thanks…it is disgraceful appropriation of creative works by big business…works which were meant by the artists for the good of all humankind…
…”Warner Brothers and other big players in the American entertainment industry lobbied hard for the extension of copyright during TPPA negotiations. These companies own the rights to many of the world’s great movies, songs, and television programmes, and want to collect royalties for as long as they can. Warner Brothers has even suggested that copyright should last a century after an author’s death. Complicated corporate-driven legislation means that books often take a long time to throw off copyright in America. Ninety Eighty-Four won’t be free to republish there until 2044. In 2009 American Kindle users had their copies of Orwell’s masterpiece wiped”…
(…and very interesting about the obviously corrupted SWP in the USA…)
But what would such a paltry GDP rise mean for your pocket? Answering that requires taking into account the increase in income inequality that typically results from such “free trade” deals. The author of the CEPR report, economist David Rosnick, explains, “There are winners and losers from trade, and research has shown that trade contributes to inequality. In fact, it would take only a very small contribution to inequality due to trade to wipe out all of the gains that most workers would get from this agreement.” Rosnick then uses the empirical evidence on the trade-inequality relationship and shows that even taking the most conservative estimate of trade’s contribution to inequality (that trade is responsible for just 10% of the rise in inequality), the losses from projected TPP-produced inequality indeed would “wipe out” the tiny projected gains for the median U.S. worker.
One thing we were promised back in the 1980s by the Rogernomes was that incomes would increase due to their reforms. In fact, that’s a normal cry of the people pushing the free-trade dogma. What we got was stagnating wages for the middle ~75%, declining wages for the lowest ~15% and massive increases for the top ~10%.
+1 Draco – it is pretty clear now that all the neoliberal bullshit is actually driving the inequality. There needs to be a fresh look at economics based on new world factors like pollution, water, biodiversity loss, climate change, technological changes like solar and industry and so forth and peaceful resolution.
The old 19th century model of capitalist economics is not working for most people. Someone has a billion dollars while his workers live in China and are paid nothing and the company under many different names and corporations pays little tax.
That is why TPP is so wrong. It supports and encompasses everything wrong about what is happening in the world today, inequality, pollution and halting progress on a whole range of technological and social issues. It is the opposite of free market , it is a controlled market based on the judgement of rich individuals who are gamed and lobby to win to maintain the status quo so they do not have to adapt.
Instead of people who provide or produce something necessary, high paid jobs are for people who provide consultancy on how to screw over the environment and workers or the public. i.e. the Paula Restock of the world. Paid to provide a report to keep the status quo and capitalist system rolling.
Now there are so many working poor unable to support the capitalist system desire for growth above all else, they have to start going for governments money like Serco.
The public, pay taxes so that Paula’s of the world get paid to provide reports to divert that money to a company’s providing the service with workers screwed down to pay as little as possible.
That is why TPP is so wrong. It supports and encompasses everything wrong about what is happening in the world today, inequality, pollution and halting progress on a whole range of technological and social issues. It is the opposite of free market , it is a controlled market based on the judgement of rich individuals who are gamed and lobby to win to maintain the status quo so they do not have to adapt.
John Armstrong has published his swan song column in the Herald this morning. I had a bit of a read through the Standard posts where he is mentioned and there are a number of them. Some are scathing but there are a number of congratulatory ones where his comments are quoted with approval.
He was clearly a good old fashioned conservative with principles.
And he has the decency in this column to apologise to David Cunliffe for calling on him to resign over the Donghua Liu letter which he describes as “relatively trivial”. He could have gone further and acknowledged that the media got completely played by National about the Donghua Liu issue but it is a start.
Meh – it is a trickle of truth. If he really wanted to unburden his conscience he could have told the proper story about how he and other Herald staff were falling over themselves to conspire with Whaleoil to smear the leader of the Opposition for party political purposes.
Regrets? A couple. First, failure to immerse myself deeper into Maori political culture. Second, effectively calling for David Cunliffe to resign when he was Labour leader over something which was relatively trivial. Sorry, David.
It could have come a bit sooner – but it’s a gracious admission.
Very, very good piece of writing, debunking the myth that problem drinking is the sole problem of the ‘poor’. That the damage caused by our casual acceptance that every social situation requires some kind of chemical lubrication.
“UDIs (Emergency Department code for unidentified drinking injuries); a litany of unremembered sexual encounters; sleeping rough after losing bag, phone and keys; episodes in which they soiled themselves. All of these people are middle-class, educated and hold down “good jobs”. Many are also parents, some of these narratives relayed by their infant children.
My epiphany came after I found myself on an inadvertent bender that started at 11am and ended asleep in a friend’s bath. When I add that the bender in question was a christening, you will begin to perceive the enormity of said spree.”
My most profoundly saddening social moment was at a friend’s daughters fifth birthday party held at the local community kindy.
The kiddies had free range of the kindy’s toys and play equipment…the grown ups stood around drinking alcohol….at 10 am.
The parents who can’t sit and watch the kids’ sport without a can in their hands.
10 things the alcohol industry won’t tell you about alcohol – Doug Sellman
1. Alcohol is a highly intoxicating drug which is fairly easy to overdose
on
2. Alcohol can cause brain damage
3. Alcohol causes aggression
4. Alcohol is fattening in moderate drinkers
5. Alcohol can cause cancer
6. Alcohol cardio-protection has been talked up
7. The alcohol industry actively markets alcohol to young people
8. Low risk drinking means drinking low amounts of alcohol
9. A lot of the alcohol industry’s profit comes from heavy drinking
[28, 29, 30]
10. There is a solution to the national alcohol crisis: “The 5+ Solution”
Yes the cardio protection thingy is probably just an artifact of the fact that alcohol is a bit of an antidote for chronic stress – which is the dominant factor in damaging the heart.
It’s well understood that the reason why people enjoy alcohol is because it temporarily reduces the unpleasant physical symptoms of the unconscious, unacknowledged fear and anxiety most of us live with all the time.
The new Health and Safety legislation is having a major impact in the construction and engineering industries, all electricity and water utilities, and I’m across many of them.
No more boozy events. No more alcohol-sponsored events.
Even Rugby World Cup televised in-house events for staff, with explicitly no alcohol.
Executives and Directors are feeling their liabilities harder.
That, together with personal liability when driving a company vehicle, really close to eradicates it in one’s professional life.
My observation is also that there’s still a rump blokey NZ culture in rural New Zealand where getting shitfaced is still a badge of honour.
“The new Health and Safety legislation is having a major impact…. No more boozy events. No more alcohol-sponsored events.
Even Rugby World Cup televised in-house events for staff, with explicitly no alcohol.
Executives and Directors are feeling their liabilities harder.”
an aside…
I wonder if the Show Off Day at the Otara Spinal Unit will be sponsored by the Brewery over the road this year?
