Terrorist ‘mastermind’ turns out to be Belgian, Syrian passports are fake, so maybe France should start a bombing run on Belgium. What a mess. Over 100 ppl detained, it does make you wonder WTF the spies watching our online activity do all day, too much time sniffing ppls undies drawers is my guess.
Here’s a little thought experiment: imagine that we’re in Kansas (without Toto) and a bridal party in three rented limos is heading down a highway toward a church where a wedding is about to take place. Suddenly, a small out-of-control plane plummets into those limos killing the bride, the mother of the bride, and five of the seven bridesmaids; 15 others are wounded. Bear with me here, if this particular method of wedding slaughter seems a little farfetched. After all, we don’t (yet) have drones armed with Hellfire missiles patrolling American skies that could take out such a caravan. ….
Genuinely, I have no decent thought on the middle east troubles..
They have arisen due to a confluence of human migrations out of Africa and settlements in those once fertile lands. Such were these circumstances that civilisation actually sprouted there.
These communities have existed for a very long time – in fact longer than any other on the planet currently, due to their proximity to Africa.. which has made them central to the world’s order
But the world and its demographics and migrations have now moved on very substantially from those times and that part of the world is no longer central to the world’s order (other than historic hangover and the current presence of oil – which, in a practical sense, keeps them central to order. But this is passing)
About 5,000 years of them being central to the world.
Just to put that in context, Australian aboriginal cultures have existed for 50,000 years.
On the Eurasian continent, 5,000 years happens to coincide with the general shift from egalitarian culture to dominance culture. There are various theories around that related to the development of agriculture over since 10,000 years ago, but I think that’s as much an accident of geography as anything (the right coinciding of population with fertile land).
As for the world’s order, I don’t see any of the developped world being particularly good at that. Bunch of self-serving warmongers the lot of them.
If someone was killing in the name of my god I would expect my god to act to stop them,if he/she /it didn’t act I would throw that god on the heap with other stupid beliefs I’ve had.
He came across as a legend in his own mind, actually quite a blow arse nutter. Not much of a hunter gatherer taking 5 shots to nail a couple of deer in a fenced paddock. Be an even match in the boxing ring with his mate Slater. Certainly looks like he will help Twyford win his seat with ease, $150 paid to turn Maori voters off Labour was a laugh.
And along with “a legend in his own mind” I quite like “blow arse nutter”. Sums it up really. He’s like the playground bully that grew up and is still a bully, but has no mates. Nothing but a gloating idiot.
If he appeared on the show because he was touting for business as Garner suggested, then he did a great job of shooting himself in the foot – or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.
On one of the posts somewhere, over the weekend, there was a character called cowboy (I think) who talked about why he isn’t renewing his National Party membership, and how Key’s outburst in the house was the last straw that pushed him to that decision. It was an insightful read, and an honest one from a former Nat supporter.
I reckon there’s lots more like cowboy, conservative, traditional, yet principled, quietly turning away from their party. I look at how my family, a true blue one, just can’t defend Key like they used to. These can’t be the ones that Roy Morgan interviews.
Bringing Simon Lusk out for an airing was a good thing. He’ll drive those principled former Nat voters into the arms of NZ First.
” or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.”
^^
This. Which also says a lot about the people who associate with him.
If there really is a cabal of recent immigrants putting money up to do a hatchet job on a democraticly elected MP ( Phil Twyford ) that’s all the reason required for the arseholes to be escorted to the border and thrown out.
Where the fuck are the Police ?
probably scared of Lusk.
@Anne – The police are being good neoliberal citizens and giving out traffic tickets of course. You have to fund and justify your own job and existence these days. (in money).
Solving crime is way down the list for police, first being errand boys for Slater and Key, second locking up people that disagree with the above, thirdly under globalism we have ‘overseas friends’ to do the above to, and fourthly gather revenue to keep the above going by issuing traffic fines. Waste your time locking up people who should not be in prison because mental health facilities are closing, homeless facilities are closing, and drug facilities are closing. If there are any resources left – you can do a bit of solving crime in your spare time.
Such old fashioned Liberalism Tracey. Refreshing but so rare these days in the political circles you tend to identify with.
Ask Colonial Viper how it works.
The first thing needed would be to ratify the Kurdish state and enrol them into Nato, this will require some diplomacy on the part of the West in regards to Turkey however its an autonamous state at the moment (more or less) so its not like creating a brand new country
Once this has happened it will be much easier for troops to get on the ground because while you can’t eradicate terrorism (and you never will) ISIS at least has a physical area to target and destroying their infrastructure won’t end them but it will certainly make it harder for them to operate overseas
It’sa good start. And pile billions into the region to establish their infrastructure, and create employment and futures. Without a future people do desperate things or become victims of those doing desperate things. If we took even half the money being used on military offensives and put it into devleopment of countries infrastructures and futures… we might just surprise ourselves.
This can be done concurrently and would certainly be my first choice (if money and political machinations were under my control) but you need the defences and troops on the ground before you build the infrastructure
I agree, would be good. Dunno about NATO though, mainly coz I dunno if the kurds would be interested, we’d have to do what they want to do.
And yeah, the Turks. But also Iran and Iraq. At the moment thngs are fairly cool between the Kurds and Baghdad, but that’s only coz of ISIS. Baghdad isn’t really that keen on letting the Kurds have Kirkuk, though there is not much they can do about it at the moment. Thos there have been incidents between Shia militia and peshmerga forces.
the problem is that our allies have competing interests and we keep ignoring those interests, which is why I think things will carry on as they are until we get reps from all communities (not nations, and I’m explicitly including the Iraqi Sunni in this, they need reps distinct from Baghdad) around a table and work out what the end game looks like.
I wonder if the current leaders of the West have the courage to be what needs to be done in this current situation
I don’t think they do
I think what will happen is some people will tweet prayfor paris, some people will add a tricolour to their facebook pics and in a couple of weeks it’ll all blow over
You’re probably right: they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims, but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them.
” they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims,”
Wow four things about which one can only say.
Every one of these is an ISIL policy.
I wouldn’t hold them responsible for the last bit where you say “but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them”. He will say nasty things about ISIL but I wouldn’t hold anyone except Trump responsible for his views.
Any lasting solution will not be the result of anglophile intervention using tools such as NATO and debt
As long as the ‘western way of life’ continues to be regarded as something other than the corporate destruction that it is, we have NO business in believing we can offer anything but the same , elsewhere
that may well be but it doesn’t change the fact that terrorist attacks are happening more frequently and its only a matter of time before it happens here
Wow, you really keep up with the news don’t you?
One happened in 1984 and the other in 1985. Thirty years ago and nothing since?
Even then no one has ever found out who carried out the first one so it is difficult to really claim it as terrorism isn’t it?
interesting idea, that terrorism is only terrorism if the perpetrators are known.
What are you trying to do – pretend that NZers have never experienced terrorism? Fuck, my local campus was deserted a few weeks back because people were expecting some nutter with a gun.
No, actually.
I am merely saying that in the Trades Hall bombing we have no real idea of why someone did it. It could have been for any reason at all.
We have had a number of cases of terrorism. One was the anarchist nut who tried to blow up the Wanganui Computer Centre in 1982.
After the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship, on 10 July 1985, Prime Minister Fabius summoned journalists to his office on 22 September 1985 to read a 200-word statement in which he said: “The truth is cruel,” and acknowledged that “Agents of the French secret service sank this boat. They were acting on orders.”…
On 17 May 2012, Laurent Fabius became Foreign Minister in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault, appointed Prime Minister by President François Hollande.
Hopefully age and experience has brought some wisdom.
Claire Trevett has an article in the Remuera National Party Newsletter about how the Labour Party is running at a deficit and therefore can’t criticise the Government for running a deficit. Clutching at straws imho
Can’t convince an electorate to vote for him but expects the country to vote for him, can’t fund raise and run a political party but expects to be able to run an economy
Wtf are you on about? The article said that Labour had unforeseen costs over and above their normal (and budgeted) expenses, such as the leadership changes. That’s what cash reserves are for, to cover unexpected bills. When times are rosy they’ll no doubt build up the reserves again.
