Come up with some slighting sexist put downs like you did with the Breakfast TV girl yesterday, or go full on with the misogynist woman bullier routine you’re seemingly fond of – That’ll always work in your favour when you’ve lost on the finer points of debate. 🙄
PU is calling you a hypocrite for using a slighting sexist put down in the process of accusing him of employing; “slighting sexist put downs”. His style is very idiosyncratic, but he does have a point.
I don’t watch Breakfast TV myself, but I’m pretty sure that my wife would have mentioned if they’d started using pre-pubescant females as host/ anchors.
Since when does “the breakfast TV girl” get considered a sexist put down?
And I mean by anyone with a grasp on reality who isn’t backing up an odd bod ally on the internet?
Compare with…
“.she got in a couple of fringe-flicks..and lotsa giggles..and blushes..i half-expected her to rip her bodice open..and to offer herself up to key..)”
‘Since when does “the breakfast TV girl” get considered a sexist put down?’..
“wow..!..just ‘wow!’….you’ve seriously stuck yr (unreconstructed-male) flag in the sand with that one..eh..?..are you about 50 yrs old..?..you talk like a 50 yr old unreconstructed male..”
Am I old? Yes.
Is the term “the breakfast TV girl” a slighting sexist put down? Of course it isn’t.
You find faux offence at the term ‘girl’ yet repeat your sexist attack on the Breakfast presenter.
Fact is she may not be a top rate heavyweight political journo. No shame there, she’s in good company here in NZ, yet I don’t see you writing how Gower or Soper looked as if they were about rip off their shorts to expose their manhood like groupies.
Your lack of respect for women is your issue, but don’t tar me with the same brush. I’m all good with regards to my pro active feminism.
“..do ‘the girls’ all agree with your generous self-assesment..?”
Bearing in mind I’m never going to win a popularity contest, I mean everyone hates the bloke who’s always right, right? But I’m happy to put it to the vote as I reckon I’m in credit not debit on this issue.
“i have actually previously alluded to gower and key ‘coming together’..
..’cos they seemed so close..”
Did you say, like the ‘woman’ on the breakfast show, they were going to expose themselves like a groupie would? I doubt you did, but if you meant to and didn’t, that’s all okay then? ‘Cause at least you’re fair. 🙄
That neither diminishes your sexism nor excuses it, in my opinion, of course.
“..but don’t let that fact get in the way of yr bullshit…eh..?”
A bonus Irony chuckle on this gloomy Thursday. Thanks for that.
Isn’t Tracey’s joke that Ede will appear on Sunday? The day after the election? Since he’s being hidden from us now so National can steal this election.
that is why I asked Phil who “we” was, cos so far only he has not got the point. But he has a wee bee in his bonnet cos I hold him to his previous proclamations of fact that don’t happen.
For all the world to see, it’s the former, not the latter.
You should try less deflecting and turning around your failings and be more open, adding honesty to your failings as a pundit.
You may even increase your respect quota up to double figures.
You want yet more diversion? Are you seriously saying you would want the next two days to be about Jason Ede (assuming there are explosive emails that the “MSM” has decided not to publish as part of some “VRWC”?). Hasn’t it been clearly demonstrated through this campaign that the focus on Dirty Politics … and Kim Dotcom … and spying … has been a voter turn off and has had the effect of starving Labour and Cunliffe of the oxygen critical to effectively communicate what is a coherent and potentially vote winning policy platform.
Actually I don’t. I agree that dot com has been a huge distraction and I would have preferred if Dirty Politics had been published earlier. But there is a story here and I am interested in why it has not been printed.
His predominant mode of communication was by phone. A few gmail accounts that could be traced to him were used during conversations about the Labour Party computer. Also as stated in the book, he used so many temporary facebook accounts that Slater didn’t know what his facebook account was.
After the widespread surveillance claims I think Key has broken the record for the most lies told in the lead up to an election. Still a couple of days to go…
Key (Monday):
“There is not and never has been a cable access surveillance programme operating in New Zealand,”… “There is not and never has been, mass surveillance of New Zealanders undertaken by the GCSB.”
Daily Blog (yesterday):
The GCSB has access to NSA mass surveillance programs like xKeystroke and Operation SpearGun was operational the moment the new legislation passed. What is most extraordinary is the continued damage to Key’s credibility his moving feast of a defence has taken. Beyond the pathetic name calling and attacking of the messenger, it’s Key’s continually changing story.
One thing that really annoyed me in the debate last night was when Key said that the Green party had last week “said that they were abandoning Labour”. They never said anything of the sort. When Cunliffe challenged it Key’s justification was that “he can watch the news”, referring to last week’s ridiculous Slateresque media beat-up. Key’s statement was of unqualified fact. It was a brazen outright lie.
You were only the other week advocating armed struggle as the only way to get the nats out.
Apart from being extremely silly, what difference do you see between “We’ll be wading knee deep in blood by the time we’ve finished” and what you wrote?
Just because the team changes, crass and stupid is still crass and stupid, but I guess you know that, though maybe you don’t, yet.
As I just wrote, which you could also have quoted if you wanted to, “I did state armed struggle and you wrote civil disobedience”
No need for a facepalm my friend. Even I can get the wording wrong once in a while, though given the frequency and often bullsh!ttish nature of the original commentator, I could be cut some slack, or not, as the case may be.
Note that they don’t actually say ‘move beneficiaries into jobs’ they say ‘cut beneficiaries’.
Yay, addressing poverty by creating more/just not counting them because not beneficiaries.
A better idea would be to attempt to reduce the blowout on the accommodation supplement. When people eligible for the AS aren’t upwardly mobile it creates a lifelong forward liability that will only cease if they win a lottery, find a rich sugar daddy, or inherit real estate.
It seems we face a probable Key victory with an increasingly bored and disengaged Prime Minister wishing he was .. anywhere else, really – Hawa’ii, Omaha, London, or Parnell. Perhaps Sydney or Singapore ..
.. with even Tony Abbott’s party weighing in. Does his kiwi wife make him a voter ? Does it justify the expense of accommodating Federal Departments under canvas for a week in some godforsaken waterhole ?
14.99%. Effectively a controlling share, Tracey or very close to it. She’s been mulling a raid on the other shareholders for two years, but even she doesn’t have the money to buy the lot ($5-7 billion).
They tried at the last election but were beaten by David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political strategist.
For what it’s worth, Fred Koch, founder of the John Birch society, reported in a 1938 letter after an extensive trip that he found New Zealand “violently socialistic”.
Schulman, Daniel. (2014). ‘Sons of Wichita. How the Koch brothers became America’s most powerful and private dynasty.’ Grand Central Publishing, Hachette.
pages 42, 283, 324.
(and you know, if the rumour of 17 Nat MPs being made to ‘disappear’ with $300K each, total $5,00,000, what price a small poll or three ? just saying .. no proof at all, but just saying.)
(let’s remember 1984 ….. the way Muldoon’s ego defeated Muldoon )
“Key’s reputation as a smiling assassin is well deserved. National has or will lose 15 MPs who served this term. And there has been little or any sign of public dissent. It makes you wonder what is occurring to persuade so many MPs to give up the baubles of office.
And lefties should be very afraid about the calibre of the likely replacements. As commented recently by Felix
Anyone who won’t have the stomach for the extreme right-wing blitzkrieg the central committee has planned for the third term is out, and will be replaced by obedient, subservient little Randian ideologues and proto-fascists who owe their entire career to the leadership.
National is transforming into ACT on steroids.
If anyone on the left need a reason to get involved in their party of choice this is it.”
you only have to look to Goldsmith in Epsom. He is, to all intents and purposes, in the wrong Party. He is too the very right of the Nats from all I have heard and read.
Perhaps you could remind us what is “unprecedented” about it?
Is your memory so bad that you can’t even remember the Australian Labour Party leader attending and speaking at the New Zealand Labour Party conference about two months ago?
Do we need to stop subsiding this school with taxpayer money?
“A new $17 million health and fitness centre at private Epsom girls’ school St Cuthbert’s College opens today.
Principal Lynda Reid said the Centre for Wellbeing housed a 25m swimming pool with moveable floor, learners’ pool, fitness centre and 250-seat spectator gallery.
…The school hopes to generate an income out of the new centre, designed by Architectus.”
Sign of the times, I’m afraid. Kings College, baby-sitter to the progeny of Auckland’s capitalist elites’ and the most expensive private school in the country had its government grants increased by 40 percent between 2009 and 2011 . All that extra money-for-nothing didn’t stop Kings College from having another suckle on the tax payers tit when it came to getting its grubby hands on the lion’s share of money set aside for students with special needs. The John Key led National Ltd™ kept its middle finger firmly extended to struggling public schools in last year’s budget when granting an extra $35 million to private schools nation wide.
Still, at least our kids get some toast in mornings, eh? Thanks, John Key, you’re all heart.
What a strange world we are in this election. Harre, a fierce unionist working for and defending an employer that abuses and rips off his lowly paid staff and Whaleoil and TV3 fighting on their behalf.
All lies then. Workers under/not paid, worked over 16 hours per day. Large percentages of pay with held. Vindictively withholding employment certificates so the can’t get a job back in the Phillipines, forcing them to call him “sir” while calling them by their first names, losing temper, threatening and intimidating………..normally enough to bring out the most mild union organizer, just not here, not now.
Sellout.
Who set up the employment court in the first place? Do politicians have influence over its decisions? Who will strengthen employment and other human rights protections? Who will undermine them?
I have to weigh in here, I have a good friend who works at the .com mansion, and if her facebook feed is anything to go by, I have to call bullshit on you buddy.
3degrees onTV3 last night. Dotcom’s treatment of his Filipino staff exposed. Just shows how far Labour has fallen as the worker’s party that they are not taking this up too. Harre proved as being a total sell out.
Don’t wait for the usual defenders of workers rights to say anything about it here though.
Now you have to demonstrate that it occurred in the first place, you lying tr*ll. Your source is backing away from the allegations as fast as they can.
The DOL will discover that the malicious and illegal actions of the New Zealand government at the behest of the FBI, destroyed the business that was paying these wages.
Though to be fair, kdc did have a few spare million up his sleeve to start the mip alliance. He could have shelled out any time to pay off creditors had he wanted to.
Maybe in the wisdom of a multi millionaire he thought he was being played? I don’t know seems premature to conclude anything about him and it is suspiciously close to an election…
Rushing to conclusions is always a mistake, made worse just prior to making a major decision.
Weak effort, but have a look in his pocket if you don’t believe me. There’s one or two tucked away for later use, though that looks more and more unlikely, thank goodness, as ttt is too close to call.
Still polling at half the weirdo conservatives level should give the numbers some context.
Not the big game changer some thought it would be, aye, but then 1.5% to 2% in the polls is a great return on 3mil, apparently.
Defend him if you have to, but he had plenty of time to pay the creditors.
I believe 60k per month allowance before he got wedged up fully enough to fund prospective parliamentary candidates and the mip alliance.
that link makes plain the truth that KDC had no access to any money whatsoever from time of the raid on January 20 until end of March when the court cleared some funds to him.
please don’t believe all the spin you read or write. you will get dizzy and that won’t be good.
IF he owes anyone any money, they ought to have been paid by now. As is pointed out he was given an allowance and a lump sum. I am NOT saying he owes anyone (before Phil jumps in with his period frenzy) just that the frozen money excuse ended a while ago.
YOu will have to vote Labour then if you are as concerned as you say about Dot com’s workers.
Labour will increase minimum wages and strengthen employment law so people such as Dot.com’s workers and indeed all workers are protected. Thank you so much for your concern about exploited workers and your follow up action (because you care, don’t you?) of voting Labour
Of course it does. The media smear machine runs independently of National (as well as running in cahoots with it, when it suits them). Even if National magically disappeared off the face of the Earth, the MSM would still be cheerleading for them and imploring us to vote for them.