6. Required Alcohol Education in schools from an early age.
When you tell kids how alcoholics behave, a lot of kids will realize they have an alcoholic parent and their family life is completely screwed up because of the alcoholic parent.
They will also recognize the difference in behavior between socially acceptable drinking and being smashed.
Yes, I think there is a battle between the old fashioned conservative with some principals and the new self absorbed and self indulgent, arrogant conservative without any principals or morals which have taken over the National party and MSM.
One of his many biographers, John Ibbitson of the Globe and Mail newspaper, who is more sympathetic than most, concludes: “No prime minister in history and no political party have been loathed as intensely as Stephen Harper and the Conservative party.” Yet this deeply unpopular politician has won three elections in the last nine years. Although the Liberals are showing a late lead in the polls, Harper’s emphasis on his record on security and the economy may yet put a fourth in his trophy cabinet next week. That is what makes Harper’s politics interesting, that he has perfected the tactics of taking and holding power – in spite of the demands of democracy.
Considering the consolidation that’s happening around the world and how that’s hidden behind ‘branding’ that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no connection.
His opponents call it fear mongering, but Stephen Harper says what he’s trying to do in drawing attention to his interpretation of the Liberals’ election platform is present Canadians with the facts.
From a series of ads in the ethnic media saying Justin Trudeau will put brothels in neighbourhoods to a repeated statement they’d cancel pension income splitting for seniors, the Conservatives have come under fire from their opponents this week from engaging in stunts designed to detract from their own record.
Ain’t nothing Harper’s mob won’t do to win – xenophobia to dog whistling to outright lies.
Sounds like the political-right the world over. We see it here in NZ, across the Ditch is Oz and in the UK and the US. Lies and manipulation seem to be the goto for the RWNJs.
“I wanted to let the dust settle before writing about Justice Collins’ decision this week that Trade Minister Tim Groser acted unlawfully when he refused to release any information relating to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to me under the Official Information Act (OIA)….
A very important book has been published which explains the neoliberal trap we’ve all fallen into which is polarising societies and wealth, destroying equity in social relations:
Killing the Host – the book
By Michael Wednesday, September 2, 2015 0 Books Killing the Host
The book can be ordered in paperback or as an ebook:
KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) have gained control of the global economy at the expense of industrial capitalism and governments.
The FIRE sector is responsible for today’s economic polarization (the 1% vs. the 99%) via favored tax status that inflates real estate prices while deflating the “real” economy of labor and production.
The Great 2008 Bailout saved the banks but not the economy, and plunged the U.S., Irish, Latvian and Greek economies into debt deflation and austerity.
This book describes how the phenomenon of debt deflation imposes austerity on the U.S. and European economies, siphoning wealth and income upward to the financial sector while impoverishing the middle class.
The Table of Contents is as follows:
Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy
Introduction: The Twelve Themes of this Book
The Parasite, the Host, and Control of the Economy’s Brain
I. From the Enlightenment to Neo-Rentier Economies
1. The Financial Sector’s Rise to Power
2. The Long Fight to Free Economies from Feudalism’s Rentier Legacy
3. The Critique and Defense of Economic Rent, from Locke to Mill
4. The All-Devouring “Miracle of Compound Interest”
5. How the 1% holds the 99% in Exponentially Deepening Debt
6. Rentiers Sponsor Rent-Free National Income Statistics
7. The Failed Attempt to Industrialize Banking
II. Wall Street as Central Planner
8. The Stock Market as a Predatory Arena
9. From the Stock Market’s Origins to Junk Bonding
10. Finance vs. Industry: Two Opposite Sides of the Balance Sheet
11. The Bubble Sequence: From Asset-Price Inflation to Debt Deflation
12. The Bankers Saw It Coming, but Economists averted their Eyes
13. The Bailout Coup of 2008: Saving Wall Street instead of the Economy
14. The Giveaways get More Deeply Politicized and Corrupt
15. Wall Street Pretends to Insure against the Crash
16. Bailing out of Goldman via AIG
17. Wall Street Takes Control and Blocks Debt Writedowns
18. From Democracy to Oligarchy
III. Austerity as a Privatization Grab
19. Europe’s Self-imposed Austerity
20. The Neoliberal Conquest of Post-Soviet Latvia
21. Creation of the Troika and its pro-Rentier Agenda
22. High Finance turns Greek Democracy to “Junk”
23. Installing Technocrats as Proconsuls
24. The Troika’s Road to Debt Serfdom
25. Creditor Colonialism: U.S. Courts Block Debt Writedowns
26. Financial Austerity or a Clean Slate?
27. Finance as War
28. Is the Mode of Parasitism overshadowing the Mode of Production?
KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) has gained control of the New Zealand economy at the expense of genuine productive investment ( as opposed to privatisation and the rentier economy ) and truly democratic governments who represent all the people’s wishes.
So it perplexes me that we’ve now gone through crises as bad as the Depression of the 1930s, and “smashing” hasn’t got a sniff of happening. Some stuff just isn’t going to change.
funny, because i see the increasingly pervasive security surveillance state, militarisation of the police, and constant Orwellian state of perma-war as signs that the elite are very aware that things are becoming very tenuous.
Why can’t you smell the fear coming from the elite in society? Why can’t you see the reason for our police arming everyone with tasers, arming US police forces with armoured personnel carriers, London ratepayers paying for water cannon.
You should study history. People say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. What they should really say is that Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day. But destroyed it was.
You should study history. People say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. What they should really say is that Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day. But destroyed it was.
Yep, once the rich took control it’s fate was sealed. Just as the fate our civilisation is also sealed and by the same mechanism – the rich.
Little was just on tv3 the Nation, looked uncomfortable when asked about Labour’s position on the TPP. Wishy washy indeed. Seemed to be using the fact that the Government had already signed us up for it as an excuse to go along with it. A couple of minutes earlier he was talking about the critical thing being restoring faith in the party. It was hard to see that being achieved with his vague responses on a crucial issue.
Not up online yet, but tv3’s website is useless. I had to use google to find The Nation page (can’t find it on TV3’s front page), and everything on The Nation’s page appears to be from last week (although you have to click through to a vid to find that out. Nothing obvious about what they’re doing this weekend apart from two tweets that are for content they’re not advertising. The promo for this weekend on the facebook feed has dropped out of sight. I guess I’m supposed to have a television and passively take in what they dish up.
I liked Little continuing grossers ‘tpp bus’ analogy by saying that he was on the ‘free trade bus’ but that the tpp was a US driven vehicle and one the government were signed up to and that might be quite complex to get off. He would have to wait for what we are all waiting for. There might be some good things but he suspects it’s going to need a’repair’ job.(at the least I would think.)
Little s here till 2017 whether you like him or not so instead of having a shot at him support the party you prefer because with out labour getting 40% or there abouts in the polls its term 4 for key.
