Money quote (literally), to keep in mind for all those posts Farrar writes about how it’s really the rich people who pay all the taxes:
… figures from Inland Revenue’s high wealth individuals unit found more than a third of this group [New Zealanders worth more than $50 million] declared income less than $70,000 in 2015. The 252 individuals were linked to 7500 entities, some of whom are in dispute with the agency over nearly $111 million in tax.
“It blamed big business and the extremely wealthy for the growing discrepancy, saying they fuelled the inequality crisis by avoiding taxes, driving down wages for their workers and the prices paid to producers and investing less in their businesses.”
Well if you want to see exactly how extremely crazy and reactionary the rich and their media servants get if any politician even suggests limiting the flow of money upwards,then just google this.. ‘Corbyn income cap’ ..and witness the media frenzy, obviously there is to be no meaningful conversation around wealth inequality…just shut it down is the medias first and only reaction.
I am not saying I support or don’t support this income cap proposal, I am just saying look at the reaction….brutal and decisive.
I know. I’ve said it often enough here and it’s obvious that even those on the Left don’t agree with me despite all the evidence showing having rich people is bad for society.
Greed wins out even for those who say that they want an egalitarian society.
Well, you know, once Joyce and friends start being challenged in the public arena over their many and varied spurious claims, they start refusing to give interviews, and declining to front up altogether. Just ask John Campbell. No, they’re far more comfortable with tame interviewers who don’t ask the prickly questions and are less likely to humiliate them in public.
Joyce and tame interviews is a must for Natioanal’s pr campaign, especially if one listens to the weekly Joyce and Annette King segment with Hoskings on radio. How pathetic it is with Hoskings, supposedly being the “unbiased moderator” Yeah Right, what a sicko the man is.
I remember watching Key’s Hard Talk interview with Stephen Sackur. Our ex-PM limped away from that one with a bloody nose and a black eye, and given his talent for glib non-answers and evasion, it was poetry in motion. Less able charlatans like Joyce, Bennett and Brownlee would be crucified in a similar situation.
But no, with ‘true believers’ like Michael Hosking conducting the interrogation, they’ve nothing at all to worry about.
Yeh, Hosking and Henry both pretty despicable characters, but did you catch Gareth Morgan on Henry’s show? ..it was a beaut, resulting in this classic from Morgan…
“I’m about making New Zealand fair,” said Morgan. “You’re self-centred and you don’t give a toss about being fair in New Zealand.”
I stopped watching the Paul Henry Show some time ago. The man is an absolute clown, I don’t understand how he can get away with his biased and self-centered attitude. Nice to see someone like Morgan put Henry in his place. Cheers.
Well, I can’t speak for Paul, but for myself, yes, I do hate the rich. Self-serving, opportunistic, grabbing and largely irrelevant – they are a blot on any democracy!
This is not the NZ I grew up in, I am ashamed to say! The sooner we tax the bastards back to a reasonable level, and spread the wealth of society more equally, the better EVERYONE will be!
However we have a problem and it’s undermining our potential.
As a nation, we could be doing so much better.
An OECD report says: “rising inequality has wiped a third off New Zealand’s economic growth in recent decades.
New Zealand’s economy should have grown by nearly 44 per cent between 1990 and 2010, but a widening gap between the haves and have-nots saw it grow by only 28 per cent, according to the report.
The 15.5 percentage points New Zealand lost to inequality was the highest in the developed world.
Inequality was also found to have knocked 11 points off growth in Mexico, nearly 9 points in the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway and between 6 and 7 points in the United States, Italy and Sweden.
On the other hand, greater equality before the global financial crisis helped increase GDP per capita in Spain, France and Ireland.
The OECD has called for higher taxes and more redistribution of wealth to combat inequality, which it found was damaging the economic performance of most developed nations.”
Steven Joyce said it was inevitable some people would be more successful than others, which of course highlights his poor understanding of the problem.
Of course some will be more successful than others. The problem is the balance in income structures has become excessively imbalanced.
The pay difference between your average worker and your top executives has become far too extreme.
This is being compounded by the ballooning cost of housing adding to net worth while also making it more difficult to put a roof over ones head.
On top of that we have too many tax loopholes, leading to an industry dedicated to tax minimization, allowing businesses and individuals to avoid paying their fare share.
So not only are those at the top end being paid excessively more, a number of them are paying far less in tax. Weakening the Government’s capability to redistribute the wealth.
The weakening of Unions has also added to the income imbalance.
Therefore, it’s clear there are a number of areas that require a rethink to correct this excessive imbalance.
But even that is too simplistic – pretty much everyone who lives past 65, over their lifetime, gets more in benefit then they pay in tax because the most costly time of their life is in their last 6 months of life. By that stage, inflation has made what they paid in tax a pittance.
And it’s not only the cost of the benefit but the value of the benefit. Rich people get more value from the police force than poor people because rich people have more to lose if society became disordered. Rich people get more value from the legal system because they have the money to use it etc
Not true – as in other regimes the rich would just up sticks and live in private compounds while the poorer and middle class would suffer through higher crime etc.
Be interesting to find out how long an old person collects the Super for compared with other benefits. Conceivably they could draw the Super for 25 years…which I imagine is a shit load longer than most on other benefits.
Having said that…I do remember when they started calling the National Superannuation a “benefit” rather than an entitlement. There was an outcry at the time this linguistic manipulation of the national psyche, but it came to nought and “benefit” stuck.
Used to be that you paid your PAYE and a certain % was ringfenced for your future retirement income.
The system is set-up so that when you pay tax you are eventually going to get more benefit than what you put in. That’s because the tax/benefit system is adjusted for people’s life course. It makes no sense to call people “takers” and “makers” at one particular point in time because pretty much anyone living until 65 is going to be a net taker.
define folk
define more benefits then they pay in tax
are you speaking of Landlords who receive rent income that is actually financed by the Accommodation Supplement given to people who can’t afford basic housing?
are you speaking of People who recieve a food voucher which they will spend in a few Governmnet selected and favored businesses?
are you speaking of People who are homeless and are ‘housed’ by a Government agency in Motels for usurious prices that have been ‘negotiated’ with the Government agency / minister in charge?
are you speaking of People who receive unemployment benefits that they only receive because they lost a job and thus have paid taxes previously?
are you speaking of People who receive a single parent benefit, who may or may not be divorced, separated, widowed or ‘single’, and who may or may not work a few hours a week, or who may or may not have a special needs child at home and who need the benefit for the children?
are you speaking of People who are sick, may undergo treatment but need to be on the ‘Job Seekers Benefit’ cause we don’t have no more sickness benefit?
whom are you speaking of?
and are you aware that people on any benefit pay GSt on their income recieved? Or that they may be taxed Income Tax?
or do you just feel that the poor rich people of this country really are just hard done by and should just simply not pay tax at all cause Rich?
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
Instead of trying to tear folk down I would prefer constructive figures and Mpledger is obviously correct with the examples. The more affluent have the cash to employ accountants to keep their tax obligations down. While those without accept cash-in-hand to evade their obligations. “He without sin cast the first stone”
Apart from the fact that if a poor person evades tax, they spend it on food. If a rich person fiddles the books, they spend it on luxuries. And benefit fraudsters receive harsher penalties than tax fraudsters who fiddle the same amount.
But your personal preference for figures for people who receive more in benefits than they pay in tax says it all. You don’t care if they need those benefits to live in a rest home at a young age because of a head injury, or if they have some other problem that would make them “deserving poor”. It just pisses you off that some people live below ther poverty line on the government dime.
Going after beneficiaries is the punitive equivalent of harvesting the low-hanging fruit. They usually have minimal resources, are unfamiliar with our labyrinthine legal system, often unaware of their rights and are generally vilified by Joe Public. It also enables the government to claim they’re doing something to combat “scrounging bludgers who steal from hard-working tax-payers”.
Conversely, going after wealthy individuals and organisations, given their extensive networks of influence and vast resources, is frequently an expensive and difficult exercise with no guarantee of success. It’s easier to just leave all that in the too hard basket and keep pointing the finger at those dirty benes.
Joe Carolan, standing for the Mt Albert electorate as a socialist, has a qu&a now up on The Daily Blog”. Beware, Carolan uses the “l” word (not the lesbian word – the other word) as a criticism.
I think we need to have an alternative to that political class, that elite, and it needs to be led by working people themselves, the community themselves. Standing also in solidarity with other cultures. We’re a highly multicultural area here, my son goes to Owairaka school, a school of 50-60 cultures. The danger is if we don’t build a movement like that then we’re going to see the rise of a racist movement, what we’re seeing in England and the US, a polarisation of politics. The extreme centre – which is what we’re calling liberals now – cannot hold because it has no answers for the working class.
My bold
Some things Carolan stands for and by:
Parliament won’t change things for the better for working people. It needs a collection of mass movements by the people.
Carolan urges people to get involved in whichever movement they feel most strongly about.
