it off, is a semantic debate you are free to have with yourself.
There is obviously no point in trying to argue with you. You have made up your mind that Marxist equals Holocaust, as you demonstrate again. Others here have an education.
And here you make a foolish undergraduate mistake in drawing an equivalence between two things in different categories. Marxism is a political theory, the Holocaust was an event. They cannot be logically compared.
On the other hand I am drawing an explicit equivalence between marxism and fascism, and if you wish between the stalags and the gulags.
I was kinda hoping someone else that actually wanted the argument today was going to pick up on this other aspect of that comment about "the left" and TS harbouring marxists: it's a helluva false equivalence between disgust at the idea of harbouring a former actual serving nazi, and allowing keyboard warriors to express their opinions and desires without feeling the need to pull them up by their shorts every time they do, no matter how loony-left or marxist or maoist or stalinist they may be.
One writer claimed that Adolf died in 1964 in Patagonia. It has always been suspicious that the Russians won't allow anyone access to his alleged corpse.
Looks like he was part of the 2nd Waffen SS Division Das Reich, judging by where he said he fought, that Div. gained a pretty brutal record of atrocities in France and who knows what the fuck they got up to in Russia! They also earned themselves an extremely formidable combat record as well.
Not sure if you can condemn all members of the Waffen SS outright, most were just plain combat troops like the troops of other nations, though maybe more ideological, especially during the first few years of the war…even Gunter Grass ended up as a member.
The Waffen SS demanded a bit more loyalty then the regular conscript into the Wehrmacht.
As for his claim 'i did not know' fuck him, There is enough photographic evidence to point out his lying, both as for the atrocities committed against Russians, Poles, Jews and anyone else in between but also of the hanging of conscripted Germans on the road side trees for cowardice and treason.
(A local National Party official has written to leader Judith Collins with an impassioned plea for the party to oppose Covid-19 restrictions.)
“This election, more than ever, National has nothing to lose. We need to sack the media-doting risk-averse PR-"guru" advisors and pollsters we have relied on for too long, who focus on only only that portion of Kiwis with an overblown sense of trust in a media that is driven by and feeds human anxieties more than facts and truth,” Chesswas wrote.
He said National should align itself with the New Conservatives, who are arguing against the new lockdown, and the New Zealand Public Party, whose co-leader has suggested the “plandemic” is a bioweapon.
Allan Chesswas, chair of the Stratford branch, wrote to Collins, party president Peter Goodfellow, and several other MPs late on Thursday night asking the party oppose Covid-19 lockdown and stop buying into what he called the “overblown drama” surrounding the virus."
So, not surprised. As to the last question, I'd hate to speculate.
So the pressure this disease has provided, shows clearly that we have small but quite deranged groups of people who do not believe in community. Forewarned is forearmed.
Many have outed themselves as not community minded win at any cost and bring the government into disrepute and practicing the dark art of Dirty Politics.
These people have no power so sabotaging the 5 millions effort blackmailing NZers.for their pathetic 15 mins of fame.
These people should be treated as terrorist's as they are putting everyone's health at risk,likely to lead to unnecessary deaths overloading and damaging our health system.
So the pressure this disease has provided, shows clearly that we have small but quite deranged groups of people who do not believe in community.
Its not just that they don't believe in community but that they also believe that they are more important than anyone else and that their reckons are gospel.
Jack Tame is giving Judith Collins a grilling on TV 1. She has obviously had some PR training and is keeping her voice low and speech slow ; not lurching into her usual fish wife style of conversation.
I know a lot of fishermen's wives. None of them are remotely as nasty or dishonorable as Judith Collins.
Back in the days of the Bolger/Shipley maladministration, Winston Peters used to abuse fishwives in order to make a point. Whenever the late great Whanganui M.P. Jill Pettis interjected during one of his speeches, he'd say: "It's market day."
Covid- 19 seems to have some people in an understandable "What The Hec" mode. "We are condemned forever". We have to wash our hands. Keep a distance. Get Check ups. Avoid Transmission. Oh Poor us. tch tch tch
I dont think we are in great difficulty. 102 days without any Trouble. Currently much much less today.
Strangely enough, the main worriers are the so called people who keep the Economy going. They are bleeding at the corners of their eyes and heart and every other little doggy bit.
Month after month the wealthy are nagging "What about the Economy" ? night and day.
The Vaccines are not yet available. As happens with Viruses. For Virus are living things and they keep a deep control on their living structures.
Equally, we humans have learnt over time how to cope with the Virus enemy. Right back from the Spanish Collapse and dreadful other Viruses.
We, the Simple People, are following our wonderful Leaders – Jacinda Ardern, Doctor Bloomfield, Chris Hipkins, Testing staff. And the Sciences.
Our economy is working if our Foreign Banks allow. If all of us follow our Leaders. And if the Wealthy get off their comforts and stop nagging.
The very Elderly, will do as they do day in and day out. They will thank Mother Earth on their death bed. For they are robust Kiwi and Whenua and Family.
"The reality of New Zealand’s primary production exports is that the natural resource set is already close to fully used, with environmental sustainability issues already of major importance. There will still be some technological advances that can contribute to improved production and productivity, but it is going to be hard work.
In relation to population issues, the bottom line has to be that if New Zealand’s population continues to track upwards at rates similar to the last decade, then land-based exports can only decline on a per capita basis. Where will the new exports come from to pay for imports items for which New Zealand is poorly positioned? That issue has to be brought forward into any immigration debate"
Its said we currently produce enough food for 20 million people and as Keith Woodford notes we are pretty much at maximum output, difficult improvement aside….with primary production and migration of our two pronged approach to non NZD earnings and one prong badly blunted for the foreseeable (if not permanently) then simple arithmetic suggests any increase in population will provide a corresponding decrease in offshore purchasing power and consequently a loss of national wealth and living standards regardless of distribution issues or demographics
Ah, someone's finally starting to notice the actual economics of our nation and not just the delusional finances that has been the bedrock of government policy for decades.
Tina Ngata says many of the conspiracy theories circulating online find their genesis in the alt-right, particularly in the United States, and are promoted by white supremacist movements wanting to destabilise centrist governments.
Health officials trying to stamp out rumours as well as COVID-19 – Hipkins She says New Zealand's history of colonisation and poor treatment of tangata whenua means some sectors of Māori society are particularly susceptible to these conspiracies. "They take advantage of people who have a natural distrust of authority and so it finds very fertile soil in the minds of communities that have been oppressed in the past."
Māori sociologist Dr Tahu Kukutai agrees. She says there are specific conditions that lead to conspiracy theories being adopted by disadvantaged communities such as economic insecurity, inequality and feeling disempowered and COVID-19 has created a perfect storm of these factors.
Which is why Maori should do some work in their community to prevent this, because when MOH is accused of racism for moving to quarantine people infected in the community (only when brown skinned people are the ones being infected) it invites resistance to public safety policy. Seeking a working relationship with MOH cuts both ways.
They are. Doing work in their own community. Some are reminding their people about the 1918 pandemic & the cost to Maori, not all Maori are conspiracy nutters, in fact the 'protest' in Whangarei was pathetically attended, it's just the keyboard fantasists stirring shit that makes them more prominent than they are. Of course, as we see in the USA this shit is dangerous, the qAnon Republican candidate in Georgia is utterly terrifying. WTF is going on? As if there isn't enough crap to deal with right now.
I'm worried that Big Brown hasn't drawn attention to the unusual delay in announcing the Lotto results. It's interesting is all I'm saying. Does Big Brown know something?
It's really really spooky eh @ Gabs. In a similar 'vein' I'd really really like to know what Billy TK senior thinks of his junior. The disenfranchised of course are open to "draining the swanp" more than most, and its unfortunate that Labour hasn't picked up on this in any useful sort of way (in this space, going forward) – pragmatic incrementalism and all I 'spose prevents it and there's a heap of consultants, media analYsts, ditherers and various other hangers-on that need their tickets to be clipped.
I guess we'll see in the fullness of time. Of course the senior naturally loves the produce of his loins – and of course he always was a better guitarist.
Ordinarily, he claims to know nuffink, but here he's implying he knows everyfink, but won't say nuffink and that listeners are free to make up anyfink they want, so long that it hurts Jacinda's reputation. Big Brown then, appears to be a fink!
Sorry Weka, was skyping elderly friends on the Sunshine Coast.
The groups are varied. Out Doors Group which seems to have a vocal American voice shouting "Freedom" slogans, Billy Te Kahika with his conspiracy theory party, Facebook users abusing the current covid victims, Gerry Brownlee firing his bosses DP bullets, among others. There are good people in National, and many are onboard with the Health requirements to contain this virus. What we do regarding the dangerous minority is hard to know. Positions are hardening imo
It’s not clear what set off the police chase, but Slyman appears to have been convinced by QAnon theories that the government was out to kidnap his children. Inspired by videos he had watched online, Slyman warned his children during the chase that the police were coming to abduct them—or maybe just shoot them in a staged killing. In return, they begged him to pull over. His daughter even tried to grab the wheel of the minivan and drive it off the road after he accused her and his wife, who had dived out of the vehicle at the start of the chase, of being agents of the nefarious cabal that QAnon believers say controls the world.
“They want to make us crazy,” Slyman said, “but I’m not crazy. My wife and my daughter were a part of it.”
"If you buy something and it's not delivered, you wouldn't buy it again. Right?
Not, it seems, if you're the UK government and one of your mates or top donors is selling it.
We've just uncovered how two giant firms – Serco and Sitel – have landed lucrative deals to continue running NHS Track and Trace, despite major failures.
Serco and Sitel are reaching less than half of the people they're supposed to be contacting. They're charging £900 per person traced. Experts have branded it a 'disaster'.
Yet now they're getting up to £520 million to carry on – while councils mopping up their failures get no extra cash. Why?"
National is to release their Covid Policy later this week according to Collins.
They could claim impossible restrictions because they don't have to action their policy. Things like testing every "frontline staff" weekly. Firing every staff member who slips up. Publishing every bit of information that is not now being published. Demanding that any virus carrier be exposed and named as a carrier. Demanding that the frontline team declares exactly where an infection came from. Compulsory masks. Compulsory everything.
Demanding that Dr Reti follows Collins position on virus and fire him if he acts in a reasoned manner against the greater Collins knowledge.
There are snags when it comes to testing, waiting for the result, being a close contact with a negative result, time isolating and front line testing.
Getting the who, when, why and how tested is important?
Throw the politics away as they are mudding the waters. The priority is elimination and for every political party to strive for this. The country will know when elimination cannot be achieved.
1. Am I correct that if a contact of a cluster a person has to stay home until the result is known and even if a negative result the person has to isolate for a total of 14 days?