As to whether you personally are a labour hater that’s for you to decide.
right, that has cleared it up – lol – I’m afraid the ‘give him more of a go’ chorus line doesn’t need me in it, certainly not with the likes of you puffing out your chest and singing at full strength.
here’s the thing – I want little to be strong and he won’t be, or Labour, if they get given free rides because people are scared that they can’t take it. If they can’t take it from the left they never will survive the right – and we have seen that. So I think YOU are doing the gnat job – saying those who ACTUALLY care can’t make criticism – YOU are the one fucking it up for the left and Labour but you don’t even give a fuck – too busy being sanctimonious.
I would love to have witty repost to that ,but my patience is running out with people to thick to understand that without a labour win there is no hope of stopping the nats ,they should get behind the party that suits them so when labour gets in there party is big enough to get labour to adopt some of there policy.
I would love to have witty repost to that ,but my patience is running out with people to thick to understand that without a labour win there is no hope of stopping the nats ,they should get behind the party that suits them so when labour gets in there party is big enough to get labour to adopt some of there policy.
Well I hear your frustration b, and in theory I agree. Problem is it’s not people being too thick, it’s people who have lost their own patience, with Labour, precisely because Labour are a necessity and don’t appear to be doing the things that will lead to a left wing government in 2017.
I thought the interview on the bus was fine. I agree with Little on the long game for Labour and can see some of what he is doing. However I’m under no illusions that Labour are going to go left. Little is working on Labour being a centrist party with some satellite left wing policies in certain areas, but mostly it’s making adjustments to the status quo.
That presents dilemmas. If they can pull that off and become government we get some breathing space from the terrible damage that National are doing. But it’s hard to see us making the necessary changes regarding climate change. We can’t look to parliament any more as the main agent of change. Still, a Labour-led government will also create space for something else to be done.
The spindle router was “one of the more dangerous machines” because it caused “complex injuries”, MacKinnon said.
An industry source said the spindle moulder was essentially a large upside-down router which was dubbed the “spindle monster” in the industry because it was one of the most- dangerous machines in a joinery workshop.
The machine is used for running shaped profiles into wood and has two high- speed steel profile knives which spin at up to 10,000 revolutions per minute.
And the reality is that such manually operated machines should no longer exist. But the telling bit is this part:
The report went on to say the man, an experienced joiner with 30 years of experience, was in his first managerial position and was putting pressure on himself.
He had been working 11-hour days, seven days a week for a month leading up to the accident, “which was not unusual for him”.
He was over worked and WorkSafe found nothing wrong with this.
Kim Hill had some interesting interviews today: first an American Capitalist (Jesse Columbo) …and then followed by a former Trotskyist ( Paul Mason) now economics editor Channel 4:
“Economics editor of Channel 4 News in the UK, and writes regularly on the economy, culture and politics. His new book is PostCapitalism: a Guide to Our Future.”
“Forbes.com columnist and economic analyst, who created TheBubbleBubble.com for the purpose of exposing dangerous post-2009 economic bubbles and warning of their ability to severely damage and destabilise the global economy.”
Paul Mason’s vision particularly interesting…I wonder if it has created any more discussion in the UK than the extremely brief examination of universal benefit here?
The cost of installation means the levelised costs of wind and solar are not zero, and up until now this has put renewables above fossil fuels. But this week, for the first time, analysts calculated that onshore wind is the lowest cost energy source in the UK and Germany, and solar isn’t far behind.
This is a watershed moment in a series of long-term trends: the cost of fossil fuels changing unpredictably, nuclear getting more expensive, and renewables getting ever cheaper. Adding in the very real costs to our health and the environment makes clean energy even more economic in comparison (see this week’s chart).
So we could bring back in the ban on building new fossil fuelled power generation and doing so would, over time, bring down the price of our power. With an active government we could get rid of all fossil fuelled generation in a few years and we’d all be better off.
Has anyone on the Standard covered Russell Brand’s visit to NZ this week. He apparently had a sold out crowd at the Vector arena boo-ing John Key and also had a go at Rupert Murdoch (so probably why he has not had any interviews in NZ)
My older children and partner went along to the show and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Russell Brand can be crude and egotistical but has a good sense of his own ridiculousness, and very honest self awareness. Got a good sense of his range from manic to spiritual and everything in between from watching the Trews, which finished in quite a timely way.
As for the show on Wednesday night:
The crowd apparently relished the John Key moments, re pony tail saga and flag. And Murdoch did come under flak, which was expected and enjoyed.
It must have been nice to be in a crowd that can hear this kind of humour without it being followed by apologists and die-hard National supporters.
It’s a bugger so many people are getting cremated these days. Yes, I know it is good for the environment and all that but it removes the opportunity for the final vengance of pissing on the graves of ones political enemies. I have whiled away many a despondent minute by planning the Grand Tour of my incontinent dotage. I have a long list of political enemies, I am not young and have been remarkably sectarian for most of my political life. Some of my enemies will cheat me by outliving me, but far to many are removing themselves from my final ministrations by having an unkown scattering place rather than a grave on which no flowers should be permittted to grow!
Mine too. My offspring are often embarrassed with my loud, enthusiastic rendition when driving the car…. but I’m pretty sure they know all the words now.
re …”the final vengance of pissing on the graves of ones political enemies.”
lol…their ashes are probably sitting on someone’s mantelpiece
…this would make a good ‘detective ‘ with a difference, black novel you know…(cf genre ‘The Lives and loves of a She- Devil’ or Beryl Bainbridge’s novels)… you could have a chapter on each of the political enemies whom you wish to piss on and the detective work required to find where their final resting place is…it may require pissing on someone’s mantelpiece?!..or under someone’s pear tree…or getting your bollocks frozen off pissing up the Hooker Valley…or somewhere out at sea
re “Some of my enemies will cheat me by outliving me…”
well you could end the novel with two geriatrics having a fight to the death ..of course the author would be the winner and then would have to dispose of the body…and then the piss up…or down…or both
( cf…that wildly funny Irish/British film where a bus load of geriatric Orangemen are accidentally double booked for a Christmas bash at a country pub with a busload of geriatric IRA and the resulting brawl..)
I have had sugestions from friends of likely contenders – and their final resting places. Also requests to organise a bus tour. Calculations have also been done of the number of pubs to visit to achieve the intake required for the various feats of micturation.
This nonsense around “flexible hours” has to stop. We are not your slaves, bosses, to be used as and when required because you can’t manage to organise a roster efficiently.
Bunnings, do the right thing and give your workers set work hours each week – they have a life outside of work which needs to be lived and enjoyed. Won’t be purchasing anything at your stores until you remove this clause and settle the negotiation.
Plasma as a source of bountiful cheap energy. Too much science for me.
” From today (16 October) the production of energy, the production of food has changed.”
Keshe Foundation Spaceship Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1280&v=BM8wuqPmVBg
Amazing! Help someone who can evaluate this. Mr Prentice?