So that’s one major way inequality manifests, the combination of low wages and high rents forcing people out of wonderful communities where they’re lived. Where you have unequal societies, even your middle class suffers – from more crime, more burglaries, more insecurity… I think there’s a growing number of middle class people in this area who worry about poverty, about where we’re going. They would support things like making the minimum wage a living wage, and some form of rent control so we don’t end up in segregated gated communities.
…
First of all, I share that distrust in politicians. When you look at parliamentary questions and see them bickering like schoolchildren, that turns everyone off. And their litany of broken promises. We have no control over these people once they do get elected. They can break every promise they make. And that’s all the major parties. I stand for a different kind of politics, based on people power and social movements themselves:
…
What we’re actually asking people to do is get involved in movements. If you want to fight for rent control, then join the housing movement. If you’re concerned about low pay, join a union. We’ll come and show you how to organise your workplace, how to fight back, get a big pay increase. These things are possible without politicians but it IS politics. Working class politics.
Quite a long q&a – more at the link above.
But he’s still standing for an electorate? Or is it just that he’s using it as a platform to encourage mobilisation of the people?
Edit: Carolan also attacks what he calls Green Party “Eco-facism” – their policy of “sustainable immigration” – Carolan says this is the first step towards Eco-fascism.
“The extreme centre – which is what we’re calling liberals now – cannot hold because it has no answers for the working class.”
Pretty hard to argue with that statement.
who exactly are the “extreme centre”?…and why can they have no answers for the working class?….seems a foolish statement to me given that for every 1000 people in NZ 554 are wage or salary earners…..the extreme centre and the working class would appear to me to have a substantial overlap .
No, because the centre ‘right’ and ‘left’ have at their core the same economic ideology, they in real terms occupy the same space, politically..so Corbyn is just tradition Left, and not hard left as the media make him out to be.
But as the media don’t acknowledge the two centists partys as being the same thing, which of course they wouldn’t, there are no surprises in their position.
ok…the short answer doesn’t address my post at all and i don’t have time to watch the long answer at the moment…how about you answer in your own words?
The “extreme centrte” refers to the dominant political parties, which label themselves as “left” and “right” but follow the same neoliberal agenda, as Olwyn explains below.
The working class – duh, is large numbers of people, not politicians or party members – well a handful of people from the working classes may become politicians: some from the working class (and some from the middle class) may believe that their party will help the working classes.
But if the main pollies and their parties follow neoliberal policies/agenda, then they have nothing to offer the working class – ie majority of people within that class.
The overlap is relatively small, and irrelevant if some working class people subscribe to a party agenda that does nothing for the working class in general.
so the extreme centre are the political parties, not a constituent cohort……think that unless that clear distinction is made (and throwing around the term extreme centre doesn’t do that) then any point attempted to be made around this will be largely dismissed.
Well, I guess it could include people who vote for the “extreme centre” parties.
Many of us think we are not being offered much of a difference between Nat/Labour/maybe Lab-Green; or between Republican/Democrat; or/Tory/Labour; or Aussie coalition/Labour. Though in each pair I’d say they Labour or Green parties are somewhat the better option. But all support the neoliberal agenda pretty much – well maybe not the Corbynistas.
And ultimately, the working classes, the unemployed, people on low incomes, the precariat, etc will continue to suffer, unless there is a true left wing option.
I do think it will need a strong, broad coalition of grass-roots, left wing campaigns and movements to shift political parties and pollies to a truly left wing position.
“Eco-fascists,” ffs. To committed socialists, everyone else is some kind of fascist. I guess I should be glad he restricted himself to “extreme centre” for describing liberals – I was half expecting it to be “liberal fascists.”
I’m also curious as to what kind of voter would try to elect to Parliament someone who thinks it’s a serious mistake to believe change can come “at a Parliamentary level.”
“The Extreme Centre” is a term coined by Tariq Ali, and refers to opposing parties having the same core commitment to a market economy, while maintaining differences in branding. https://www.versobooks.com/books/1943-the-extreme-centre
I think Joe Carolan right about forming and getting involved in movements. Neoliberalism has robbed a large part of the population of a real stake in society, and forming movements is a first step toward making a bid to reclaim it. I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
Agree. So thinking of the union movement (when it was one) or the civil rights movement. Political Parties could ‘ride’ off the back of them in terms of legislation or policy formation, but the movements themselves were much, much broader (and messier in a good way) than anything a party could encapsulate.
Today, maybe momentum in the UK is playing that role to a degree.
In NZ, MANA tripped itself badly as a party by making claims to movement status. The attempt to be both introduces too many contradictions at too many levels to ever get off the ground.
I was thinking it would be nice if Joe showed signs of having understood from his time in MANA that one political entity cannot straddle (cannot be) both of those worlds (the world of political movements and the world of political parties).
So I read the piece looking for pointers, and sadly…
A lot of the parliamentary parties are hollowed out entities, they are not the movements they used to be – National, Labour and even the Greens.
The Labour Party was never a movement. Labour was a movement. The Labour Party was a party.
But maybe I’m putting too much score by a single pronouncement. Maybe it’s not really indicative of his thoughts and was a slip or just an unfortunate use of shorthand.
It’s probably charitable to regard the Joe quote as shorthand 🙂 I agree with you about not conflating a political movement with a parliamentary party, and am reminded of Roosevelt’s saying of the New Deal, “you make me do it”, meaning “I need pressure from the outside to get this through.” A strong movement from outside of parliament helps a political wing to fend off the counter-pressures that arise from within it.
Yes well it is a recipe for failure, but I wouldn’t totally mock rebranding, if properly executed. We’re not playing policy for the next day to 6 months, you should be trying to advertise policy that lands in the week leading up to early votes start pouring in. These types of analysis are tough to do, even the best prognosticators only get 6 out of ten calls right. But rebranding properly executed this way is a huge moral booster.
I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
And good so. Best of luck to them all. But when it comes to political parties, for those of us who prefer to deal with the real, actually-existing world rather than utopias that could possibly come to exist if everyone else shared our ideology, the “extreme centre” Labour and Green parties with their shameful “core commitment to a market economy” are the only credible vehicles for effecting legislative change. Calling them eco-fascists and extremists isn’t the best way either to influence them or to have a chance of putting them where they can effect legislative change.
Having Carolan and Bright and/or others (TOP?) in the by-election might make for some interesting debates though. How will Ardern & Genter respond to such criticisms?
And it will be interesting to see which of the also-rans the MSM pick up on during their by-election coverage.
“eco-fascist” is Joe Carolan talking, not me. I said I agreed with him about the need for extra-parliamentary movements, but did not touch on his characterisation of the current parliamentary parties.
Sorry about that. My comment was aimed at clarifying my own views on Carolan’s post rather than addressing your comment, which I shouldn’t have because that isn’t really what the Reply button is there for.
On RNZ, highlighted as part of their “Best of 2016” series, and article and audio pretty much arguing the point I made a couple of days ago – about the “myth”/narrative of NZ identity, that has been historically constructed as rural, and associated with the open spaces and rural areas:
For about 100 years, most New Zealanders have lived in towns and cities, yet our national narrative is that we are people of the land.
…
An anti-urban current was also being felt in Australia and North America, he says, but by the end of the 19th century, their large impressive cities with strong manufacturing bases were winning people over.
He suspects the cultural divide between town and country has always been stronger here.
“In New Zealand it’s always been this idea that the backbone of the country is the farmers – the Farmer Backbone mantra … and cities are just peripheral to that.”
…
He sees New Zealand’s much-loved quarter-acre section as a kind of middle ground between rural and urban living.
“We’re urban, but we’re building cities that are different to those in the old world.”
Dr Schrader says we can still see this cultural thread today in the backlash against those arguing for the intensification of Auckland.
“For 150 years people have wanted to live in the city and the country at the same time.”
…
Dr Schrader says confirmation that the rural man alone is no longer seen as the archetypal New Zealander came back in 2012, when the Speights ‘Southern Man’ campaign ended.
“The relevance of the outdoor life has changed” said a Speights spokesperson at the time.
In my view – the forced Auckland ‘$upercity – for the 1%’, was effectively a corrupt corporate coup, and another massive dose of Neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’ at NZ local government level.
Unlike all the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates, I was one of the very few, who has consistently and persistently opposed this Auckland ‘Supercity – super RIPOFF’ from Day One.
Day One being 5 September 2006, the day where the four previous City Council Mayors, at the Auckland Mayoral Forum in the Auckland Town Hall, ‘ganged up’ against Mike Lee (then Chair of the Auckland Regional Council ARC) and signed an ‘Open Letter’ to Labour PM Helen Clark, calling for an Auckland ‘Supercity’.
Fellow ‘Public Watchdog’ Lisa Prager and I, having been tipped off about this meeting, gate-crashed it and disrupted it, on the basis that there was no lawful basis for these Mayors to attempt to push any such thing, without first consulting the public.
It worked.
That day became known as ‘the failed Mayoral coup’.
How many of you knew about that?
The corporate agenda was always fewer contracts for fewer but bigger private contractors.
First Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) – then Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
How many of the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates have consistently and persistently opposed these mechanisms for corporate control – CCOs and PPPs?
Penny, you’d have a chance if you didn’t [deleted] I mean refusing to pay your rates.., got you labelled a weirdo, you’ll have to do a lot of public good deeds to get that stigma off your name. I’m sorry if you don’t like reading it, but hell women you were all over the paper.
[Okay Richard. I’ve been tolerant and let a fair few things slide these past couple of days. But that bullshit just steps waaay over the line. Take a week out.] – Bill
However, if James is suggesting that folks shouldn’t vote for someone because they haven’t won when they’ve stood as a candidate – I’m just pointing out the inconsistency in that argument?
Don’t forget that in the Mt Albert electorate are a very large number of voters who have voted for parties other than Labour or the Greens?
What will they do?
For whom will they vote?
Will they all just stay home – or might a significant number of them be moved to cast a ‘protest vote’ against the rorts, ripoffs, bribery and corruption in order to get a proven ‘anti-corruption’ campaigner inside the House, which, in itself will send a clear message that can’t be ignored?
How will voting for an existing MP who is already in Parliament, with no proven track record in fighting for transparency in the spending of public monies on private consultants and contractors – do THAT?
How many of the ‘declared’ Mt Albert candidates and people generally, have yet studied the 226 page ‘Reasons for the Verdict of Fitzgerald J’ – in the unprecedented bribery and corruption convictions of Murray Noone and Stephen Borlase?
I stood as a candidate for the Water Pressure Group and polled 2nd, with nearly 6,500 votes.
Campaigned against Metrowater – the commercialisation and privatisation of water services, and against the ‘Rogernomics’ Neo-liberal model, and nearly caused an upset.
(700 votes behind Noelene Raffills).
Over 4000 votes more than the City Vision (Labour /Alliance) candidate.
I stood because a number of City Vision Auckland City Councillors had sold out on their stated policies / pledges to abolish Metrowater.
(There will be some from The Standard who will recall this.)
Raised a few eyebrows at the time….
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
Aw, c’mon james, where’s your sense of humour? We could rename Parliament TV to “Penny in Da House” and it might even become fun to watch. Besides, 7 months of an MP’s salary should be enough for Penny to pay her rates bill so we can stop hearing about that all the time.
This shit has got to stop and restrictions put on foreign “investors”
The last sentence gets me
“Though it had no “concrete” plans for the properties, “commercial sense” indicated the site would be developed to help ease Auckland’s housing shortage.”
Nah fucking Bullshit, that is the last thing they are thinking of. They are more interested in making a killing owing to the housing crisis created by this pack of shit we have as a government.
remind me, you want a five or ten minute argument on the things governments have done.. I mean that’s a risky line, secondly, there are always restrictions..don’t make a little truth and then add a big fat lie.
and it was not Labour who let 70k a month into the country, they still had to go through the appropriate channels.., but under National they flooded the place with money, they sold out to crime and money laundering, National, there is no other you could compare to that.
as for stupidity both parties earn a gold star for wiliam liu turns out he’s connected with drug deals all sorts yet both parties were happy to blow him daily for cash..
aww the commies are after me, i’m rich.. how the hell do you get THAT rich in china?
James, your a proven shit stirrer, track record, every post, truth a smidgeon lies a lot.. /slap
Both Labour and National are slaves to neo-liberal ideology.
It would appear you support the more extreme version of neo-liberalism, so you hardly in a position to criticise Labour on this.
Who said it wasn’t but it still doesn’t get away from the fact we have a pack of shit as a government that has been in government for eight years and done fuck all about it and made the situation worse by selling off state houses.,.
If you are going to start the “labour did it as well” shit I haven’t seen this pack of crap reversing the rules YET.
Remind me which government signed the free trade agreement that allowed overseas Chinese to buy houses here with out restriction?
Labour. Now let’s remind ourselves which government has been in power for all the years since it became apparent that wasn’t a good idea and is causing the country significant damage? National.
Labour gets to claim “unforeseen consequences” to account for its role in this debacle. National gets to choose from “incompetence,” “neglect,” “greed” or “malice” to explain its involvement. My money would be on “greed,” that one’s always a safe bet with Nat govts.
Unitary Plan driving up the cost/value of housing.
“In scenes likely to be repeated across the Super City, large subdividable sites are proving irresistible to wealthy investors due to their newfound development potential under the Unitary Plan.”
Like, seriously, its 20 bleeding 17 and the Christchurch City Council is still discharging untreated wastewater and sewerage into the Avon and Heathcote Rivers.
FFS…stop blaming the earthquake….how about bulding a bigger capacity waste water treatment plant on some of that red zoned land?
Reporters don’t quite know what to make of the like economy because so much advertising revenue is getting sucked into social media, away from production costs. This is what trying to breathe life into a dead corpse looks like. It’s unfortunate this had to happen to people like Pilger/5thestate/Mihingarangi/Campbell/ect.
Simon Wilson highlights National’s Index of Shame.
For me, the issues I would focus on most are Inequality (#1, #4, #7, #8 and and #12), the Environment (#2, # 17 and #9) and workers rights (#5 and and #10)
1. Child poverty
2. Filthy rivers
3. Domestic violence
4. Tax evasion
5. Farm worker deaths
6. Underfunded mental health services
7. The surging wealth inequality gap
8. The housing crisis
9. The Emissions Trading Scheme
10. Pike River
11. The Saudi sheep deal
12. Housing the homeless
13. Healthy food in schools
14. Underfunded homecare services for the elderly
15. The neglect of Northland
16. Abuse of children in state care
17. Deep-sea oil drilling
18. Blaming Helen Clark
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted: “‘Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am”. The man below replied “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude”.
“You must be a technician.” said the balloonist. “I am” replied the man “how did you know?” “Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip with your talk.”
The man below responded, “You must be in management”. “I am” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?” “Well,” said the man “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fucking fault!
Would you believe it? I have been gifted tickets to the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony of @realDonaldTrump – What an honour! #auspol— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) January 15, 2017
Here’s a tip: if the piece is in the “Opinion” section and says “Opinion” right next to the headline, chances are it’s an opinion piece and not news, fake or otherwise.
Nothing fake about this bit: The essential question of how to tackle the City banks and law firms that launder money for the Russian kleptocracy has yet to be faced.
Vlad doesn’t need to worry about the Tories taking any serious anti-Russian actions as long as that cash cornucopia’s still operating. In the unlikely event you see Theresa May actually doing something about that money-laundering, then it’s time to worry.
So, just to clarify, the Nick Cohen piece was clearly labelled as opinion and not pretending to be a news report, so therefore couldn not have been “fake news”.
Shame on Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Cory Booker;
When the U.S. most needs leadership, they have failed egregiously.
Over the last week or so, we have heard much about three men, all of them Democratic Party politicians, who have spoken out strongly against Donald Trump. Congressman JOHN LEWIS of Georgia is a legend in the civil rights community; more than fifty years ago, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Birmingham, and had his skull smashed by “law enforcement” thugs. The Rev. JESSE JACKSON in 1988 got 6.6 million votes in his run for the Democratic nomination; he is famous around the world for his eloquent defense of human rights. And New Jersey senator CORY BOOKER last week became the second senator in history to testify against one of his colleagues when, at the Senate confirmation hearing, he spoke against Trump’s unbelievable nomination for Attorney General, the racist Alabama senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
This all sounds impressive, and it’s the kind of political news that gives people hope during these dark and dread-filled days of waiting for the horrifying reality of a Ku Klux Klan-endorsed candidate reciting the Presidential oath on Friday.
Actually, on close inspection, these three turn out to be no more honest or trustworthy than some of their more unpleasant, less revered colleagues. This past week both Lewis and Jackson have shown that, whatever glorious and brave deeds they have performed in the past, they are first and foremost Democratic Party loyalists. And being a Democratic Party loyalist right now means that you are under intense pressure to repeat the most absurd, fantastic and lurid anti-Russian propaganda.
The other day, on NBC’s Meet the Press John Lewis, civil rights hero, lowered himself to the level of the most shameless Clinton apparatchiks as he delivered the following fantasy, which might as well have been written for him by John Dean or Debbie Wasserman Schultz….
“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president….I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.”
Equally on message, equally loyal, equally cynical is another former civil rights warrior, Jesse Jackson who, when taunted by a Fox News troll to comment on why Hillary Clinton lost, said this:
“Well somewhere between Russian hacking and corruption and voter suppression may give you an answer.”
At a time when the United States more than ever needs people of proven rectitude and character to step forward and speak truthfully and fearlessly, two old civil rights warriors have thrown in the towel, and a superficially attractive young politician is exposed as just another smooth-talking fraud. Thus party politics doth make cowards of us all.
This short blog post and the linked PDF document is the result of a collaborative effort by Anne-Marie Blackburn, Dana Nuccitelli, Bärbel Winkler, Ken Rice and John Cook. When the climate change (mis)information briefs pushed by David Legates and others started to make the rounds in January 2021 we wondered whether ...