In Paris in 1961, Paris police killed 300 peaceful protestors
and then dumped their bodies into the River Seine.
Since the atrocities in Paris on Saturday, we have been inundated with a flood of sanctimonious words, hypocritical posturing, official lies and distortions, accompanied often by mournful assertions that “the world has changed forever”. But one of the most cynical lies repeated over the last couple of days is the contention by French politicians, assiduously reiterated by the media, that Saturday’s horror was “the deadliest violence on its soil since World War II”.
In fact, it wasn’t even close to the deadliest violence on French soil since World War II. That dubious honour belongs not to ISIS, but to the French state…..
France remembers Algerian massacre 50 years on
by KIM WILLSHER in Paris, The Guardian, Monday 17 October 2011
Politicians, historians and protesters gathered in Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of a police crackdown on Algerian anti-war demonstrators that has become one of the most shameful episodes of modern French history.
The events of 17 October 1961 are considered a massacre by many Algerians, who claim up to 300 members of their community died at the hands of the Paris police. Many are angry that the French government has never officially apologised for the bloody attack – which does not appear in school history books – and that the authorities still dispute the death toll. According to officials, less than a handful of protesters died, while historians say the number of Algerians killed – some of them beaten and thrown into the river Seine – was between 50 and 120.
On Monday, François Hollande chose to mark the tragedy as his first official engagement as the newly elected Socialist party presidential candidate. Hollande, named as the Socialists’ choice to take on Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential elections barely 12 hours earlier, on Monday threw a single red rose into the Seine from the bridge at Clichy, the suburb where many of the victims lived.
Afterwards he unveiled a plaque engraved with: “From this bridge and other bridges in the Paris region, Algerian demonstrators were thrown into the Seine on the 17 October 1961, victims of a blind repression. In their memory.” Benjamin Stora, a local resident and specialist in Algerian history, said it was a first step towards “recognising one of the biggest French tragedies”.
Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris who was born in Tunisia, another former French colony, placed a wreath at the St Michel bridge where there is a plaque marking what his office described as a “bloody repression”.
On the evening of 17 October 1961, at the height of the Franco-Algerian war, tens of thousands of Algerian protesters, including women and children, from around Paris gathered at various landmarks to demonstrate against what they considered a “racist and discriminatory” curfew imposed against them. The mobilisation had been organised by the Paris wing of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), an organisation that was fighting for Algeria’s independence from France and had been accused of carrying out attacks on Paris police that left a dozen dead.
It was intended to be a peaceful demonstration, but Maurice Papon, the Paris police chief, ordered his officers to stamp out the protests. As the Algerians gathered, the police acted swiftly and brutally, firing on protesters and arresting an estimated 11,500 who were herded on to buses and taken to makeshift detention centres where many claimed they were beaten and held for days without food.
Claims that officers had beaten protesters and dumped them into the Seine appeared to be confirmed when bodies were washed up on the banks of the river.
John Key demonstrates – predictably – cultural ignorance of the country which he represents in his glib response to question regarding the return of soldiers who died in Malaysia and Vietnam: :Kiwi soldiers will remain buried in Malaysia – John Key
It’s been one of my favourites this year. Its’ quite sinister and has some depth to it. The theme is manufactured societies and the authoritarian drive to compel citizens to conform, or else. A good steady plot with some interesting surprises. Melissa Leo’s performance (from Treme) was fantastic.
ALGARY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government is following through on an election promise to ban crude oil tanker traffic off the coast of northern British Columbia
He sounded as if he hadn’t sobered up yet from last night’s binge.
The interviewer, who usually tries very hard to make him sound as if he had at least a room temperature IQ, finally seemed to give up. Trying to make him sound sensible simply proved to be impossible.
Part of his premise seemed to be that since the Iraqi Army wasn’t currently very good we shouldn’t try and improve their performance by training them.
I wonder if he plans to do something similar here, perhaps in education?
“I’m sorry Mrs Jones. Your son Johnny isn’t able to read very well so we have decided not to try and help him. We think he should just be dumped on the educational scrapheap”.
Last week on the radio, Wellington’s “Green” Mayor defended WCC’s right to let a council venue, the TSB Arena, out for hire for the defence industry conference. She was labelled by the DJ as a hypocrite for previously referring to herself as a pacifist.
Well, I hope CeCe is paying attention now. Not only does hiring a council venue out for a warmongers conference look bad, and is morally questionable it brings avoidable tension to the city that the WCC are linked with because it’s their venue.
I agree, letting council venues to warmongers is bizarre.
Is she a Green mayor?
She is the second mayor of a major New Zealand city to be a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, after Dunedin’s Sukhi Turner, but she stood as an independent candidate.
“Green Mayor” is more a colloquial term than anything but locals are familiar with her Green Party connections. From your link, under the heading Wellington mayoral campaign 2013 is this:
“Celia Wade-Brown – The incumbent since 2010, she has served as a Southern Ward councillor. She stood for the Green Party for Parliament in 1996 (under the Alliance banner), 1999 and 2002.”
What I find odd about her personal view of it being ok to hire out a council venue to the warmongers conference (and I do mean personal as she’s not the ones taking the venue bookings) is that I have heard her anti war views during the public celebrations for 30 years of Wellington being nuclear free. She spoke with real pride about how we were the first city in NZ to go nuclear free and gave a rousing speech about the importance of communities and countries having a commitment to peace.
FWIW I sense there has been a creeping hypocrisy entering her mayoralty in this term. Just one example – I have tried and failed, to raise with her the environmental failure that is the poorly planned car centric, socially isolated, no amenities housing developments of the northern burbs. Ironically she has been championing them and even worse, is a supporter of the SHA Accord, which strips away the usual requirements for housing development under the RMA.
The only thing that is green about Celia Wade-Brown are those that think she subscribes to Green values. In reality, she is the tame pup of the Business Round Table and the property speculator class. One might say ‘corrupt’ but as yet, no-one seems to have found the brown paper bag full of high denomination notes.
Little? Zero chance. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the corporates as per the TPP. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the security state as per the spying anti terror legislation. He’s shown he won’t stand with benes as per the social welfare reform law.
I lost all confidence in Little when he caved in to the government over the Snooping bill. His speech after that, where he said that “next time” he and the opposition would not cave in like this, was one of the most abject performances I have ever seen.
How stupid are you? You do realise that AQ is still being successful in various regions, and the Taliban is still going strong? Fuck, the Israelis have tried that for years against Hezbollah, Hamas and the PLO.
But apparently using the same volunteer-producing strategy will somehow work against Daesh.
As of 3:59 p.m. EST Nov. 12, the U.S. and coalition have conducted a total of 8,125 strikes (5,321 Iraq / 2,804 Syria).
[…]
As of Nov. 14, U.S. and partner nation aircraft have flown an estimated 57,301 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Syria.
[…]
As of Oct. 31, 2015, the total cost of operations related to ISIL since kinetic operations started on Aug. 8, 2014, is $5 billion and the average daily cost is $11 million for 450 days of operations. A further breakdown of cost associated with the operations is here.
TV3’s Duncan Garner said last night he was told Mr Lusk was being funded by “Chinese money” to carry out a “direct mailout” that would focus on the Te Atatu MP.
Foreign money needs to be kept out of our politics and thus things like this need to be illegal.
This isn’t new but appropriate to ressurect. Explanation of why so many people are wrong for blaming Islam.
Religious scholar Reza Aslan took some serious issue on CNN Monday night with Bill Maher‘s commentary about Islamic violence and oppression. Maher ended his show last Friday by going after liberals for being silent about the violence and oppression that goes on in Muslim nations. Aslan said on CNN that Maher’s arguments are just very unsophisticated.
He said these “facile arguments” might sound good, but not all Muslim nations are the same.
I really like that dude – I’ve got one of his books at home (“How to win a cosmic war”). Dovetailing that with Ignatieff’s “Blood and belonging” results in a really interesting perspective.
Staunch might be your word for it. He’s a bully.
By pushing the interviewers round, he enabled at least one clear misrepresentation: Turkey as upholder of women’s rights.
In Turkey there’s a diminishing legacy from secularisation, and there is honour killing, child ”marriage”, and women are encouraged to reconcile with violent partners and most crucially, the trajectory is negative.