If this is true then it will collapse the oil industry. Wow! Hell for Shell!
No wonder they are releasing it around the world at once.
A unit is the size that you could hold between your hands.
“Computer technology is obsolete because plasma is the speed of light.”
Or is it a scam???
He doesn’t seem to be selling stuff as would a scam. And he is very public rather than secretive as for a scam. Can’t see where the scam part is but it is so huge it has but.. but…
yeah hard to call it anything other than a scam – especially when you listen and watch his megaearthquake vid – just silly shit – 40 million dead, 20 to 24 Richter scale hit near panama canal, magnitude 10’s down the west coast of US. ffs at least he stands back to his audience writing shit on his white board most of the time.
Thanks for the info One and Draco. Pity as the idea is tremendous but the physics reality is nil. I wonder why Mr Keshe is doing it? Maybe just thought experiment rather than a money-making scam. Back to the dream then. 🙂
From one fiasco to another: Washington has failed to change the regime in Syria, failed to effectively fight ISIL, and now wants Russia to fail. At the same time, Obama appears to be willing to arm any anti-regime fighter who can carry a gun. What could possibly go wrong with that?
CrossTalking with Philippe Assouline, Marcus Papadopoulos, and Roshan Muhammed Salih.
The smog has lifted from the financial ties between high-profile climate denier Christopher Horner and the coal industry. The now-bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources Inc., one of the largest coal companies in the country, paid Horner $18,600 in three equal installments, according to documents filed as part of the company’s bankruptcy case.
Prof. Bill Mitchell (Australian) explains most of the subject of macro economics in Finland recently. This is worth listening to with reference to the recent surplus posted by Bill English and because his main subject is macro economics.
The “substantial and egregious encroachment,” naturally, refers to the free parking that the church can offer its members — and which the bike lane would replace.
Yeah, the more I see of the actions of some churches it’s obvious that only selfish, greedy people go to them.
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NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
Asia Pacific Report Two Palestinian resistance groups have condemned “the brutal assault” on prisoners at Ofer Prison, saying it was “barbaric criminal behaviour that reflects the fascist and terrorist nature of” Israel. In the joint statement, Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) called the attack a “miserable attempt” by Israel ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist in Avarua, Rarotonga Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown hopes to have “an opportunity to talk” with the New Zealand government to “heal some of the rift”. Brown returned to Avarua on Sunday afternoon (Cook Islands Time) following his week-long state visit to China, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sonia R. Grover, Clinical Professor of Gynaecology, The University of Melbourne Polina Zimmerman/Pexels Menstruation, or a period, is the bleeding that occurs about monthly in healthy people born with a uterus, from puberty to menopause. This happens when the endometrium, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ella Barclay, Senior Lecturer, School of Art and Design, Australian National University Despite the perceived outrage at Khaled Sabsabi’s depiction of Hassan Nasrallah in his 2007 work You, Australian art has long made subjects of outlaws and questionable figures. And it is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Pryke, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney Lisa Tomasetti/Opera Australia “It’s an old song”, Hermes (Christine Anu) sings at the opening of Hadestown, but “we’re gonna sing it again and again”. Based on a ...
An additional $13 million will be invested in tourism infrastructure, including upgrading huts and resolving the backlog in Milford Sound concessions. ...
The reality is that we have no obligation to tolerate the intolerant. They are using violence to shut down and silence others. The result of tolerating intolerant views is the loss of everyone’s freedom of speech except for the one who most effectively ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Davis, Associate Professor in Conservation, Edith Cowan University Adwo/Shutterstock Humans have been poisoning rodents for centuries. But fast-breeding rats and mice have evolved resistance to earlier poisons. In response, manufacturers have produced second generation anticoagulant rodenticides such as bromadiolone, widely ...
Alex Casey unearths Simon Court’s full sales pitch for how menstrual cups could end poverty. On Friday last week, Act MP Simon Court was accused of “mansplaining” during a parliamentary committee hearing about benefit sanctions. After submitter Rachel Dibble shared her concerns about period poverty and the impact that sanctions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato It’s an unfortunate fact that bad people sometimes want guns. And while laws are designed to prevent guns falling into the wrong hands, the determined criminal can be highly resourceful. There are three main ...
Asia Pacific Report Two independent Jewish Voices groups in Aotearoa New Zealand have written an open letter to the government condemning the Zionist “colonisation” project leading to genocide and criticising the role of the NZ Jewish Council for its “unelected” and “uncritical support” for Israel. The groups, Alternative Jewish Voices ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Newspoll, conducted February 10–14 from a sample of 1,244, gave the Coalition a 51–49 lead, unchanged from the previous Newspoll, ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you enjoy whip-smart satire: The White Lotus (Neon, February 17) HBO’s award-winning The White Lotus is back for what critics are calling “an absolutely exquisite third ...
NZPF called for a slowdown of the curriculum change, asking for one subject at a time, so that teachers and principals could be fully trained and feel confident and competent to implement the changes, New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) President ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Indonesia’s TVOne launched an AI news presenter in 2023.T.J. Thomson Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken off at lightning speed in the past couple of years, creating disruption in ...
Many of the young vapers interviewed by a team of public health researchers said they felt unable to resist the pro-vaping environment that surrounded them. New Zealand’s smokefree law was hailed around the world for creating a smokefree generation that would have lifelong protection from smoking’s harms. The smokefree ...
Analysis: While most Wellingtonians enjoyed a rare but unbeatable sunny day on Saturday, some New Zealand diplomats will have been briefly shocked by a screenshot making the rounds on social media showing US President Donald Trump calling us a “third world country”.The image, it appears, was a fake – certainly a ...
ActionStation Director, Kassie Hartendorp says that the Treaty Principles Bill has galvanised the biggest movement in support of Te Tiriti in modern history. ...
While it is in the interests of Wellington ratepayers to sell off this subsidy for the rich, it is unfortunate that it has come to this point. The council should have never spent a penny on this programme, and the $3.4 million spent is a flagrant abuse ...
A search for the person behind a social media account ridiculing Māori.Last week, while scrolling Facebook, I came across a post shared to the New Zealand Centre for Political Research group. The post began, “From Matua Kahurangi on X”, before pasting his critique of iwi leadership – particularly Ngāpuhi ...
On the heels of The White Lotus season three, Tara Ward travels to Koh Samui, Thailand, to live her best life as a five-star wannabe. I’ve never been one for luxury travel. Despite religiously watching TV shows like Luxury Escapes: World’s Best Holidays and harbouring grand dreams of one day ...
The Treaty Principles Bill submission hearings continue at Parliament today with a range of submitters expected including councils, iwi, community organisations and individuals. ...
It’s become of one of Christchurch’s most famous landmarks online, but why? Alex Casey steps through the portal of the brutalist Timezone. Ask anyone what Christchurch’s most iconic building is and you might expect to hear some of the dusty old classics like the Cathedral, or the Town Hall, or ...