A part of this morning's transport announcement which hasn't got a lot of attention yet: biofuels are back: “Our Government has agreed in principle to mandate a lower emitting biofuel blend across the transport sector. Over time this will prevent hundreds of thousands of tonnes of emissions from cars, ...
After almost twenty years of ignoring the Māori vote, National may run in the Māori seats again: A former National MP is excited the party could stand a candidate in the Māori electorate seats for the first time since 2002. One News reported last night that National's leader Judith ...
If one stubbornly clings to the Elimination strategy (I don’t support it, but that will have to wait for another occasion) then try to get it right. You need secure borders. We have attempted this with a very large measure of success. It has not been perfect as the Covid-19 Response ...
Diaspora: perception departs from reality In this collection of articles are two papers currently captivating the attention of people following the science and emergence of climate change, especially the rapid variety we've accidentally unleashed and which is now unfolding around us. The synthesis and review article Earth's Ice Imbalance by Slater ...
The ultra-rich have done very, very well out of the pandemic. Globally, the wealth of the ten richest people rose by US$540 billion last year, enough money to pay for the pandemic in its entirity. And in New Zealand, local billionaire Graeme Hart saw his wealth increase by almost NZ$3.5 ...
Postmodernism has long been looked upon as an indecipherable ideology and a source of amusement. In 1996 Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University, had a hoax article published in ‘Social Text’ an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. In ‘Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Anew study in Nature Sustainability incorporates the damages that climate change does to healthy ecosystems into standard climate-economics models. The key finding in the study by Bernardo Bastien-Olvera and Frances Moore from the University of California at Davis: The models have been underestimating the ...
In a recent interview with RNZ (14th of January), NZ Council of Civil Liberties Chair Thomas Beagle, in response to Simon Bridges condemnation of the post-Trump Twitter purge of local far Right and other accounts, said the following: “Cos the thing about freedom of expression is that it’s not just ...
Let’s be clear: if Trump is not politically killed off once and for all, he will become a MAGA Dracula, rising from the dead to haunt US politics for years to come and giving inspiration to his wretched family of grifters and thousands of deplorables well into the next decade. ...
Since its demise as an imperial power, and especially its deindustrialisation under Thatcher, the UK's primary economic engine has been its role as a money laundry, using its network of overseas territories as tax havens to enable rich people around the world to steal from the societies they live in. ...
Last month OMV quit the Great South Basin and surrendered its offshore exploration permits outside of Taranaki. This month, Australian-owned Beach Energy has done the same: Beach Energy Resources New Zealand has decided to abandon all of its oil and gas exploration permits off the South Island coast, including ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA ...
MARVIN HUBBARD, US citizen by birth, New Zealand citizen by choice, Quaker and left-wing activist, has been broadcasting his show, "Community or Chaos", on Otago Access Radio for the best part of 30 years. On 24 November last year, I spoke with him about the outcome of the 2020 General ...
This is a guest blog post by Daniel Tamberg, Potsdam, co-founder and director of SCIARA GmbH. The non-profit organisation SCIARA is developing and operating a flexible software platform for scientific simulation games that allows thousands of players to explore, design and understand possible climate futures together. Decision-makers in politics, business, ...
Yesterday's Gone: Cold shivers are running up and down the spines of conservatives everywhere. Donald Trump may have gone, but all the signs point to there being something much more momentous in the wind-shift than a simple return to the status quo ante. A change is gonna come. ONE COULD ...
Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 17, 2021 through Sat, Jan 23, 2021Editor's Choice12 new books explore fresh approaches to act on climate changeAuthors explore scientific, economic, and political avenues for climate action ...
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Michael Cowling, CQUniversity AustraliaWe’ve probably all been there. We buy some new smart gadget and when we plug it in for the first time it requires an update to work. So we end up spending hours downloading and updating before we can even play with our new toy. But ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Zero emission buses, cleaner cars and environmentally-friendly biofuels will soon be hitting New Zealand’s roads, as the Government delivers on its election promise to make our transport network more sustainable. ...
The Green Party is already delivering on its commitment for cleaner, climate-friendly transport through our Cooperation Agreement with the Government. ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
Prudence Steven QC, barrister of Christchurch has been appointed as an Environment Judge and District Court Judge to serve in Christchurch, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Steven has been a barrister sole since 2008, practising in resource management and local government / public law. She was appointed a Queen’s ...
The Government is delivering on its first tranche of election promises to take action on climate change with a raft of measures that will help meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. “This will be an ongoing area of action but we are moving ...
The Government is investing up to $10 million to support 30 of the country’s top early-career researchers to develop their research skills. “The pandemic has had widespread impacts across the science system, including the research workforce. After completing their PhD, researchers often travel overseas to gain experience but in the ...
A Waitomo-based Jobs for Nature project will keep up to ten people employed in the village as the tourism sector recovers post Covid-19 Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “This $500,000 project will save ten local jobs by deploying workers from Discover Waitomo into nature-based jobs. They will be undertaking local ...
Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw spoke yesterday with President Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. “I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Kerry this morning about the urgency with which our governments must confront the climate emergency. I am grateful to him and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta today announced three diplomatic appointments: Alana Hudson as Ambassador to Poland John Riley as Consul-General to Hong Kong Stephen Wong as Consul-General to Shanghai Poland “New Zealand’s relationship with Poland is built on enduring personal, economic and historical connections. Poland is also an important ...
Work begins today at Wainuiomata High School to ensure buildings and teaching spaces are fit for purpose, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. The Minister joined principal Janette Melrose and board chair Lynda Koia to kick off demolition for the project, which is worth close to $40 million, as the site ...
A skilled and experienced group of people have been named as the newly established Oranga Tamariki Ministerial Advisory Board by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis today. The Board will provide independent advice and assurance to the Minister for Children across three key areas of Oranga Tamariki: relationships with families, whānau, and ...
The green light for New Zealand’s first COVID-19 vaccine could be granted in just over a week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. “We’re making swift progress towards vaccinating New Zealanders against the virus, but we’re also absolutely committed to ensuring the vaccines are safe and effective,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
The Minister for ACC is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to join the Board of ACC on 1 February 2021. “All three bring diverse skills and experience to provide strong governance oversight to lead the direction of ACC” said Hon Carmel Sepuloni. Bella Takiari-Brame from Hamilton ...
The Government is investing $9 million to upgrade a significant community facility in Invercargill, creating economic stimulus and jobs, Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene have announced. The grant for Waihōpai Rūnaka Inc to make improvements to Murihiku Marae comes from the $3 billion set ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The chair of the Climate Change Commission says he should have understood the challenge of the climate crisis sooner. On Sunday, the country’s first emissions budget will be released and everyone will understand, Justin Giovannetti writes.New Zealand is an international outcast. Its exports are boycotted around the world. Its leaders ...
The recent hysteria over Smeg knives is far from the first time New Zealanders have lost their minds over a supermarket promo. Alex Casey reminisces. This week, New World’s Smeg knife stamp-collecting scheme came to a close to rapturous applause. And when I say applause, I of course mean a horde ...
Rod Oram: We urgently need people power to push political and business leaders, households and individuals to play their roles in solving the climate crisis. ...
By Adi Briantika in Jakarta A group of Papuan students in front of the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Jakarta, who were planning to hold a protest action opposing the extension of Papuan Special Autonomy (Otsus), have been arrested and taken to the Metro Jaya regional police headquarters. “Around ...
By RNZ News The two new cases of covid-19 confirmed yesterday in New Zealand are the South African variant and initial results show they are connected to the Northland case at the Pullman Hotel. This morning the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, confirmed to Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Overhype can be a dead giveaway of under-confidence. When Anthony Albanese on Thursday compared his situation to that of Joe Biden, it sounded rather desperate. Some journalists, he said, had predicted a certain Trump win. ...
The New Zealand public sector and judiciary has again been ranked the least corrupt in the world. The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by global anti-corruption organization Transparency International ranks New Zealand first equal ...
New Zealand is again ranked first equal with Denmark in the Transparency International annual index of perceived levels of public sector corruption. Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has welcomed New Zealand’s position in the 2020 index. He says New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Kaufman, Research Fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute The federal government’s A$23.9 million COVID-19 vaccination information campaign, launchedyesterday, aims to reassure the public about vaccine safety and effectiveness. It will also provide information about the vaccine rollout. We’ve ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Hongi Luo, brand director at TikTok.In terms of cultural reach and impact, the ...
After Covid devastated its 2020, Basement Theatre comes roaring into 2021 with its Summer Season. Here’s the rundown of shows in-store, with some comments from programmer Nisha Madhan.Pre-FringeLust IslandWhen’s it on: February 2-6, 8pmWho’s involved: The women of improv troupe Hearthrobs (McKenzie’s Daughters, Salem Bitch Trials), including Brynley Stent, Alice ...
The whānau of Te Ahikaiata Turei supported by Māori and non-Māori staff at Unitec will take back a portrait of the Tūhoe leader who led the establishment of Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae and the values that brought the institute back from the brink of ...