Some people can’t smell a Whale Oil smear job at two paces eh? Seems 3rd Degree are still shackled to discredited ways of doing journalism. Note how they appear to have been happy to act on dubious accusations from Wayne Temporo that would have been provided via his new best friend Cameron Slater, to smear KDC. Most telling was the change of tone when the interviewer was asked to consider the timing of the Philippines interviews and the lodging of papers in the Court. The only positive was that the ‘target’ was given the opportunity to comment on the dubious information the accusations were based on.
I know there is this whole let’s hate Guyon no matter what he does thing on ts, but in that interview Espiner was asking completely reasonable and pertinent questions about NZF’s position on working in or supporting a govt that includes the GP, and Peters was being an arsehole. I also thought he sounded unclear and a bit thrown at times, so good on Espiner.
Peters was an out and out bully, even eventually trotting out the classic bully line that he himself was being bullied. He’s a fucking disgrace, both in his behaviour and in his politics. His avowed stance that NZF never talks pre-election about coalition negotiations is bullshit. As Epsiner rightly pointed out multiple times, and questioned, NZF has ruled out some parties already.
Peters is a duplicitous, power-hungry, maniupative thug. Yes he’s very entertaining too, but let’s hope we’re still laughing after Sat (or the next few weeks).
As for telling the media where to get off, yes they have a huge amount to answer for, but we have to be careful here to not condemn them when they are doing their job well. Espiner asked the right questions and persevered when Peters equivocated and obfuscated.
Winston Peters does NOT have to tell the media or any one which main party he will support after the election. He may, if he chooses, but does not have to do so. If people are not concerned either way, they will vote for him. If they are, they won’t. If people like him or his policies, they will vote for him anyway. In fact, I put it to you that the position Peters has taken is the correct and the best position that every party should in fact take rather than try to manipulate the voters by saying they would support this party or that after the election. Why second guess before the voters have exercised their own vote based on party’s main personalities and main policies. If a party does not get 50% plus on their own, then it is time to negotiate policies and positions to try to form a coalition. What if NZF gets 50% plus on their own?
If he joins Labour coalition, he will bring in more pragmatism,common sense and curtail any silly or extremist policies from it or from its other coalition partners. With Winston in the mix, he will improve the longer survival of the progressive government for two, three or more terms so that many more economic, social and environmental programmes can be put in place.
If he joins National, he will stop National from their and other partner parties’ excessive extremist policies too.
In my opinion, Labour is the best of all the parties overall in candidates and policies and needs all the party votes it can get to be much stronger than indicated by the media polls so far. If the polls had indicated Labour was 33% plus, I would happily consider voting IMP.
I didn’t say Peters had to say anything. I said Espiner was right to call him out for being a hypocrite.
Peters seems incapable of answering some pretty easy straight forward questions without being a bully. Go Winston.
“Why second guess before the voters have exercised their own vote based on party’s main personalities and main policies”
No-one is suggesting second guessing, you just made that up. Peters has ruled out some of the parties he won’t work with, so why not be honest about those which he *might work with. That doesn’t commit NZF to anything. The reason he doens’t want to do that is because he is hedging his bets. Every election he manipulates the media and the public. We will see a big change in MMP culture once Peters retires. I have no problem with NZF as a party, it’s Peters that is the problem.
Danyl Mclauchlan @danylmc 7 hrs
Here’s to three long years of Peters as a senior Minister telling everyone who asks him anything that they’re an idiot and a liar #sigh
Winston “we won’t say what we will do, we will let the people decide” Peters, making himself even more of a hypocrite by endorsing Kelvin Davis. And in the most disingenuous way. Kelvin is best, nothing to do with hobbling Mana.
Winnie reminds of when the old records used to get stuck and play the same 12 seconds of music over and over. It’s always the same thing since the Winebox – Winnie hinting at stuff that never turns out to be anything remarkable. I’ll be glad when he’s gone.
Guyon didnt reign Joyce in but Joyce makes it very hard to do it…. He just keeps going, doesnt stop and eventually guyon stops talking first.
IF Nats win and Key goes at some point I wonder if Joyce will step up. He can spin the lies far better than key, just has to stop trying to stop himself laughing at how easy it is though
Guyon has been getting bouquets for the way he has been conducting his interviews with other politicians such as Key. Including from me.
But today Guyon just went over the top. He went from hero to zero. I would much rather have heard a summary of the policies that Winston is going to push.
WInston won totally. He will be seen to be standing up to a bully, and seen to be tough. And in NZ, unfortunately, that seems to be more important than policy for most of the voting public. WInston really is a clever politician, regardless of how much you like or dislike him politically.
Oh come on. Those are perfectly rational and sane questions that other politicians are prepared to answer. Winston is being a precious little daisy, claiming that he knows what the public does and doesn’t want to know and therefore what questions he will and won’t answer.
Actually I would have liked if he had just answered Guyon’s questions, but he refused.
Frankly I’m surprised Guyon didn’t just cut him off and end the interview.
Yes perfectly reasonable and sane. But there is a limit. Especially as the question was not a matter of huge importance. And it’s Winston’s strategy, and right to say that he will not answer anything until after the election. There will be people like yourself who would have liked to know, but there are probably more people who will actually vote for Winnie, who admire his style. Especially when he seems to have found himself in the box seat this election.
What the public wants to know. Here Winston was right. What was the basis for Guyon saying the “public want to know”? Zilch. I’m tired of anybody (interviewers or politicians) using this line. Usually it’s the politicians: ‘I’ve travelled from Auckland to Taumaranui to Wellington to Hokitika, and therefore I can claim to know what the public are concerned about on 987 policies’
“And it’s Winston’s strategy, and right to say that he will not answer anything until after the election.”
And it’s Espiner’s job and right to call him out in being a hypocrite, which is what he was doing.
Then there was all that bullshit at the start where Peters refused to answer the question until he had the upper hand in the interview. He’s manipulative and a bully. If people want to vote for that, that’s fine, but it’s also fine that the rest of us get reminded of what an arsehole is going to be choosing the next govt.
….and WInston being a “precious daisy”? The most unlikely analogy for Winston that I’ve ever heard. He may be full of outdated ideas, but he knows precisely what he is doing. Cunning, wily, and clever . He will not receive my vote.
Heh! Thing is, it probably was a regret because, chances are, National Ltd™ wasted big bucks employing a crew of spinners to come up with a slew of lies, funny money, and dodgy statistics to show what a wonderful job it had been doing in those areas. It was money Steven Joyce could have put towards the costs which will be awared for stealing Eminiem’s tune.
The left are heading for a right pasting this Saturday. Lets face it. Internet-Mana has shot its bolt, the Greens have hit a ceiling and Labour is screwed. The only one to benefit from this whole dirty politics saga is Winston Peters, who has done enough to get his party back to parliament. We should all be worried about the Conservatives, who represent the dark, repressive NZ, the NZ that were willing to pelt women and children with bottles so they could watch a rugby match, and who think that having gay teens kill themselves, and turfing girls onto the street becasuse they get pregnant to the wrong boy is perfectly acceptable. Garth McVicar and Christine Rankin’s attempt to turn this country into 1930’s Virginia should be resisted by every progressive New Zealander. And of course, there is ACT.
I hope after the election Labour doesnt cave into the Jonesites and starts lurching to the right, and remember – Norman Kirk lost 2 elections and Nash the same amount before winning. I hope the Paganist faction thinks about that before dumping him.
The wise and august ( or maybe it should be September!) jamie whyte was quoted yesterday as saying thepolling by main Akld Chinese newspaper had Act at 20%.
sorry, Tracey, don’t know. I was too busy having hysterics about whyte’s claim he will be holding the balance of power on sunday morning. will try to find it …
On the corner of St Lukes Rd and Sandringham Road her ein Auckland ( a main commuting route within the city) the ACT billboard is in a Chinese language except for a small bit under the chaps face which says, in english “vote act”
I am not commenting on their right to do that just saying it is not a billboard designed to attract non chinese language reading voters.
Labour and National do not present a vision in the same way that most of the minor parties do. Being big is no excuse for not knowing who you stand for.
It’s called tactical voting, and it’s often used to unseat an unpopular mp or stop a vapid candidate from gaining ascendancy – Just like being done and advocated for months in Epsom by many, if not all on here.
You and he sound a little goldsmith/seymour about it all. Shame 🙂
From your NZH link (seeing as there’s already a full days reading online and it’s not even noon):
“So the fight for this seat has just become the kind I really like, which is us against the rest. I’m upset about it, because it’s tough enough in Parliament on your own. I take it also as a bit of a compliment.”… Mr Harawira was asked to justify his alliance with Kim Dotcom.
“The question for me was, ‘How do I get more Mana MPs into Parliament?”‘ Mr Harawira said. “I really hope Annette Sykes will win Waiariki, but if she doesn’t, she’s still going to come into Parliament.”… “It’s hard enough being a radical MP and activist, more difficult when you’re on your own, and it would be nice to have at least a couple of mates.”
Sounds more like buckling-down and getting on with the job at hand, than; “crying… about forces conspiring to force him out”.
That’s a very direct quote. Do you care back it up and provide irrefutable evidence?
And by irrefutable evidence, I mean the kind that sticks, not the slop thrown by kim.
I disagree. It is well within the realms of possibility that Cunliffe would love Harawira to get over the line on Saturday. There is absolutely no way in hell, however, that Labour would do anything other than shed votes if Cunliffe came out and supported him. Labour has everything to gain in the long term and in terms of votes right now by attacking National for its tactical voting shenanigans. Engaging in tactical endorsements itself would put Labour in danger of losing its support – and not necessarily only to the Greens or Mana. Specifically endorsing Harawira, or even giving a hint of going soft on him, would give Key two big, shiny sticks to beat Labour with (tactical voting and association with Internet/Mana).
Whichever wa you cut it, endorsing Harawira is a large risk without much hope of gain, since a comparatively strong Labour vote with no Mana MPs leaves the Left bloc largely the same as a weaker Labour vote with a couple of electorate MPs from Mana. Conversely, if Mana get over the line without Labour’s endorsement, Labour can have its cake and eat it, too, with a strong Labour vote and a coup.e of Mana MPs gib
ving support on confidence and supply. They can even sign a Memorandum of Understanding should they so wish, since the Nats’ claiming that that implies political allegiance between Mana and Labour would face the question of whether their previous MoU with the Greens meant that they were affiliated with the Greens, a party which they have consistently described as far-left loonies.
@ Hanswurst…are you sure your arguments are not a tad too sophisticated for the average punter?…..At very least Cunliffe could come out and say Harawira is a fantastic candidate and may the best person win!…( nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
( who cares about Key and ” two big, shiny sticks to beat Labour with” …this is war and Key has used everything…fair and foul …especially foul dirty tricks …. to beat Cunliffe and Labour already)…Cunliffe and Labour by taking the tack they are taking against ManaINT just makes them look mean… and stupid imo.
Yes, it does make them look mean and stupid – to those of us who are to their left. However, that doesn’t hurt them, because we vote to change the government anyway. However, that doesn’t mean that it is a stupid thing to do. For voters who are not inclined to look too probingly at the issues, “Labour-Green-NZFirst” is a fairly simple proposition, whereas headlines reading “Five-headed hydra looms as Cunliffe endorses Mana” with the subhead “Harawira a ‘fantastic candidate’, Labour leader says” would play into exactly the narrative that National and the Herald want to weave. I don’t like it at all, but I simply can’t reach any other conclusion. Cunliffe doesn’t have a good option when it comes to presenting his position on Internet/Mana.
So open warfare with the left after the election and not before is the labour mantra Hanswurst? Or is this the same old, same old from labour? Not like labour exactly have a pristine record on their treatment of other left wing parties.