New Zealand’s alignment with the White House is further underscored by its refusal to oppose Trump’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is a serious blow to the soft power of the United States and disastrous for many poor countries ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Hoek, Professor in Public Health, University of Otago Shutterstock/Aliaksandr Barouski New Zealand’s smokefree law was hailed around the world for creating a smokefree generation that would have lifelong protection from smoking’s harms. The smokefree generation would have ended sales of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Disney, Research Fellow, Social Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne Edwin Tan/Getty Images When the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was established in 2013, one of its driving aims was to make disability services and support systems fairer. However, our new ...
The resignation of the director general of health is the latest departure in what Labour is calling a ‘purge’ of health leadership. Another day, another health resignation It’s a dangerous time to be a top health executive. On Friday, Dr Diana Sarfati announced her resignation as director general of health ...
Labour and the Greens say the government should focus spending on tourism infrastructure like tracks, toilets and protection of nature instead of more advertising. ...
TPPA’s Orwellian clauses already affecting local publishers: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/orwell-trotsky-and-tppa.html
+1 Kyle P
thanks…it is disgraceful appropriation of creative works by big business…works which were meant by the artists for the good of all humankind…
…”Warner Brothers and other big players in the American entertainment industry lobbied hard for the extension of copyright during TPPA negotiations. These companies own the rights to many of the world’s great movies, songs, and television programmes, and want to collect royalties for as long as they can. Warner Brothers has even suggested that copyright should last a century after an author’s death. Complicated corporate-driven legislation means that books often take a long time to throw off copyright in America. Ninety Eighty-Four won’t be free to republish there until 2044. In 2009 American Kindle users had their copies of Orwell’s masterpiece wiped”…
(…and very interesting about the obviously corrupted SWP in the USA…)
Study: “Trade” Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
One thing we were promised back in the 1980s by the Rogernomes was that incomes would increase due to their reforms. In fact, that’s a normal cry of the people pushing the free-trade dogma. What we got was stagnating wages for the middle ~75%, declining wages for the lowest ~15% and massive increases for the top ~10%.
The TPPA will increase that disequilibrium.
+1 Draco – it is pretty clear now that all the neoliberal bullshit is actually driving the inequality. There needs to be a fresh look at economics based on new world factors like pollution, water, biodiversity loss, climate change, technological changes like solar and industry and so forth and peaceful resolution.
The old 19th century model of capitalist economics is not working for most people. Someone has a billion dollars while his workers live in China and are paid nothing and the company under many different names and corporations pays little tax.
That is why TPP is so wrong. It supports and encompasses everything wrong about what is happening in the world today, inequality, pollution and halting progress on a whole range of technological and social issues. It is the opposite of free market , it is a controlled market based on the judgement of rich individuals who are gamed and lobby to win to maintain the status quo so they do not have to adapt.
Instead of people who provide or produce something necessary, high paid jobs are for people who provide consultancy on how to screw over the environment and workers or the public. i.e. the Paula Restock of the world. Paid to provide a report to keep the status quo and capitalist system rolling.
Now there are so many working poor unable to support the capitalist system desire for growth above all else, they have to start going for governments money like Serco.
The public, pay taxes so that Paula’s of the world get paid to provide reports to divert that money to a company’s providing the service with workers screwed down to pay as little as possible.
That what is driving inequality.
QFT
Do you have the right of copyright.if the idea is not original and plagiarized ?
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/jun/08/george-orwell-1984-zamyatin-we
We is a very different story – collective society building a spaceship – not nearly as totalitarian as 1984.
John Armstrong has published his swan song column in the Herald this morning. I had a bit of a read through the Standard posts where he is mentioned and there are a number of them. Some are scathing but there are a number of congratulatory ones where his comments are quoted with approval.
He was clearly a good old fashioned conservative with principles.
And he has the decency in this column to apologise to David Cunliffe for calling on him to resign over the Donghua Liu letter which he describes as “relatively trivial”. He could have gone further and acknowledged that the media got completely played by National about the Donghua Liu issue but it is a start.
Lprent has a full post to put up on the subject.
All the best to John and his family.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11530382
It is really up to the editors, producers and managers to apologise for being such willing tools.
Armstrong should have had the decency to apologise to Cunliffe at the time and reverse his position, not at this stage when it doesn’t matter.
Agreed – an apology at the time would have been of some use and would have been the big and the right thing to do.
…and try to learn , show some contrition etc??? I don’t think so.
Meh – it is a trickle of truth. If he really wanted to unburden his conscience he could have told the proper story about how he and other Herald staff were falling over themselves to conspire with Whaleoil to smear the leader of the Opposition for party political purposes.
+100 Hami Shearlie and Visubversa
John Armstrong writes his final Herald column: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11530382
oops, snap
Regrets? A couple. First, failure to immerse myself deeper into Maori political culture. Second, effectively calling for David Cunliffe to resign when he was Labour leader over something which was relatively trivial. Sorry, David.
It could have come a bit sooner – but it’s a gracious admission.
This is a brilliant article about our culture’s abuse of Alcohol.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11529162
Thank you Paul for posting this.
Very, very good piece of writing, debunking the myth that problem drinking is the sole problem of the ‘poor’. That the damage caused by our casual acceptance that every social situation requires some kind of chemical lubrication.
“UDIs (Emergency Department code for unidentified drinking injuries); a litany of unremembered sexual encounters; sleeping rough after losing bag, phone and keys; episodes in which they soiled themselves. All of these people are middle-class, educated and hold down “good jobs”. Many are also parents, some of these narratives relayed by their infant children.
My epiphany came after I found myself on an inadvertent bender that started at 11am and ended asleep in a friend’s bath. When I add that the bender in question was a christening, you will begin to perceive the enormity of said spree.”
My most profoundly saddening social moment was at a friend’s daughters fifth birthday party held at the local community kindy.
The kiddies had free range of the kindy’s toys and play equipment…the grown ups stood around drinking alcohol….at 10 am.
The parents who can’t sit and watch the kids’ sport without a can in their hands.
10 things the alcohol industry won’t tell you about alcohol – Doug Sellman
1. Alcohol is a highly intoxicating drug which is fairly easy to overdose
on
2. Alcohol can cause brain damage
3. Alcohol causes aggression
4. Alcohol is fattening in moderate drinkers
5. Alcohol can cause cancer
6. Alcohol cardio-protection has been talked up
7. The alcohol industry actively markets alcohol to young people
8. Low risk drinking means drinking low amounts of alcohol
9. A lot of the alcohol industry’s profit comes from heavy drinking
[28, 29, 30]
10. There is a solution to the national alcohol crisis: “The 5+ Solution”
Alcohol cardio-protection has been talked up
Yes the cardio protection thingy is probably just an artifact of the fact that alcohol is a bit of an antidote for chronic stress – which is the dominant factor in damaging the heart.