President Erdogan explicitly stated women are not equal: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30183711
Aslan makes a valid point about Saudi Arabia, but uses that country to narrow the debate and bully those who disagree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Turkey
Women aren’t equal anywhere, but in varying degrees, which I think was his point i.e. look at each individual country not one religion as a whole that spans many different countries with different practices.
I don’t see the bullying behaviour. He’s a guest on a show and he’s forthright, and yes he points out where the interviewers are wrong but he doesn’t engage in typical bullying behaviour.
Yes it is his point, and it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue.
By citing gender inequality in the West (the number of elected representatives), and the gross misogyny of Saudi Arabia, he tries to exonerate (and even hold as standard bearers) states like Turkey that are on a negative trajectory in respect of women’s rights.
It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.
I don’t see how it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue when he’s making a point about religion not gender. I think you mean he is factually incorrect. Your point about Turkey’s negative trajectory is valid and important, but it doesn’t negate his point, which is that you can’t condemn all of Islam based on cherry picking the worst countries. For instance if you put Turkey aside as an example, is his point still made?
I really wanted him to use Ethiopia and the US as examples of how Christianity suppresses women 😈 Imagine if the mainstream narrative about Christianity was based on Ethiopia instead of the Western Christian countries.
“It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.”
We can debate sometime how much of a positive trajectory NZ is on re gender.
I don’t know who’s right, but I suspect Aslan seized on division in Islam over the violent practice to misrepresent the problem.
The wiki article seems reasonable (it points out Christian woman are mutilated as well, but most of the article concerns the Muslim faith): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_female_genital_mutilation
”In Indonesia, FGM is widespread among Muslim women and considered a religious necessity.”
Indonesia was Aslan’s other standard bearer of women’s rights, wasn’t it?
According to the Observer’s review of Aslan’s book, he describes the motivation of one of the London July 7 bombers as ”love”, and his writing becomes ”overwrought” with emotion over Obama’s election.
So definitely not my kind of dude, but each to their own and all that.
Also events have overtaken Aslan’s book and its prescriptions, as many jihadists now are from prosperous societies (and have had good opportunities on an individual basis). http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/16/win-cosmic-war-reza-aslan
It’s still an interesting read – the Guardian review seems to ignore most of what I remember about the book. The review seems to lose the forest for the trees, IMO.
Is there any bag of foul wind fouler than that hypocrite Dr Phil McGraw? Dr Phil, TV3, Tuesday 17 November 2015
sanctimoniousadj. showing or marked by false piety or righteousness; hypocritically virtuous.
The TV3 programme notes on this show billed it like this: “Two young women accuse their father of physically and verbally abusing them.” #blamingdad
The dad was pretty much the model of what Bob McCoskrie would call a perfect father. He protested to Dr Phil: “I ain’t the greatest dad in the world, but I ain’t no ogre. I spanked them and I slapped them but…”
But all the protestations in the world cut no ice with Dr. Phil, that supreme moral arbiter, that exemplar of core American values, that upholder of all that decent and right in the world. Dr Phil sternly lectured him that violence and shouting had no place in his relationships with his daughters, no matter how old they were.
So what WOULD that dad have had to do to earn praise, rather than censure, by Dr. Phil? Well, he might have tried shooting hundreds of people, including women and children, in another country…
Of course he was right to upbraid him about hitting his daughters.
The point of my post was to note how odd it was for him to take that stance, in view of the fact he had, earlier this year, called a notorious mass murderer “a modern-day American hero”.
Click on the links from my first post, and it will be quite clear. But, briefly, my objection to Dr Phil pronouncing about anything is this:
Earlier this year he claimed that the notorious Chris Kyle, the American sniper who killed hundreds of men, women and children in Afghanistan (the Department of “Defense” officially confirmed he had more than 160 victims) was “a modern-day American hero”….
The life and death of Chris Kyle has captivated millions. He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
In the light of the depravity of his endorsement of Kyle, I don’t think Dr Phil is a fit and proper person to make a judgement on the character of anyone.
Sorry, still don’t know what you are on about. The first link isn’t that clear, the second two are identical and going on about an Imperial Wizard. If you want me to answer your question you’re going to have to make your point in plain English that doesn’t require 10 mins of further research to understand what you are on about.
1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.”
2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.
3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.
4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.
5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.
“1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.””
Citation for Dr Phil ‘praising’ Kyle. The link you provided implies the programme is about Kyle’s parents discussing his mental illness and that he wouldn’t have murdered people if he’s gotten the help he needed. Presumably if Phil did praise Kyle, it wasn’t for the murders. Did Phil praise Kyle for his pre-murdering life? I’m betting it wasn’t for his murdering life.
“2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.”
Lots of people have relative morality. Myself, I think context is important.
“3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.”
I’m not in a position to judge you on that.
“4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.”
Citation needed that Dr Phil approves of mass murder. Pretty sure you are making shit up now.
“5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.”
As mentioned, I tried and I’m not going to attempt that dog’s breakfast of a comment because I’m guessing it’s full of the same illogic as this one.
The life and death of Chris Kyle has captivated millions. He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
Now what part of that do you not understand? He is praising a U.S. Army sniper who is “credited” officially with more than 160 kills.
You can vapour on all you like about how he is praising him for his “pre-murdering” actions, but nobody will take you seriously.
I would be offended by your allegation that I am “making shit up”, but it’s quite obvious you have basic problems in comprehension, as well as a history of hostility towards me. I have humoured you this evening, but I haven’t forgotten how credulous you were a couple of years ago in swallowing all that government black propaganda about Julian Assange, and how you continued, in spite of the allegations being conclusively refuted, to defiantly traduce not only Assange but anyone who dared to support him.
You can resort to all the ad homs you like Morrisey (and more lies), but when you say “but he DOES approve of mass murder.” I believe you are making shit up. There is a large difference between being able to see someone’s contribution to their country and approving of mass murder. What’s not believable is that Phil McGraw approves of what Kyle did. You are grossly misrepresenting his position for your own argumentative gratification.
I think any reasonably intelligent person would interpret these words as endorsement: “He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
The person he is endorsing is a sniper who picked off women and children from positions of almost complete safety.
I am not going to waste any more time with you while you play your endless game of feigned incomprehension.
no, most people would understand that it’s possible to appreciate a soldier’s former life and not approve of them murdering multiple people. There is nothing in what you have posted that supports your assertion that Phil McGraw approves of mass murder (your words).
“He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
There is only one google hit for any of that quote (your comment), so I’m guessing you transcribed it from the video. Given your transcriptions are shall we say loose at the best of times I’m going to assume that you have grossly misquoted McGraw out of context. I’ll also hazard a guess the McGraw was introducing Kyle when he used those words and the implication is that he was a modern-day American hero for his work as a soldier not for his later mass murder.
I’m not surprised you are giving this no more time because you can’t answer the challenge to your argument.
The Paris attacks need to be analyzed by serious, informed commentators.
So why on earth are these fools even trying to talk about them? The Panel, RNZ National, Tuesday 17 November 2015
Jim Mora, Penny Ashton, John Bishop, Julie Moffett
bewildermentn.1. The condition of being confused or disoriented. 2. A situation of perplexity or confusion; a tangle: a bewilderment of lies and half-truths.
PENNY ASHTON: Bombing them is probably not going to stop them.
JOHN BISHOP:[gravely] It might not, but what’s the alternative?
PENNY ASHTON:[thoughtfully] Mmmmmm.
JOHN BISHOP: The West is certainly vulnerable, in terms of soft targets…. [He carries on bloviating for several minutes then, thankfully, stops.]
Automated investment platforms are part of the ‘robo-advice’ sector in the US, though they are also being used by client-facing advisers as supplementary tools to guard against losing business to the traditional robo-advice giants, such as Betterment and Wealthfront.
Robot advice is being used in investment, the computer buy and sell on target prices etc.
This goes further. And when there is a paradigm for juding voting patterns and winning elections then?
CNN anchors berate innocent Paris Muslim because
he won’t ‘accept responsibility’ for attack
by DAVID EDWARDS, Monday 16 November 2015
Two CNN hosts berated the spokesperson for a Muslim outreach group over the weekend because he would not agree that all Muslims share responsibility for the recent attacks in Paris.