2. Am I correct that if no symptoms and not a close contact and you had a test that you do not need to stay at home?
3. Or if no test done and a contact from a cluster then you need to isolate for 14 days?
4. I expect that if a negative result and then you become unwell that you can get retested.
The same thoughts when posting the story. The idea that examples of selflessness might become more scarce as the past's ' heroes' from all walks disappear and the outlook if societies become driven by self first attitudes is concerning.
Winston has read my comment on here yesterday, and is now calling for Oct 17 as the election date. Presumably he's doing a Bridges, and trying to score points by calling for something he already expects to be announced.
Safe prediction: PM will announce the delay at 10 a.m. tomorrow, and we'll have a silly game of "told you so" by various politicians.
It will make no difference to the election outcome, which is all that matters.
He's also trying to distract from the indirect lashing he got from Chippie this afternoon regarding the spreading of fake news.
He's claiming the GG "should know" the majority of Parliament don't support a Sept 19 election date but since when has it been Parliament's decision? And how on earth does he know a majority of Parliament supports a delay?
We’re still no closer to knowing what that was all about. Peters wants election delayed, but won’t speculate on whether he’ll pull the lever he has at his disposal to delay it.
Peters is inferring a majority for the latest date possible means a later date should be chosen.
That would not influence a GG, the Electoral Commission is the body repsonsible for the election once the date is decided and the writ issued automatically afterward.
With parliament no longer standing Peters cannot propose a no confience motion to form an election date coalition (Seymour Peters Collins in no particular order),
Its mere electioneering. If for example there was another outbreak in November parliament would have to recovence to authorise by 2/3 majority an election next year.
The PM is still quite free to decide.
For mine, she could extend the date out 2-4 weeks (longer to cover uncertainty about how long it will take to close this down), and allow a longer period of early voting at level 2 and a slower campaign at Level 2
(presumption Auckland will go to Level 2 for 2 weeks after the 2 at Level3)
It willl still be the Electoral Commission who decide if it can be held on the day. I'm not sure what happens if they do not hold it in the day and early voting has already begun. Just keep early voting available until a Saturday can be used?
Despite me not wanting to hear much from experts, here's a good Skegg article on RNZ. He says of a Hong Kong colleague involved with SARS 1:
The Hong Kong professor (said) there are three essential components to dealing with these pandemics and they were physical distancing, including mass masking, testing and rapid contact tracing, and border controls.
He said if you relax any one of those three, you better make sure you really tighten the other two.
I'm in Auckland and there's not a lot of mask wearing. I don't wear one outside but I do whenever I go inside with the rest of the unwashed. I'd say mask wearing in Auckland indoor public places is still only 30-40%.
I think the mask wearing request is starting to get through in Auckland. I’ve just been to the Mt Eden Countdown and I’d say 80% of the queue were masked. I always have mine with me but I don’t wear it if I’m out walking alone and not getting within 2 metres of anyone. I use it for crowded pavements and shops and will presumably use it on the bus when we go back to work.
Rimmer wants 4 weeks at L1 before the election date.
But here's the thing, L1 didn't really work.
L1 gives us a false sense of security so we shouldn't really be going back to L1 until there's a vaccine, or at least better treatment and testing, and better compliance.
Curious Rimmer is now on board with levels and such after rubbishing the entire government approach in favour of throwing the vulnerable under the Covid bus.
Also, I would have thought Rimmer would want an election asap as his stock has never been higher.
Level 1 is fine. It stops worry fatigue, and lets the country exist as normally as possible.
We have a single cluster. Big deal. We've adjusted our conditions to match the threat. When that cluster is eliminated, we'll go back to level 1. When the vaccine comes and is distributed, we'll go back to level zero.
I'd like to see better direction under L1 next time. The Nats and Barry Soper whinged about Covid info being broadcast as a way to keep the populace under Ardern's control!
The mistake we made at level 1 was that people were complacent about testing for COV2 because they presumed it would be cold or flu. Such self isolation is not good enough because of family contact spread and delay in finding out it is back.
That's true. It's also another reason to delay (for a short period).
It's a sad certainty that when gov't announces a reduction in the level, PM will be accused of politicking, she'll say it was on DG's advice, opposition will insinuate DG is biased, etc, etc.
Better if that doesn't happen a week before the election.
If we delayed an election until the country was at Level 1, we could be leading the world into an era without elections for 1-2 years. With the US election coming up, its an example Trump would cite again and again.
Rimmer wants 4 weeks at L1 before the election date.
Can somebody please ask him when the whole of the country will be back at L1? Or should we ask the virus?
Can they please also ask him what should happen if there’s another step-up in Alert Levels somewhere in the country?
If extra time and a delay will play in the hands of National, will it also benefit ACT?
I’d think that voters want some sense of clarity and certainty. Shifting election dates is ‘shifty’ behaviour, politically speaking. However, voters also like fairness and possibly care less about legitimacy. So, what’s fair and what’s legitimate?
When the PM writes the writ, how might that affect any possible step-ups in Alert Levels between now and Election Day? The election campaigns of political parties should not take precedent over or come at the expense of measures to keep all of us safe.
And of course it's the government that decides levels.
"New poll out, Labour down, announce return to level 2".
Just get Seymour to sign a document saying "I hereby declare election null and void in the event of a single positive case of the virus, within one month of scheduled election. Until then government rules indefinitely, with my blessing". That should shut him up.
Seymour is all about freedom, which means freedom from responsibility, and he’ll never sign a document that will put the weight of the nation on his shoulders. He’s all show and only good for show, on TV. Bunch of self-serving nihilists 🙁
Exactly! It’s no way to plan the Election or govern the country. Might as well read the tealeaves, if we were to follow Seymour’s ‘lead’.
We already have too much uncertainty due to lockdowns, and the overall effects of the closed border, et cetera. Businesses are facing going belly-up and people are in fear of losing their jobs. School students are looking at 2020 as a very disruptive year, one that will follow them for years to come.
I wish the current crop of MPs would stop thinking about themselves, less about their own interests, and more about the five million people in this country, many of who have it much tougher than any MP.
While Hezbollah was not the architect of Lebanon's ruinous economic system, with growing reach, it became first a happy participant and eventually its guarantor. More profoundly, its separate role a regionally active militia was rooted in and required continued state weakness. /1
"Ardern’s political style rests on her personal appeal, but it has also been criticised as superficial – or, as Bill English put it, “stardust”."
Bill "Fence Post" English. Respected authority on Dipton, sheep, dipping sheep and double-dipping, reckons the Prime Minister's essential quality is "stardust". We are stardust, Bill, as Joni Mitchell so elegantly sang.
"and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."
Great song, beautifully sung, and the science of the words “we are stardust” is so far advanced in its grasp of the universe.
Then the reference above, (following the line ‘we are stardust, we are golden”), which I read as meaning getting back to simplicity and back to what is important, a vital message post-Covid 19.
It's to draw attention to the high danger around the many level crossings in this country, and to the impact near misses have on train drivers' mental health.
Lotto seems to have fallen off its perch of trust.
Doesn't sound like it. Just sounds like their computers got swamped as more people than expected signed in to buy online rather than going to the store.
"National Australia Bank Ltd on Friday urged customers at high risk of default on their loans to sell their properties sooner rather than later, as it reported ballooning credit impairment charges during the quarter."
How Can We Make Wellbeing at the Centre of Public Policy If We Dont Measure It?When the Minister of Finance announced in the 2018 budget that in the future economic policy would focus more on wellbeing, many saw a glimmer of hope that we were moving away from the mechanical ...
Below is a statement we received from LGB Fight Back in the States, a new group that advocates for LGB rights under vicious, homophobic attack by trans ideology activists. LGB Fight Back, a US-based organization that represents the interests of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people, launched on February 14, ...
Mā te mōhiotanga, ka mārama – mā te māramatanga, ka ora. (Through awareness comes understanding, and enlightenment empowers well-being) Dr Tahu Kukutai embodies this whakataukī (proverb), a wahine (woman) who is driven by a purpose to unveil the stories behind population statistics. Tahu specialises in Māori population research, Indigenous ...
Mihi mai ki a Jade Rangiwhiua Hyslop whose area of research is river restoration and kaupapa Māori. Passionate about the outdoors, learning and improving the environment in socially-just and innovative ways, she works at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton). A budding researcher in its Manaaki Taiao Māori research ...
The report is back on another Universal Basic Income trial, this time in the USA. And as with the others, it shows that this policy works: After getting $500 per month for two years without rules on how to spend it, 125 people in California paid off debt, got ...
Revolutionary Formula:A new Aotearoa is on the rise. Tangata Whenua (Māori) + Tangata Tiriti (all other ethnicities who are committed to a tiriti centric Aotearoa) = the Aotearoa I believe in fighting for. - Rawiri Waititi, Co-Leader of the Maori Party.NEW ZEALAND is in the early stages of a revolution. ...
Mob Psychology: Deep down inside us dwell all manner of dark and violent impulses. In times of social stress and/or crisis, these “atavistic” urges have a nasty habit of rising to the surface like an insufficiently weighted corpse – and unleashing mayhem.ARE WE AS SAVAGE as our forebears? Would we ...
Over the past few years there's been a growing trend for bespoke secrecy clauses in legislation, excluding specific types of information (or even whole agencies) from the coverage of the Official Information Act. These pop up in all sorts of unusual places, sometimes when introduced, sometimes put there by select ...
In this week’s podcast Selwyn Manning and I discuss the ethics and practicalities involved in the so-called “conflict industry.” It includes a discussion of the who and what of the “kill chain” and the implications of Rocket Lab’s position as a major US military logistical provider. You can find it ...
Ramin SkibbaTo turn the tide against climate change, on the day of his inauguration President Joe Biden signed an executive order instituting a raft of policy changes and initiatives. One directed his team to reassess the social cost of carbon. This seemingly obscure concept puts a number on how ...
All Out Of Kindness: At her post-Cabinet media conference on Monday, the Prime Minister demonstrated conclusively that she could be cruel as well as kind. Those revealed to have breached the self-isolation protocols felt the full force of Jacinda Ardern’s displeasure – and the nation lapped it up.JACINDA ARDERN KNOWS ...
Session Thirty-Seven… our last full session in the Dreamland. So the Fae Queen was after a rematch. To the extent that she was literally willing to destroy her own forest in order to replenish her forces. I imagine one of her advisers pointed out that “destroying something in ...
Today the shabby little train of denial ran out of smoke. Payment, apology in Dirty Politics case — Newsroom Crushing defeat for Dirty Politics PR man with apology to defamed academics — The Spinoff Here’s the apology wording, below. It’s ruined only by the clearly bullshit implication that there was ...
It’s always tempting to reach for the easiest “answers” to make sense of an uncertain world. It’s a tendency that has been there for a long time, but in the time of COVID, a lot of it seems to be on steroids.Desperate people do desperate things. In ...