It’s well understood that the reason why people enjoy alcohol is because it temporarily reduces the unpleasant physical symptoms of the unconscious, unacknowledged fear and anxiety most of us live with all the time.
The 5+ solution….
1. Raise alcohol prices
2. Raise the purchase age
3. Reduce alcohol accessibility
4. Reduce marketing and advertising
5. Increase drink-driving counter-measures
PLUS: Increase treatment opportunities for heavy drinkers
http://www.alcoholaction.co.nz/?page_id=19
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and most definately yes.
That one needs to be done across the board as it fuels the consumerism that makes our society unsustainable.
The new Health and Safety legislation is having a major impact in the construction and engineering industries, all electricity and water utilities, and I’m across many of them.
No more boozy events. No more alcohol-sponsored events.
Even Rugby World Cup televised in-house events for staff, with explicitly no alcohol.
Executives and Directors are feeling their liabilities harder.
That, together with personal liability when driving a company vehicle, really close to eradicates it in one’s professional life.
My observation is also that there’s still a rump blokey NZ culture in rural New Zealand where getting shitfaced is still a badge of honour.
Sure ain’t no honour anywhere near where I work.
Hah! The Law of Unintended Consequences….
“The new Health and Safety legislation is having a major impact…. No more boozy events. No more alcohol-sponsored events.
Even Rugby World Cup televised in-house events for staff, with explicitly no alcohol.
Executives and Directors are feeling their liabilities harder.”
an aside…
I wonder if the Show Off Day at the Otara Spinal Unit will be sponsored by the Brewery over the road this year?
Hmmm. Very dark of you.
My point is I don’t think further intervention of the type listed above is necessary.
Rosemary McDonald
6. Required Alcohol Education in schools from an early age.
When you tell kids how alcoholics behave, a lot of kids will realize they have an alcoholic parent and their family life is completely screwed up because of the alcoholic parent.
They will also recognize the difference in behavior between socially acceptable drinking and being smashed.
Yes, I think there is a battle between the old fashioned conservative with some principals and the new self absorbed and self indulgent, arrogant conservative without any principals or morals which have taken over the National party and MSM.
I
The latter include:
Henry
Hosking
Hooton
Gower
How ignorant is John Roughan?
‘ let’s suck it and see.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11530394
This should look familiar:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/stephen-harper-master-manipulator
Same advisers different country!
Exactly – the commonalities between Cameron, Harper, Key and now Turnbull are quite striking.
First word starts with a “C” and the second with a “T”!
Must be some other bloke.
https://ipolitics.ca/2015/10/14/crosbys-partner-says-firm-is-not-involved-in-conservative-campaign/
Considering the consolidation that’s happening around the world and how that’s hidden behind ‘branding’ that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no connection.
Ain’t nothing Harper’s mob won’t do to win – xenophobia to dog whistling to outright lies.
His opponents call it fear mongering, but Stephen Harper says what he’s trying to do in drawing attention to his interpretation of the Liberals’ election platform is present Canadians with the facts.
From a series of ads in the ethnic media saying Justin Trudeau will put brothels in neighbourhoods to a repeated statement they’d cancel pension income splitting for seniors, the Conservatives have come under fire from their opponents this week from engaging in stunts designed to detract from their own record.
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5958242-it-s-not-fear-it-s-facts-harper-says/
edit: voter suppression too
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/life/elections+canada+asking+improper+questions+poll+voter/11431965/story.html
Sounds like the political-right the world over. We see it here in NZ, across the Ditch is Oz and in the UK and the US. Lies and manipulation seem to be the goto for the RWNJs.
Probably been said here before, but again worth repeating, on TPP machinations:
‘EXCLUSIVE: My response to the Official Information Act win against the TPPA’
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/16/exclusive-my-response-to-the-official-information-act-win-against-the-tppa/
“I wanted to let the dust settle before writing about Justice Collins’ decision this week that Trade Minister Tim Groser acted unlawfully when he refused to release any information relating to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to me under the Official Information Act (OIA)….
A very important book has been published which explains the neoliberal trap we’ve all fallen into which is polarising societies and wealth, destroying equity in social relations:
Killing the Host – the book
By Michael Wednesday, September 2, 2015 0 Books Killing the Host
The book can be ordered in paperback or as an ebook:
CoverKtH-ebooksharepage killing-the-host-digital-book-cover-281×450
KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) have gained control of the global economy at the expense of industrial capitalism and governments.
The FIRE sector is responsible for today’s economic polarization (the 1% vs. the 99%) via favored tax status that inflates real estate prices while deflating the “real” economy of labor and production.
The Great 2008 Bailout saved the banks but not the economy, and plunged the U.S., Irish, Latvian and Greek economies into debt deflation and austerity.
This book describes how the phenomenon of debt deflation imposes austerity on the U.S. and European economies, siphoning wealth and income upward to the financial sector while impoverishing the middle class.
The Table of Contents is as follows:
Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Destroy the Global Economy
Introduction: The Twelve Themes of this Book
The Parasite, the Host, and Control of the Economy’s Brain
I. From the Enlightenment to Neo-Rentier Economies
1. The Financial Sector’s Rise to Power
2. The Long Fight to Free Economies from Feudalism’s Rentier Legacy
3. The Critique and Defense of Economic Rent, from Locke to Mill
4. The All-Devouring “Miracle of Compound Interest”
5. How the 1% holds the 99% in Exponentially Deepening Debt
6. Rentiers Sponsor Rent-Free National Income Statistics
7. The Failed Attempt to Industrialize Banking
II. Wall Street as Central Planner
8. The Stock Market as a Predatory Arena
9. From the Stock Market’s Origins to Junk Bonding
10. Finance vs. Industry: Two Opposite Sides of the Balance Sheet
11. The Bubble Sequence: From Asset-Price Inflation to Debt Deflation
12. The Bankers Saw It Coming, but Economists averted their Eyes
13. The Bailout Coup of 2008: Saving Wall Street instead of the Economy
14. The Giveaways get More Deeply Politicized and Corrupt
15. Wall Street Pretends to Insure against the Crash
16. Bailing out of Goldman via AIG
17. Wall Street Takes Control and Blocks Debt Writedowns
18. From Democracy to Oligarchy
III. Austerity as a Privatization Grab
19. Europe’s Self-imposed Austerity
20. The Neoliberal Conquest of Post-Soviet Latvia
21. Creation of the Troika and its pro-Rentier Agenda
22. High Finance turns Greek Democracy to “Junk”
23. Installing Technocrats as Proconsuls
24. The Troika’s Road to Debt Serfdom
25. Creditor Colonialism: U.S. Courts Block Debt Writedowns
26. Financial Austerity or a Clean Slate?
27. Finance as War
28. Is the Mode of Parasitism overshadowing the Mode of Production?
IV. There Is An Alternative
29. The Fight for the 21st Century
http://michael-hudson.com/2015/09/killing-the-host-the-book/
KILLING THE HOST exposes how finance, insurance, and real estate (the FIRE sector) has gained control of the New Zealand economy at the expense of genuine productive investment ( as opposed to privatisation and the rentier economy ) and truly democratic governments who represent all the people’s wishes.