During an interview early Sunday morning, Yaser Louati of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France told CNN anchors Isha Sesay and John Vause that hate speech was being directed toward the Muslim community in response to the attacks.
“The problem is that you’re still mixing the Muslim community and somehow giving them an affiliation with these terrorists,” Louati explained. “But [French Muslims] are paying two prices. The price of being targeted by these terrorists and some of the right-wing columnists.”
“We are being asked to choose our camp,” the guest pointed out. “Our camp is the French one. Make no mistake about it.”
“If your camp is the French camp, then why is it that no one within the Muslim community there in France knew what these guys were up to?” Vause asked.
“Sir, the Muslim community has nothing to do with these guys,” Louati insisted. “Nothing. We cannot justify ourselves for the actions of someone who claims to be Muslim.”
“Why not?” Vause interrupted. “What is the responsibility within the Muslim community to identify people within their own ranks when it comes to people who are obviously training and preparing to carry out mass murder.”
“Sir, they were not from our ranks!” Louati exclaimed. “We cannot accept the idea that these people are from us, they are not. They are just byproducts of our societies exporting their wars abroad and expecting no repercussions back home.”
Co-host Isha Sesay insisted that Louati had to “accept that responsibility to prevent the bigger backlash” because the “finger of blame is pointing at the Muslim community.”
“This is a very complicated issue,” Vause said, concluding the segment. “I have yet to hear the condemnation from the Muslim community on this.”
“The point he is making is, ‘It’s not our fault,’” Sesay noted. “But the fact of the matter is when these things happen, the finger of blame is pointed at the Muslim community and so you have to be preemptive. It’s coming from the community. You’ve got to take a stand.”
“The word responsibility comes to mind,” Vause opined.
“It just comes to mind,” Sesay agreed. “You can’t shirk that.”
Tatang Koswara (1947 – 2015) was a sniper credited with at least 41 confirmed kills during the U.S.-backed Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the 1970s.
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes 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). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
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The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
By Kaneta Naimatu in Suva Journalists in the Pacific region play an important role as the “eyes and ears on the ground” when it comes to reporting the climate crisis, says the European Union’s Pacific Ambassador Barbara Plinkert. Speaking at The University of the South Pacific (USP) on World Press ...
Aldora Itunu is back in the Black Ferns squad after a three-year absence. The last of her 24 internationals was an underwhelming loss to France (7-29) in Castres to conclude the disastrous 2021 Northern Tour. The powerhouse prop won a Rugby World Cup in 2017 and thought she was done. ...
The fight to control major transport policy and projects in Auckland has burst into the open again, with councillors rejecting Mayor Wayne Brown’s latest attempt to steer things more under his influence. Councillors from the left and right broke ranks on the mayor’s bid to control Auckland Transport more directly ...
Exhausted by the general election campaign, horrified by the twilight zone of coalition negotiations, distracted by the silly season and waiting for the honeymoon to begin, Raw Politics has been in hibernation since October. From today, we’re back. Our weekly political video show and podcast returns for ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Authorities in the small town of Boulouparis have commemorated Armistice Day on May 8 with a new memorial honouring New Zealand soldiers who were stationed in New Caledonia during World War II. The ceremony took place in the township on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior lecturer, international migration and refugee law, University of Technology Sydney The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Munro, Lecturer, Creative Industries and Digital Media, University of South Australia Twenty-four hours after the release of Macklemore’s pro-Palestine protest song Hind’s Hall on social media on May 7, the video had already notched up over 24 million views. In ...
Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
350 Aotearoa is calling the Environment Select Committee’s decision to allow oral submissions from just 40% of individual, unique submitters who asked to speak to the committee ‘a disgraceful blight to democracy’. ...
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Papua New Guinea experienced a significant earthquake on 24 March in East Sepik and there has also been recent flooding there and in surrounding provinces. ...
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The Royal New Zealand Ballet is performing Swan Lake around the country. What kind of dream does the ballet sell?Before going to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet perform Swan Lake, I had about as much familiarity with the plot of this ballet as could be expected from having ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Eamonn Tee. High Tide at Local Maxima It is only going to get worse. The streams will be narrow and fickle. The week will bend and buckle like a pot-bellied waist. You will make it to the weekend with one ...
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The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 James by Percival Everett (Mantle, $38) A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from ...
By Kamna Kumar in Suva Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna stressed the importance of media freedom and its link to the climate and environmental crisis at the 2024 World Press Freedom Day event organised by the University of the South Pacific’s journalism programme. Under the theme “A Planet for ...
Tara Ward previews a new local TV series offering alternative visions of motherhood. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. A woman is clambering up the side of her two-story house, clinging desperately to a drainpipe. Nearby, her child is perched on the ...
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The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome today’s announcement from Government around a bipartisan inquiry into an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand. ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision by the Department of Internal Affairs, and Minister Brooke Van Velden, to abandon proposals to further regulate online speech. ...
Its new building in Wellington will not be nearly big enough for all its records, and it has also run out of money to build its new storage facility in Levin. ...
BusinessNZ is congratulating the Minister of Climate Change for his work in achieving cross-party consensus for a way forward on climate adaptation. ...
Recent research reveals the repeal of smokefree measures is not only bad for our health, but also the economy. The Government has repealed various smokefree measures to ensure it keeps collecting $1.2 billion a year in tobacco taxes, in order to pay for tax cuts already being delivered to ...
The club’s surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong… and a few other factors.“There’s no way that Wellington Phoenix play finals this year. I can’t see it happening at all.” Those are the words of Lachlan Raeside, an Australian football content ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Goss, Adjunct Associate Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra Government spending on health has been growing so rapidly that a decade ago the then health minister Peter Dutton called it “unmanageable” and “unsustainable”. Health spending grew in real terms by ...
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Writer Rebecca K Reilly breaks down the national book awards. What are the Ockhams?The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are our annual national awards for books published for adults, and have existed in this form since 2016. There are four categories: Fiction, Poetry, General Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction. There ...
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RNZ Pacific Former Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has been sentenced to one year in prison, Fiji media are reporting. Bainimarama, alongside suspended Fiji Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho appeared in the High Court in Suva today for their sentencing hearing for a case involving their roles in blocking a police ...
Terrorist ‘mastermind’ turns out to be Belgian, Syrian passports are fake, so maybe France should start a bombing run on Belgium. What a mess. Over 100 ppl detained, it does make you wonder WTF the spies watching our online activity do all day, too much time sniffing ppls undies drawers is my guess.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/serbian-police-arrest-man-carrying-syrian-passport-with-exact-same-details-as-document-found-on-a6736471.html
That was only ever an excuse to breach privacy for other ends IMO with national security a large blanket thrown over everything they spy on.
Another passport that appeared.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/19/september11.iraq
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176069/tomgram%3A_laura_gottesdiener%2C_the_angel_of_death/#more
Here’s a little thought experiment: imagine that we’re in Kansas (without Toto) and a bridal party in three rented limos is heading down a highway toward a church where a wedding is about to take place. Suddenly, a small out-of-control plane plummets into those limos killing the bride, the mother of the bride, and five of the seven bridesmaids; 15 others are wounded. Bear with me here, if this particular method of wedding slaughter seems a little farfetched. After all, we don’t (yet) have drones armed with Hellfire missiles patrolling American skies that could take out such a caravan. ….
Drone killings
41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes – the facts on the ground
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147
What are you, a goddam’ Commie?
Genuinely, I have no decent thought on the middle east troubles..
They have arisen due to a confluence of human migrations out of Africa and settlements in those once fertile lands. Such were these circumstances that civilisation actually sprouted there.
These communities have existed for a very long time – in fact longer than any other on the planet currently, due to their proximity to Africa.. which has made them central to the world’s order
But the world and its demographics and migrations have now moved on very substantially from those times and that part of the world is no longer central to the world’s order (other than historic hangover and the current presence of oil – which, in a practical sense, keeps them central to order. But this is passing)
About 5,000 years of them being central to the world.