I have no idea what you are talking about. I didn’t refer to any mantra, Labour or otherwise. Nor did I say that Labour would be more hostile to the Left after the election than before – the opposite, in fact. Their electoral positioning has less to do with “the left” than to do with more nebulous ideas of branding. I don’t really feel inclined to reply in any more depth to a comment that seems to be constructed in slogans concerning how Labour is not a left-wing party (at least as a parliamentary entity) and has a history of screwing its working-class supporters (that is fairly well known).
+100 phillip…have to agree with you on this one….not a good look!
….and my teenage son is outraged against Cunliffe and Labour….he was almost going to Party vote Labour too, ironically enough …or Winnie ( but Winnie committed the same crime)
….so the Greens got his vote instead ( i am not sure what his reason was for not voting IntMana…probably too much Sean Plunkett commercial radio propaganda against Dotcom) …but the Greens gotta win sometimes…and they were the lucky recipient from this particular spat)
“…..the NZ that were willing to pelt women and children with bottles so they could watch a rugby match, and who think that having gay teens kill themselves, and turfing girls onto the street becasuse they get pregnant to the wrong boy is perfectly acceptable…….”
Christians in NZ did not ever do that!! The people who did that when NZ was ‘mostly’ Christian – were mostly the non-christians.
What do you actually think the likes of the Salvation Army aand Anglicare do?
No Christians thought their kids killing themselves was perfectly acceptable – those funerals were shunned so that teenagers did not see it as acceptable. However today in NZ kids have facebook pages dedicated to people who have done so. And the media pays attention to that in the affirmitive. Suicide rates are very high – ain’t that so?
Turfing girls onto the streets was not the done thing by Christians either. Unless the Christian adoption agencies are a figment of my imagination.
Drunk Christian husbands who belted their wives and kids were generaly sorted out by their families, friends and Churchs. Generaly their drinking came to attention and no violence then occured.What was lacking back then was police training and techniques, and laws against family violence – that resulted in some non-Christian famlies suffering the worst violence – and also due to lack of connection to charitable[christian] services.
@ harriet..and her rose-coloured glasses view of the past..
“..Turfing girls onto the streets was not the done thing by Christians either..”
no..they were ‘sent up the country’..instead.. eh..?
‘..Drunk Christian husbands who belted their wives and kids were generaly sorted out by their families, friends and Churchs…’
oh really..?
..now you know that is just total bullshit..
..’giving the missus a crack’..was almost biblically advocated..
..and ‘belting the kid’..was done by most parents/teachers etc..
..i was an exception from my/those times..in that my parents did not hit me when i was a small child..(and i have never hit either of my now-adult children..patterns repeat..)
..(just why my parents were so advanced in that way..i still don’t know..)
So Harriet as a Christian – you only have two choices to vote for this election. 1. The Maori party 2. Mana. Because they are the only parties which treat the gospels with any respect, they are the only parties which start and end meetings with pray, and they are the only parties who have large Christian memberships. The choice is yours Harriet – but I’d think on these issues too. you should read this before you vote.
could conceivably be a case of false flag trolling.
i campaigned for grant robertson in 2011. one of the memorable things he said was “in the last 48 hours of an election campaign there is often more heat than light.” seems like you could extrapolate that to mean “don’t bother reading the comments on political blogs in the home stretch cos there’s gonna be some pretty awful stuff”
Just trying to ascertain who she means when she says “us Christians”? Is it everyone who believes jesus Christ rose from the dead or are there some groups who are more christian than others?
In the practical sense, those who went to Church most Sundays. Even if they stopped going later in life.
A bit of ‘Christian living’ doesn’t hurt any child. It gives them reasonable grounding in history, human behaviour, and values.
Christianity is infact, an education in and of itself.
I don’t have a problem with people living a life to emulate the chap known as Jesus Christ.
I was just trying to work out what you had in mind when you were saying Christian and not Christian.
Was Jesus Christ ever violent to children, do you know? I mean are their parts of the Bible that describe him slapping a child in the head, or taking a belt to them and can you direct me to the circumstances of such violence?
The clarifications are important because, for example, spare the rod spoil the child was not, to my knowledge uttered by Jesus Christos.
“Christianity is infact, an education in and of itself.”
This needs clarification though. What kind of education, based on what?
The only thing I would credit Christianity for, in any way shape or form when linked to education, is the knowledge around morals and how to treat other humans. i.e. do unto others as you would see them unto you, gossip is the root of all evil, etc etc.
Everything else built up around a mythical water walker is just bunkum.
By son discovered that the word for “on” and the word for “by” is almost identical and during the translations “by the water” became “on the water.”
How such tiny words can change history!
Harriet is that where you learnt racism and how to kick the poor when they are down then grind them into the ground !
Remember Christ kicked the money changers out of the church now you are bringing them back in.
Most of your posts go directly against Christian teachings
ie greed is god!
A rich man and his camel can get into heaven the poor have to suffer and go to hell!
“Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
― Steven Weinberg
The label “Christian” invokes the very best of people and the very worst of people. I make a differentiation between
(a) Christians like the Sallies and the support sections of other main churches such as the Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian etc…..and
(b) Other, more fundamentalist groups (and sometimes within the above churches) use the term Christian to justify bigotry: Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, and an emphasis on punishment; smacking, three strikes etc.
Whether the Conservatives are Christian or not is less important to me than the type of “Great Leap Backward” policies they advocate, which appear to fall into the group (b) issues referred to above.
I mean if Craig’s party is “Christian” won’t all “Christians” vote for it. Of course not, cos Christian means different things to different people. Surely, as you say, tis better to set out the policies or behaviours one is talking about rather than a broad, relatively meaningless label.
I have a friend who has been a catholic nun all her adult life. She no longer wears a habit. Her choice because she doesnt want the attention or false respect (as she puts it) that can come with the uniform.
She never speaks of herself as Christian or whatever.
She is a kind and caring person. She works 80 hours a week and her pay (minimum wage) at an addiction group goes to the church. She is selfless, funny, occasionally bawdy.
She is selfless and has given her life to be of service to others. She lives her life that way rather than talking about it. She not only makes no judgment of my lifestyle( my partner and I have been together for over 23 years) she is openly accepting of it.
I dont think anyone needs to tell people what they are, be it christian or anything else. Just behave the way you wish people to perceive you.
Can anyone imagine what Mr Joyce or National generally would be saying if they were propping up any other damaging industry? A mining company? A gaming software exporter? A used car dealership?
What indeed does Act’s ex-Federated Farmers president have to say about this egregious capitalist favouritism?
And why is a fairly poor Council like Waitaki spending it on this rather than say, oh, running a District’s roading, social housing, stormwater runoff, or children’s parks?
All developed parts of rural NZ are basically full blown industrial zones. May as well be covered in concrete.
I have given up on rural NZ and its ecosystems. It is barren and burnt of natural life. When returning from the back of beyond where life is virgin New Zealand I always find rural farming land ugly, barren and burnt.
Virgin New Zealand is something spectacular, which I think very very few people experience or understand in its detail and fullness. People should go spend a decent period of time in these places – and just listen, look and sit quietly.
As long as the development doesn’t spread into undeveloped areas – we must save what we have left.
“And why is a fairly poor Council like Waitaki spending it on this rather than say, oh, running a District’s roading, social housing, stormwater runoff, or children’s parks?”
That would be the same council that built an Opera House at the same time as cutting funding to outlying recycling stations. Not to worry, country folk will just go back to throwing their rubbish in the ditches that line the road going up the valley, you can’t even see that shit when you are driving so all’s good.
Your no.s are within 2% of where I would put them. But I think IMP remain a 3.5% to 4.0% proposition. Four to five MPs. Minto in Parliament, deservedly, and maybe Yong.
I really doubt that. I rate IMP around 2-2.5%. The non-bombshell on Monday really hurt them, as well as all of the other negative publicity they’ve had over the last 2 weeks or so.
It did make Key declassify some documents to try and “prove” himself. I doubt he would have done that if he thought there was going to be no bombshell.
I do agree that DotCom’s issues have been a huge distraction BUT who else was going to bring Greenwald and Snowden into our living rooms and shine the light on Key’s lies?
If Dotcom downplaying the email (so giving the Greenwald/ Snowden revelations more prominance) hadn’t been used as a distraction, I’m sure our press Fifth Cloumn (they’ve gone past being the Fourth Estate) could have come up with something else.
Tracy @14.2.1.2 …agreed…..they have been a huge distraction!…nevertheless they brought into focus the huge questions of our time (courtesy of international heavyweights…Grenwald, Snowden, Assange and Amsterdam)
…about the threat to DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS and SOVEREIGNTY facing New Zealand…. (and other countries)
…. by dark surveillance powers used by spy agencies not under the control of their own democratically elected governments…and used for what ?….commercial advantage , sabotage, takeover?…corporate plundering of the planet?…increasing the power of the !% who own just about everything?…suppressing dissent?
…we have a lot to thank Dotcom and his friends for …just that too many New Zealanders have not seen the implications of this mass intrusion human rights violation surveillance yet ….and its very real dangers of eventual fascism and totalitarianism
Do you agree with me CV that if Labour doesn’t poll well enough to seek coalition deals, we can pretty much blame it on their CGT presentation and, to a lesser extent, the raising of the super age?
Given Labour’s vastly superior policy packages overall to National, I can’t think of any other reason except perhaps a pinch of “dirty politics” thrown in. If I’m right then it further confirms for me my long held belief there is a sizable portion of the NZ Public who really should not vote because they only have the cognisance ability of a 5 year old.
Raising of the super age has barely been mentioned by anyone during the campaign. I think DP and spying has sucked the oxygen out of National’s attack strategy ’cause they’d trumpet this to the high hills otherwise I’m sure.
Anyway, with Labour having to go into coalition with NZFirst, raising the retirement age seems unlikely to go ahead.
Doesnt the drift from where ever to Conservatives suggest an impact of dirty politics? Although I cant see fromt he polls where that drift to conservs canhave come from Nats if IPSOS is saying Nats are at 54%.
In this election all policy seems to have given way to something more like force: the force of corporate money and manipulation versus the force of the sober-minded, the outraged and the frightened. Going by the polls, the former seem to be winning, but the polls too have become part of the game rather than the score-keeper on the sidelines, as has the media.
I wish middle NZ could see that the licence they have given to Key, presumably in exchange for inflicting austerity on the poor so that they don’t have to suffer it , is now available anyone whatsoever who comes after him. This is especially so if they continue to endorse him after all that has been revealed. I just hope that vast numbers of dissenters take them by surprise at the ballot box, but fear at the same time that they really have won, and that we are in for a very rough ride.
Why the hell is everybody immersed in these phoney polls.
We have placed the facts all over the standard & TDB that there are 1.5 million sites on Goggle that prove polls are manipulated globally!
So why are you guys believing them? cause some are now saying “everybody knows Key will win”
Who can tell us that??
Only the count on Saturday will be able to prove that, and really what you all should be worried about is National rigging the results!!!!
I would not put it past them as we see what else they are hiding from us right?
All these phoney privately manipulated pols may be setting us up to believe those results are true when or if they do rig the results, so how are we sure they wont?
I think it is the msm and the Dong Liu letter smear (Whale Oil) and the msm.
The Cunliffe Trust issue was a mistake, but it was a well intentioned decision. The msm ran with it for days and days and days and days and days. My recollection is Labour then went down in the polls.
Do you agree with me CV that if Labour doesn’t poll well enough to seek coalition deals, we can pretty much blame it on their CGT presentation and, to a lesser extent, the raising of the super age?
Super age = 2% cost to Labour
CGT = 2% cost to Labour
Man ban/apology for being a man = 2% cost to Labour
By rights, against this shit govt and all the unexpected headwinds Key has been struggling with, Labour should be in the opinion polls at 30% and coming in on the day at about 33%.