The Keiser Report
Michael Hudson: killing the host
All of that is ground so well worn as to be tired.
What’s his do-able alternative in the last chapter?
Smashing the rentier/usury/FIRE economy is the answer.
It was the answer 20 years ago, it was the answer 10 years ago, it was the answer last year and it remains the answer now.
No one likes listening to a broken record but that doesn’t make it less true.
So it perplexes me that we’ve now gone through crises as bad as the Depression of the 1930s, and “smashing” hasn’t got a sniff of happening. Some stuff just isn’t going to change.
funny, because i see the increasingly pervasive security surveillance state, militarisation of the police, and constant Orwellian state of perma-war as signs that the elite are very aware that things are becoming very tenuous.
Any time now.
Why can’t you smell the fear coming from the elite in society? Why can’t you see the reason for our police arming everyone with tasers, arming US police forces with armoured personnel carriers, London ratepayers paying for water cannon.
You should study history. People say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. What they should really say is that Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day. But destroyed it was.
Yep, once the rich took control it’s fate was sealed. Just as the fate our civilisation is also sealed and by the same mechanism – the rich.
We shouldn’t have to wait for the Rhine to freeze over, Belisarius.
(Gibbon, V4)
Little was just on tv3 the Nation, looked uncomfortable when asked about Labour’s position on the TPP. Wishy washy indeed. Seemed to be using the fact that the Government had already signed us up for it as an excuse to go along with it. A couple of minutes earlier he was talking about the critical thing being restoring faith in the party. It was hard to see that being achieved with his vague responses on a crucial issue.
What a sell out.
Not up online yet, but tv3’s website is useless. I had to use google to find The Nation page (can’t find it on TV3’s front page), and everything on The Nation’s page appears to be from last week (although you have to click through to a vid to find that out. Nothing obvious about what they’re doing this weekend apart from two tweets that are for content they’re not advertising. The promo for this weekend on the facebook feed has dropped out of sight. I guess I’m supposed to have a television and passively take in what they dish up.
I’m pretty sure The Nation is not available via Tv3 website until after the replay on Sunday.
thanks, but it’s up now.
http://www.3news.co.nz/TVShows/TheNation
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/riding-the-opposition-bus-2015101711
interviewer – “sounds like a party president talking?” – yep…
little – “Leadership isn’t about the individual…” – oh deary me…
little – “I play the long game” – how many election cycles are we talking about there?
journeyman reveal
I liked Little continuing grossers ‘tpp bus’ analogy by saying that he was on the ‘free trade bus’ but that the tpp was a US driven vehicle and one the government were signed up to and that might be quite complex to get off. He would have to wait for what we are all waiting for. There might be some good things but he suspects it’s going to need a’repair’ job.(at the least I would think.)
Well pointed out seeker but you’re wasting you’re time with some of the labour haters here.
is that what you think I am b just so I’m clear
Little s here till 2017 whether you like him or not so instead of having a shot at him support the party you prefer because with out labour getting 40% or there abouts in the polls its term 4 for key.
As to whether you personally are a labour hater that’s for you to decide.
right, that has cleared it up – lol – I’m afraid the ‘give him more of a go’ chorus line doesn’t need me in it, certainly not with the likes of you puffing out your chest and singing at full strength.
Sweet as, keep it up, it’ll mean key in co can pay there hench men less as the job of keeping the opposition devided is being done for free .
here’s the thing – I want little to be strong and he won’t be, or Labour, if they get given free rides because people are scared that they can’t take it. If they can’t take it from the left they never will survive the right – and we have seen that. So I think YOU are doing the gnat job – saying those who ACTUALLY care can’t make criticism – YOU are the one fucking it up for the left and Labour but you don’t even give a fuck – too busy being sanctimonious.
I’m a lover not a fighter
I would love to have witty repost to that ,but my patience is running out with people to thick to understand that without a labour win there is no hope of stopping the nats ,they should get behind the party that suits them so when labour gets in there party is big enough to get labour to adopt some of there policy.
You telling’ that to me Honeychile?
Seriously?
Get Up Offa That Thang!
I would love to have witty repost to that ,but my patience is running out with people to thick to understand that without a labour win there is no hope of stopping the nats ,they should get behind the party that suits them so when labour gets in there party is big enough to get labour to adopt some of there policy.
Well I hear your frustration b, and in theory I agree. Problem is it’s not people being too thick, it’s people who have lost their own patience, with Labour, precisely because Labour are a necessity and don’t appear to be doing the things that will lead to a left wing government in 2017.
I thought the interview on the bus was fine. I agree with Little on the long game for Labour and can see some of what he is doing. However I’m under no illusions that Labour are going to go left. Little is working on Labour being a centrist party with some satellite left wing policies in certain areas, but mostly it’s making adjustments to the status quo.
That presents dilemmas. If they can pull that off and become government we get some breathing space from the terrible damage that National are doing. But it’s hard to see us making the necessary changes regarding climate change. We can’t look to parliament any more as the main agent of change. Still, a Labour-led government will also create space for something else to be done.
I didn’t think he ‘got’ the bus thingy but it was great to see little a bit relaxed AND riding the bus so kudos to him for that.
Wellington ‘spindle monster’ victim’s thumb found in dust bag
And the reality is that such manually operated machines should no longer exist. But the telling bit is this part:
He was over worked and WorkSafe found nothing wrong with this.
Kim Hill had some interesting interviews today: first an American Capitalist (Jesse Columbo) …and then followed by a former Trotskyist ( Paul Mason) now economics editor Channel 4:
‘Paul Mason: postcapitalism’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201775049/paul-mason-postcapitalism
“Economics editor of Channel 4 News in the UK, and writes regularly on the economy, culture and politics. His new book is PostCapitalism: a Guide to Our Future.”
‘Jesse Colombo: economic bubbles’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201775048/jesse-colombo-economic-bubbles
“Forbes.com columnist and economic analyst, who created TheBubbleBubble.com for the purpose of exposing dangerous post-2009 economic bubbles and warning of their ability to severely damage and destabilise the global economy.”
Paul Mason’s vision particularly interesting…I wonder if it has created any more discussion in the UK than the extremely brief examination of universal benefit here?
Energy round-up: the numbers are on our side
So we could bring back in the ban on building new fossil fuelled power generation and doing so would, over time, bring down the price of our power. With an active government we could get rid of all fossil fuelled generation in a few years and we’d all be better off.
Fully agree.
A good little platform for both Greens and Labour to agree on.