Why New Research? Skeptical Science exists for the purpose of improving public capacity for critical thinking about anthropogenic climate change. Effective critical analysis requires a basis of information, and for our purpose the wellsprings of fundamental understanding are found in peer-reviewed academic literature, our best grasp of how Earth's climate operates and ...
This column will be calling it out. There’s so much folx need to educate ourselves about and DO BETTER. From cis privilege to white privilege, whether it’s how to decolonise, how to handle the pronoun illiterates, this column will be an inclusive space, for ALL GENDERS and ALL IDENTITIES. It ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh, Colombia, 26 February 2021 The recent decision taken in California to place men and women in the same wings of prisons as a response to the violence meted out to trans prisoners is a nascent issue in Colombia, but sooner or later it will get here. ...
About 10 years ago there was a proliferation of home wares promoting ‘Keep calm and carry on’. This adage came from World War 2 posters produced by the British Government in an effort to boost the morale of its citizens. Typically printed as white lettering on a red background you ...
Having spent most of the pandemic alternately calling for mass-death by relaxing lockdowns "for the economy", and for those who breach lockdowns to face harsher and harsher punishments, the National Party has finally made a useful contribution by calling for people told to self-isolate to be paid directly: The ...
The Ombudsman is supposed to be our core watchdog on administrative decision-making. Their central job is to review decisions by public agencies to ensure they are fair and reasonable and followed a proper process. So its more than a little embarrassing that they've been called to account by the courts ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington For many, people life moved online in 2020. From preschool to dissertation defenses, first dates to weddings, video calls brought us together. To entertain ourselves, we streamed concerts and movies, played video games, and scrolled social media. Demand for internet ...
The Government has made a litany of mistakes over Covid, and we have been more than willing to forgive Labour these missteps and give them some leeway. Branko Marcetic says that when members of the public also make mistakes, we should be focusing on designing a wider system that insulates ...
Naïve optimism has been blinding everyone from Ashley Bloomfield to Case M. Josh Van Veen argues we need to be more aware of our biases in dealing with Covid – but especially the authorities. In the United States, naive optimism was at the heart of the Trump Administration’s failed ...
Cecile Meier walks us through some of the costs of a border system that has neither been able to safely scale up to meet need, nor able to find any reasonable way of prioritising entry into those scarce MIQ spaces. When Zane Gillbee hugged his family goodbye in South Africa ...
Technology lists, what’s this thing called “Deep Tech”, and thinking beyond the tech. Top “x” lists of technology developments, breakthroughs and trends aren’t hard to find. But how useful are they? MIT’s “Breakthrough Technologies” This time every year MIT’s Technology Review magazine produces a “10 breakthrough technologies” list. This ...
Having watched and read about the Conference of the Paranoid, Angry and just plain Crazy (CPAC), including the Orange Merkin’s return to the political centre stage, I am more convinced then ever that if US conservatism, and indeed the US itself, is to find its way back to some semblance ...
Back in 2019, following media revelations that bullying was widespread within the police, the Independent Police Conduct Authority announced that it would be investigating the issue. Today, they reported back, and found the police to be a completely toxic organisation: An independent report into police culture has described a ...
Dr Ben Gray*New Zealand has begun to roll out its Covid-19 vaccination programme, starting with those working at the border, including in the Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) facilities. There have been calls for prioritising other groups such as those in South Auckland [1] and meat industry workers ...
The Climate Change Commission’s recommendations span the breadth of the economy. They are required to come up with sector-by-sector climate budgets consistent with getting New Zealand with net zero emissions under the Zero Carbon Act. The sector-by-sector budgets rest on underlying models. The models build predictions about what will happen ...
Revolution From Below: The original “Long March” was, of course, undertaken by Mao Zedong and what was left of his communist military forces. They did not, however, head off for the nearest school or university, government office or medical clinic. Their goal was not to infiltrate the institutions of capitalism, but ...
There are some genre authors who like to demonstrate their edgy, iconoclastic credentials by sticking the boot into J.R.R. Tolkien. Michael Moorcock springs to mind, with the much-beaten dead horse that is the Epic Pooh essay. Each to their own, I suppose, though seeing as Epic Pooh really boils ...
John SchwartzElizabeth Kolbert lives her stories. In the course of reporting her new book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” she got hit by a leaping carp near Ottawa, Illinois (“It felt like someone had slammed me in the shin with a Wiffle-ball bat”) and visited ...
New Zealand has an excellent Emissions Trading Scheme covering everything except agriculture – a non-trivial exclusion, but we can come back to that later. The ETS has a cap. Net emissions from the covered sector cannot exceed the cap. So any other regulations that affect sectors covered by the cap ...
Michael SchulsonDays before the inauguration of President Joe Biden, at a time when some Americans were animated by the false conviction that former President Donald J. Trump had actually won the November election, a man in Colorado began texting warnings to his family. The coming days, he wrote, would ...
Last year, Beef and Lamb New Zealand produced a bought-and-paid-for report claiming that their industry was already carbon neutral, so didn't need to do anything to reduce emissions. The report was full of obviously dodgy accounting - basicly, it didn't bother to follow international carbon accounting rules, because they would ...
Last year, the government chickened out on clean rivers, setting "water standards" that failed to properly control poisonous nitrates. So who was to blame? MPI: The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) opposed introducing a tough bottom line for nitrogen levels in rivers over concerns the economic impact would outweigh ...
Robert Greenberg, University of AucklandThe world was excited by the news last week that NASA’s Perseverance rover had successfully landed in a Martian crater. The rover will now set about collecting samples from what scientists say was an ancient lake fed by a river. The name of this exotic ...
Faith In The Essentials: Fenced-in, almost literally, by motorways. Located, seemingly permanently, at the bottom of politicians’ priority-lists. Heaped with praise for their cultural vibrancy, but not rewarded for it by the presence of white pupils in their public schools, South Aucklanders (like people of colour everywhere) provide their paler ...
Image credit:POLITICAL BLOG I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL ...
Since the pandemic began, the UK government has restricted protests in an effort to contain the plague. But of course, they're plotting to make these restrictions permanent: Concern over the government’s limitation of the right to protest during lockdown continues to mount after it emerged that the home secretary, ...
Completed reads for February: The Dream of Scipio, by CiceroThe Dragon Masters, by Jack Vance The Dream of Scipio is Pearman’s translation. A very quiet month in the reading department… but a truly excellent one in the writing department. Better yet, this was not merely short stories, but solid ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Colombia, 18 February 2020) Two soldiers, Jhony Andrés Castillo Ospino and Jesús Alberto Muñoz Segovia, fell into the hands of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN; National Liberation Army). Their capture produced the usual reactions that they had been kidnapped when in fact they were prisoners ...
As much of the world is still implementing lockdowns, including New Zealand, it is a good time to see how Sweden has fared. After being demonised for a year for having relatively moderate restrictions the Swedish death toll is rather much in line with other years. Sweden followed the standard ...
Under The Influence Of The "Governance" Kool-Aid: The furore surrounding Mayor Andy Foster's "review" of the Wellington City Council's "governance" is but the latest example of the quite conscious delegitimization, and sinister re-framing, of spirited political opposition and debate as irresponsible, immature and “dysfunctional”. It shows how very far from ...
Hello there everybody. I’ve been asked by Mr Thinks to come on his blog today and speak my mind about stuff. The government has a lot to answer for. I was sitting there last week as Auckland came out of it’s latest lockdown and I knew the government was making ...
There are times when tikanga needs to be broken for tikanga to survive.I recently gave a presentation on Māori economic history based on my Not in Narrow Seas. Its most important message was that Māori proved to be a very adaptable people continually evolving as new opportunities arose. The European ...
Some of you may remember our blog post "A conundrum: our continued presence on Facebook" in which we detailed our misgivings about and decision to stick with Facebook for the time being. So these latest developments - reposted from the Cranky Uncle homepage - might come as a bit of surprise! ...
Image credit:Quick Data Lessons: Data Dredging Oh dear – another scientific paper claiming evidence of toxic effects from fluoridation. But a critical look at the paper shows evidence of p-hacking, data dredging and motivated reasoning to derive their conclusions. And it was published in a journal shown to be ...
We've had a housing crisis for the past decade, and successive governments have done nothing to solve it. Why not? Bernard Hickey gets it right when he says its all about protecting the rich: The Government is reluctant to push down house prices fearing they'll loses the support of ...
There’s more of the Obama legacy here and Deporter in Chief: Obama chucks out 2,000,000 and Can Trump really deport more people than Obama? and Obama, gay rights and the killing drones ...
My Department Right Or Wrong: Far from “politicians involving themselves in some Corrections matters” being a bad thing, their involvement – along with that of the Ombudsman – constitutes a necessary check upon the unreasonable and unlawful exercise of authority over prison inmates by prison staff. A Corrections Minister who ...
New Zealand is supposed to have a progressive tax system, which taxes people according to their ability to pay. But it turns out that the rich are cheating: The wealthiest New Zealanders pay just 12 per cent of their total income in tax on average, according to research from ...
Ground truths on warming When we think about rapid climate change of the kind we've accidentally unleashed and the warming of Earth systems inherent in the process, we tend to focus on phenomena in order of their immediate tangibility, their drama. Sea ice loss in the Arctic, atmospheric and ocean ...
by Daphna Whitmore The Department of Corrections has called in the police over a pamphlet that supports protests at Waikeria Prison, saying the material might incite another riot. The group People Against Prisons Aotearoa denies it advocates for riots and has said it “encourages persistent, peaceful protest action such as striking from ...
One theme in the literature dedicated to democratic theory is the notion of a “tyranny of the minority.” This is where the desire to protect the interests of and give voice to electoral minorities leads to a tail wagging the dog syndrome whereby minorities wind up having disproportionate influence in ...
I've just lodged my fourth complaint to the Ombudsman for deemed refusal of an OIA request by police this year. That brings their total to four for four - every request I have sent them has not been answered within the legal timeframe, even when they extend it to give ...
Will the health reforms proposed for the Labour Government make the system better or worse? Health commentator Ian Powell (formerly the Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists) gives his analysis of what change is most necessary, and what should be avoided. The review of the Health ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections An off-course polar vortex meandered toward the Mexican border, bringing with it frigid Arctic air rarely seen as far south as Texas. Frozen equipment rendered power generation systems in the state inoperable, forcing grid operators to begin rolling blackouts to customers then left to fend ...
Just as National once produced a “rock star economy” that Grant Robertson rejected as being only for the rich, the Labour Government has produced an economic “bounce back” that leaves out the poor. Branko Marcetic argues for a rise in benefit levels to give the poor a real bounce back. ...
Virginia has voted to abolish the death penalty: State lawmakers gave final approval on Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in Virginia, a dramatic turnaround for a state that has executed more people than any other. The legislation repealing the death penalty now heads to the ...
Yesterday a New Zealand Judge issued a formal finding that the Department of Corrections had treated prisoners in a cruel, degrading and inhumane manner, illegally detaining them, using excessive force, denying them basic necessities unless they performed degrading rituals of submission first. Some of the conduct appears to be criminal: ...