Next 5,000 years bullshit
Just to put that in context, Australian aboriginal cultures have existed for 50,000 years.
On the Eurasian continent, 5,000 years happens to coincide with the general shift from egalitarian culture to dominance culture. There are various theories around that related to the development of agriculture over since 10,000 years ago, but I think that’s as much an accident of geography as anything (the right coinciding of population with fertile land).
As for the world’s order, I don’t see any of the developped world being particularly good at that. Bunch of self-serving warmongers the lot of them.
If someone was killing in the name of my god I would expect my god to act to stop them,if he/she /it didn’t act I would throw that god on the heap with other stupid beliefs I’ve had.
Is Simon Lusk New Zealand’s angriest man?
He should stop killing things and just come out.
Who is Paul Honnor, and what’s that all about?
He came across as a legend in his own mind, actually quite a blow arse nutter. Not much of a hunter gatherer taking 5 shots to nail a couple of deer in a fenced paddock. Be an even match in the boxing ring with his mate Slater. Certainly looks like he will help Twyford win his seat with ease, $150 paid to turn Maori voters off Labour was a laugh.
“a legend in his own mind,” Thanks. That’s good. I’ll use that sometime.
And along with “a legend in his own mind” I quite like “blow arse nutter”. Sums it up really. He’s like the playground bully that grew up and is still a bully, but has no mates. Nothing but a gloating idiot.
If he appeared on the show because he was touting for business as Garner suggested, then he did a great job of shooting himself in the foot – or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.
On one of the posts somewhere, over the weekend, there was a character called cowboy (I think) who talked about why he isn’t renewing his National Party membership, and how Key’s outburst in the house was the last straw that pushed him to that decision. It was an insightful read, and an honest one from a former Nat supporter.
I reckon there’s lots more like cowboy, conservative, traditional, yet principled, quietly turning away from their party. I look at how my family, a true blue one, just can’t defend Key like they used to. These can’t be the ones that Roy Morgan interviews.
Bringing Simon Lusk out for an airing was a good thing. He’ll drive those principled former Nat voters into the arms of NZ First.
” or maybe he genuinely believes that everyone is as corrupted and vicious as he is, and that he might reach that target audience and drum up some business.”
^^
This. Which also says a lot about the people who associate with him.
Blabbermouth Lusk runs his mouth too much. Sam Lotu-Iiga is the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks Blabbermouth.
Just forced myself to watch some of the video. Had to curb the vomit.
He’d have to be the antithesis of Sir Ed.
I particularly enjoyed the way he appeared to own up to criminal behaviour:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0087/latest/DLM310402.html
Depressingly, Duncan Garner didn’t appear to know that treating was an offence, despite having been a Political Editor…
If there really is a cabal of recent immigrants putting money up to do a hatchet job on a democraticly elected MP ( Phil Twyford ) that’s all the reason required for the arseholes to be escorted to the border and thrown out.
Where the fuck are the Police ?
probably scared of Lusk.
Where the fuck are the Police ?
Turning a blind eye of course.
@Anne – The police are being good neoliberal citizens and giving out traffic tickets of course. You have to fund and justify your own job and existence these days. (in money).
Solving crime is way down the list for police, first being errand boys for Slater and Key, second locking up people that disagree with the above, thirdly under globalism we have ‘overseas friends’ to do the above to, and fourthly gather revenue to keep the above going by issuing traffic fines. Waste your time locking up people who should not be in prison because mental health facilities are closing, homeless facilities are closing, and drug facilities are closing. If there are any resources left – you can do a bit of solving crime in your spare time.
Can’t and shouldn’t throw people out for what they are thinking of doing.
Such old fashioned Liberalism Tracey. Refreshing but so rare these days in the political circles you tend to identify with.
Ask Colonial Viper how it works.
To Pascals bookie following on from yesterday
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838034
The first thing needed would be to ratify the Kurdish state and enrol them into Nato, this will require some diplomacy on the part of the West in regards to Turkey however its an autonamous state at the moment (more or less) so its not like creating a brand new country
Once this has happened it will be much easier for troops to get on the ground because while you can’t eradicate terrorism (and you never will) ISIS at least has a physical area to target and destroying their infrastructure won’t end them but it will certainly make it harder for them to operate overseas
It’sa good start. And pile billions into the region to establish their infrastructure, and create employment and futures. Without a future people do desperate things or become victims of those doing desperate things. If we took even half the money being used on military offensives and put it into devleopment of countries infrastructures and futures… we might just surprise ourselves.
This can be done concurrently and would certainly be my first choice (if money and political machinations were under my control) but you need the defences and troops on the ground before you build the infrastructure
I agree, would be good. Dunno about NATO though, mainly coz I dunno if the kurds would be interested, we’d have to do what they want to do.
And yeah, the Turks. But also Iran and Iraq. At the moment thngs are fairly cool between the Kurds and Baghdad, but that’s only coz of ISIS. Baghdad isn’t really that keen on letting the Kurds have Kirkuk, though there is not much they can do about it at the moment. Thos there have been incidents between Shia militia and peshmerga forces.
the problem is that our allies have competing interests and we keep ignoring those interests, which is why I think things will carry on as they are until we get reps from all communities (not nations, and I’m explicitly including the Iraqi Sunni in this, they need reps distinct from Baghdad) around a table and work out what the end game looks like.
I wonder if the current leaders of the West have the courage to be what needs to be done in this current situation
I don’t think they do
I think what will happen is some people will tweet prayfor paris, some people will add a tricolour to their facebook pics and in a couple of weeks it’ll all blow over
You’re probably right: they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims, but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them.
http://time.com/4113333/paris-attacks-donald-trump/
The idiot trump at his best saying that if more French carried guns less people would of died. Because it works so well in the us.
He’s got company.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/because-twitter-is-our-national-id-here-are-the-worst-conservative-reactions-to-the-paris-attacks/
” they need to stand up to insane racist wingnuts, call an end to useless vengeance fantasies, prosecute war criminals, and stop the mass murder of innocent Muslims,”
Wow four things about which one can only say.
Every one of these is an ISIL policy.
I wouldn’t hold them responsible for the last bit where you say “but Donald Trump will say nasty things about them”. He will say nasty things about ISIL but I wouldn’t hold anyone except Trump responsible for his views.
Yes, Alwyn, you’ve finally noticed how much US foreign policy and Daesh have in common. Slow clap.
Any lasting solution will not be the result of anglophile intervention using tools such as NATO and debt
As long as the ‘western way of life’ continues to be regarded as something other than the corporate destruction that it is, we have NO business in believing we can offer anything but the same , elsewhere
that may well be but it doesn’t change the fact that terrorist attacks are happening more frequently and its only a matter of time before it happens here
what, you mean like bombing a trades hall or a ship?
Wow, you really keep up with the news don’t you?
One happened in 1984 and the other in 1985. Thirty years ago and nothing since?
Even then no one has ever found out who carried out the first one so it is difficult to really claim it as terrorism isn’t it?
interesting idea, that terrorism is only terrorism if the perpetrators are known.
What are you trying to do – pretend that NZers have never experienced terrorism? Fuck, my local campus was deserted a few weeks back because people were expecting some nutter with a gun.
No, actually.
I am merely saying that in the Trades Hall bombing we have no real idea of why someone did it. It could have been for any reason at all.
We have had a number of cases of terrorism. One was the anarchist nut who tried to blow up the Wanganui Computer Centre in 1982.
Re the ship – the French Foreign Minister and using State terrorism to deal with dissent.
Hopefully age and experience has brought some wisdom.
Claire Trevett has an article in the Remuera National Party Newsletter about how the Labour Party is running at a deficit and therefore can’t criticise the Government for running a deficit. Clutching at straws imho
Can’t convince an electorate to vote for him but expects the country to vote for him, can’t fund raise and run a political party but expects to be able to run an economy
Yup
How does a political party run at a deficit and still survive?
What are you borrowing against?
Its good for a government to run a deficit but pretty shonkey for a political party to be running a deficit I’d have thought
Did you not read the article PR or are you just shitestirring?
They’re not running a deficit, they merely funded some of their (unexpected) operating expenses from cash reserves. That’s what a reserve is for.