Has anyone on the Standard covered Russell Brand’s visit to NZ this week. He apparently had a sold out crowd at the Vector arena boo-ing John Key and also had a go at Rupert Murdoch (so probably why he has not had any interviews in NZ)
Why do you think?
The corporate media serve one God only.
TVone got excited when he breezed into their offices for 20 mins, showed on their show one night in the week….
When Brand breezed in to the TVNZ offices, did Mike Hosking give him “a hard time” like he gave (or so Hosking boasted) to Nicky Hager?….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15032015/#comment-985614
Hoskins would hide from Brand I suspect, who would have him for breakfast
So did Hager, but that didn’t stop Hosking claiming the exact reverse of what happened.
perhaps he’s learned his lesson then, and won’t try to do intelligent interviews again
My older children and partner went along to the show and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Russell Brand can be crude and egotistical but has a good sense of his own ridiculousness, and very honest self awareness. Got a good sense of his range from manic to spiritual and everything in between from watching the Trews, which finished in quite a timely way.
As for the show on Wednesday night:
The crowd apparently relished the John Key moments, re pony tail saga and flag. And Murdoch did come under flak, which was expected and enjoyed.
It must have been nice to be in a crowd that can hear this kind of humour without it being followed by apologists and die-hard National supporters.
It’s a bugger so many people are getting cremated these days. Yes, I know it is good for the environment and all that but it removes the opportunity for the final vengance of pissing on the graves of ones political enemies. I have whiled away many a despondent minute by planning the Grand Tour of my incontinent dotage. I have a long list of political enemies, I am not young and have been remarkably sectarian for most of my political life. Some of my enemies will cheat me by outliving me, but far to many are removing themselves from my final ministrations by having an unkown scattering place rather than a grave on which no flowers should be permittted to grow!
… so you can start singing “I’ll Be There to Tramp The Dirt Down” – Elvis Costello.
One of my favorites I recite loudly when I’m having a whiskeyed moment of an evening.
Mine too. My offspring are often embarrassed with my loud, enthusiastic rendition when driving the car…. but I’m pretty sure they know all the words now.
re …”the final vengance of pissing on the graves of ones political enemies.”
lol…their ashes are probably sitting on someone’s mantelpiece
…this would make a good ‘detective ‘ with a difference, black novel you know…(cf genre ‘The Lives and loves of a She- Devil’ or Beryl Bainbridge’s novels)… you could have a chapter on each of the political enemies whom you wish to piss on and the detective work required to find where their final resting place is…it may require pissing on someone’s mantelpiece?!..or under someone’s pear tree…or getting your bollocks frozen off pissing up the Hooker Valley…or somewhere out at sea
re “Some of my enemies will cheat me by outliving me…”
well you could end the novel with two geriatrics having a fight to the death ..of course the author would be the winner and then would have to dispose of the body…and then the piss up…or down…or both
( cf…that wildly funny Irish/British film where a bus load of geriatric Orangemen are accidentally double booked for a Christmas bash at a country pub with a busload of geriatric IRA and the resulting brawl..)
I have had sugestions from friends of likely contenders – and their final resting places. Also requests to organise a bus tour. Calculations have also been done of the number of pubs to visit to achieve the intake required for the various feats of micturation.
lol
Bunnings workers stepping up their campaign
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/287241/occupying-the-store-just-the-beginning
This nonsense around “flexible hours” has to stop. We are not your slaves, bosses, to be used as and when required because you can’t manage to organise a roster efficiently.
Bunnings, do the right thing and give your workers set work hours each week – they have a life outside of work which needs to be lived and enjoyed. Won’t be purchasing anything at your stores until you remove this clause and settle the negotiation.
Bunnings workers: So proud of you! Kia Kaha!!!
Go Bunnings workers !!!!
Plasma as a source of bountiful cheap energy. Too much science for me.
” From today (16 October) the production of energy, the production of food has changed.”
Keshe Foundation Spaceship Institute
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1280&v=BM8wuqPmVBg
Amazing! Help someone who can evaluate this. Mr Prentice?
If this is true then it will collapse the oil industry. Wow! Hell for Shell!
No wonder they are releasing it around the world at once.
A unit is the size that you could hold between your hands.
“Computer technology is obsolete because plasma is the speed of light.”
Or is it a scam???
Currently being discussed on scam.com…
Keshe is the Messiah – according to Keshe…I’m not making this up.
He doesn’t seem to be selling stuff as would a scam. And he is very public rather than secretive as for a scam. Can’t see where the scam part is but it is so huge it has but.. but…
Crowd funding is all the rage these days.
Why would he need to crowd fund when peer-reviewed publication (or simply independent verification), would suffice to win the Nobel Prize in Physics?
It’s all explained at the Physics exchange and other Physics forae.
In Nature, not so much.
From the few seconds that I watched it just looked like the old Perpetual Motion scam.
yeah hard to call it anything other than a scam – especially when you listen and watch his megaearthquake vid – just silly shit – 40 million dead, 20 to 24 Richter scale hit near panama canal, magnitude 10’s down the west coast of US. ffs at least he stands back to his audience writing shit on his white board most of the time.
Thanks for the info One and Draco. Pity as the idea is tremendous but the physics reality is nil. I wonder why Mr Keshe is doing it? Maybe just thought experiment rather than a money-making scam. Back to the dream then. 🙂
A good discussion/debate on CrossTalk:
‘Washington confused’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/318830-syria-fiasco-isil-fight/
From one fiasco to another: Washington has failed to change the regime in Syria, failed to effectively fight ISIL, and now wants Russia to fail. At the same time, Obama appears to be willing to arm any anti-regime fighter who can carry a gun. What could possibly go wrong with that?
CrossTalking with Philippe Assouline, Marcus Papadopoulos, and Roshan Muhammed Salih.
Seems a darling of the wingnut/hate/chookfeeder sphere was/is on the industry payroll.
The smog has lifted from the financial ties between high-profile climate denier Christopher Horner and the coal industry. The now-bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources Inc., one of the largest coal companies in the country, paid Horner $18,600 in three equal installments, according to documents filed as part of the company’s bankruptcy case.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/10/coal-company-backed-high-profile-climate-denier/
http://www.desmogblog.com/chris-horner
Prof. Bill Mitchell (Australian) explains most of the subject of macro economics in Finland recently. This is worth listening to with reference to the recent surplus posted by Bill English and because his main subject is macro economics.
http://socialdemocracy21stcentury.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/bill-mitchell-on-euro-crisis-and.html
I’m a bit bored so can i come back soon, three years was a bit harsh i reckon
[lprent: A author sort of spoke for you. You are back conditionally. ]
Church threatens to sue D.C. over bike lane — because of religious freedom
Yeah, the more I see of the actions of some churches it’s obvious that only selfish, greedy people go to them.
Until you see the people outside of them.