The Herald reports that there is a "storm brewing for the Climate Change Commission". The "problem"? Polluters are unhappy with its economic projections saying that action will not be as costly as they have previously claimed: Last week a coalition of over a dozen New Zealand business and industry ...
The Green Party are calling on the Government to assess how the COVID-19 leave support scheme can be better improved, distributed and enforced so that workers can properly take leave when self-isolating. ...
We know that when our rural communities do well, all of New Zealand benefits. Labour is committed to supporting our regions so that, together, we can achieve even more. Here are just some of the ways we’re backing rural communities. ...
Government data today shows that the wealthiest New Zealanders aren’t paying their fair share of tax, whilst everyone else chips in, Green Party spokesperson on Finance Julie Anne Genter said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the change in the Reserve Bank’s remit to consider the impacts on housing when making financial decisions, but housing affordability shouldn’t be left to the Reserve Bank, Green Party Co-leader and Housing spokesperson Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the passing of the Local Electorate Act Māori Wards Amendment Bill which ensures Māori have a say on local issues across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
New UMR research reveals that 69 percent of New Zealanders agree that the government should increase the amount if income support paid to those on low incomes or not in paid work. ...
The Green Party are celebrating the Labour Government bringing forward the timeline to ban conversion therapy, and will push to ensure any draft bill properly protects all of our Rainbow communities. ...
The Green Party is joining the call for ‘brave policy action’ to address rapidly increasing inequality in New Zealand, which is likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Health Minister Andrew Little welcomes the Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s assessment that transformation of New Zealand’s approach to mental health and addiction is underway. “This is an important step in the Government’s work to provide better and equitable mental health and wellbeing outcomes for all people in New ...
The Government’s Consumer Travel Reimbursement Scheme has helped return over $352 million of refunds and credits to New Zealanders who had overseas travel cancelled due to COVID-19, Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says. “Working with the travel sector, we are helping New Zealanders retrieve the money owed to them by ...
An additional 88,000 students in 322 schools and kura across the country have started the school year with a regular lunch on the menu, thanks to the Government’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme. They join 42,000 students already receiving weekday lunches under the scheme, which launched last ...
New Zealand’s economic recovery has again been reflected in the Government’s books, which are in better shape than expected. The Crown accounts for the seven months to the end of January 2021 were better than forecast in the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). The operating balance before gains ...
More than half of New Zealand’s estimated 12,000 border workforce have now received their first vaccinations, as a third batch of vaccines arrive in the country, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. As of midnight Tuesday, a total of 9,431 people had received their first doses. More than 70 percent ...
The Government is significantly increasing its investment in restoring Central Otago’s waterways while at the same time delivering jobs to the region hard-hit by the economic impact of Covid-19, says Land Information Minister, Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor says two new community projects under the Jobs for Nature funding programme will ...
The Government has confirmed details of COVID-19 support for business and workers following the increased alert levels due to a resurgence of the virus over the weekend. Following two new community cases of COVID-19, Auckland moved to Alert Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level ...
The Government remains committed to hosting the Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2022 should a decision be made by World Rugby this weekend to postpone this year’s tournament. World Rugby is recommending the event be postponed until next year due to COVID-19, with a final decision to ...
Community and social service support providers have again swung into action to help people and families affected by the current COVID-19 alert levels. “The Government recognises that in many instances social service, community, iwi and Whānau Ora organisations are best placed to provide vital support to the communities impacted by ...
The Government is following through on an election promise to conduct an independent review into PHARMAC, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Andrew Little announced today. The Review will focus on two areas: How well PHARMAC performs against its current objectives and whether and how its performance against these ...
Some of the country’s most forward-thinking early-career conservationists are among recipients of a new scholarship aimed at supporting a new generation of biodiversity champions, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has awarded one-year postgraduate research scholarships of $15,000 to ten Masters students in the natural ...
I acknowledge our whānau overseas, joining us from Te Whenua Moemoeā, and I wish to pay respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. I am very pleased to be part of the conversation on Indigenous business, and part ...
Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced today that main benefits will increase by 3.1 percent on 1 April, in line with the rise in the average wage. The Government announced changes to the annual adjustment of main benefits in Budget 2019, indexing main benefit increases to the average ...
A Deed of Settlement has been signed between Ngāti Maru and the Crown settling the iwi’s historical Treaty of Waitangi claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The Ngāti Maru rohe is centred on the inland Waitara River valley, east to the Whanganui River and its ...
With a suite of Government income support packages available, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni is encouraging people, and businesses, connected to the recent Auckland COVID-19 cases to check the Work and Income website if they’ve been impacted by the need to self-isolate. “If you are required to ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has expressed her condolences at the passing of long-serving former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. “Our thoughts are with Lady Veronica Somare and family, Prime Minister James Marape and the people of Papua New Guinea during this time of great ...
E te tī, e te tā Tēnei te mihi maioha ki a koutou Ki te whenua e takoto nei Ki te rangi e tū iho nei Ki a tātou e tau nei Tēnā tātou. It’s great to be with you today, along with some of the ministerial housing team; Hon Peeni Henare, the ...
The Government is backing a new project to use drone technology to transform our understanding and protection of the Māui dolphin, Aotearoa’s most endangered dolphin. “The project is just one part of the Government’s plan to save the Māui dolphin. We are committed to protecting this treasure,” Oceans and Fisheries ...
Major water reform has taken a step closer with the appointment of the inaugural board of the Taumata Arowai water services regulator, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. Former Director General of Health and respected public health specialist Dame Karen Poutasi will chair the inaugural board of Crown agency Taumata Arowai. “Dame ...
The newly completed Hibiscus Coast Bus Station will help people make better transport choices to help ease congestion and benefit the environment, Transport Minister Michael Wood and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said today. Michael Wood and Phil Goff officially opened the Hibiscus Coast Bus Station which sits just off the ...
New funding announced by Conservation Minister Kiri Allan today will provide work and help protect the unique values of Northland’s Te Ārai Nature Reserve for future generations. Te Ārai is culturally important to Te Aupōuri as the last resting place of the spirits before they depart to Te Rerenga Wairua. ...
Today the Government has taken a key step to support Pacific people to becoming Community Housing providers, says the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio. “This will be great news for Pacific communities with the decision to provide Pacific Financial Capability Grant funding and a tender process to ...
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan is encouraging New Zealanders to have their say on a proposed marine mammal sanctuary to address the rapid decline of bottlenose dolphins in Te Pēwhairangi, the Bay of Islands. The proposal, developed jointly with Ngā Hapū o te Pēwhairangi, would protect all marine mammals of the ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges. Two of the appointees will take up their roles on 1 April, replacing sitting Judges who have reached retirement age. Kirsten Lummis, lawyer of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to ...
Government announces list of life-shortening conditions guaranteeing early KiwiSaver access The Government changed the KiwiSaver rules in 2019 so people with life-shortening congenital conditions can withdraw their savings early The four conditions guaranteed early access are – down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder An alternative ...
The Reserve Bank is now required to consider the impact on housing when making monetary and financial policy decisions, Grant Robertson announced today. Changes have been made to the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s remit requiring it to take into account government policy relating to more sustainable house prices, while working ...
The Labour Government will invest $6 million for 70 additional adult cochlear implants this year to significantly reduce the historical waitlist, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Cochlear implants are life changing for kiwis who suffer from severe hearing loss. As well as improving an individual’s hearing, they open doors to ...
The Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading today and will become law, Minister of Local Government Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. “This is a significant step forward for Māori representation in local government. We know how important it is to have diversity around ...
The Government has added 1,000 more transitional housing places as promised under the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), launched one year ago. Minister of Housing Megan Woods says the milestone supports the Government’s priority to ensure every New Zealander has warm, dry, secure housing. “Transitional housing provides people ...
A second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived safely yesterday at Auckland International Airport, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “This shipment contained about 76,000 doses, and follows our first shipment of 60,000 doses that arrived last week. We expect further shipments of vaccine over the coming weeks,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni has today announced $18 million to support creative spaces. Creative spaces are places in the community where people with mental health needs, disabled people, and those looking for social connection, are welcomed and supported to practice and participate in the arts ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little today welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill. “This bill is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved. “I am delighted to reach this significant milestone today,” Andrew ...
22,400 fewer children experiencing material hardship 45,400 fewer children in low income households on after-housing costs measure After-housing costs target achieved a year ahead of schedule Government action has seen child poverty reduce against all nine official measures compared to the baseline year, Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty ...
It’s time to recognise the outstanding work early learning services, kōhanga reo, schools and kura do to support children and young people to succeed, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins says. The 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards are now open through until April 16. “The past year has reminded us ...
Three new Jobs for Nature projects will help nature thrive in the Bay of Plenty and keep local people in work says Conservation Minister Kiri Allan. “Up to 30 people will be employed in the projects, which are aimed at boosting local conservation efforts, enhancing some of the region’s most ...
The Government has accepted all of the Holidays Act Taskforce’s recommended changes, which will provide certainty to employers and help employees receive their leave entitlements, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said the Government established the Holidays Act Taskforce to help address challenges with the ...
The Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and faster than expected economic recovery has been acknowledged in today’s credit rating upgrade. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) today raised New Zealand’s local currency credit rating to AAA with a stable outlook. This follows Fitch reaffirming its AA+ rating last ...
Tena koutou e nga Maata Waka Ngai Tuahuriri, Ngai Tahu whanui, Tena koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki tenei ra maumahara i te Ru Whenua Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora Tena koutou, Tena ...
The Minister of Justice has reaffirmed the Government’s urgent commitment, as stated in its 2020 Election Manifesto, to ban conversion practices in New Zealand by this time next year. “The Government has work underway to develop policy which will bring legislation to Parliament by the middle of this year and ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Social Development Hon Carmel Sepuloni today launched a new Creative Careers Service, which is expected to support up to 1,000 creatives, across three regions over the next two years. The new service builds on the most successful aspects of the former Pathways to ...
Vroom vroom, beep beep, get in losers! Drag Race Down Under is coming to TVNZ later this year, and today the 10 Australian and New Zealand competitors have been revealed.The wiggiest show this side of Real Housewives is finally making its way to the southern hemisphere. That’s right, RuPaul’s Drag ...
Three years ago clinical psychologist and culture warrior Jordan Peterson rode a bestseller to equal parts adulation and excoriation. Danyl Mclauchlan reviews a sequel that sprang from chaos. Since publishing his mega-bestselling self-help guide 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos in 2018, Jordan Peterson has led an existence ...
Asia Pacific Report Papua New Guinea’s Supreme and National Courts in Port Moresby will be partially closed for a week beginning yesterday after a judge has been tested positive for the covid-19, reports The National. Registrar Ian Augerea said in a statement the closure was to prevent any further infections ...