But Labour has failed to push and build a strong, consistent narrative for its voters to hang on to and turn out for, so it will come in lower than it should.
1.5% per may be closer to the true figure. Yes there is overlap, but Labour is polling a full 5% to 10% lower than 11m-12m ago.
If male support for Labour was as high as female support, Labour would get an instant 4% to 5% boost.
Labour was polling mid to high 30% mark when Cunliffe took the Leadership under a year ago; Labour has drained in the polls since so there have been some major issues. Understanding precisely what they are is a big challenge though. Not saying things which the electorate wanted to hear, and saying things which dismayed the electorate, central.
If you look at the Roy Morgan Poll numbers, which is of course the only one that polls regularly, you see that Labour’s collapsing vote since Cunliffe became leader has been pretty steady at about 0.8%/month.
Key may be sorry that he called the election for September, rather than late November. Labour would have been down another couple of percent by then and they would be sitting on 22%.
It really does appear that the more people learnt about Cunliffe the more they despise him.
CV the national party smear machine has been working overtime !
Its all about winning at any cost!
If Key and co hadn’t been caught with the Dirty politics They would probably be able to govern alone!
Now everything is on a knife edge more left voters will turn out to vote!
Cunliffe made some errors, yet there have been terrifically severe and ongoing attacks toward him by the media occurring from the beginning of the year. I suspect people have had their views of Cunliffe influenced by these media attacks.
I have learned this year that NZ has a massive problem with a ‘school yard bullying’ culture, no wonder there are so many problems in schools with bullying – kids learn it from somewhere.
I’m inclined to believe that it was above all to do with having a leader with relatively low public recognition, for whom many people’s first impression would have been newspaper articles trumpeting that he had not mentioned a minor aspect of a policy that they largely hadn’t heard of yet, that he signed a letter in 2003 and that some fellow bought a bottle of wine at an auction, therefore Cunliffe should resign.
That is a big reason why Cunliffe must stay on even if Labour loses on Saturday. Labour needs to go into the next election with a leader who is well-known, and has built up credibility with the voting public. That way, the inevitable smears from the media will be dismissed by many as at odds with what they have seen of him themselves. A new leader would have an uphill battle to develop that first of all and would probably still be at a disadvantage in that regard heading into the next election. Not all leaders get a flurry of puff pieces and no criticism like Key did when he took over the party leadership, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the next National leader will, and Cunliffe’s existing credibility will be a good counter to that.
Agree. A large number of members, myself included, will be working hard for Cunliffe from Sept 21, regardless of the result (a result within reason… 😈 ).
I think there is another more abscure fact that Labour – and to some extent the Greens – fail to take into consideration when it comes to developing policy. There is a large constituency out there who have a very narrow focus on the world and politics in particular. They will latch on to one or two details they perceive to be detrimental to themselves to the exclusion of all else. They are often wrong (eg. CGT), but because they make little or no attempt to seek out the facts they are vulnerable to misinformation and lies. National happily complies.
Helen Clark is the only Labour leader in recent decades who understood the limitations of the average voter. She didn’t burden them with complex policy. She kept it simple and was then able to guide them during the intervening three years into accepting changes that may not have been fully signaled in advance. Provided the proposed ‘changes’ are in the country’s interest, that is the way to do it. I wish Labour would learn this very simple fact.
I mentioned on her before that my bf said “Labour has no policy”, so I showed him their website and he was actually surprised by how much they had. He followed it with “they have too much policy, and clearly aren’t communicating the handful of really important policy ideas that they do have”.
She kept it simple and was then able to guide them during the intervening three years into accepting changes that may not have been fully signaled in advance. Provided the proposed ‘changes’ are in the country’s interest, that is the way to do it. I wish Labour would learn this very simple fact.
Absolutely. It’s difficult in a party run by academics, intellectuals, pol sci grads and policy wonks. All determined to chase after the mythical middle class centre swing voter.
I was thinking about Helen Clark this morning, and the successful campaign Labour ran over those years. She promised a few very specific things that were likely to be popular, and followed through with them. It worked very well.
An example of our future under TPPA … we must never let this come to be.
Involves surveillance of Yahoo customers’ private data, US Justice Dept, blackmailing Yahoo before attempting to bankrupt this huge public company .. judgement classified and sealed for 25 years .. then revealed into daylight by our hero Edward Snowden’s revelations !!! But not before Yahoo caved in; they had no option.
From Washington Post so go to Herald link for whole story .. it’s remarkably more weird than most fiction. Un-effing-believable in fact.
YAHOO THREATENED WITH TRILLION DOLLAR FINE OVER ACCESS TO USER DATA
‘For an illuminating glimpse of government power in action, it’s hard to beat the fines the US Justice Department threatened to level against Yahoo if it didn’t comply with a secret and sweeping surveillance request in 2008.
News coverage of the case, for which documents were unsealed last week, reported the proposed fines as $250,000 a day. But there was also a clause that called for a doubling of the amount each week if Yahoo refused to comply. It was more than enough to bankrupt the company after just a few months. …….
…… At the six-month mark, the relentlessly doubling fine would have equaled $117 trillion. Depending on the calculation you use, the fine would have exceeded the total dollar value of the entire Earth (including economic assets and the physical value of the planet itself) in either the eighth or ninth month.
At the end of the year, the total would have been $7.9 sextillion. That’s equal to a stack of $100 bills so high that it would go back and forth to the sun 28,769 times (if that many $100 bills actually existed).
As a publicly traded company, Yahoo would have been required by federal securities law to report substantial government fines to its shareholders – something that would have been difficult to do, given that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court classified the order and the court case.
The government motion requesting the fine called for it to be declassified in 2033 – 25 years later. The controversy sparked by the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden prompted an accelerated effort to declassify the case, which is what led to last week’s release of more than 1,500 documents from the legal struggle.
I think people go to crazy craig simply because of the name of the party – “Conservative”. People like that and that’s enough. Policies? Don’t matter …
and all round general misogyny and hating gays and gay marriage and safe abortion and all the other stuff hidden from view just under the surface with their new identity …
Have to break with that clear brand name. What about a nice chutney and jam line called Conservative Conserves. The tongue would receive the first message then.
Barry Soper @barrysoper · 52m
Have just spoken to @ColinCraigNZ long time press secretary a tearful Rachel McGregor who has resigned saying he’s a very manipulative man!
Waiting to see what the weather is like. I haven’t voted yet, so will probably go trad and vote on Sat, then if it’s cold will most likely spend the day online 😉 If it’s nice I’ll go out for the afternoon and be back for the evening. Been trying to figure out if I should find a tv for the night or not bother.
I’ll be scrutineering on election day. It’s a boring job, but better than relying on the Dirty Politics crew not to try pull a fast one – by attempting to have those who are likely to go against their interests vote’s disallowed. Caging lists are a popular technique in past US elections, so anyone who might look too; young, poor, female, or non-european, might be better advised to cast an advance vote, so as to avoid challenge by a malign scrutineer or infiltrated RW official.
There’ll be a TV down at your favoured Party’s election party (and likely people there will be mockingly analysing the pundits analysis, which can be fun in a group). So it might be worth while giving them a call and seeing where that’ll be.
Voter caging typically refers to the practice of sending mail to addresses on the voter rolls, compiling a list of the mail that is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters’ registrations and votes on the grounds that the voters on the roll do not legally reside at their registered addresses
Are you suggesting that is happening here? Does that happen at the polling booth?
Jason Ede is in John Key’s Hawaiian swimming pool …doing many hundreds of laps up and down a day and waiting for his master…and he has a dummie in his mouth and black goggles and ear plugs
What is disappointing about this blog in the past few weeks is it has focused on John Key and what he has done wrong etc and very little substance on what Labour offers.
I think it would be more proactive if left blogs left the hate speech for the right (Slater) and focus purely on the positive.
NZers do not buy into the smear campaigns brought about by “Dirty Politics” and “The Moment of Truth” I personally believe any swing voters out there will be swayed by the policy not “We hate John Key so lets vote for change”
People who need Key to lose will do what? Cunliffe is a turn off, so they vote for the Labour candidate, and then choose Cunliffe? No, maybe they choose the Greens or NZF. Now why would Cunliffe want that. Well if you vote Labour in the electorate and Labour on the list, Then when the counting takes place, and the first Labour MP is already elected nothing happens, yet if you Labour MP is and you voted say Green, then something crazy happens, a Green MP gets a seat.
You see you get twice. Payback twice, split vote. Labour wants to be a weak llist party and that actually may get Labour-Greens over the line. On polling Labour aren’t going to do it on their own.
So is there a reason why Cunliffe muddles. Yes.
And the long term consequences if we all start split voting? Well the value of single MP parties is lost. Dunne, Banks, Anderson, all had massive of power because they were single MPs and most people votes Lab-Lab or Nat-Nat. That all changes. And since these single MPs could attract right wing money, diminishing them means there is less influence from the big money right hopefully.
I think that if Key utters the phrase, “I think people/New Zealanders will see it for what it is” even once more, people/New Zealanders will collectively throw up.
Re Spying. This letter to John Key is incredibly detailed and dead serious. (Has it already been discussed?)
…”Set out below are several questions that I believe the public of New Zealand would like to have answered. Please consider these questions to be submitted pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982. I note that you have been quoted by media as saying that when your reputation is questioned you consider it appropriate to declassify and release previously classified documents.
Therefore should any of these requests be refused in a manner that is inconsistent with your recent decision to declassify documents the matter will be referred to the Office of the Ombudsman citing your declassification decision as precedent……..”
Daniel Ayers
Special Tactics Limited: http://wikisend.com/download/172780/Letter%20Rt%20Hon%20John%20Key%20re%20Mass%20Surveillance%20and%20NSA%20In%20NZ.pdf
In this letter he details the evidence that Key says repeatedly, doesn’t exist.
(HT Russell Brown on Public Address.)
Well, this will probably get lost in all the election stuff, but a beneficiary friend has an interesting problem that, if I understand it correctly, affects thousands of people: they had their wallet lost/stolen, so need emergency assistance from msd. Apparently they have to show ID to be let in the door?
How does someone without ID get assistance these days?
i wouldn’t think they’d be able to. They would have to rely on the goodness of the case manager to open their file and verify their details. Maybe there’s a procedure already in place?
Someone would surely have to phone ird and get the number attached to their address and flick winz a mail to confirm. Wouldn’t be quick though.
Not acceptable if you have no money for food and there are children going hungry.
If they’re already a beneficiary, they should phone the call centre and ask for their local office and see if they will be let in without an ID. Apparently it varies from office to office. Don’t ask the call centre, insist on being put through to the local office they want to get to, and get a name from the person that tells them they will or won’t be let in. Tell them upfront the ID has been lost/stolen. They won’t be the first bene in this situation, so WINZ should have a process by now.
Better yet, if they already have something in process with WINZ, ask to speak to the case manager involved, or email them. Pretty much everything can be done by phone/email, including getting emergency assistance. They will have to do some hoop jumping though (emailing proof of bank balance etc).
If they don’t have a phone or internet, I’d go to either an advocy service or the local leftie MP (am assuming they’re in the same town as you).
If they need immediate assistance, eg food today or tomorrow, then I’d go hard directly with WINZ. If they need something within a week, I’d suggest it would be way easier to try and replace the ID and avoid having to deal with WINZ altogether.
The ID on the door policy is fucked up, and I doubt it would be applied to too many other govt departments.
@McFlock I’d be interested to hear how your friend got on in the end. A few years back I was helping a young man who was living rough and had lost his ID. At that time I helped him out to get a copy of his birth certificate so he had some ID but dealing with WINZ has become a more challenging experience since then.
The poor street is: ”
It’s tough. The colour of your hoodie will start a fight. Big mamas and bros sit smoking on steps, dogs bark from behind tatty fences – the kind you don’t put a hand out to. Residents stop talking and watch if an unknown car drives by.”