A poll across the Early Childhood Education community found 93% in favour of pausing the ‘lunchbox rules’, or the Ministry of Education’s new Food Safety/choking changes to the Licensing Criteria, which came into effect on 25 January. “The message ...
Cycling advocates are calling for the transformation of urban transport, as New Zealand races to cut carbon. The Climate Change Commission will release its initial advice on Sunday 31 January. “Bikes and e-bikes are perfect for many local trips, ...
Three Ministers, led by the PM, joined in chorus today to warble about a bunch of measures aimed at helping to meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. Mind you, the measures mentioned seem to be more matters of decisions yet to be made ...
Michelle Kidd defines her role at Auckland’s specialist family violence court as te kaiwhakatere – the navigator. It’s a one-of-a-kind job, helping guide defendants through the court system. And there’s no one better suited to it than Whaea Michelle.First published November 24, 2020.Whaea Michelle is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sallie Yea, Associate professor & Principal Research Fellow, La Trobe University Each year, thousands of men and boys labour under extremely exploitative conditions on commercial fishing vessels owned by Taiwanese, Chinese and South Korean companies. The Taiwanese fleet, which operates in all ...
Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis believes the Crown should maintain responsibility for the care and protection of at-risk and vulnerable children, regardless of their race. Moreover, he is confident his all-Maori team of advisers will not be taking race into account as they help to improve Oranga Tamariki’s care and protection of ...
It’s easy to sacrifice John Banks. It’s a lot harder for brands, sports organisations and government to truly stop funding racism. Are they willing to try?Yesterday John Banks, the former Auckland mayor and MP, became subject to one of the fastest firings in media history when audio covering his approving ...
A community is outraged after Auckland Council granted consent for a row of trees planted by local kids to be removed along a revitalised waterway in South Auckland, reports Justin Latif. An Auckland Council decision to give contractors the all-clear to chop down 12 mānuka and kānuka trees shading Māngere’s Tararata ...
Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu hopes that the recent changes to Oranga Tamariki leadership present an opportunity for a long overdue paradigm shift that will place whānau at the heart of the child welfare sector. Pouārahi Helen Leahy says that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rice, Professor of Management, University of New England Elon Musk is now the world’s richest person, edging out previous title holder Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. His rocketing fortune is due to the booming share price of Tesla, the maker of electric vehicles ...
There are now three returnees who contracted the virus in the Auckland isolation facility then left into the community while positive. These are some of the questions that need to be resolved. At 10.20pm last night the Ministry of Health confirmed that the two cases they’d been treating as probable ...
Having a hard time remembering to scan in on the NZ Covid Tracer app when you’re out and about? Get this song stuck in your head and you’ll never forget again.Learn the lyrics:Aotearoa, it’s time to get scanning!I mean if you think about it, it never really wasn’t time we ...
We conclude our week-long examination of New Zealand writer Roderick Finlayson with a review of his stories by John Newton Roger Hickin’s Cold Hub Press is one of the small miracles of contemporary New Zealand publishing. Over the last decade, on what can only be a shoe-string budget, the ...
Thursday 28th January, AUCKLAND: Drive Electric, the not-for-profit with one mission – making electric vehicle uptake in New Zealand mainstream, welcomes the announcement by the Government today as a sign of what’s to come through 2021, and we are confident ...
The Government announced today key policy decisions on the proposed clean car policies. The MIA has stated on many occasions that we support well thought out and constructive policies that will lead to an increased rate in the reduction of CO2 emissions from ...
Get wild, get cultured, get fed and then get to bed: the essential guide to a perfect few days in the southern city. There’s one thing that preoccupies the staff of The Spinoff almost as much as arranging popular food items into arbitrary lists, and that’s Dunedin. A quite remarkable ...
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The country’s two wealthiest people own the same amount as the poorest 30 percent in New Zealand.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/322422/top-1-percent-of-nzers-own-20-percent-of-wealth
Money quote (literally), to keep in mind for all those posts Farrar writes about how it’s really the rich people who pay all the taxes:
… figures from Inland Revenue’s high wealth individuals unit found more than a third of this group [New Zealanders worth more than $50 million] declared income less than $70,000 in 2015. The 252 individuals were linked to 7500 entities, some of whom are in dispute with the agency over nearly $111 million in tax.
Here’s another.
“It blamed big business and the extremely wealthy for the growing discrepancy, saying they fuelled the inequality crisis by avoiding taxes, driving down wages for their workers and the prices paid to producers and investing less in their businesses.”
Well if you want to see exactly how extremely crazy and reactionary the rich and their media servants get if any politician even suggests limiting the flow of money upwards,then just google this.. ‘Corbyn income cap’ ..and witness the media frenzy, obviously there is to be no meaningful conversation around wealth inequality…just shut it down is the medias first and only reaction.
I am not saying I support or don’t support this income cap proposal, I am just saying look at the reaction….brutal and decisive.
An income cap and capital taxes are a necessity if we want to prevent our society going into collapse.
I agree, but try saying that in public like Corbyn, and see what happens.
I know. I’ve said it often enough here and it’s obvious that even those on the Left don’t agree with me despite all the evidence showing having rich people is bad for society.
Greed wins out even for those who say that they want an egalitarian society.
What a miserable interview by RNZ.
Stephen Joyce allowed to pontificate without any of his outrageous statements and evasions being challenged.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201829878
Well, you know, once Joyce and friends start being challenged in the public arena over their many and varied spurious claims, they start refusing to give interviews, and declining to front up altogether. Just ask John Campbell. No, they’re far more comfortable with tame interviewers who don’t ask the prickly questions and are less likely to humiliate them in public.
Joyce and tame interviews is a must for Natioanal’s pr campaign, especially if one listens to the weekly Joyce and Annette King segment with Hoskings on radio. How pathetic it is with Hoskings, supposedly being the “unbiased moderator” Yeah Right, what a sicko the man is.
True.
I remember watching Key’s Hard Talk interview with Stephen Sackur. Our ex-PM limped away from that one with a bloody nose and a black eye, and given his talent for glib non-answers and evasion, it was poetry in motion. Less able charlatans like Joyce, Bennett and Brownlee would be crucified in a similar situation.
But no, with ‘true believers’ like Michael Hosking conducting the interrogation, they’ve nothing at all to worry about.
Yeh, Hosking and Henry both pretty despicable characters, but did you catch Gareth Morgan on Henry’s show? ..it was a beaut, resulting in this classic from Morgan…
“I’m about making New Zealand fair,” said Morgan. “You’re self-centred and you don’t give a toss about being fair in New Zealand.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2016/12/tax-policy-bust-up-gareth-morgan-trades-insults-with-paul-henry.html
I stopped watching the Paul Henry Show some time ago. The man is an absolute clown, I don’t understand how he can get away with his biased and self-centered attitude. Nice to see someone like Morgan put Henry in his place. Cheers.
You mean you want them to do their job paul ?
good luck with that
Yes he do s as the NZ RT correspondent
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I see your on your on Morning nap before they release the straight jacket for another bash this avo Paul
Attitudes like that say a lot about you.
So what? Are you whining about whether it is one two or three people. Do you hate the rich or are you just jealous?
Well, I can’t speak for Paul, but for myself, yes, I do hate the rich. Self-serving, opportunistic, grabbing and largely irrelevant – they are a blot on any democracy!
This is not the NZ I grew up in, I am ashamed to say! The sooner we tax the bastards back to a reasonable level, and spread the wealth of society more equally, the better EVERYONE will be!
I don’t hate the rich nor am I jealous.
However we have a problem and it’s undermining our potential.
As a nation, we could be doing so much better.
An OECD report says: “rising inequality has wiped a third off New Zealand’s economic growth in recent decades.
New Zealand’s economy should have grown by nearly 44 per cent between 1990 and 2010, but a widening gap between the haves and have-nots saw it grow by only 28 per cent, according to the report.
The 15.5 percentage points New Zealand lost to inequality was the highest in the developed world.
Inequality was also found to have knocked 11 points off growth in Mexico, nearly 9 points in the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway and between 6 and 7 points in the United States, Italy and Sweden.
On the other hand, greater equality before the global financial crisis helped increase GDP per capita in Spain, France and Ireland.
The OECD has called for higher taxes and more redistribution of wealth to combat inequality, which it found was damaging the economic performance of most developed nations.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/64000371/nz-economy-hard-hit-by-inequality-oecd
Steven Joyce said it was inevitable some people would be more successful than others, which of course highlights his poor understanding of the problem.
Of course some will be more successful than others. The problem is the balance in income structures has become excessively imbalanced.
The pay difference between your average worker and your top executives has become far too extreme.
This is being compounded by the ballooning cost of housing adding to net worth while also making it more difficult to put a roof over ones head.
On top of that we have too many tax loopholes, leading to an industry dedicated to tax minimization, allowing businesses and individuals to avoid paying their fare share.