By RNZ News Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it is hard not to feel like New Zealand is having a run of bad luck, with residents waking up today to a tsunami alert amid the covid-19 restrictions. The tsunami alert was triggered after three quakes overnight – the first of ...
Asia Pacific Report The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) has called on the Australian government to stop trying to keep Papua off the agenda at the Pacific Islands Forum and “strenuously support” Pacific leaders in urging Jakarta to allow a PIF fact-finding mission to the territory. Congratulating the PIF Secretary-General ...
Did you sense the roads were busier in this Auckland lockdown than previous ones? Google mobility data indicates that you’re right.More people were going to work, and more heading out shopping, during the current lockdown in Auckland than during the August equivalent, which also took place under alert level three ...
The only statement to emerge from the Beehive in the past two days was cheery in tone but foreshadowed further increases in the funding devoted to mental health. The statement was issued by Health Minister Andrew Little, who welcomed the Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s assessment that transformation ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is condemning Wellington City Council’s refusal to consult on the privatisation of the central library as undemocratic. “Wellingtonians threatened with a 13.5 percent rate hike deserve a full menu of cost-saving options ...
This morning the Māori Party confirmed their new National Executive including Che Wilson, Fallyn Flavell, John Tamihere and Kaiarahi Takirua: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Wilson returns for a second term as President and the two new members ...
New Zealand is now two weeks into the largest immunisation programme ever undertaken here, with border and managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) workers first in line. “We are so proud of our people for doing the right thing by stepping up and being ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camilo López-Aguirre, PhD Candidate, UNSW Scientists have found another piece in the puzzle of how echolocation evolved in bats, moving closer to solving a decades-long evolutionary mystery. All bats — apart from the fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae (also called flying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jordy Meekes, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne That Australian women earn less than Australian men is well-known. The latest calculation put the gap – the extent to which the average female full-time wage is ...
All the major news events, which will hopefully not be too many. Get in touch at info@thespinoff.co.nz Help keep The Spinoff alive and kicking. Click here to learn how you can support The Spinoff from as little as $1.8.00am: The day aheadThere are a couple of things we’ll be looking out ...
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While it has since been deleted and apologised for, an op-ed by former Labour MP Michael Bassett published by the Northland Age and the NZ Herald this week caused an uproar for its racist cherry-picking and false reporting of historical facts. Historian Scott Hamilton sets the record straight.Michael Bassett is ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Deaths, West Europe still not “out of the woods”. Chart by Keith Rankin. Deaths, East Europe remains a major concern. Chart by Keith Rankin. At first glance through our rear-vision mirror, western Europe had a substantial spring outbreak of Covid19, and further outbreaks in spring and ...
A starter’s list for the national Aotearoa museum of the sporting damned. Richard Irvine confronts the demons.The sunGenerally it’s hard to make an argument against the giver of all life, as it provides photosynthesis, vitamin D and enables a wide range of recreational activities. But when it runs rampant around ...
Auckland can breathe a sigh relief knowing at 6am on Sunday the region will move down to Alert Level 2 after another seven long days in lockdown. Government and health officials are now turning their minds to lessons learnt, following a week of mixed messaging, rule-breaking and blame and shame, writes political ...
Three future scenarios after today’s large offshore earthquakes.A trio of serious earthquakes saw parts of Aotearoa shaken, tsunami threats triggered, and tens of thousands of people heading inland after evacuation instructions.Of the magnitude-7-plus events, the first, shortly before 2.30am, was centered off East Cape. Measuring 7.1, it was felt across ...
Analysis - The prime minister came down hard on lockdown rule-breakers but were they clearly told what they had to do? Peter Wilson looks into the reports as another crisis lurks in the background. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Gleeson, Associate professor, La Trobe University News of the blockage of a shipment of 250,000 COVID-19 vaccines from Europe to Australia has caused concern and outrage. The immediate problem will probably be quickly solved through diplomatic channels. Even if it is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Stern, Professor of Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The Tonga Kermadec subduction zone stretches between New Zealand and south of Samoa.USGS, CC BY-SA A sequence of three major offshore earthquakes, including a magnitude 8.1 quake near ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Director of the Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis Dr Laine Dare discuss the week in politics. This week the pair discuss some of the 148 recommendations ...
The minister responsible for the country's spy agencies says they can't constantly monitor the internet to identify terror threats and instead rely on the public to raise the alarm. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle Celebrity testimonials abound for pills, potions and creams that purport to make you look younger. This time collagen supplements are in the spotlight, after Jennifer Aniston became the face of one ...
Have the government’s Covid-related messages been getting through to Pacific and non-Pacific ethnic communities in South Auckland? Justin Latif tried to find out.John Pulu is one of the best-known television and radio personalities in New Zealand’s Pacific community. He not only fronts TVNZ’s Tagata Pasifika Saturday morning show, but also hosts ...
James Elliott tries to work out what made Mike Hosking and Brian Tamaki tick everyone off this week. The week started with Aucklanders back under Alert level 3 and Mike Hosking on Alert Level 6. “Mike’s Minute” on NewstalkZB on Monday, which as usual lasted significantly longer than a minute, ...
Fonterra has confirmed what most analysts had been predicting and lifted its 2020/21 forecast farmgate milk price range to $7.30 – $7.90 kg/MS, up from $6.90 – $7.50. This should send a further surge of confidence across NZ’s rural regions, hopefully in a wave strong enough to encourage farmers to ...
A Financial Times leader delivers advice that Finance Minister Grant Robertson should (but probably won’t) consider. Essentially, the advice is to resist the temptation to involve the central bank in the challenge of slowing the rise in house prices. Changing regulation and reforming planning law is a smarter way to ...
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A contestant on the new season of The Bachelor has apologised for ‘controversial’ social media posts comparing mask wearing to ‘slavery’ and for questioning the scientific consensus around Covid-19. Stewart Sowman-Lund reports.Shivani Pragji is – according to her LinkedIn profile – a solicitor working for the Ministry of Business, Innovation ...
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Moa brewery sold in February for $1.9m, leaving behind an unsavoury legacy. Michael Andrew speaks to the new owner about how the brewery plans to move forward, while at the same time returning to its Marlborough roots.Moa Brewing Company’s new owner Stephen Smith has criticised the company’s old marketing strategy, ...
By RNZ News An 8.0 earthquake has struck near the Kermadec Islands, hours after a 7.4 quake near the Kermadecs and a 7.1 off the North Island coast, A 7.4 quake struck near the Kermadec Islands earlier this morning. The islands are 800km to 1000km from New Zealand. National Emergency ...
National Parks are being closed off to allow fallow deer to be bombarded with 1080 poison. The proposal has drawn strong criticism from the Australian hunting public and also New Zealand’s Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust. Laurie Collins, spokesman ...
In the fallout from the Dirty Politics defamation hearing, how can the Food and Grocery Council and its chief continue to deny involvement in attacks on public health academics? Tim Murphy explains its stance. The middleman has 'fessed up. So where does that leave the two prominent players on either side ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dave Parry, Professor of Computer Science, Auckland University of Technology Although international travel restrictions for Australia have been extended to at least June, there may still be potential for a trans-Tasman bubble with New Zealand (and maybe some other countries), according to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Triccas, Professor of Medical Microbiology, University of Sydney The United States’ drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said last week COVID vaccines updated for variants won’t need to go through full randomised controlled clinical trials. The booster shots will ...
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A tech expert is warning the government could face multiple stumbling blocks if it makes QR code scanning mandatory - in particular when dealing with tech giants like Apple and Google. ...
*This story first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. A tsunami alert has been issued after a 7.4 earthquake near the Kermadec Islands. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says it expects strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore. It says the threat is from ...
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A Harvard professor presenting his opinions on alien life as fact when the field at large doesn't agree is misrepresenting science, argues Dr Heloise Stevance For years now Abraham (Avi) Loeb has been a rather passionate advocate for what I call 'The Alien Hypothesis' 一 the idea that extraterrestrial lifeforms are the source of ...
Anna Rawhiti-Connell doesn't want an investment or an asset, but a home. Yet because of last century’s broken promises, she feels like an idiot fish, destined to swim against a current with other idiot fish who think their life savings and lifelong debt will guarantee them a house. We went to some open homes ...
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Rio Olympian Helena Gasson may be one of the oldest Kiwi swimmers still at the top of their game, but she's found a new gear - breaking 20 NZ records in the past 18 months. Even in the year of Covid, with her plans abruptly changed and her training schedule interrupted, Helena ...
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The latest attempt to use clever editing to try and make some sense of Grampa Rage Nappies' noises still doesn't come out making any sense.
The f-wits of the week award has to go to the organizers and participants in yesterday's Right to Life "Death March" in Christchurch as reported on RNZ this morning. Big deal – the thousand who attended 'obeyed the law' by being in groups of 100. Tell that to the health workers if they all have to be tested because only one carried the Vovid-19 virus. More importantly, which of the self-entitled wankers will apologise to the team on 1.5 million in Auckland for their insensitivity or the thousands of rugby fans who were unable to attend the final match of the season, even though they could have 'obeyed the law' by being in groups of 100. No doubt the small trucking firm owner in Tauranga whose drivers are all having to self-isolate because they were at the border on legitimate business would love to offer some words of advice to the marchers on how to be part of the team of 5 million.
Aom- did you have the same criticism of the BLM protests?
What about you Lukas? If you didn't support the BLMs right to protest, do you now support these recent ones?
Were there a mass protests by BLM in NZ yesterday as well? If so was their concerned about the racist a**eholes who felt they should get on their keyboards and slag off the family who picked up Covid from a source that some of the best researchers in the country have still not been able to identify?
BLM protestors tend to have high mask compliance and maintain individual distancing where possible. Links a month or two old didn't find any covid spikes attributable to BLM protests, unlike the anti-mask rallies in the states.
Your whataboutism doesn't even seem to be relevant.
Are you saying that people in L2 should behave in a certain way to support people in L3?
Who was the interview with? I can't find anything on RNZ's website.
Weka – 7:00am RNZ News. There is also a report on Scoop: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2008/S00353/cantabrians-march-to-defend-the-right-to-life.htm.
thanks, appreciate the link.
Murdock cartoon. Cruel an funny
Make sure to note the inscription on the scythe!!!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/94869389/sharon-murdoch-cartoons
ACT
There will be interest on any unpaid student loans until you die, and while you may not choose to euthenasia, our let the coronavirus spread policy will leave you trapped in your home scared to get either assisted care in an old age facility or visit a doctor.
Given the number of Doctors dying from Covid 19.Doctors visits could be a thing of the past.we will have to use technology to interact with health care providers to prevent collapse of our health system.
Sure. The problem then is the net connectivity of some of the aged – some are/were not even able to order food on-line.
Then there are the many academics with tenure who are refusing to take classes in person this semester in the USA. On-line teaching is going to develop a lot further.