The rich street is: River Oaks is behind security gates. “It’s home to taxpayers and retired taxpayers”
So poor people don’t pay GST? They’re taxpayers, just like the rest.
actually in the last debate I though Key looked like a cooked goose…no more Mr Aggressive Winner but more Mr Bewildered nice guy ….reckon he is already planning his flight to Hawaii…
Here is a link to the AUDIO of the press conference conducted after the Moment of Truth.
(Don’t know whether this has been linked to before or not)
Just when I had started to think that our media were lifting their game, this audio shows that our press chose to use the 20 minutes they had with Greenwald, Amsterdam, Harre & Dotcom to ask the same question again, and again and again, after it had already been answered.
One experienced member of our press eventually snapped out of this and instead decided to try and discuss with the international guests, why New Zealanders should listen to foreigners and accusing these guests of ‘damaging our democratic process’ by the way they have come here to inform us all. 😯
Have the members of our media no intelligence… or shame?
I do give some kudos to Paddy for playing the full clip of what Dotcom said to him.
That Paddy did (I assume it was Paddies choice), is what made me go looking for the whole press conference. I was curious as to what drove Dotcom to say it.
“Over and over, Key aligned Cunliffe with Kim Dotcom. Clever, because the German tech mogul and his fake email about a deal with Hollywood bosses have polarised people this week.”
Whoa, was the email proven to be fake and I missed it?
some people, including many MSM, were pissed off that the email wasn’t focussed on on Monday night. It was meant to be the big reveal and they’re all cross because they didn’t get their big drama.
Ah I see, so Andrea Vance has a mini-tanty and throws journalistic integrity out the window instead of talking about the much bigger and more important reveal that they WERE given on Monday night.
Kind of odd from the same author as this article entitled Moment of truth’- do believe the hype. In it she focuses on Snowden’s contribution to the evening, and is unconvinced by the documents that Key has released.
It was just as well for Kiwi public that the visiting investigative reporter was not a woman. Our media would have been sidetracked further from the main issue, indeed some seeing a critique of the female appearance and presentation as a main issue.
Always useful for sidestepping the facts of the real story is commenting on her hair style, makeup, or lack of it, whether her clothes were appropriate for the occasion and showed some unique international style. I think that this would be likely from many newshounds, with the consequent waste of precious column space for new dispatches from the 21st century’s playing arenas.
Key denied knowledge (no surprise), the guy from Warners said it was a fake and Dotcom wouldn’t answer questions on it or offer any evidence to back it up so its probably not 100% accurate
The reported reason for his silence is his lawyers advised Dotcom to say nothing. It is evidence in his extradition hearing; Paul Davison QC mentioned it outside Akld High Court on Monday.
The rest is just more spin from National’s washing machine.
Undecided, my every instinct screams at me that this is a fake email (too convenient – who writes like that ffs?), and the fact remains that the accused parties’ denial is precisely what they’d do if it were genuine, nor have we any information as to its provenance.
As I’ve already stated, I expect the courts to order Dotcom’s extradition despite the manifest illegality and bad faith exhibited by the FBI and crown.
The official record of “political pressure” picked a medium-sized hole in my confidence level, and the judge may yet order that further material be released that goes to the question. I doubt we’ll get to see it though.
Meanwhile, the case has opened up various aspects of illegal government activities. The right is baying for his blood on the basis of tribal loyalty, and I think any government that, listening to them, perverts justice to attack its political rivals deserves open insurrection, never mind a few movie downloads.
Get it into your head – the government’s treatment of this clown is not justified by you or I not liking him.
The thought that goes through my head is, if it was a fake, wouldn’t they have made just a little more attempt to make it look more like a normal email?
It occurred to me that the Hollywood script might include the good guys planting the email so that the bad guy would lose credibility by relying on it, and by that point I’d rather just throw them all in a very deep hole and set sharp strict High Court judges on the lot of them.
Key, Ede, Dotcom, the FBI, Slater, Lusk, Collins, Odgers and Uncle Tom Cobbley: they all need Judge Roughneck.
…but why would Dotcom believe the email when it looks so dodgy? One has to assume he has had it checked out, he has classy lawyers working for him too, remember.
My personal estimate is that unless somebody discloses server logs, comes clean as the pa or BCC’d recipient who forwarded the email to kdc’s team (or the teenager who produced the fake document), or accidentally makes a slip of the tongue, it simply reinforces what people already believe – either way.
But based on past reputation, it’s probably legit.
Key overruled by Ombudsperson on who released OIA to Slater … fair sheets it home to where it belongs …
Felix Marwick @felixmarwick · 2h
PM’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Phil De Joux received the SIS briefing regarding the Slater OIA. Ombudsmen have ruled there be disclosure
and this …..
Felix Marwick @felixmarwick · 1h
Goff says ID of PM’s ex- Deputy chief of staff as receiving SIS briefing on OIA release to Slater is evidence there was a leak to WhaleOil
Reading about the alleged Sydney beheading plot and the killing of Palmira Silva in London seems to be a popular reference so I had a wee look .
This is not an “isolated incident”. She is the third woman to have been beheaded in London in less than six months. On the 3 June 2014, Tahira Ahmed, 38, was decapitated. Her husband, Naveed Ahmed, 41, was charged with her murder. In April 2014, Judith Nibbs, 60, was decapitated, allegedly by her estranged husband Demsey Nibbs, 67.
Last year, in June, Reema Ramzan, 18, was decapitated by boyfriend, Aras Hussain, 21. The year before, in October 2012, Catherine Gowing, 39, was decapitated and raped by serial rapist Clive Sharp, 47. In March the same year Elizabeth Coriat, 76, was decapitated by her son Daniel Coriat, 43; earlier the same month, Gemma McCluskie, 29, had been decapitated by her brother Tony McCluskie, 36.
another friend of Crusher’s? we do seem to offer residency and citizenship to some odd folk … bribes of $43 million in China ? Wow. NZ must be his picnic basket !
No Right Turn has interesting post re the briefing of SIS:
” Right to the top
Thanks to the Ombudsman, we now know the identity of the staff member in the Prime Minister’s office who was briefed by the SIS over its release of classified material to Cameron Slater: (former) Deputy Chief of Staff Phil De Joux.
Its unclear at this stage whether de Joux himself asked for the briefing or whether someone higher up did – but either way it suggests that dirty politics went right to the top of the Key government, and was almost certainly known about by Key himself. To point out the obvious, a deputy chief of staff doesn’t receive a briefing on the release of classified material and not tell the Prime Minister. Which makes the next question what did Key know and when did he know it?”
Voting just commenced, In 15 hours time will Scotland still be part of the union?
In England only news item is watching current high profile mp’s going to the polls. Interesting only Scottish residents vote, not those who reside on the wrong side of the boarder, most on tv are calling it still too close to call.
That story is a dead link that links back to the main page. It’s title? “Moment of Truth gifts Team Key late bounce in polls”. Do I understand correctly that the Herald (despite leaking conservative party figures) are planning to drop their results the morning before election day?
Well, colour me a left wing conspiracy theorist, but I can’t believe how desperate they are to keep-in-the-vote with the foregone conclusion narrative.
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Would I lie to you? (oh yeah)Would I lie to you honey? (oh, no, no no)Now would I say something that wasn't true?I'm asking you sugar, would I lie to you?Writer(s): David Allan Stewart, Annie Lennox.Opinions issue forth from car radios or the daily news…They demand a bluer National, with ...
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In the 1980s and early 1990s when I wrote about Argentine and South American authoritarianism, I borrowed the phrase “cultura del miedo” (culture of fear) from Juan Corradi, Guillermo O’Donnell, Norberto Lechner and others to characterise the social anomaly that exists in a country ruled by a state terror regime ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Chris Bishop has unveiled plans for new roads in Tauranga, Auckland and Northland that will cost up to a combined $10 billion. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from Aotearoa political economy around housing, poverty and climate in the week to Saturday, April 26:Chris Bishop ploughed ahead this week with spending ...
Unless you've been living under a rock, you would have noticed that New Zealand’s government, under the guise of economic stewardship, is tightening the screws on its citizens, and using debt as a tool of control. This isn’t just a conspiracy theory whispered in pub corners...it’s backed by hard data ...
The budget runup is far from easy.Budget 2025 day is Thursday 22 May. About a month earlier in a normal year, the macroeconomic forecasts would be completed (the fiscal ones would still be tidying up) and the main policy decisions would have been made (but there would still be a ...
On 25 April 2021, I published an internal all-staff Anzac Day message. I did so as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for Australia’s civil defence, and its resilience in ...
You’ve likely noticed that the disgraced blogger of Whale Oil Beef Hooked infamy, Cameron Slater, is still slithering around the internet, peddling his bile on a shiny new blogsite calling itself The Good Oil. If you thought bankruptcy, defamation rulings, and a near-fatal health scare would teach this idiot a ...
The Atlas Network, a sprawling web of libertarian think tanks funded by fossil fuel barons and corporate elites, has sunk its claws into New Zealand’s political landscape. At the forefront of this insidious influence is David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, whose ties to Atlas run deep.With the National Party’s ...
Nicola Willis, National’s supposed Finance Minister, has delivered another policy failure with the Family Boost scheme, a childcare rebate that was big on promises but has been very small on delivery. Only 56,000 families have signed up, a far cry from the 130,000 Willis personally championed in National’s campaign. This ...
This article was first published on 7 February 2025. In January, I crossed the milestone of 24 years of service in two militaries—the British and Australian armies. It is fair to say that I am ...
He shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningI will remember him.My mate Keith died yesterday, peacefully in the early hours. My dear friend in Rotorua, whom I’ve been ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on news New Zealand abstained from a vote on a global shipping levy on climate emissions and downgraded the importance ...
Hi,In case you missed it, New Zealand icon Lorde has a new single out. It’s called “What Was That”, and has a very low key music video that was filmed around her impromptu performance in New York’s Washington Square Park. When police shut down the initial popup, one of my ...
A strategy of denial is now the cornerstone concept for Australia’s National Defence Strategy. The term’s use as an overarching guide to defence policy, however, has led to some confusion on what it actually means ...
The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days. If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t score a lot better on the comparable one for the 2019 to ...
For a while, it looked like the government had unfucked the ETS, at least insofar as unit settings were concerned. They had to be forced into it by a court case, but at least it got done, and when National came to power, it learned the lesson (and then fucked ...
The argument over US officials’ misuse of secure but non-governmental messaging platform Signal falls into two camps. Either it is a gross error that undermines national security, or it is a bit of a blunder ...
Cost of living ~1/3 of Kiwis needed help with food as cost of living pressures continue to increase - turning to friends, family, food banks or Work and Income in the past year, to find food. 40% of Kiwis also said they felt schemes offered little or no benefit, according ...
Hi,Perhaps in 2025 it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the CEO and owner of Voyager Internet — the major sponsor of the New Zealand Media Awards — has taken to sharing a variety of Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories to his 1.2 million followers.This included sharing a post from ...
In the sprint to deepen Australia-India defence cooperation, navy links have shot ahead of ties between the two countries’ air forces and armies. That’s largely a good thing: maritime security is at the heart of ...
'Cause you and me, were meant to be,Walking free, in harmony,One fine day, we'll fly away,Don't you know that Rome wasn't built in a day?Songwriters: Paul David Godfrey / Ross Godfrey / Skye Edwards.I was half expecting to see photos this morning of National Party supporters with wads of cotton ...
The PSA says a settlement with Health New Zealand over the agency’s proposed restructure of its Data and Digital and Pacific Health teams has saved around 200 roles from being cut. A third of New Zealanders have needed help accessing food in the past year, according to Consumer NZ, and ...