That’s pretty disgusting ‘journalism’ from Trevett IMO.
and those reserves won’t last forever but of course people are voting with their wallets…
Bet the Greens coffers arn’t too bad at the moment
“and those reserves won’t last forever ….
Wtf are you on about? The article said that Labour had unforeseen costs over and above their normal (and budgeted) expenses, such as the leadership changes. That’s what cash reserves are for, to cover unexpected bills. When times are rosy they’ll no doubt build up the reserves again.
silly question 🙂
No doubt Trevett had a cushy position lined up for her services to Dear Leader.
Bloody minded,..Political capital mate, just as English thinks debt an asset.
👿
In Paris in 1961, Paris police killed 300 peaceful protestors
and then dumped their bodies into the River Seine.
Since the atrocities in Paris on Saturday, we have been inundated with a flood of sanctimonious words, hypocritical posturing, official lies and distortions, accompanied often by mournful assertions that “the world has changed forever”. But one of the most cynical lies repeated over the last couple of days is the contention by French politicians, assiduously reiterated by the media, that Saturday’s horror was “the deadliest violence on its soil since World War II”.
In fact, it wasn’t even close to the deadliest violence on French soil since World War II. That dubious honour belongs not to ISIS, but to the French state…..
France remembers Algerian massacre 50 years on
by KIM WILLSHER in Paris, The Guardian, Monday 17 October 2011
Politicians, historians and protesters gathered in Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of a police crackdown on Algerian anti-war demonstrators that has become one of the most shameful episodes of modern French history.
The events of 17 October 1961 are considered a massacre by many Algerians, who claim up to 300 members of their community died at the hands of the Paris police. Many are angry that the French government has never officially apologised for the bloody attack – which does not appear in school history books – and that the authorities still dispute the death toll. According to officials, less than a handful of protesters died, while historians say the number of Algerians killed – some of them beaten and thrown into the river Seine – was between 50 and 120.
On Monday, François Hollande chose to mark the tragedy as his first official engagement as the newly elected Socialist party presidential candidate. Hollande, named as the Socialists’ choice to take on Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s presidential elections barely 12 hours earlier, on Monday threw a single red rose into the Seine from the bridge at Clichy, the suburb where many of the victims lived.
Afterwards he unveiled a plaque engraved with: “From this bridge and other bridges in the Paris region, Algerian demonstrators were thrown into the Seine on the 17 October 1961, victims of a blind repression. In their memory.” Benjamin Stora, a local resident and specialist in Algerian history, said it was a first step towards “recognising one of the biggest French tragedies”.
Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris who was born in Tunisia, another former French colony, placed a wreath at the St Michel bridge where there is a plaque marking what his office described as a “bloody repression”.
On the evening of 17 October 1961, at the height of the Franco-Algerian war, tens of thousands of Algerian protesters, including women and children, from around Paris gathered at various landmarks to demonstrate against what they considered a “racist and discriminatory” curfew imposed against them. The mobilisation had been organised by the Paris wing of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), an organisation that was fighting for Algeria’s independence from France and had been accused of carrying out attacks on Paris police that left a dozen dead.
It was intended to be a peaceful demonstration, but Maurice Papon, the Paris police chief, ordered his officers to stamp out the protests. As the Algerians gathered, the police acted swiftly and brutally, firing on protesters and arresting an estimated 11,500 who were herded on to buses and taken to makeshift detention centres where many claimed they were beaten and held for days without food.
Claims that officers had beaten protesters and dumped them into the Seine appeared to be confirmed when bodies were washed up on the banks of the river.
Read more….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/17/france-remembers-algerian-massacre
Thanks for the informative post.
John Oliver appears to have figured out who the terrorists are,
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/nov/16/tv-satirist-john-oliver-responds-to-paris-attacks-with-a-moment-of-premium-cable-profanity
John Key demonstrates – predictably – cultural ignorance of the country which he represents in his glib response to question regarding the return of soldiers who died in Malaysia and Vietnam: :Kiwi soldiers will remain buried in Malaysia – John Key
I’ve missed something. What is this reference to “crickets” on TS lately, often in response to the screwy logic of RWer’s?
Any relation to “there are no crickets in Wayward Pines” ? (not on this trailer, but it’s an excellent show. You can watch on line)
Rosie, ‘crickets’ refers to silence in the airwaves…as in nothing but the sound of crickets chirping
Search on youtube, “Awkward Silence Cricket Sound”, and you should get it 🙂
Thanks CR and maui. Now I am up with the times.
This from you tube explains it too:
“Great to use right after the comedy drum when no one talks or laughs at your stupid joke.”
Looks like a good show. Might have to watch
It’s been one of my favourites this year. Its’ quite sinister and has some depth to it. The theme is manufactured societies and the authoritarian drive to compel citizens to conform, or else. A good steady plot with some interesting surprises. Melissa Leo’s performance (from Treme) was fantastic.
ALGARY – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government is following through on an election promise to ban crude oil tanker traffic off the coast of northern British Columbia
http://calgaryherald.com/business/energy/northern-gateway-hopes-crushed-as-canada-moves-to-ban-oil-tankers-off-b-c-coast
Can anyone explain what on earth Little was saying on Morning Report today?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201779039/little-details-current-stance-on-iraq-deployment
He sounded as if he hadn’t sobered up yet from last night’s binge.
The interviewer, who usually tries very hard to make him sound as if he had at least a room temperature IQ, finally seemed to give up. Trying to make him sound sensible simply proved to be impossible.
Part of his premise seemed to be that since the Iraqi Army wasn’t currently very good we shouldn’t try and improve their performance by training them.
I wonder if he plans to do something similar here, perhaps in education?
“I’m sorry Mrs Jones. Your son Johnny isn’t able to read very well so we have decided not to try and help him. We think he should just be dumped on the educational scrapheap”.
Aww cute! You’ve got another false dichotomy. Speaking of IQ, it’s hardly surprising you failed to grasp Little’s remarks.
Schadenfreude is like sugar: I know I shouldn’t but it tastes so sweet!
Ha ha ha ha ha…
Looks like a win for media works.
Replaced 11 staff with a couple of sub contractors, if I was media works I’d be stoked
Michael Laws will be choking in bile when he hears this news…
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/whanganui-district-council-gets-an-official-h
Excellent, now to change the rest of the place names that make no sense in Maori.
Last week on the radio, Wellington’s “Green” Mayor defended WCC’s right to let a council venue, the TSB Arena, out for hire for the defence industry conference. She was labelled by the DJ as a hypocrite for previously referring to herself as a pacifist.
Well, I hope CeCe is paying attention now. Not only does hiring a council venue out for a warmongers conference look bad, and is morally questionable it brings avoidable tension to the city that the WCC are linked with because it’s their venue.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/74106973/protesters-clash-with-police-at-defence-industry-forum-in-wellington
I agree, letting council venues to warmongers is bizarre.
Is she a Green mayor?
She is the second mayor of a major New Zealand city to be a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, after Dunedin’s Sukhi Turner, but she stood as an independent candidate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Wade-Brown
“Green Mayor” is more a colloquial term than anything but locals are familiar with her Green Party connections. From your link, under the heading Wellington mayoral campaign 2013 is this:
“Celia Wade-Brown – The incumbent since 2010, she has served as a Southern Ward councillor. She stood for the Green Party for Parliament in 1996 (under the Alliance banner), 1999 and 2002.”
What I find odd about her personal view of it being ok to hire out a council venue to the warmongers conference (and I do mean personal as she’s not the ones taking the venue bookings) is that I have heard her anti war views during the public celebrations for 30 years of Wellington being nuclear free. She spoke with real pride about how we were the first city in NZ to go nuclear free and gave a rousing speech about the importance of communities and countries having a commitment to peace.
FWIW I sense there has been a creeping hypocrisy entering her mayoralty in this term. Just one example – I have tried and failed, to raise with her the environmental failure that is the poorly planned car centric, socially isolated, no amenities housing developments of the northern burbs. Ironically she has been championing them and even worse, is a supporter of the SHA Accord, which strips away the usual requirements for housing development under the RMA.
I could go on but won’t.