I fear this will happen. I enjoy a friendly as well as reliable relationship with the pair of doctors where I go. That is part of the value of the treatment.
In the situation of there being no doctors we could use the services of the highly qualified know everything keyboard experts who wanted life to carry on as usual right from the beginning of the virus. They knew so much and would have had no interventions past "You've got this new flu thing, go to the doctor."
I think that you are attributing too much understanding and empathy to Trump. His tweets have never said “go to the doctor”.
I suspect that they would have said something more like “it is Obama’s fault”.
/sarc
That's not actually a bad thing.
I have a watch that measures my heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygenation. Throw in an app that records that info and asks questions about how you feel and sends that to the doctor and then a doctor/nurse can determine if you need to see the doctor or not.
Even without covid this would be a good system to implement.
I'd supply these to all rest home workers – esp if it includes temperature.
Remarkable as these watches can be…we have a reasonably expensive smart watch that also does these things but it records steps..that haven't been taken. Which means it may also record blood pressure that may not be accurate and heart rates that are probably a bit off as well.
I did read up on the devices. The blood pressure and oxgenisation seems to be reasonably accurate.
The heart rate, not so much. I've ended up doing three readings in sequence and then averaging them.
The long term record would be most important but the devices do need to become more accurate as far as heart rate go.
And the steps are way out and not to be taken seriously.
I found the death notice of one of the world's last Waffen-SS soldiers in Geraldine pretty yuck.
How many more of these types did we have here?
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/south-canterbury/former-waffen-ss-officer-dies-96-geraldine
.
Was he one of the world's last Waffen-SS soldiers per se ? or one of the world's last Waffen-SS soldiers specifically in Geraldine ? … if the latter then it sounds like the South Canterbury Township might have been a more popular bolthole for Nazis than the whole of South America.
By my reckoning, that leaves just 6 remaining SS, 4 Gestapo & 2 SD Stormtroopers left in the secret Geraldine refuge-hideaway … along with 3 remaining Mussolini Blackshirts in the nearby Italian Fascist stronghold of Temuka.
There’s a plausible theory that Hitler & Von Ribbentrop are still holed up in Gore with a bottle of whisky & a couple cyanide pills. But if it’s ac hoice between Gore & suicide you’d think they would’ve gone for the latter.
LMAO
Ha – it's like the opposite of an Easter Egg hunt. The trouble is that we have a different sort of diseased person that afflicts our souls, sort of passe' trying to eliminate these old germs, when there is a new lot of people as diseased in the mind circulating everywhere.
Brighten up with Crosby SNY Southern Cross – maybe we can sail away from the bad old world to something good leaving the dirty dealers streaked behind us like a comet trail burning up in our wake.
Some good words from Southern Cross for those seeking the real New Zealand.
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You understand now why you came this way
'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' day
From someone who has never visited Gore, I'd guess
gold
Visited a week ago, great meal at a local restaurant then went to a NZIFF screening of Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band at the St James theatre. More class and culture there than long standing mythology would lead anyone to believe.
Good country music comes from around Gore and they have an interesting art collection. I know those things about Gore. Don't think it's Ruddygore as Gilbert and Sullivan put it.
To divert. This is Ruddigore from the Minack Theatre. Amazing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minack_Theatre
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5gcGcxREA71uJW7vR5at7P2M5Pwk_8_5
And further:
Anyone read Derek Tangye's stories about his Cornwall time there with wife Jean? Delightful, a very loving relationship in a picturesque setting, growing flowers mainly for the London market.
(https://www.pinterest.es/pin/384987468144984988/
https://alchetron.com/Derek-Tangye
On Google about Derek – Derek Tangye was educated at Harrow and subsequently worked as a journalist on national newspapers. During the war and afterwards he was a member of MI5, before he and Jeannie moved to Minack. Jeannie died in 1986 and Derek in 1996.
But as I look through the info about them, I find them outed as spies to Russia!! (It isn't amazing that people believe conspiracy theories as we live the White Queen's situation of believing six impossible things before breakfast.)
But in 1949, to the total astonishment of friends and colleagues, including stars Danny Kaye, Noel Coward, Tyrone Power and Bing Crosby, the Tangyes suddenly abandoned their life as one of London's most glamorous couples and moved to a broken-down cottage in Cornwall.
The revelation that they were spying for the Soviets suggests they may have been living in fear of exposure and quit London before their treachery was discovered.
According to the secret Soviet file, they continued spying long after their self-imposed 'retirement', maintaining many valuable connections vital for Moscow but keeping out of the way of MI5 spycatchers. http://not4attribution.blogspot.com/2014/05/spies-princess-margarets-butler-and-top.html
And while they were feeding the Russians (bosh or borscht?) they may have been providing a service for MI5 – we must not forget the double-switch with 'watchers'. My money would be on that, a valuable but easy to refute way of maintaining some sort of intelligence balance. Intelligent? Could be.
Tell me more of what you know about the suicide rate in Gore.
It is not cluster or hotspot to the best of my knowledge. I don't come from Gore, and I shouldn't react to unjustified cheapshots but someone has to stand up for the place. Yes, I know it’s satire but I don’t joke about suicides. Other than that I love Swordfish's posts 🙂
Poor old Denis Glover – was he thinking of this when he wrote sardonically:
"I dream of what may yet be seen / in Johnsonville and Geraldine"
Is Herman Goering in Johnsonville? It is part of the Ohariu electorate and Herman was known as something of a dandy. (Now scanning the photographic archive for any images of him wearing a bow tie, bouffant hairdo etc..)
That was quite an impressive diversion, from a post expressing disgust about us harbouring and delivering glowing whitewashed obituaries for an actual Nazi, turning it into a slagfest on Gore.
Yet the left gives safe harbour to any number of openly unapologetic marxists. Even here at TS they're either indulged as 'harmless' relics, or we leave unchallenged their endless weasel excuses about why every actual marxist state has been a humiliating, dangerous and miserable failure.
It's cheap and rewarding to do outrage at right wing fascists and race supremacists, but the willful hypocrisy of also remaining blind to those who go too far on the left does rather invite a some pointed mockery IMHO.
"Yet the left gives safe harbour to any number of openly unapologetic marxists"..what is even more surprising around here is the number of unapologetic free market liberals who still have the gall to call themselves Left.
It must be tough, being "the only leftie in the village".
"It must be tough, being "the only leftie in the village".
No it isn't… though it is quite sad seeing so many good people being first blinded then turned by the greed mechanism that is inbuilt into the very heart of the ideology of liberalism… witnessing them abandoning bit by bit their core principles and critical thinking abilities to justify to their inner being the reason that they now follow an ideology that they know deep inside is one of insatiable and ultimately suicidal endless growth regardless of the consequences to humans or the planet….that part is a bit hard at times Tbh.
But I consol myself by just being grateful that I haven’t succumbed to the undeniable allure of that short term free market liberalism trap….that will leave most of our children and grandchildren never owning their own home and without long term job security etc and so forth.
If that's an attempt to segue into another crack at BLM for being marxist, I think you're a long way off the mark on that one. This Politico piece explains why and delves into the background of how that "BLM is marxist " thing came about as a Repug attempt to damp down the heat they were getting over it.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/10/elections-republicans-black-lives-matterbacklash-389906
What I find funny is that "Marxist" covers everything from Stalinism to Democratic Socialism and a few more mild flavours at that. I can understand why the yanks shit a brick at the mere word, but anyone with a glancing knowl;edge of the history of the NZLP should know better.
It's foolishness of barely undergraduate level – probably inspired by Jordan Peterson. If I can blame Marx for Stalinism, can I also blame Jesus for the Spanish Inquisition and Nietzsche for the Holocaust?
It is, however, convenient for people whose real issue is with the name of the movement but can't express that without coming across as more than a bit racist.
AB Your argument seems to be logical. But who am I to attempt my individual understanding when there are so many learned people here. Perhaps there could be a hold on ordinary transmission of political theoretical jibes until after the election. Does anyone know whether there is going to be an attempt by Nats and JC to bring the Court into delaying the election? Please correct me severely if that has been discussed elsewhere and direct me to it. Thanks.
probably inspired by Jordan Peterson.
I read Gulag Archipelago shortly after it was first published, and my first trip to Russia was 20 years ago. That was the one when I got to visit the Gulag Museum at Perm. Peterson merely puts the case, a case I had long believed, far more eloquently than I could.
As for your 'undergraduate foolishness' crack, I can only note that it was the so-called intellectual left in Europe and America who were most completely sucked in by Stalin for decades, obdurately refusing to acknowledge the undeniable and inescapable suffering of those who died by the tens of millions in his Marxist utopia.
And now the truth cannot be whitewashed away, they pretend "it wasn't real marxism". After my experiences I read that with the same gut reaction as if someone tried to defend National Socialism by claiming "Hitler wasn't a real nazi'.
I've previously linked to the 2015 video where one of the two co-founders openly and unambiguously describes both of themselves as "trained marxists" and links this training to their motivation and vision for the organisation they were creating.
Case closed.
Mind closed.
Bravo, scintillating and convincing argument there.
Many millions of people who have visited the Holocaust memorial's at Auschwitz come away from the experience with not only a deep emotional impact, but a much broader understanding of exactly what happened. In one sense it opens their minds and hearts, and in another it creates a determination to draw a line in the political sands, a boundary that says fascism and race supremacy theories are unquestionably off limits.
I never really planned to go to Perm, it was a spur of the moment decision based on a chance conversation I had while on the train returning from a work trip. It's the same experience as Auschwitz, but one that's far less accessible to most Westerners, and it's spare grim horror remains a chill memory.
And again the more recent trip to Magadan was another work trip commissioning a gold processing plant at Polyus. The highway you travel on to get from Magadan to site (it's a long trip) is known as the "Road of Bones". You have to be oblivious to history not to feel something of the past slipping into your soul, while riding on that bus.
Whether these experiences (and others) opened my mind to marxism, or closed it off, is a semantic debate you are free to have with yourself.
There is obviously no point in trying to argue with you. You have made up your mind that Marxist equals Holocaust, as you demonstrate again. Others here have an education.
It was the 'educated' left wing intellectual elites of Europe and America who were sucked in by Stalin for decades.
As any conman will tell you, their lies only succeed because their victims want them to be true.
Marxist equals Holocaust
And here you make a foolish undergraduate mistake in drawing an equivalence between two things in different categories. Marxism is a political theory, the Holocaust was an event. They cannot be logically compared.
On the other hand I am drawing an explicit equivalence between marxism and fascism, and if you wish between the stalags and the gulags.
yawn.
I was kinda hoping someone else that actually wanted the argument today was going to pick up on this other aspect of that comment about "the left" and TS harbouring marxists: it's a helluva false equivalence between disgust at the idea of harbouring a former actual serving nazi, and allowing keyboard warriors to express their opinions and desires without feeling the need to pull them up by their shorts every time they do, no matter how loony-left or marxist or maoist or stalinist they may be.