John Campbell’s Under His Command, a five-part TVNZ+ investigation series starting today, rips the veil off Destiny Church, exposing the rot festering under Brian Tamaki’s self-proclaimed apostolic throne. This isn’t just a church; it’s a fiefdom, built on fear, manipulation, and a trail of scandals that make your stomach churn. ...
Some argue we still have time, since quantum computing capable of breaking today’s encryption is a decade or more away. But breakthrough capabilities, especially in domains tied to strategic advantage, rarely follow predictable timelines. Just ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Pearl Marvell(Photo credit: Pearl Marvell. Image credit: Samantha Harrington. Dollar bill vector image: by pch.vector on Freepik) Igrew up knowing that when you had extra money, you put it under a bed, stashed it in a book or a clock, or, ...
The political petrified piece of wood, Winston Peters, who refuses to retire gracefully, has had an eventful couple of weeks peddling transphobia, pushing bigoted policies, undertaking his unrelenting war on wokeness and slinging vile accusations like calling Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick a “groomer”.At 80, the hypocritical NZ First leader’s latest ...
It's raining in Cockermouth and we're following our host up the stairs. We’re telling her it’s a lovely building and she’s explaining that it used to be a pub and a nightclub and a backpackers, but no more.There were floods in 2009 and 2015 along the main street, huge floods, ...
A recurring aspect of the Trump tariff coverage is that it normalises – or even sanctifies – a status quo that in many respects has been a disaster for working class families. No doubt, Donald Trump is an uncertainty machine that is tanking the stock market and the growth prospects ...
The National Party’s Minister of Police, Corrections, and Ethnic Communities (irony alert) has stumbled into yet another racist quagmire, proving that when it comes to bigotry, the right wing’s playbook is as predictable as it is vile. This time, Mitchell’s office reposted an Instagram reel falsely claiming that Te Pāti ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
In a world crying out for empathy, J.K. Rowling has once again proven she’s more interested in stoking division than building bridges. The once-beloved author of Harry Potter has cemented her place as this week’s Arsehole of the Week, a title earned through her relentless, tone-deaf crusade against transgender rights. ...
Health security is often seen as a peripheral security domain, and as a problem that is difficult to address. These perceptions weaken our capacity to respond to borderless threats. With the wind back of Covid-19 ...
Would our political parties pass muster under the Fair Trading Act?WHAT IF OUR POLITICAL PARTIES were subject to the Fair Trading Act? What if they, like the nation’s businesses, were prohibited from misleading their consumers – i.e. the voters – about the nature, characteristics, suitability, or quantity of the products ...
Rod EmmersonThank you to my subscribers and readers - you make it all possible. Tui.Subscribe nowSix updates today from around the world and locally here in Aoteaora New Zealand -1. RFK Jnr’s Autism CrusadeAmerica plans to create a registry of people with autism in the United States. RFK Jr’s department ...
We see it often enough. A democracy deals with an authoritarian state, and those who oppose concessions cite the lesson of Munich 1938: make none to dictators; take a firm stand. And so we hear ...
370 perioperative nurses working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike for two hours on 1 May – the same day senior doctors are striking. This is part of nationwide events to mark May Day on 1 May, including rallies outside public hospitals, organised by ...
Character protections for Auckland’s villas have stymied past development. Now moves afoot to strip character protection from a bunch of inner-city villas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest from our political economy on Wednesday, April 23:Special Character Areas designed to protect villas are stopping 20,000 sites near Auckland’s ...
Artificial intelligence is poised to significantly transform the Indo-Pacific maritime security landscape. It offers unprecedented situational awareness, decision-making speed and operational flexibility. But without clear rules, shared norms and mechanisms for risk reduction, AI could ...
For what is a man, what has he got?If not himself, then he has naughtTo say the things he truly feelsAnd not the words of one who kneelsThe record showsI took the blowsAnd did it my wayLyrics: Paul Anka.Morena folks, before we discuss Winston’s latest salvo in NZ First’s War ...
Britain once risked a reputation as the weak link in the trilateral AUKUS partnership. But now the appointment of an empowered senior official to drive the project forward and a new burst of British parliamentary ...
Australia’s ability to produce basic metals, including copper, lead, zinc, nickel and construction steel, is in jeopardy, with ageing plants struggling against Chinese competition. The multinational commodities company Trafigura has put its Australian operations under ...
There have been recent PPP debacles, both in New Zealand (think Transmission Gully) and globally, with numerous examples across both Australia and Britain of failed projects and extensive litigation by government agencies seeking redress for the failures.Rob Campbell is one of New Zealand’s sharpest critics of PPPs noting that; "There ...
On Twitter on Saturday I indicated that there had been a mistake in my post from last Thursday in which I attempted to step through the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement issues. Making mistakes (there are two) is annoying and I don’t fully understand how I did it (probably too much ...
Indonesia’s armed forces still have a lot of work to do in making proper use of drones. Two major challenges are pilot training and achieving interoperability between the services. Another is overcoming a predilection for ...
The StrategistBy Sandy Juda Pratama, Curie Maharani and Gautama Adi Kusuma
As a living breathing human being, you’ve likely seen the heart-wrenching images from Gaza...homes reduced to rubble, children burnt to cinders, families displaced, and a death toll that’s beyond comprehension. What is going on in Gaza is most definitely a genocide, the suffering is real, and it’s easy to feel ...
Donald Trump, who has called the Chair of the Federal Reserve “a major loser”. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories shortest from our political economy on Tuesday, April 22:US markets slump after Donald Trump threatens the Fed’s independence. China warns its trading partners not to side with the US. Trump says some ...
Last night, the news came through that Pope Francis had passed away at 7:35 am in Rome on Monday, the 21st of April, following a reported stroke and heart failure. Pope Francis. Photo: AP.Despite his obvious ill health, it still came as a shock, following so soon after the Easter ...
The 2024 Independent Intelligence Review found the NIC to be highly capable and performing well. So, it is not a surprise that most of the 67 recommendations are incremental adjustments and small but nevertheless important ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkThe world has made real progress toward tacking climate change in recent years, with spending on clean energy technologies skyrocketing from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars globally over the past decade, and global CO2 emissions plateauing.This has contributed to a reassessment of ...
Hi,I’ve been having a peaceful month of what I’d call “existential dread”, even more aware than usual that — at some point — this all ends.It was very specifically triggered by watching Pantheon, an animated sci-fi show that I’m filing away with all-time greats like Six Feet Under, Watchmen and ...
Once the formalities of honouring the late Pope wrap up in two to three weeks time, the conclave of Cardinals will go into seclusion. Some 253 of the current College of Cardinals can take part in the debate over choosing the next Pope, but only 138 of them are below ...
The National Party government is doubling down on a grim, regressive vision for the future: more prisons, more prisoners, and a society fractured by policies that punish rather than heal. This isn’t just a misstep; it’s a deliberate lurch toward a dystopian future where incarceration is the answer to every ...
The audacity of Don Brash never ceases to amaze. The former National Party and Hobson’s Pledge mouthpiece has now sunk his claws into NZME, the media giant behind the New Zealand Herald and half of our commercial radio stations. Don Brash has snapped up shares in NZME, aligning himself with ...
A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 13, 2025 thru Sat, April 19, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
“What I’d say to you is…” our Prime Minister might typically begin a sentence, when he’s about to obfuscate and attempt to derail the question you really, really want him to answer properly (even once would be okay, Christopher). Questions such as “Why is a literal election promise over ...
Ruth IrwinExponential Economic growth is the driver of Ecological degradation. It is driven by CO2 greenhouse gas emissions through fossil fuel extraction and burning for the plethora of polluting industries. Extreme weather disasters and Climate change will continue to get worse because governments subscribe to the current global economic system, ...
A man on telly tries to tell me what is realBut it's alright, I like the way that feelsAnd everybody singsWe are evolving from night to morningAnd I wanna believe in somethingWriter: Adam Duritz.The world is changing rapidly, over the last year or so, it has been out with the ...
MFB Co-Founder Cecilia Robinson runs Tend HealthcareSummary:Kieran McAnulty calls out National on healthcare lies and says Health Minister Simeon Brown is “dishonest and disingenuous”(video below)McAnulty says negotiation with doctors is standard practice, but this level of disrespect is not, especially when we need and want our valued doctors.National’s $20bn ...
Chris Luxon’s tenure as New Zealand’s Prime Minister has been a masterclass in incompetence, marked by coalition chaos, economic lethargy, verbal gaffes, and a moral compass that seems to point wherever political expediency lies. The former Air New Zealand CEO (how could we forget?) was sold as a steady hand, ...
Has anybody else noticed Cameron Slater still obsessing over Jacinda Ardern? The disgraced Whale Oil blogger seems to have made it his life’s mission to shadow the former Prime Minister of New Zealand like some unhinged stalker lurking in the digital bushes.The man’s obsession with Ardern isn't just unhealthy...it’s downright ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is climate change a net benefit for society? Human-caused climate change has been a net detriment to society as measured by loss of ...
When the National Party hastily announced its “Local Water Done Well” policy, they touted it as the great saviour of New Zealand’s crumbling water infrastructure. But as time goes by it's looking more and more like a planning and fiscal lame duck...and one that’s going to cost ratepayers far more ...
Donald Trump, the orange-hued oligarch, is back at it again, wielding tariffs like a mob boss swinging a lead pipe. His latest economic edict; slapping hefty tariffs on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, has the stench of a protectionist shakedown, cooked up in the fevered minds of his sycophantic ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
One pill makes you largerAnd one pill makes you smallAnd the ones that mother gives youDon't do anything at allGo ask AliceWhen she's ten feet tallSongwriter: Grace Wing Slick.Morena, all, and a happy Bicycle Day to you.Today is an unofficial celebration of the dawning of the psychedelic era, commemorating the ...
It’s only been a few months since the Hollywood fires tore through Los Angeles, leaving a trail of devastation, numerous deaths, over 10,000 homes reduced to rubble, and a once glorious film industry on its knees. The Palisades and Eaton fires, fueled by climate-driven dry winds, didn’t just burn houses; ...
Four eighty-year-old books which are still vitally relevant today. Between 1942 and 1945, four refugees from Vienna each published a ground-breaking – seminal – book.* They left their country after Austria was taken over by fascists in 1934 and by Nazi Germany in 1938. Previously they had lived in ‘Red ...
Good Friday, 18th April, 2025: I can at last unveil the Secret Non-Fiction Project. The first complete Latin-to-English translation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s twelve-book Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology). Amounting to some 174,000 words, total. Some context is probably in order. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) ...
Te Pāti Māori are appalled by Cabinet's decision to agree to 15 recommendations to the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector following the regulatory review by the Ministry of Regulation. We emphasise the need to prioritise tamariki Māori in Early Childhood Education, conducted by education experts- not economists. “Our mokopuna deserve ...
The Government must support Northland hapū who have resorted to rakes and buckets to try to control a devastating invasive seaweed that threatens the local economy and environment. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law. “This is not about being anti-anyone or anti-anything. This is about ensuring we as a country focus on the facts of biology and protect the ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will launch another push on health on Sunday, announcing a re-elected Labor government would set up a free around-the-clock 1800MEDICARE advice line and afterhours GP telehealth service. The service would ...
To sleep, perchance to dreamIn the shadowy chambers of Lord Winston,The great clock strikes thirteen.All remains untouched, covered with dust,As it has done since the 1970s,In a simple world where boys were boys,Ladies were mini-skirted and compliant ladies,And Italian law students ruled the streetsIn their wide lapel zoot suits.King Lux ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will launch another push on health on Sunday, announcing a re-elected Labor government would set up a free around-the-clock 1800MEDICARE advice line and afterhours GP telehealth service. The service would ...
Asia Pacific Report Activists for Palestine paid homage to Pope Francis in Aotearoa New Zealand today for his humility, care for marginalised in the world, and his courageous solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza at a street theatre rally just hours before his funeral in Rome. He was remembered ...