The only thing that is green about Celia Wade-Brown are those that think she subscribes to Green values. In reality, she is the tame pup of the Business Round Table and the property speculator class. One might say ‘corrupt’ but as yet, no-one seems to have found the brown paper bag full of high denomination notes.
Will New Zealand get a Labour leader with courage like Jeremy Corbyn?
Let’s hope so….
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/11/jeremy-corbyns-refusal-offer-labour-mps-free-vote-syria-shows-his-newly
Little? Zero chance. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the corporates as per the TPP. He’s shown he won’t stand up against the security state as per the spying anti terror legislation. He’s shown he won’t stand with benes as per the social welfare reform law.
I lost all confidence in Little when he caved in to the government over the Snooping bill. His speech after that, where he said that “next time” he and the opposition would not cave in like this, was one of the most abject performances I have ever seen.
How long will it take to decapitate ISIS leadership? A few bombs will reunite them with their Allah.
FFS.
How stupid are you? You do realise that AQ is still being successful in various regions, and the Taliban is still going strong? Fuck, the Israelis have tried that for years against Hezbollah, Hamas and the PLO.
But apparently using the same volunteer-producing strategy will somehow work against Daesh.
Clean Power reckons its as easy as taking out the Boss at the end of a computer game level.
Stupid with bells on I reckon.
As of 3:59 p.m. EST Nov. 12, the U.S. and coalition have conducted a total of 8,125 strikes (5,321 Iraq / 2,804 Syria).
[…]
As of Nov. 14, U.S. and partner nation aircraft have flown an estimated 57,301 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Syria.
[…]
As of Oct. 31, 2015, the total cost of operations related to ISIL since kinetic operations started on Aug. 8, 2014, is $5 billion and the average daily cost is $11 million for 450 days of operations. A further breakdown of cost associated with the operations is here.
http://www.defense.gov/News/Special-Reports/0814_Inherent-Resolve
Contrary to what you RWNJs believe anybody can be a leader. Due to this fact CEOs should actually be on minimum wage.
They need to bomb Washington, London, Riyadh and Ankara, which are the main supporters of ISIS.
An heroic stand against the 3-year-old orphan threat.
/
Hugh Hewitt Verified account
@hughhewitt
Because he lacks confidence in Administration’s vetting ability, @ChrisChristie says no Syrian refugees now, not even “3 year old orphan
https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/666362298965999616
Some of the comments on that make for disturbing reading
Bad stuff we already know via Jane Kelsey, but reproduced here in longer form for those in other countries
http://theinternationalforecaster.com/International_Forecaster_Weekly/Terrible_TPP_Clauses_Explained_in_Plain_English
Phil Twyford responds to reported smear campaign against him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11546733
Foreign money needs to be kept out of our politics and thus things like this need to be illegal.
This isn’t new but appropriate to ressurect. Explanation of why so many people are wrong for blaming Islam.
Religious scholar Reza Aslan took some serious issue on CNN Monday night with Bill Maher‘s commentary about Islamic violence and oppression. Maher ended his show last Friday by going after liberals for being silent about the violence and oppression that goes on in Muslim nations. Aslan said on CNN that Maher’s arguments are just very unsophisticated.
He said these “facile arguments” might sound good, but not all Muslim nations are the same.
I really like that dude – I’ve got one of his books at home (“How to win a cosmic war”). Dovetailing that with Ignatieff’s “Blood and belonging” results in a really interesting perspective.
It was the intelligence and ability to communicate so well (and staunchly) that I liked.
Staunch might be your word for it. He’s a bully.
By pushing the interviewers round, he enabled at least one clear misrepresentation: Turkey as upholder of women’s rights.
In Turkey there’s a diminishing legacy from secularisation, and there is honour killing, child ”marriage”, and women are encouraged to reconcile with violent partners and most crucially, the trajectory is negative.
President Erdogan explicitly stated women are not equal: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30183711
Aslan makes a valid point about Saudi Arabia, but uses that country to narrow the debate and bully those who disagree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Turkey
Women aren’t equal anywhere, but in varying degrees, which I think was his point i.e. look at each individual country not one religion as a whole that spans many different countries with different practices.
I don’t see the bullying behaviour. He’s a guest on a show and he’s forthright, and yes he points out where the interviewers are wrong but he doesn’t engage in typical bullying behaviour.
Yes it is his point, and it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue.
By citing gender inequality in the West (the number of elected representatives), and the gross misogyny of Saudi Arabia, he tries to exonerate (and even hold as standard bearers) states like Turkey that are on a negative trajectory in respect of women’s rights.
It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.
I don’t see how it’s a neat tactic to evade the issue when he’s making a point about religion not gender. I think you mean he is factually incorrect. Your point about Turkey’s negative trajectory is valid and important, but it doesn’t negate his point, which is that you can’t condemn all of Islam based on cherry picking the worst countries. For instance if you put Turkey aside as an example, is his point still made?
I really wanted him to use Ethiopia and the US as examples of how Christianity suppresses women 😈 Imagine if the mainstream narrative about Christianity was based on Ethiopia instead of the Western Christian countries.
“It’s a dismissive non sequitur to say women ”aren’t equal anywhere”, because the point is the direction of travel.”
We can debate sometime how much of a positive trajectory NZ is on re gender.
Aslan’s claim about FGM and Africa has been challenged:
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/10/18/guest-post-the-relationship-between-islam-and-female-genital-mutilation/
I don’t know who’s right, but I suspect Aslan seized on division in Islam over the violent practice to misrepresent the problem.
The wiki article seems reasonable (it points out Christian woman are mutilated as well, but most of the article concerns the Muslim faith):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_female_genital_mutilation
”In Indonesia, FGM is widespread among Muslim women and considered a religious necessity.”
Indonesia was Aslan’s other standard bearer of women’s rights, wasn’t it?
According to the Observer’s review of Aslan’s book, he describes the motivation of one of the London July 7 bombers as ”love”, and his writing becomes ”overwrought” with emotion over Obama’s election.
So definitely not my kind of dude, but each to their own and all that.
Also events have overtaken Aslan’s book and its prescriptions, as many jihadists now are from prosperous societies (and have had good opportunities on an individual basis).
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/16/win-cosmic-war-reza-aslan
It’s still an interesting read – the Guardian review seems to ignore most of what I remember about the book. The review seems to lose the forest for the trees, IMO.
Is there any bag of foul wind fouler than that hypocrite Dr Phil McGraw?
Dr Phil, TV3, Tuesday 17 November 2015
sanctimonious adj. showing or marked by false piety or righteousness; hypocritically virtuous.
The TV3 programme notes on this show billed it like this: “Two young women accuse their father of physically and verbally abusing them.” #blamingdad
The dad was pretty much the model of what Bob McCoskrie would call a perfect father. He protested to Dr Phil: “I ain’t the greatest dad in the world, but I ain’t no ogre. I spanked them and I slapped them but…”
But all the protestations in the world cut no ice with Dr. Phil, that supreme moral arbiter, that exemplar of core American values, that upholder of all that decent and right in the world. Dr Phil sternly lectured him that violence and shouting had no place in his relationships with his daughters, no matter how old they were.
So what WOULD that dad have had to do to earn praise, rather than censure, by Dr. Phil? Well, he might have tried shooting hundreds of people, including women and children, in another country…
http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/2377
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19082015/#comment-1060544
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-19082015/#comment-1060544.
You think Phil McGraw is wrong to not support a man who hits his daughters? I don’t get the reference to shooting.
Of course he was right to upbraid him about hitting his daughters.
The point of my post was to note how odd it was for him to take that stance, in view of the fact he had, earlier this year, called a notorious mass murderer “a modern-day American hero”.
Both of those things are completely unapparent in your original comment. Still no idea what you are talking about.
Click on the links from my first post, and it will be quite clear. But, briefly, my objection to Dr Phil pronouncing about anything is this:
Earlier this year he claimed that the notorious Chris Kyle, the American sniper who killed hundreds of men, women and children in Afghanistan (the Department of “Defense” officially confirmed he had more than 160 victims) was “a modern-day American hero”….
In the light of the depravity of his endorsement of Kyle, I don’t think Dr Phil is a fit and proper person to make a judgement on the character of anyone.
Do you?