So not only are those at the top end being paid excessively more, a number of them are paying far less in tax. Weakening the Government’s capability to redistribute the wealth.
The weakening of Unions has also added to the income imbalance.
Therefore, it’s clear there are a number of areas that require a rethink to correct this excessive imbalance.
Simplistic figures … I would rather know the proportions of folk who receive more in various benefits than they pay in tax.
But even that is too simplistic – pretty much everyone who lives past 65, over their lifetime, gets more in benefit then they pay in tax because the most costly time of their life is in their last 6 months of life. By that stage, inflation has made what they paid in tax a pittance.
And it’s not only the cost of the benefit but the value of the benefit. Rich people get more value from the police force than poor people because rich people have more to lose if society became disordered. Rich people get more value from the legal system because they have the money to use it etc
Not true – as in other regimes the rich would just up sticks and live in private compounds while the poorer and middle class would suffer through higher crime etc.
While it doesn’t directly answer your question, this chart seems relevant.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/88353916/chart-of-the-day-which-benefit-does-the-government-spend-the-most-on
Bloody old people!
Be interesting to find out how long an old person collects the Super for compared with other benefits. Conceivably they could draw the Super for 25 years…which I imagine is a shit load longer than most on other benefits.
Having said that…I do remember when they started calling the National Superannuation a “benefit” rather than an entitlement. There was an outcry at the time this linguistic manipulation of the national psyche, but it came to nought and “benefit” stuck.
Used to be that you paid your PAYE and a certain % was ringfenced for your future retirement income.
That chart needs wider dissemination.
The system is set-up so that when you pay tax you are eventually going to get more benefit than what you put in. That’s because the tax/benefit system is adjusted for people’s life course. It makes no sense to call people “takers” and “makers” at one particular point in time because pretty much anyone living until 65 is going to be a net taker.
But that’s not a bug, that’s a feature.
define folk
define more benefits then they pay in tax
are you speaking of Landlords who receive rent income that is actually financed by the Accommodation Supplement given to people who can’t afford basic housing?
are you speaking of People who recieve a food voucher which they will spend in a few Governmnet selected and favored businesses?
are you speaking of People who are homeless and are ‘housed’ by a Government agency in Motels for usurious prices that have been ‘negotiated’ with the Government agency / minister in charge?
are you speaking of People who receive unemployment benefits that they only receive because they lost a job and thus have paid taxes previously?
are you speaking of People who receive a single parent benefit, who may or may not be divorced, separated, widowed or ‘single’, and who may or may not work a few hours a week, or who may or may not have a special needs child at home and who need the benefit for the children?
are you speaking of People who are sick, may undergo treatment but need to be on the ‘Job Seekers Benefit’ cause we don’t have no more sickness benefit?
whom are you speaking of?
and are you aware that people on any benefit pay GSt on their income recieved? Or that they may be taxed Income Tax?
or do you just feel that the poor rich people of this country really are just hard done by and should just simply not pay tax at all cause Rich?
@Sabine +1
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
There’s a reason talented lawyers and accountants can charge so much.
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
Alot more than before national removed gift duty which means massive sums can go into trusts in a single event with no duty payable.
Once in a family trust its pretty much impregnable unless within 5 years and only to the IRD as far as I’m aware.
Plus capitalising their super that does not get measured in wealth calculations
Plus capitalising superannuation that does not get measured in wealth calculations
Instead of trying to tear folk down I would prefer constructive figures and Mpledger is obviously correct with the examples. The more affluent have the cash to employ accountants to keep their tax obligations down. While those without accept cash-in-hand to evade their obligations. “He without sin cast the first stone”
Apart from the fact that if a poor person evades tax, they spend it on food. If a rich person fiddles the books, they spend it on luxuries. And benefit fraudsters receive harsher penalties than tax fraudsters who fiddle the same amount.
But your personal preference for figures for people who receive more in benefits than they pay in tax says it all. You don’t care if they need those benefits to live in a rest home at a young age because of a head injury, or if they have some other problem that would make them “deserving poor”. It just pisses you off that some people live below ther poverty line on the government dime.
Going after beneficiaries is the punitive equivalent of harvesting the low-hanging fruit. They usually have minimal resources, are unfamiliar with our labyrinthine legal system, often unaware of their rights and are generally vilified by Joe Public. It also enables the government to claim they’re doing something to combat “scrounging bludgers who steal from hard-working tax-payers”.
Conversely, going after wealthy individuals and organisations, given their extensive networks of influence and vast resources, is frequently an expensive and difficult exercise with no guarantee of success. It’s easier to just leave all that in the too hard basket and keep pointing the finger at those dirty benes.
Joe Carolan, standing for the Mt Albert electorate as a socialist, has a qu&a now up on The Daily Blog”. Beware, Carolan uses the “l” word (not the lesbian word – the other word) as a criticism.
My bold
Some things Carolan stands for and by:
Parliament won’t change things for the better for working people. It needs a collection of mass movements by the people.
Carolan urges people to get involved in whichever movement they feel most strongly about.
Quite a long q&a – more at the link above.
But he’s still standing for an electorate? Or is it just that he’s using it as a platform to encourage mobilisation of the people?
Edit: Carolan also attacks what he calls Green Party “Eco-facism” – their policy of “sustainable immigration” – Carolan says this is the first step towards Eco-fascism.
So will it be fair to use Joe Carolan’s vote share to infer how much support there is for a popular movement based around those principles?
“The extreme centre – which is what we’re calling liberals now – cannot hold because it has no answers for the working class.”
Pretty hard to argue with that statement.
who exactly are the “extreme centre”?…and why can they have no answers for the working class?….seems a foolish statement to me given that for every 1000 people in NZ 554 are wage or salary earners…..the extreme centre and the working class would appear to me to have a substantial overlap .
Extreme centre….
short explanation…
Long explanation…
And by framing the right wing as centre, Corbyn becomes ‘hard left.’
(with reference to yesterday’s conversation)
No, because the centre ‘right’ and ‘left’ have at their core the same economic ideology, they in real terms occupy the same space, politically..so Corbyn is just tradition Left, and not hard left as the media make him out to be.
But as the media don’t acknowledge the two centists partys as being the same thing, which of course they wouldn’t, there are no surprises in their position.
Totally agree.
Thanks for the Tariq Ali links.
ok…the short answer doesn’t address my post at all and i don’t have time to watch the long answer at the moment…how about you answer in your own words?
The “extreme centrte” refers to the dominant political parties, which label themselves as “left” and “right” but follow the same neoliberal agenda, as Olwyn explains below.
The working class – duh, is large numbers of people, not politicians or party members – well a handful of people from the working classes may become politicians: some from the working class (and some from the middle class) may believe that their party will help the working classes.
But if the main pollies and their parties follow neoliberal policies/agenda, then they have nothing to offer the working class – ie majority of people within that class.
The overlap is relatively small, and irrelevant if some working class people subscribe to a party agenda that does nothing for the working class in general.
so the extreme centre are the political parties, not a constituent cohort……think that unless that clear distinction is made (and throwing around the term extreme centre doesn’t do that) then any point attempted to be made around this will be largely dismissed.
Well, I guess it could include people who vote for the “extreme centre” parties.
Many of us think we are not being offered much of a difference between Nat/Labour/maybe Lab-Green; or between Republican/Democrat; or/Tory/Labour; or Aussie coalition/Labour. Though in each pair I’d say they Labour or Green parties are somewhat the better option. But all support the neoliberal agenda pretty much – well maybe not the Corbynistas.
And ultimately, the working classes, the unemployed, people on low incomes, the precariat, etc will continue to suffer, unless there is a true left wing option.
I do think it will need a strong, broad coalition of grass-roots, left wing campaigns and movements to shift political parties and pollies to a truly left wing position.
“Eco-fascists,” ffs. To committed socialists, everyone else is some kind of fascist. I guess I should be glad he restricted himself to “extreme centre” for describing liberals – I was half expecting it to be “liberal fascists.”
I’m also curious as to what kind of voter would try to elect to Parliament someone who thinks it’s a serious mistake to believe change can come “at a Parliamentary level.”
Ideologically intolerant illiberal liberals
Possibly not someone who’d vote for an obvious QUOCKERWODGER?
Thinking John Key was a bit of a cockwomble quockerwodger…
“The Extreme Centre” is a term coined by Tariq Ali, and refers to opposing parties having the same core commitment to a market economy, while maintaining differences in branding. https://www.versobooks.com/books/1943-the-extreme-centre
I think Joe Carolan right about forming and getting involved in movements. Neoliberalism has robbed a large part of the population of a real stake in society, and forming movements is a first step toward making a bid to reclaim it. I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
Agree. So thinking of the union movement (when it was one) or the civil rights movement. Political Parties could ‘ride’ off the back of them in terms of legislation or policy formation, but the movements themselves were much, much broader (and messier in a good way) than anything a party could encapsulate.
Today, maybe momentum in the UK is playing that role to a degree.