By Susana Suisuiki, RNZ Pacific presenter The doors of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican have now been closed and the coffin sealed, ahead of preparations for tonight’s funeral of Pope Francis. The Vatican says a quarter of a million people have paid respects to Pope Francis in the last ...
By Susana Suisuiki, RNZ Pacific presenter The doors of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican have now been closed and the coffin sealed, ahead of preparations for tonight’s funeral of Pope Francis. The Vatican says a quarter of a million people have paid respects to Pope Francis in the last ...
Once or twice a week, Dr Margaret Henley rolls up the door on a windowless storage locker in central Auckland, pulls her plastic chair up to a picnic table and sifts through the history of netball in New Zealand.She works alongside netball archivist and statistician Todd Miller, together trawling through ...
Corin DannThe time is 7:36am on Wednesday, April 23, and you’re listening to Morning Report, New Zealand’s voice of the educated left on good incomes. I’m joined now by acting Prime Minister Winston Peters. Good morning Mr Peters.Winston PetersIt was, until I saw you. I much prefer your brother.Corin DannLiam ...
When Professor David Krofcheck got an email congratulating him on winning the Oscar of the science world, he dismissed it as a hoax.“I thought it was a scam, I thought it was a phishing email,” recalls Krofcheck, nuclear physicist at Auckland University.“Yeah right, I’ve won the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.I’ve been re-watching Girls lately, the HBO classic that perfectly captures millennial women in the most painful way. I highly recommend it especially if you haven’t watched it before. Every character on the show is deeply flawed and frustrating in their own ...
With the double-header long weekend comes a welcome chance to escape streaming slop, writes Alex Casey. Over Easter I texted my husband Joe a sentence that perhaps nobody in human history has ever texted: “hurry up geostorm is starting”. No punctuation, no capitalisation, not because I was trying to ...
April 27 is Moehanga Day, the anniversary of the day in 1806 when Ngāpuhi warrior Moehanga became the first Māori to visit England. This is his story. The wooden ship sailed down the River Thames, past smoke stacks and brick factories, until it reached a wharf in industrial south London. ...
Heidi Thomson on how her husband’s illness and Daniel Kalderimis’s book Zest have enhanced her understanding of George Eliot’s great novel.Sometimes a book finds you at just the right time. In early December my husband John had a stroke. At the time we were both reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch, ...
The musician, actor and star of upcoming documentary Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds takes us through his life in television. Musician Marlon Williams has been on our My Life in TV wish list ever since he revealed during his My Boy tour that he wrote ‘Thinking ...
When she walked dripping into the lounge, hair wet from the shower, she took one look at Hamish and dropped her towel.He was holding her phone.—How long has it been going on for?His blue eyes blazed. She wanted to pluck them out and blow on them gently, cool them off. ...
A citizens’ assembly of 100 Porirua locals has provided the city council with more than a dozen recommendations about how to tackle climate change and make sure the region is resilient to worsening extreme weather events.Ranging from expanding access to renewable energy and incentivising the planting of native trees through ...
Comment: Democracy globally is in crisis. Around the world we are seeing the rise of nationalism and declining trust in democratic institutions. Politicians, even in Aotearoa, undermine the authority of core institutions like the media and the courts, which are critical for a functioning democracy. To live well together, in ...
Journalist Rod Oram, who died last year, would have been delighted to see the commitment to addressing climate change shown by the 23-year-old winner of a prize established in his memory.Mika Hervel, a student at Victoria University of Wellington, is today named winner of the Rod Oram Memorial Essay Prize, ...
COMMENTARY:By Nour Odeh There was faint hope that efforts to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza would succeed. That hope is now all but gone, offering 2.1 million tormented and starved Palestinians dismal prospects for the days and weeks ahead. Last Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister once again affirmed ...
An ocean conservation non-profit has condemned the United States President’s latest executive order aimed at boosting the deep sea mining industry. President Donald Trump issued the “Unleashing America’s offshore critical minerals and resources” order on Thursday, directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to allow deep sea mining. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In this election, voters are more distrustful than ever of politicians, and the political heroes of 2022 have fallen from grace, swept from favour by independent players. A Roy Morgan survey has found, for ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The former head of BenarNews’ Pacific bureau says a United States court ruling this week ordering the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to release congressionally approved funding to Radio Free Asia and its subsidiaries “makes us very happy”. However, Stefan Armbruster, who has ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 25, 2025. Labor takes large leads in YouGov and Morgan polls as surge continuesSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne With just eight days until the May 3 federal election, and with in-person early voting well under way, Labor has taken a ...
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 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Fourth Estate, $35) Fictionalised true crime for foodies. 2 Sunrise on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Taneshka Kruger, UP ISMC: Project Manager and Coordinator, University of Pretoria Healthcare in Africa faces a perfect storm: high rates of infectious diseases like malaria and HIV, a rise in non-communicable diseases, and dwindling foreign aid. In 2021, nearly half of ...
Australia and New Zealand join forces once more to bring you the best films and TV shows to watch this weekend. This Anzac Day, our free-to-air TV channels will screen a variety of commemorative coverage. At 11am, TVNZ1 has live coverage of the Anzac Day National Commemorative Service in Wellington. ...
Our laws are leaving many veterans who served after 1974 out in the cold. I know, because I’m one of them.This Sunday Essay was made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.First published in 2024.As I write this story, I am in constant pain. My hands ...
An MP fighting for anti-trafficking legislation says it is hard for prosecutors to take cases to court - but he is hopeful his bill will turn the tide. ...
NONFICTION1 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99)2 Everyday Comfort Food by Vanya Insull (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)3 Three Wee Bookshops at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw (Allen & Unwin, $39.99)
This Anzac Day marks 110 years since the Gallipoli landings by soldiers in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps - the ANZACS. It signalled the beginning of a campaign that was to take the lives of so many of our young men - and would devastate the ...
The violent deportation of migrants is not new, and New Zealand forces had a hand in such a regime after World War II, writes historian Scott Hamilton. The world is watching the new Trump government wage a war against migrants it deems illegal. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.This Sunday Essay was made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Where are those Jason Ede stories?
Sunday Herald and SST 😉
just why the smiley-face..?
..what is funny about the corporate-media covering this up..?
..and once again we have to ask you..
..what is yr ‘point’..?
sigh
First it is a winking face.
who is “we”
Seems brian got my point (below)
still unclear..cd u humour my feeble-brain..
..and u say what yr ‘point’ was..?
who is “we”
‘we’ are all the people who have asked you ‘what is yr point?’..
..and are you again unable to answer that one..?
..thus proving how often it is you are ‘point’-less..?
I’m sorry …..Phil !?!?, was I not… clear enough for… you…
All this cos I had the audacity to hold you to your past proclamations?
Hopefully this will be clear…
Take your endless string of periods and FUCK OFF.
He won’t, it’s his thing, It’s what he does.
Come up with some slighting sexist put downs like you did with the Breakfast TV girl yesterday, or go full on with the misogynist woman bullier routine you’re seemingly fond of – That’ll always work in your favour when you’ve lost on the finer points of debate. 🙄
heh..!
“..slighting sexist put downs..” + ‘the Breakfast TV girl ‘..
?
T Allen
PU is calling you a hypocrite for using a slighting sexist put down in the process of accusing him of employing; “slighting sexist put downs”. His style is very idiosyncratic, but he does have a point.
I don’t watch Breakfast TV myself, but I’m pretty sure that my wife would have mentioned if they’d started using pre-pubescant females as host/ anchors.
Since when does “the breakfast TV girl” get considered a sexist put down?
And I mean by anyone with a grasp on reality who isn’t backing up an odd bod ally on the internet?
Compare with…
“.she got in a couple of fringe-flicks..and lotsa giggles..and blushes..i half-expected her to rip her bodice open..and to offer herself up to key..)”
go and watch the video..
..she did ‘fringe-flick’..she did ‘giggle’..she did ‘blush’..
..it was a shocker of an interview..
..the bodice-ripping was my creative-addition..
..but i was definitely following the theme..
..(and you haven’t read what i say about some men..?..)
@ allen..
‘Since when does “the breakfast TV girl” get considered a sexist put down?’..
wow..!..just ‘wow!’..
..you’ve seriously stuck yr (unreconstructed-male) flag in the sand with that one..eh..?
..are you about 50 yrs old..?
..you talk like a 50 yr old unreconstructed male..
“@ allen..”
That’s The Al1en to you 😉
‘Since when does “the breakfast TV girl” get considered a sexist put down?’..
“wow..!..just ‘wow!’….you’ve seriously stuck yr (unreconstructed-male) flag in the sand with that one..eh..?..are you about 50 yrs old..?..you talk like a 50 yr old unreconstructed male..”
Am I old? Yes.
Is the term “the breakfast TV girl” a slighting sexist put down? Of course it isn’t.
You find faux offence at the term ‘girl’ yet repeat your sexist attack on the Breakfast presenter.
Fact is she may not be a top rate heavyweight political journo. No shame there, she’s in good company here in NZ, yet I don’t see you writing how Gower or Soper looked as if they were about rip off their shorts to expose their manhood like groupies.
Your lack of respect for women is your issue, but don’t tar me with the same brush. I’m all good with regards to my pro active feminism.
i have actually previously alluded to gower and key ‘coming together’..
..’cos they seemed so close..
..but don’t let that fact get in the way of yr bullshit…eh..?
..”..I’m all good with regards to my pro active feminism…”
..do ‘the girls’ all agree with your generous self-assesment..?
“..do ‘the girls’ all agree with your generous self-assesment..?”
Bearing in mind I’m never going to win a popularity contest, I mean everyone hates the bloke who’s always right, right? But I’m happy to put it to the vote as I reckon I’m in credit not debit on this issue.
“i have actually previously alluded to gower and key ‘coming together’..
..’cos they seemed so close..”
Did you say, like the ‘woman’ on the breakfast show, they were going to expose themselves like a groupie would? I doubt you did, but if you meant to and didn’t, that’s all okay then? ‘Cause at least you’re fair. 🙄
That neither diminishes your sexism nor excuses it, in my opinion, of course.
“..but don’t let that fact get in the way of yr bullshit…eh..?”
A bonus Irony chuckle on this gloomy Thursday. Thanks for that.
from memory i alluded to fellatio..
..and wondered aloud if they had consummated their relationship..
..on one of their overseas-trips together..
..so..wrong again..eh..?
..well done for consistancy tho’..eh..?
Hey look. Two bald men fighting over a comb…
FWIW my wife used to refer to Jack Tame as “the boy” when he was on the news.
If they turn up on the SST and Sunday Herald the day AFTER the election, my face will be red.
I think that must be exactly what Tracey is hoping for lol
chhuckle
To be honest I don’t know what the ede emails are people have referred to? Are they different to the ones referred to in Hager’s book?
For whatever reason I guess the media have decided it’s a non story – shrugs –
ah..!..opining on something you ‘ don’t know’..
..it must be just another ‘point’-less day..
..one ending in a ‘y’..
..do you just like the sound of yr keyboard-clacking..?
..and have you thought of trying talkback-radio..?
..they are usually pretty relaxed about ‘point’-less callers..
..they just need/want the ‘clacking’..
back in stalking mode I see
More like “you got me and I’ve got nothing. Grrr”
nah..!..it’s called serial-bullshit(ter)-alert ‘mode’..
Isn’t Tracey’s joke that Ede will appear on Sunday? The day after the election? Since he’s being hidden from us now so National can steal this election.
@ tigger..
..i don’t actually get what ‘the joke’ is about that..
..(which was what my first question was..still not answered..
..’cos..i’m guessing here..there is no ‘answer’/’point’..?)
that is why I asked Phil who “we” was, cos so far only he has not got the point. But he has a wee bee in his bonnet cos I hold him to his previous proclamations of fact that don’t happen.