Sorry, still don’t know what you are on about. The first link isn’t that clear, the second two are identical and going on about an Imperial Wizard. If you want me to answer your question you’re going to have to make your point in plain English that doesn’t require 10 mins of further research to understand what you are on about.
1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.”
2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.
3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.
4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.
5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.
Thanks for explaining.
“1. Chris Kyle was a mass murderer. He was praised by Dr Phil earlier this year as “a modern-day American hero.””
Citation for Dr Phil ‘praising’ Kyle. The link you provided implies the programme is about Kyle’s parents discussing his mental illness and that he wouldn’t have murdered people if he’s gotten the help he needed. Presumably if Phil did praise Kyle, it wasn’t for the murders. Did Phil praise Kyle for his pre-murdering life? I’m betting it wasn’t for his murdering life.
“2. Dr Phil, who praises mass murderers as “modern-day American heroes”, has the temerity to upbraid someone for yelling at his daughters and spanking them.”
Lots of people have relative morality. Myself, I think context is important.
“3. I don’t approve of spanking, but then I don’t approve of mass murder either. I think I am entitled to lecture someone who spanks his daughters to desist.”
I’m not in a position to judge you on that.
“4. Dr Phil doesn’t approve of spanking, but he DOES approve of mass murder. I don’t think he is entitled to lecture ANYONE about anything, because he is a moral imbecile.”
Citation needed that Dr Phil approves of mass murder. Pretty sure you are making shit up now.
“5. Now please read my original links, because it’s all perfectly clear.”
As mentioned, I tried and I’m not going to attempt that dog’s breakfast of a comment because I’m guessing it’s full of the same illogic as this one.
Read this quote carefully….
Now what part of that do you not understand? He is praising a U.S. Army sniper who is “credited” officially with more than 160 kills.
You can vapour on all you like about how he is praising him for his “pre-murdering” actions, but nobody will take you seriously.
I would be offended by your allegation that I am “making shit up”, but it’s quite obvious you have basic problems in comprehension, as well as a history of hostility towards me. I have humoured you this evening, but I haven’t forgotten how credulous you were a couple of years ago in swallowing all that government black propaganda about Julian Assange, and how you continued, in spite of the allegations being conclusively refuted, to defiantly traduce not only Assange but anyone who dared to support him.
It seems you have not improved at all.
You can resort to all the ad homs you like Morrisey (and more lies), but when you say “but he DOES approve of mass murder.” I believe you are making shit up. There is a large difference between being able to see someone’s contribution to their country and approving of mass murder. What’s not believable is that Phil McGraw approves of what Kyle did. You are grossly misrepresenting his position for your own argumentative gratification.
I think any reasonably intelligent person would interpret these words as endorsement: “He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
The person he is endorsing is a sniper who picked off women and children from positions of almost complete safety.
I am not going to waste any more time with you while you play your endless game of feigned incomprehension.
no, most people would understand that it’s possible to appreciate a soldier’s former life and not approve of them murdering multiple people. There is nothing in what you have posted that supports your assertion that Phil McGraw approves of mass murder (your words).
“He risked his life fighting for this country. He miraculously survived the most dangerous combat zones …. a modern-day American hero.”
There is only one google hit for any of that quote (your comment), so I’m guessing you transcribed it from the video. Given your transcriptions are shall we say loose at the best of times I’m going to assume that you have grossly misquoted McGraw out of context. I’ll also hazard a guess the McGraw was introducing Kyle when he used those words and the implication is that he was a modern-day American hero for his work as a soldier not for his later mass murder.
I’m not surprised you are giving this no more time because you can’t answer the challenge to your argument.
The Paris attacks need to be analyzed by serious, informed commentators.
So why on earth are these fools even trying to talk about them?
The Panel, RNZ National, Tuesday 17 November 2015
Jim Mora, Penny Ashton, John Bishop, Julie Moffett
bewilderment n. 1. The condition of being confused or disoriented. 2. A situation of perplexity or confusion; a tangle: a bewilderment of lies and half-truths.
PENNY ASHTON: Bombing them is probably not going to stop them.
JOHN BISHOP: [gravely] It might not, but what’s the alternative?
PENNY ASHTON: [thoughtfully] Mmmmmm.
JOHN BISHOP: The West is certainly vulnerable, in terms of soft targets….
[He carries on bloviating for several minutes then, thankfully, stops.]
PENNY ASHTON: Ummm, ahhh, the, y’know, uhhhh, I’m tying myself in knots here…..
et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam….
Useless mouthpieces.
The Panel is lightweight magazine drivel.
Yes I heard that – don’t have the stamina for listening to mindless drivel that you have Morrissey. Turned it off.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/289923/meatworkers-win-dispute-with-affco
Good news!
Well done to the ONLY loud and proud workers union I spotted at the Hamilton TPPA rally.
Robot advice. How long before we can’t trust our own judgment, or what’s left of it.
http://www.investmentweek.co.uk/investment-week/news/2408891/robo-advice-alert-issued-in-the-us?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=rt-rtcom
Generic economic assumptions, framed questions and de-personalised recommendations that do not properly take into account changing circumstances or investment time horizons are among the concerns identified in an alert issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Automated investment platforms are part of the ‘robo-advice’ sector in the US, though they are also being used by client-facing advisers as supplementary tools to guard against losing business to the traditional robo-advice giants, such as Betterment and Wealthfront.
Robot advice is being used in investment, the computer buy and sell on target prices etc.
This goes further. And when there is a paradigm for juding voting patterns and winning elections then?
CNN anchors berate innocent Paris Muslim because
he won’t ‘accept responsibility’ for attack
by DAVID EDWARDS, Monday 16 November 2015
Two CNN hosts berated the spokesperson for a Muslim outreach group over the weekend because he would not agree that all Muslims share responsibility for the recent attacks in Paris.
During an interview early Sunday morning, Yaser Louati of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France told CNN anchors Isha Sesay and John Vause that hate speech was being directed toward the Muslim community in response to the attacks.
“The problem is that you’re still mixing the Muslim community and somehow giving them an affiliation with these terrorists,” Louati explained. “But [French Muslims] are paying two prices. The price of being targeted by these terrorists and some of the right-wing columnists.”
“We are being asked to choose our camp,” the guest pointed out. “Our camp is the French one. Make no mistake about it.”
“If your camp is the French camp, then why is it that no one within the Muslim community there in France knew what these guys were up to?” Vause asked.
“Sir, the Muslim community has nothing to do with these guys,” Louati insisted. “Nothing. We cannot justify ourselves for the actions of someone who claims to be Muslim.”
“Why not?” Vause interrupted. “What is the responsibility within the Muslim community to identify people within their own ranks when it comes to people who are obviously training and preparing to carry out mass murder.”
“Sir, they were not from our ranks!” Louati exclaimed. “We cannot accept the idea that these people are from us, they are not. They are just byproducts of our societies exporting their wars abroad and expecting no repercussions back home.”
Co-host Isha Sesay insisted that Louati had to “accept that responsibility to prevent the bigger backlash” because the “finger of blame is pointing at the Muslim community.”
“This is a very complicated issue,” Vause said, concluding the segment. “I have yet to hear the condemnation from the Muslim community on this.”
“The point he is making is, ‘It’s not our fault,’” Sesay noted. “But the fact of the matter is when these things happen, the finger of blame is pointed at the Muslim community and so you have to be preemptive. It’s coming from the community. You’ve got to take a stand.”
“The word responsibility comes to mind,” Vause opined.
“It just comes to mind,” Sesay agreed. “You can’t shirk that.”
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/watch-cnn-anchors-berate-innocent-paris-muslim-because-he-wont-accept-responsibility-for-attack/
Great Snipers of Our Time
No. 1 TATANG KOSWARA
Tatang Koswara (1947 – 2015) was a sniper credited with at least 41 confirmed kills during the U.S.-backed Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the 1970s.
http://jakarta.coconuts.co/2015/03/04/indonesian-sniper-tatang-koswara-passes-away-68
Great Snipers of Our Time is compiled by Morrissey Breen for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
http://thehill.com/policy/international/trade/260364-obamas-trade-deal-is-in-trouble
TPPA in trouble.