Because they weren't Marxist. This has been explained – in excruciating detail.
No true Scotsman …
That applies until it doesn't. After all, you really can't call a dog a cat.
One writer claimed that Adolf died in 1964 in Patagonia. It has always been suspicious that the Russians won't allow anyone access to his alleged corpse.
Looks like he was part of the 2nd Waffen SS Division Das Reich, judging by where he said he fought, that Div. gained a pretty brutal record of atrocities in France and who knows what the fuck they got up to in Russia! They also earned themselves an extremely formidable combat record as well.
Not sure if you can condemn all members of the Waffen SS outright, most were just plain combat troops like the troops of other nations, though maybe more ideological, especially during the first few years of the war…even Gunter Grass ended up as a member.
The Waffen SS demanded a bit more loyalty then the regular conscript into the Wehrmacht.
As for his claim 'i did not know' fuck him, There is enough photographic evidence to point out his lying, both as for the atrocities committed against Russians, Poles, Jews and anyone else in between but also of the hanging of conscripted Germans on the road side trees for cowardice and treason.
He seems to have kept the rallies to a tolerable minimum.
The Chesswas Letter
(A local National Party official has written to leader Judith Collins with an impassioned plea for the party to oppose Covid-19 restrictions.)
“This election, more than ever, National has nothing to lose. We need to sack the media-doting risk-averse PR-"guru" advisors and pollsters we have relied on for too long, who focus on only only that portion of Kiwis with an overblown sense of trust in a media that is driven by and feeds human anxieties more than facts and truth,” Chesswas wrote.
He said National should align itself with the New Conservatives, who are arguing against the new lockdown, and the New Zealand Public Party, whose co-leader has suggested the “plandemic” is a bioweapon.
Experts have condemned the New Zealand Public Party for spreading this theory, which does not have a basis in fact.
”We needs to start sounding like the principled freedom loving right wing Kiwis that are the backbone of our party,” Chesswas wrote."
Assuming that Cheswas is for real, are we surprised? Would Cheswas applaud another outbreak of infection?
Oops! Forgot the link, sorry:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300082468/coronavirus-national-party-local-official-urges-party-to-oppose-lockdowns-as-breach-of-human-rights
"
Allan Chesswas, chair of the Stratford branch, wrote to Collins, party president Peter Goodfellow, and several other MPs late on Thursday night asking the party oppose Covid-19 lockdown and stop buying into what he called the “overblown drama” surrounding the virus."
So, not surprised. As to the last question, I'd hate to speculate.
Obviously a prime candidate to replace the recently departed 'Merv'.
There's no end of them, apparently…
So the pressure this disease has provided, shows clearly that we have small but quite deranged groups of people who do not believe in community. Forewarned is forearmed.
Many have outed themselves as not community minded win at any cost and bring the government into disrepute and practicing the dark art of Dirty Politics.
We are getting a clear picture of who to trust.
These people have no power so sabotaging the 5 millions effort blackmailing NZers.for their pathetic 15 mins of fame.
These people should be treated as terrorist's as they are putting everyone's health at risk,likely to lead to unnecessary deaths overloading and damaging our health system.
Media Watch on NZR has just dealt with the huge growth of the Conspiracy theories which is muddying the Covid waters. Very tricky.
I think it was this one.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018759504/covid-19-confronting-the-deluge-of-conspiracies-over-the-latest-lockdown
who are you talking about Patricia? The National Party?
Patricia said "small but quite deranged" – so it could be National. "Small, but perfectly deranged" would be ACT.
ab 631
Its not just that they don't believe in community but that they also believe that they are more important than anyone else and that their reckons are gospel.
Jack Tame is giving Judith Collins a grilling on TV 1. She has obviously had some PR training and is keeping her voice low and speech slow ; not lurching into her usual fish wife style of conversation.
Judith's eyebrows were up, too.
She doesn’t know which one is up and which one is down so the default position is both up. Just watch for the smug semi-smirk.
her usual fish wife style
????
I know a lot of fishermen's wives. None of them are remotely as nasty or dishonorable as Judith Collins.
Back in the days of the Bolger/Shipley maladministration, Winston Peters used to abuse fishwives in order to make a point. Whenever the late great Whanganui M.P. Jill Pettis interjected during one of his speeches, he'd say: "It's market day."
Heh, that's Impedimenta isn't it (Vitalstatistix wife)? Greatest (if very un PC) name. I love those books!
Don't forget Getafix!
“Getafix (or, in some translations, Magigamix, French: Panoramix) ”
https://asterix.fandom.com/wiki/Getafix
I have a soft spot for Dogmatix.
Yes – the dog pun makes it even better than the French original (Idéefix).
That is a synonym for dogmatique, and many French people learnt at school the English word dog… A very clever comic book series.
Simplicity – the Winner
Covid- 19 seems to have some people in an understandable "What The Hec" mode. "We are condemned forever". We have to wash our hands. Keep a distance. Get Check ups. Avoid Transmission. Oh Poor us. tch tch tch
I dont think we are in great difficulty. 102 days without any Trouble. Currently much much less today.
Strangely enough, the main worriers are the so called people who keep the Economy going. They are bleeding at the corners of their eyes and heart and every other little doggy bit.
Month after month the wealthy are nagging "What about the Economy" ? night and day.
The Vaccines are not yet available. As happens with Viruses. For Virus are living things and they keep a deep control on their living structures.
Equally, we humans have learnt over time how to cope with the Virus enemy. Right back from the Spanish Collapse and dreadful other Viruses.
We, the Simple People, are following our wonderful Leaders – Jacinda Ardern, Doctor Bloomfield, Chris Hipkins, Testing staff. And the Sciences.
Our economy is working if our Foreign Banks allow. If all of us follow our Leaders. And if the Wealthy get off their comforts and stop nagging.
The very Elderly, will do as they do day in and day out. They will thank Mother Earth on their death bed. For they are robust Kiwi and Whenua and Family.
My heart sobs for those who have plenty and that they are being restricted by a pandemic in increasing their wealth.
Losing money may as well be a disease to those with enough who are complaining.
The population question (for NZ)
"The reality of New Zealand’s primary production exports is that the natural resource set is already close to fully used, with environmental sustainability issues already of major importance. There will still be some technological advances that can contribute to improved production and productivity, but it is going to be hard work.
In relation to population issues, the bottom line has to be that if New Zealand’s population continues to track upwards at rates similar to the last decade, then land-based exports can only decline on a per capita basis. Where will the new exports come from to pay for imports items for which New Zealand is poorly positioned? That issue has to be brought forward into any immigration debate"
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/106554/any-debate-immigration-has-consider-fixed-natural-resources-have-be-spread-across
Its said we currently produce enough food for 20 million people and as Keith Woodford notes we are pretty much at maximum output, difficult improvement aside….with primary production and migration of our two pronged approach to non NZD earnings and one prong badly blunted for the foreseeable (if not permanently) then simple arithmetic suggests any increase in population will provide a corresponding decrease in offshore purchasing power and consequently a loss of national wealth and living standards regardless of distribution issues or demographics
Interesting facts that keep breaking through the fog of other considerations. The most important get pushed aside.
Pat, quite right and not to mention that the best land for growing food is used for housing. Stupidity has no bounds.
Short term growth through population increase is no more sustainable than the carbon economy.
Ah, someone's finally starting to notice the actual economics of our nation and not just the delusional finances that has been the bedrock of government policy for decades.
Which is why Maori should do some work in their community to prevent this, because when MOH is accused of racism for moving to quarantine people infected in the community (only when brown skinned people are the ones being infected) it invites resistance to public safety policy. Seeking a working relationship with MOH cuts both ways.
They are. Doing work in their own community. Some are reminding their people about the 1918 pandemic & the cost to Maori, not all Maori are conspiracy nutters, in fact the 'protest' in Whangarei was pathetically attended, it's just the keyboard fantasists stirring shit that makes them more prominent than they are. Of course, as we see in the USA this shit is dangerous, the qAnon Republican candidate in Georgia is utterly terrifying. WTF is going on? As if there isn't enough crap to deal with right now.
You have a Moderation note waiting for you here: https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-14-08-2020/#comment-1741513. Please respond, thanks.
I'm worried that Big Brown hasn't drawn attention to the unusual delay in announcing the Lotto results. It's interesting is all I'm saying. Does Big Brown know something?
It is all very convenient isn't it Gabby? That's all I'll say but someone should resign over this, where's that RW journo when you need him.
It's really really spooky eh @ Gabs. In a similar 'vein' I'd really really like to know what Billy TK senior thinks of his junior. The disenfranchised of course are open to "draining the swanp" more than most, and its unfortunate that Labour hasn't picked up on this in any useful sort of way (in this space, going forward) – pragmatic incrementalism and all I 'spose prevents it and there's a heap of consultants, media analYsts, ditherers and various other hangers-on that need their tickets to be clipped.
I guess we'll see in the fullness of time. Of course the senior naturally loves the produce of his loins – and of course he always was a better guitarist.
" Does Big Brown know something?"
Ordinarily, he claims to know nuffink, but here he's implying he knows everyfink, but won't say nuffink and that listeners are free to make up anyfink they want, so long that it hurts Jacinda's reputation. Big Brown then, appears to be a fink!
"Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion."
– Barry Lopez
Sorry Weka, was skyping elderly friends on the Sunshine Coast.
The groups are varied. Out Doors Group which seems to have a vocal American voice shouting "Freedom" slogans, Billy Te Kahika with his conspiracy theory party, Facebook users abusing the current covid victims, Gerry Brownlee firing his bosses DP bullets, among others. There are good people in National, and many are onboard with the Health requirements to contain this virus. What we do regarding the dangerous minority is hard to know. Positions are hardening imo
It gets worse.
It’s not clear what set off the police chase, but Slyman appears to have been convinced by QAnon theories that the government was out to kidnap his children. Inspired by videos he had watched online, Slyman warned his children during the chase that the police were coming to abduct them—or maybe just shoot them in a staged killing. In return, they begged him to pull over. His daughter even tried to grab the wheel of the minivan and drive it off the road after he accused her and his wife, who had dived out of the vehicle at the start of the chase, of being agents of the nefarious cabal that QAnon believers say controls the world.
“They want to make us crazy,” Slyman said, “but I’m not crazy. My wife and my daughter were a part of it.”
http://archive.li/hXVPH (dailybeast)
I still can not get my reply button to work. Lenovo on vodafone.
From openDemocracy
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/government-u-turning-on-the-u-turn-on-local-covid-contact-tracing/
"If you buy something and it's not delivered, you wouldn't buy it again. Right?
Not, it seems, if you're the UK government and one of your mates or top donors is selling it.