In NZ, MANA tripped itself badly as a party by making claims to movement status. The attempt to be both introduces too many contradictions at too many levels to ever get off the ground.
I was thinking it would be nice if Joe showed signs of having understood from his time in MANA that one political entity cannot straddle (cannot be) both of those worlds (the world of political movements and the world of political parties).
So I read the piece looking for pointers, and sadly…
A lot of the parliamentary parties are hollowed out entities, they are not the movements they used to be – National, Labour and even the Greens.
The Labour Party was never a movement. Labour was a movement. The Labour Party was a party.
But maybe I’m putting too much score by a single pronouncement. Maybe it’s not really indicative of his thoughts and was a slip or just an unfortunate use of shorthand.
It’s probably charitable to regard the Joe quote as shorthand 🙂 I agree with you about not conflating a political movement with a parliamentary party, and am reminded of Roosevelt’s saying of the New Deal, “you make me do it”, meaning “I need pressure from the outside to get this through.” A strong movement from outside of parliament helps a political wing to fend off the counter-pressures that arise from within it.
Yes well it is a recipe for failure, but I wouldn’t totally mock rebranding, if properly executed. We’re not playing policy for the next day to 6 months, you should be trying to advertise policy that lands in the week leading up to early votes start pouring in. These types of analysis are tough to do, even the best prognosticators only get 6 out of ten calls right. But rebranding properly executed this way is a huge moral booster.
I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
And good so. Best of luck to them all. But when it comes to political parties, for those of us who prefer to deal with the real, actually-existing world rather than utopias that could possibly come to exist if everyone else shared our ideology, the “extreme centre” Labour and Green parties with their shameful “core commitment to a market economy” are the only credible vehicles for effecting legislative change. Calling them eco-fascists and extremists isn’t the best way either to influence them or to have a chance of putting them where they can effect legislative change.
Having Carolan and Bright and/or others (TOP?) in the by-election might make for some interesting debates though. How will Ardern & Genter respond to such criticisms?
And it will be interesting to see which of the also-rans the MSM pick up on during their by-election coverage.
“eco-fascist” is Joe Carolan talking, not me. I said I agreed with him about the need for extra-parliamentary movements, but did not touch on his characterisation of the current parliamentary parties.
Sorry about that. My comment was aimed at clarifying my own views on Carolan’s post rather than addressing your comment, which I shouldn’t have because that isn’t really what the Reply button is there for.
Good luck with your real world Psycho Milt, best of British luck in it. I look forward to your next anti working people rank.
My “next” anti-worker rant? When was the existing one?
Interesting article on source protection.
https://theintercept.com/2015/01/28/how-to-leak-to-the-intercept/
On RNZ, highlighted as part of their “Best of 2016” series, and article and audio pretty much arguing the point I made a couple of days ago – about the “myth”/narrative of NZ identity, that has been historically constructed as rural, and associated with the open spaces and rural areas:
Kim Hill’s interview with historian Ben Schrader, Oct 2016:
For those that missed it, here’s Trump’s first press conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=webJpsP66z8
In my view – the forced Auckland ‘$upercity – for the 1%’, was effectively a corrupt corporate coup, and another massive dose of Neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’ at NZ local government level.
Unlike all the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates, I was one of the very few, who has consistently and persistently opposed this Auckland ‘Supercity – super RIPOFF’ from Day One.
Day One being 5 September 2006, the day where the four previous City Council Mayors, at the Auckland Mayoral Forum in the Auckland Town Hall, ‘ganged up’ against Mike Lee (then Chair of the Auckland Regional Council ARC) and signed an ‘Open Letter’ to Labour PM Helen Clark, calling for an Auckland ‘Supercity’.
Fellow ‘Public Watchdog’ Lisa Prager and I, having been tipped off about this meeting, gate-crashed it and disrupted it, on the basis that there was no lawful basis for these Mayors to attempt to push any such thing, without first consulting the public.
It worked.
That day became known as ‘the failed Mayoral coup’.
How many of you knew about that?
The corporate agenda was always fewer contracts for fewer but bigger private contractors.
First Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) – then Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
How many of the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates have consistently and persistently opposed these mechanisms for corporate control – CCOs and PPPs?
Penny Bright
Proven ‘anti-privatisation / anti- corruption campaigner’.
2017 Independent candidate Mt Albert by-election.
Why would the people of Mt Albert vote for their MP, someone who was already an MP?
Wouldn’t that effectively be a wasted vote?
Penny Bright
Proven ‘anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner’.
2017 Independent candidate Mt Albert by-election.
“Wouldn’t that effectively be a wasted vote?”
Nope.
A vote for Penny Bright is a wasted vote – evidenced by your track record.
I note that Jacinda didn’t win the electorate vote in Auckland Central – so does the same comment equally apply to her?
Just asking – nicely 🙂
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Mt Albert by-election.
Penny, you’d have a chance if you didn’t [deleted] I mean refusing to pay your rates.., got you labelled a weirdo, you’ll have to do a lot of public good deeds to get that stigma off your name. I’m sorry if you don’t like reading it, but hell women you were all over the paper.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79459454/Auckland-protester-Penny-Bright-won-t-budge-over-50k-rates-arrears-bill
[deleted]
[Okay Richard. I’ve been tolerant and let a fair few things slide these past couple of days. But that bullshit just steps waaay over the line. Take a week out.] – Bill
Oh – you must have missed that over 7000 people did vote for me in the 2016 Auckland Mayoralty?
Despite the effective mainstream media censorship?
She got pretty close – it was worth the fight, and she and her team worked hard to get that close.
Appreciate that point.
However, if James is suggesting that folks shouldn’t vote for someone because they haven’t won when they’ve stood as a candidate – I’m just pointing out the inconsistency in that argument?
Don’t forget that in the Mt Albert electorate are a very large number of voters who have voted for parties other than Labour or the Greens?
What will they do?
For whom will they vote?
Will they all just stay home – or might a significant number of them be moved to cast a ‘protest vote’ against the rorts, ripoffs, bribery and corruption in order to get a proven ‘anti-corruption’ campaigner inside the House, which, in itself will send a clear message that can’t be ignored?
How will voting for an existing MP who is already in Parliament, with no proven track record in fighting for transparency in the spending of public monies on private consultants and contractors – do THAT?
How many of the ‘declared’ Mt Albert candidates and people generally, have yet studied the 226 page ‘Reasons for the Verdict of Fitzgerald J’ – in the unprecedented bribery and corruption convictions of Murray Noone and Stephen Borlase?
Here’s the full Judgment:
https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/r-v-borlase-reasons/@@images/fileDecision
Ive spent days studying this document, and, in my view it’s politically explosive.
Interested in discussing it and intend to help make it a major Mt Albert by-election issue.
Penny Bright
No considering she was just a point or two of winning, your record is a gap bigger than the Grand Canyon under every campaign you have entered
Really?
So you are unaware of the Avondale / Mt Roskill (Auckland City Council) by-election result in 2000?
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate Mt Albert by-election.
if I was I would be very concerned why I know this, a council by election 16 years ago, honestly
I stood as a candidate for the Water Pressure Group and polled 2nd, with nearly 6,500 votes.
Campaigned against Metrowater – the commercialisation and privatisation of water services, and against the ‘Rogernomics’ Neo-liberal model, and nearly caused an upset.
(700 votes behind Noelene Raffills).
Over 4000 votes more than the City Vision (Labour /Alliance) candidate.
I stood because a number of City Vision Auckland City Councillors had sold out on their stated policies / pledges to abolish Metrowater.
(There will be some from The Standard who will recall this.)
Raised a few eyebrows at the time….
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
I stand corrected and apoligise
Apology accepted 🙂
Aw, c’mon james, where’s your sense of humour? We could rename Parliament TV to “Penny in Da House” and it might even become fun to watch. Besides, 7 months of an MP’s salary should be enough for Penny to pay her rates bill so we can stop hearing about that all the time.
This shit has got to stop and restrictions put on foreign “investors”
The last sentence gets me
“Though it had no “concrete” plans for the properties, “commercial sense” indicated the site would be developed to help ease Auckland’s housing shortage.”
Nah fucking Bullshit, that is the last thing they are thinking of. They are more interested in making a killing owing to the housing crisis created by this pack of shit we have as a government.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11782787
“owing to the housing crisis created by this pack of shit we have as a government.”
Remind me which government signed the free trade agreement that allowed overseas Chinese to buy houses here with out restriction?
Hint – it was labour.
remind me, you want a five or ten minute argument on the things governments have done.. I mean that’s a risky line, secondly, there are always restrictions..don’t make a little truth and then add a big fat lie.
and it was not Labour who let 70k a month into the country, they still had to go through the appropriate channels.., but under National they flooded the place with money, they sold out to crime and money laundering, National, there is no other you could compare to that.
as for stupidity both parties earn a gold star for wiliam liu turns out he’s connected with drug deals all sorts yet both parties were happy to blow him daily for cash..
aww the commies are after me, i’m rich.. how the hell do you get THAT rich in china?