We've just uncovered how two giant firms – Serco and Sitel – have landed lucrative deals to continue running NHS Track and Trace, despite major failures.
Serco and Sitel are reaching less than half of the people they're supposed to be contacting. They're charging £900 per person traced. Experts have branded it a 'disaster'.
Yet now they're getting up to £520 million to carry on – while councils mopping up their failures get no extra cash. Why?"
Cui bono?
Sounds like a Right Royal jackup.
National is to release their Covid Policy later this week according to Collins.
They could claim impossible restrictions because they don't have to action their policy. Things like testing every "frontline staff" weekly. Firing every staff member who slips up. Publishing every bit of information that is not now being published. Demanding that any virus carrier be exposed and named as a carrier. Demanding that the frontline team declares exactly where an infection came from. Compulsory masks. Compulsory everything.
Demanding that Dr Reti follows Collins position on virus and fire him if he acts in a reasoned manner against the greater Collins knowledge.
There are snags when it comes to testing, waiting for the result, being a close contact with a negative result, time isolating and front line testing.
Getting the who, when, why and how tested is important?
Throw the politics away as they are mudding the waters. The priority is elimination and for every political party to strive for this. The country will know when elimination cannot be achieved.
1. Am I correct that if a contact of a cluster a person has to stay home until the result is known and even if a negative result the person has to isolate for a total of 14 days?
2. Am I correct that if no symptoms and not a close contact and you had a test that you do not need to stay at home?
3. Or if no test done and a contact from a cluster then you need to isolate for 14 days?
4. I expect that if a negative result and then you become unwell that you can get retested.
Monique Hanotte: The teenage Belgian spy who walked 140 airmen to freedom.
Monique (Henriette) turns 100 years old with an inspiring story of courage and selflessness as a young woman assisting the Comet Line.
" With the benefit of 75 years of hindsight, Monique remains insistent that she didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. "
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/monique-hanotte-teenage-belgian-spy-walked-140-airmen-freedom/
PaddyOT, @ 19 Monique was working for the greater good, so she sees herself as a small cog in a big wheel
Currently we have too many thinking their own good is important, and they are happy to jam the wheel of greater good with self interest
The same thoughts when posting the story. The idea that examples of selflessness might become more scarce as the past's ' heroes' from all walks disappear and the outlook if societies become driven by self first attitudes is concerning.
Winston has read my comment on here yesterday, and is now calling for Oct 17 as the election date. Presumably he's doing a Bridges, and trying to score points by calling for something he already expects to be announced.
Safe prediction: PM will announce the delay at 10 a.m. tomorrow, and we'll have a silly game of "told you so" by various politicians.
It will make no difference to the election outcome, which is all that matters.
He's also trying to distract from the indirect lashing he got from Chippie this afternoon regarding the spreading of fake news.
He's claiming the GG "should know" the majority of Parliament don't support a Sept 19 election date but since when has it been Parliament's decision? And how on earth does he know a majority of Parliament supports a delay?
It says everything about NZF's irrelevance now, that he is giving a press conference and nobody is bothering to carry it live.
Unbelievable he's trying to strong-arm the Governor General. He knows he's finished.
Thomas Coughlan is as bewildered as the rest of us.
It's apparently automatic for the GG to issue the writ as soon as the PM decides on the date.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12356049
Peters is inferring a majority for the latest date possible means a later date should be chosen.
That would not influence a GG, the Electoral Commission is the body repsonsible for the election once the date is decided and the writ issued automatically afterward.
With parliament no longer standing Peters cannot propose a no confience motion to form an election date coalition (Seymour Peters Collins in no particular order),
Its mere electioneering. If for example there was another outbreak in November parliament would have to recovence to authorise by 2/3 majority an election next year.
The PM is still quite free to decide.
For mine, she could extend the date out 2-4 weeks (longer to cover uncertainty about how long it will take to close this down), and allow a longer period of early voting at level 2 and a slower campaign at Level 2
(presumption Auckland will go to Level 2 for 2 weeks after the 2 at Level3)
It willl still be the Electoral Commission who decide if it can be held on the day. I'm not sure what happens if they do not hold it in the day and early voting has already begun. Just keep early voting available until a Saturday can be used?
Winston's your fanboy following your posts, awww jealous !
Despite me not wanting to hear much from experts, here's a good Skegg article on RNZ. He says of a Hong Kong colleague involved with SARS 1:
I'm in Auckland and there's not a lot of mask wearing. I don't wear one outside but I do whenever I go inside with the rest of the unwashed. I'd say mask wearing in Auckland indoor public places is still only 30-40%.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423630/covid-19-how-new-zealand-can-avoid-lockdowns-in-the-future
I think the mask wearing request is starting to get through in Auckland. I’ve just been to the Mt Eden Countdown and I’d say 80% of the queue were masked. I always have mine with me but I don’t wear it if I’m out walking alone and not getting within 2 metres of anyone. I use it for crowded pavements and shops and will presumably use it on the bus when we go back to work.
Hope you are right. I still see a lot of people in close contact situations not doing it.
National Party voters.
Rimmer wants 4 weeks at L1 before the election date.
But here's the thing, L1 didn't really work.
L1 gives us a false sense of security so we shouldn't really be going back to L1 until there's a vaccine, or at least better treatment and testing, and better compliance.
Curious Rimmer is now on board with levels and such after rubbishing the entire government approach in favour of throwing the vulnerable under the Covid bus.
Also, I would have thought Rimmer would want an election asap as his stock has never been higher.
Level 1 is fine. It stops worry fatigue, and lets the country exist as normally as possible.
We have a single cluster. Big deal. We've adjusted our conditions to match the threat. When that cluster is eliminated, we'll go back to level 1. When the vaccine comes and is distributed, we'll go back to level zero.
I'd like to see better direction under L1 next time. The Nats and Barry Soper whinged about Covid info being broadcast as a way to keep the populace under Ardern's control!
But it's clear lots of people need reminding.
The mistake we made at was, people
Not able to edit.
The mistake we made at level 1 was that people were complacent about testing for COV2 because they presumed it would be cold or flu. Such self isolation is not good enough because of family contact spread and delay in finding out it is back.
That's true. It's also another reason to delay (for a short period).
It's a sad certainty that when gov't announces a reduction in the level, PM will be accused of politicking, she'll say it was on DG's advice, opposition will insinuate DG is biased, etc, etc.
Better if that doesn't happen a week before the election.
What has it got to do with election timing? Maybe L3 will be an issue, but if it's back to L2/1 by september, no worries
If we delayed an election until the country was at Level 1, we could be leading the world into an era without elections for 1-2 years. With the US election coming up, its an example Trump would cite again and again.
Come on, Trump (and his potential voters) don't know or care what happens in a small European country near Germany called Noo Zeeland.
lol the number of yanks and brits who were sudden twitter experts on our nation beg to differ.
Can somebody please ask him when the whole of the country will be back at L1? Or should we ask the virus?
Can they please also ask him what should happen if there’s another step-up in Alert Levels somewhere in the country?
If extra time and a delay will play in the hands of National, will it also benefit ACT?
I’d think that voters want some sense of clarity and certainty. Shifting election dates is ‘shifty’ behaviour, politically speaking. However, voters also like fairness and possibly care less about legitimacy. So, what’s fair and what’s legitimate?
When the PM writes the writ, how might that affect any possible step-ups in Alert Levels between now and Election Day? The election campaigns of political parties should not take precedent over or come at the expense of measures to keep all of us safe.
And of course it's the government that decides levels.
"New poll out, Labour down, announce return to level 2".
Just get Seymour to sign a document saying "I hereby declare election null and void in the event of a single positive case of the virus, within one month of scheduled election. Until then government rules indefinitely, with my blessing". That should shut him up.
Seymour is all about freedom, which means freedom from responsibility, and he’ll never sign a document that will put the weight of the nation on his shoulders. He’s all show and only good for show, on TV. Bunch of self-serving nihilists 🙁
+1. I meant to add that Seymour's approach is entirely dependent on what the virus does rather than what people can take control of.
Exactly! It’s no way to plan the Election or govern the country. Might as well read the tealeaves, if we were to follow Seymour’s ‘lead’.
We already have too much uncertainty due to lockdowns, and the overall effects of the closed border, et cetera. Businesses are facing going belly-up and people are in fear of losing their jobs. School students are looking at 2020 as a very disruptive year, one that will follow them for years to come.
I wish the current crop of MPs would stop thinking about themselves, less about their own interests, and more about the five million people in this country, many of who have it much tougher than any MP.
Only 5 out of 17 households on Arden Street, Gate Pa vote National/ACT.
Look at that, 29%.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/122422822/ardern-family-plea-after-46year-promise-to-correct-a-tauranga-street-typo-unfulfilled
Now imagine what it might be like for Māori, who don't just have 1 misspelled place name, but likely thousands dotted around the country.
Short thread on the Lebanon/Hezbollah snafu.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1293624764322414592.html
The problem with that thread is that it assumes that FDI is necessary and is thus the reason for the reform that the author wants.
"Ardern’s political style rests on her personal appeal, but it has also been criticised as superficial – or, as Bill English put it, “stardust”."
Bill "Fence Post" English. Respected authority on Dipton, sheep, dipping sheep and double-dipping, reckons the Prime Minister's essential quality is "stardust". We are stardust, Bill, as Joni Mitchell so elegantly sang.
"and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."
Great song, beautifully sung, and the science of the words “we are stardust” is so far advanced in its grasp of the universe.
Then the reference above, (following the line ‘we are stardust, we are golden”), which I read as meaning getting back to simplicity and back to what is important, a vital message post-Covid 19.
Incredible song. I take that line to be about that generation taping into the potential spirit of humanity. We've lost so much since then.
I agree about the simplicity message, and what is needed how.
Bills just Jealous cos he was a 3 times bridesmaid, PM 3 times but was never ever, ever, ever, voted into the position by the people of NZ.
Bill knows that, but still wonders why
Powerful Kiwirail campaign here.
https://www.nearmisses.co.nz
Can't figure that M. What does it say? Looks about crossing smashes.
It's to draw attention to the high danger around the many level crossings in this country, and to the impact near misses have on train drivers' mental health.
Lotto seems to have fallen off its perch of trust.
Proud anti-gambler in all its forms here and I think funding of community sports etc needs to be revisited.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12356935
Doesn't sound like it. Just sounds like their computers got swamped as more people than expected signed in to buy online rather than going to the store.
FDA approved fast and cheap saliva test .
twitter thread makes for interesting reading
https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1294654256763609090
that's very cool, and was a great read thanks.
"National Australia Bank Ltd on Friday urged customers at high risk of default on their loans to sell their properties sooner rather than later, as it reported ballooning credit impairment charges during the quarter."
https://www.reuters.com/article/nab-results/update-2-australias-nab-urges-high-risk-clients-to-sell-homes-soon-idUSL4N2FG06O
whither Australia goes NZ follows