James, your a proven shit stirrer, track record, every post, truth a smidgeon lies a lot.. /slap
Both Labour and National are slaves to neo-liberal ideology.
It would appear you support the more extreme version of neo-liberalism, so you hardly in a position to criticise Labour on this.
James @ 10.1.1
Who said it wasn’t but it still doesn’t get away from the fact we have a pack of shit as a government that has been in government for eight years and done fuck all about it and made the situation worse by selling off state houses.,.
If you are going to start the “labour did it as well” shit I haven’t seen this pack of crap reversing the rules YET.
Remind me which government signed the free trade agreement that allowed overseas Chinese to buy houses here with out restriction?
Labour. Now let’s remind ourselves which government has been in power for all the years since it became apparent that wasn’t a good idea and is causing the country significant damage? National.
Labour gets to claim “unforeseen consequences” to account for its role in this debacle. National gets to choose from “incompetence,” “neglect,” “greed” or “malice” to explain its involvement. My money would be on “greed,” that one’s always a safe bet with Nat govts.
Unitary Plan driving up the cost/value of housing.
“In scenes likely to be repeated across the Super City, large subdividable sites are proving irresistible to wealthy investors due to their newfound development potential under the Unitary Plan.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11782787
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11782951
This shit needs sorting now.
Like, seriously, its 20 bleeding 17 and the Christchurch City Council is still discharging untreated wastewater and sewerage into the Avon and Heathcote Rivers.
FFS…stop blaming the earthquake….how about bulding a bigger capacity waste water treatment plant on some of that red zoned land?
To sort out fake news from real news, you need to study art history – even more than STEM subjects (!):
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/15/the-art-of-learning-why-art-history-might-be-the-most-important-subject-you-could-study-today/
I dunno, man, that one looks dodgy to me. Better hold judgement until more corroboration comes along.
Reporters don’t quite know what to make of the like economy because so much advertising revenue is getting sucked into social media, away from production costs. This is what trying to breathe life into a dead corpse looks like. It’s unfortunate this had to happen to people like Pilger/5thestate/Mihingarangi/Campbell/ect.
How it should be (Basic Income)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11782947
english backed labours ets , i wonder if he backed keys gutting of it .
It’s Time To Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Simon Wilson highlights National’s Index of Shame.
For me, the issues I would focus on most are Inequality (#1, #4, #7, #8 and and #12), the Environment (#2, # 17 and #9) and workers rights (#5 and and #10)
For more details read here
http://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/14-01-2017/nationals-index-of-shame-and-the-other-issues-the-left-need-to-focus-on-this-election/?utm_source=The+Spinoff&utm_medium=CPE&utm_campaign=National%E2%80%99s+Index+of+Shame%2C+and+the+other+issues+the+left+need+to+focus+on+this+election
He forgot this summer which to date has been pretty crap,
That’s down to the preevislabagummin.
Agree😀
Where’s ‘Corruption’ on this list?
Not there yet?
It will be ….
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
Sounds like a worried man,but there is nothing new under the sun.
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted: “‘Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am”. The man below replied “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude”.
“You must be a technician.” said the balloonist. “I am” replied the man “how did you know?” “Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip with your talk.”
The man below responded, “You must be in management”. “I am” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?” “Well,” said the man “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fucking fault!
Different shades of blue.
Sharon Murdoch points out the diary industry is doing everything they can to try and confuse people about water pollution
your link isn’t working
bizarre and broken link.
https://twitter.com/domesticanimal?lang=en
Guessing it was this. (second post down) I’ve no idea how to isolate shit from twitter feeds 😉
Click on the top right time/date stamp / three dots bottom centre /select embed tweet/ copy paste the embed code in the box.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2Kd9sYVIAAHkPa.jpg
Time/date/three dots bottom center/embed tweet/copy paste embed code.
The image – https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2Kd9sYVIAAHkPa.jpg
ohh he tapped a cow with his foot and called her a bitch , hang the bastard
You’ve lost me, bwag.
the mini vid in your link , if you scroll down, i wonder if your average radical vegan would like to be videoed in secret.
Thank you
Click on the date and the URL will change to that specific tweet e.g.
Good cartoon.
Cheers both.
Yes that was it
Fascists of the world unite.
/
heh
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2017/01/12/minding-their-knitting.html
Looks like a legal challenge of the Government’s stance on Medical Cannabis is brewing.
http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/is-the-ministry-of-health-acting-outside/
It’s going to the high court
Good read that one, thanks for the link
Despite all the discussions above I am still waiting for the Nat’s to tell us why Key resigned.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
Despite all the above concerns I am still waiting for the Nat’s to tell us why Key resigned.
He was concerned with level of KDS so he did it for the good of the people. All hail Jk
Fake news propagated by the Guardian
Russian treachery is extreme and it is everywhere
Here’s a tip: if the piece is in the “Opinion” section and says “Opinion” right next to the headline, chances are it’s an opinion piece and not news, fake or otherwise.
Nothing fake about this bit:
The essential question of how to tackle the City banks and law firms that launder money for the Russian kleptocracy has yet to be faced.
Vlad doesn’t need to worry about the Tories taking any serious anti-Russian actions as long as that cash cornucopia’s still operating. In the unlikely event you see Theresa May actually doing something about that money-laundering, then it’s time to worry.
And the Guardian promotes certain opinions a lot…..
so you are admitting your claims of fake news where Fake Paulsky
No.
Thanks for acknowledging my sources are the reputable journalists such as Cockburn, PIlger, Greenwald, Fisk, Oborne. Monbiot…..
Unlike the MSM fake propaganda from the BBC, the Washington Post, CNN, al Jazeera, Fairfax Media you depend on…
I shall stick to independent sources….neither Moscow nor Washington.
Your sources meanwhile come from US government talking points.
So, just to clarify, the Nick Cohen piece was clearly labelled as opinion and not pretending to be a news report, so therefore couldn not have been “fake news”.
David Bellamy uses shonky figures as basis for statement that world’s glaciers are growing. #FakeNews
http://mainstreammediaexposed.com/david-bellamy-being-humiliated-by-george-monbiot-over-climate-change-david-bellamy-and-bad-science-fakenews/
a train from china to england.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/14/china-silk-road-trade-train-rolls-london
awesome.
Indeed
Shame on Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Cory Booker;
When the U.S. most needs leadership, they have failed egregiously.
Over the last week or so, we have heard much about three men, all of them Democratic Party politicians, who have spoken out strongly against Donald Trump. Congressman JOHN LEWIS of Georgia is a legend in the civil rights community; more than fifty years ago, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Birmingham, and had his skull smashed by “law enforcement” thugs. The Rev. JESSE JACKSON in 1988 got 6.6 million votes in his run for the Democratic nomination; he is famous around the world for his eloquent defense of human rights. And New Jersey senator CORY BOOKER last week became the second senator in history to testify against one of his colleagues when, at the Senate confirmation hearing, he spoke against Trump’s unbelievable nomination for Attorney General, the racist Alabama senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
This all sounds impressive, and it’s the kind of political news that gives people hope during these dark and dread-filled days of waiting for the horrifying reality of a Ku Klux Klan-endorsed candidate reciting the Presidential oath on Friday.
Actually, on close inspection, these three turn out to be no more honest or trustworthy than some of their more unpleasant, less revered colleagues. This past week both Lewis and Jackson have shown that, whatever glorious and brave deeds they have performed in the past, they are first and foremost Democratic Party loyalists. And being a Democratic Party loyalist right now means that you are under intense pressure to repeat the most absurd, fantastic and lurid anti-Russian propaganda.
The other day, on NBC’s Meet the Press John Lewis, civil rights hero, lowered himself to the level of the most shameless Clinton apparatchiks as he delivered the following fantasy, which might as well have been written for him by John Dean or Debbie Wasserman Schultz….
http://reason.com/blog/2017/01/14/rep-john-lewis-says-trump-is-not-a-legit
Equally on message, equally loyal, equally cynical is another former civil rights warrior, Jesse Jackson who, when taunted by a Fox News troll to comment on why Hillary Clinton lost, said this:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/jesse-jackson-gave-fox-news-troll-perfect-answer-why-hillary-lost-less-10-seconds
And as for Senator Cory Booker: well, the United States needs another Barack Obama like it needs another nuclear weapons building program….
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/14/14262732/cory-booker-senate-democrats
At a time when the United States more than ever needs people of proven rectitude and character to step forward and speak truthfully and fearlessly, two old civil rights warriors have thrown in the towel, and a superficially attractive young politician is exposed as just another smooth-talking fraud. Thus party politics doth make cowards of us all.
Stephen Cohen on Tucker Carlson: Empty Accusations of Russian Meddling Have Become “Grave National Security Threat”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6ka2BXHORI
Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald Discuss Deep State War Vs Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IwPSv-ALeI
“Trump will be assassinated” Paul Craig Roberts & Max Keiser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLjrzAmcCA4
Last Minute Change in Security at Inauguration Reminiscent of JFK in Dealey Plaza