For all the world to see, it’s the former, not the latter.
You should try less deflecting and turning around your failings and be more open, adding honesty to your failings as a pundit.
You may even increase your respect quota up to double figures.
the sound of one hand moving..
Super duper injunction?
Yeah. Where’s Wally?
You want yet more diversion? Are you seriously saying you would want the next two days to be about Jason Ede (assuming there are explosive emails that the “MSM” has decided not to publish as part of some “VRWC”?). Hasn’t it been clearly demonstrated through this campaign that the focus on Dirty Politics … and Kim Dotcom … and spying … has been a voter turn off and has had the effect of starving Labour and Cunliffe of the oxygen critical to effectively communicate what is a coherent and potentially vote winning policy platform.
Actually I don’t. I agree that dot com has been a huge distraction and I would have preferred if Dirty Politics had been published earlier. But there is a story here and I am interested in why it has not been printed.
There is no tranche of Ede emails.
His predominant mode of communication was by phone. A few gmail accounts that could be traced to him were used during conversations about the Labour Party computer. Also as stated in the book, he used so many temporary facebook accounts that Slater didn’t know what his facebook account was.
Right, and the fact that someone in the PM’s office has multiple facebook accounts etc. isn’t a story because…?
Somthing saw Nats support drop in IPSOS Poll from 54% two weeks ago (after Collins was resigned) to 47% yesterday… 7% isn’t meaningful?
After the widespread surveillance claims I think Key has broken the record for the most lies told in the lead up to an election. Still a couple of days to go…
‘
DOX PLOX . . . I’ve been a bit busy and haven’t maintained “The Big List” but if you can recall any specific examples, I would be grateful.
Key (Monday):
“There is not and never has been a cable access surveillance programme operating in New Zealand,”… “There is not and never has been, mass surveillance of New Zealanders undertaken by the GCSB.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11325803
Daily Blog (yesterday):
The GCSB has access to NSA mass surveillance programs like xKeystroke and Operation SpearGun was operational the moment the new legislation passed. What is most extraordinary is the continued damage to Key’s credibility his moving feast of a defence has taken. Beyond the pathetic name calling and attacking of the messenger, it’s Key’s continually changing story.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/17/the-incredible-changing-john-key-story-on-mass-spying-why-the-moment-of-truth-did-more-damage-than-matthew-hooton-dreads/
One more for your big list BLiP.
One thing that really annoyed me in the debate last night was when Key said that the Green party had last week “said that they were abandoning Labour”. They never said anything of the sort. When Cunliffe challenged it Key’s justification was that “he can watch the news”, referring to last week’s ridiculous Slateresque media beat-up. Key’s statement was of unqualified fact. It was a brazen outright lie.
Don’t you go and worry about that AsleepWhileWalking, as us Christians are less than a week away from sorting that sinner out.
We’ll be wading knee deep in blood by the time we’ve finished. And we’ll cut down anyone defending him.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Is what us Christians have been told to do.
If it’s political violence you want, I hear they’re giving away pretty grunty weaponry over in Iraq.
Goodness. That was violent.
“..We’ll be wading knee deep in blood by the time we’ve finished. And we’ll cut down anyone defending him…”
old-skool christianity..eh..?
..kill the unbelievers..!
..would you too prefer be-headings..there..?
..you person of god..you..
..or wd you dig out the crusades handbook..?
..sure to be some good dealing-to-infidels-in-creative-ways ideas in there..eh..?
You were only the other week advocating armed struggle as the only way to get the nats out.
Apart from being extremely silly, what difference do you see between “We’ll be wading knee deep in blood by the time we’ve finished” and what you wrote?
Just because the team changes, crass and stupid is still crass and stupid, but I guess you know that, though maybe you don’t, yet.
“..You were only the other week advocating armed struggle as the only way to get the nats out..”
you lying piece of crap..
..i have often noted how lucky we are to have our ‘revolution’-option at the ballot-box..
..unlike most other countries..
..i repeat..you lying sack of shit..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08092014/#comment-882785
I nearly gave up. Four pages of your quotes and it was still only on yesterdays date lol.
I did state armed struggle and you wrote civil disobedience, so you may, just, have the edge on this one.
So, calling for “global nonviolent constitutional insurgency” is calling for armed struggle?
/facepalm.
As I just wrote, which you could also have quoted if you wanted to, “I did state armed struggle and you wrote civil disobedience”
No need for a facepalm my friend. Even I can get the wording wrong once in a while, though given the frequency and often bullsh!ttish nature of the original commentator, I could be cut some slack, or not, as the case may be.
That’ll teach me for skim reading before coffee 😳
No worries, besides, that’ll teach me for adding credibility and meaning to phil’s posts in the first instance.
“We’ll be wading knee deep in blood by the time we’ve finished. And we’ll cut down anyone defending him.”
jeez thats a bit “old testament” isnt it ?
or is it the koran your reading ?
How odd that National waits until 3 days from the election to decide to reduce beneficiairies by 25%. And all these new jobs, how exciting.
Yes reclassify their benefits as a work scheme and boom, new jobs less on welfare, pure genius from the trickle downers.
I thought they were already doing that and hadnt been able to achieve 25% reduction
Watch what a 3rd term brings.
if gifted a third term..they will go ballistic…
“if gifted a third term..they will go ballistic…”
Yeah, and that bit is scary
They will close 25% of WINZ offices
that’s why their campaign has been policy/ideas-free..
..they don’t dare verbalise what they have planned for us..
..they know the chances of a fourth term will be very slim..
..and this is why they would/will spend the next three years..
..finishing off the job..
privatise ACC
privatise Health System
Plunder the Cullen Fund
Sell Kiwibank
Gold, oil, fracking licenses ad nauseam … in all conservation areas
re-write RMA to the point of being useless …
just as starters
English compares long term benefit to crack cocaine.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/addiction/news/article.cfm?c_id=480&objectid=11326924
plus..five minutes after a victory for the right..
..key will announce we will be joining the latest american war in the middle east..
+1
That’s exactly what they will do and NZ will be in truth a plutocracy and not a democracy.
Note that they don’t actually say ‘move beneficiaries into jobs’ they say ‘cut beneficiaries’.
Yay, addressing poverty by creating more/just not counting them because not beneficiaries.
It already is.
A better idea would be to attempt to reduce the blowout on the accommodation supplement. When people eligible for the AS aren’t upwardly mobile it creates a lifelong forward liability that will only cease if they win a lottery, find a rich sugar daddy, or inherit real estate.
It seems we face a probable Key victory with an increasingly bored and disengaged Prime Minister wishing he was .. anywhere else, really – Hawa’ii, Omaha, London, or Parnell. Perhaps Sydney or Singapore ..
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/f6a1cc01/roy-morgan-poll-shows-nats-extending-lead-labour-greens-fading.html
There is unprecedented foreign interference in this election –
http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8907133/australian-liberals-weigh-into-nz-election
http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/australian-liberals-weigh-into-nz-election/story-e6frfku9-1227061187532
.. with even Tony Abbott’s party weighing in. Does his kiwi wife make him a voter ? Does it justify the expense of accommodating Federal Departments under canvas for a week in some godforsaken waterhole ?
With friends like these, who needs enemies ?
As expected, CT clients the oz liberals chime in right on cue, last week reinhardts fairfax had a jk puff piece .
Reinhard now owns Fairfax ?
If anything she has a 18% share
14.99%. Effectively a controlling share, Tracey or very close to it. She’s been mulling a raid on the other shareholders for two years, but even she doesn’t have the money to buy the lot ($5-7 billion).
.. it might make sense in the context of of a Koch brothers backed Romney presidency, given current US levels of debt.
WTF? Must mean some kind of scheme cooked up in the background that won’t eventuate unless National is in full control.
They tried at the last election but were beaten by David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political strategist.
For what it’s worth, Fred Koch, founder of the John Birch society, reported in a 1938 letter after an extensive trip that he found New Zealand “violently socialistic”.
Schulman, Daniel. (2014). ‘Sons of Wichita. How the Koch brothers became America’s most powerful and private dynasty.’ Grand Central Publishing, Hachette.
pages 42, 283, 324.
http://wcl.govt.nz/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=2540&record=1&controlNumber=1134364
I’m ignoring the polls. Their all over the place which, IMO, just shows their inadequacy.
with you, draco. can’t be read.
(and you know, if the rumour of 17 Nat MPs being made to ‘disappear’ with $300K each, total $5,00,000, what price a small poll or three ? just saying .. no proof at all, but just saying.)
(let’s remember 1984 ….. the way Muldoon’s ego defeated Muldoon )
oops, 15 not 17. And this by MickySavage — a prescient re-read in today’s climate and what we now know ..
http://thestandard.org.nz/tau-henare-and-the-baubles-of-retirement/
“Key’s reputation as a smiling assassin is well deserved. National has or will lose 15 MPs who served this term. And there has been little or any sign of public dissent. It makes you wonder what is occurring to persuade so many MPs to give up the baubles of office.
And lefties should be very afraid about the calibre of the likely replacements. As commented recently by Felix
Anyone who won’t have the stomach for the extreme right-wing blitzkrieg the central committee has planned for the third term is out, and will be replaced by obedient, subservient little Randian ideologues and proto-fascists who owe their entire career to the leadership.
National is transforming into ACT on steroids.
If anyone on the left need a reason to get involved in their party of choice this is it.”
you only have to look to Goldsmith in Epsom. He is, to all intents and purposes, in the wrong Party. He is too the very right of the Nats from all I have heard and read.
Perhaps you could remind us what is “unprecedented” about it?
Is your memory so bad that you can’t even remember the Australian Labour Party leader attending and speaking at the New Zealand Labour Party conference about two months ago?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11288595
That is rather more “interference” than this is wouldn’t you say?
No.
Absolutely no. Has your ability to comprehend deserted you?
Do we need to stop subsiding this school with taxpayer money?
“A new $17 million health and fitness centre at private Epsom girls’ school St Cuthbert’s College opens today.
Principal Lynda Reid said the Centre for Wellbeing housed a 25m swimming pool with moveable floor, learners’ pool, fitness centre and 250-seat spectator gallery.
…The school hopes to generate an income out of the new centre, designed by Architectus.”
Perish the thought, that would mean cancellation of at least one trip or outing and perhaps scaling back the ball no no no no how would they cope.
‘
Sign of the times, I’m afraid. Kings College, baby-sitter to the progeny of Auckland’s capitalist elites’ and the most expensive private school in the country had its government grants increased by 40 percent between 2009 and 2011 . All that extra money-for-nothing didn’t stop Kings College from having another suckle on the tax payers tit when it came to getting its grubby hands on the lion’s share of money set aside for students with special needs. The John Key led National Ltd™ kept its middle finger firmly extended to struggling public schools in last year’s budget when granting an extra $35 million to private schools nation wide.
Still, at least our kids get some toast in mornings, eh? Thanks, John Key, you’re all heart.
sigh
you mean king college the most dangerous school in the country ?
I went to pretty rough school in west Auckland, but nobody died (or ever has ) from what i remember
+1
the young guy who got beaten up after rugby practice and died, he was west auckland wasn’t he?
That’s a very expensive stripper pole.
What a strange world we are in this election. Harre, a fierce unionist working for and defending an employer that abuses and rips off his lowly paid staff and Whaleoil and TV3 fighting on their behalf.
🙄
Sideshow. Ignore.
All lies then. Workers under/not paid, worked over 16 hours per day. Large percentages of pay with held. Vindictively withholding employment certificates so the can’t get a job back in the Phillipines, forcing them to call him “sir” while calling them by their first names, losing temper, threatening and intimidating………..normally enough to bring out the most mild union organizer, just not here, not now.
Sellout.
😆
Who set up the employment court in the first place? Do politicians have influence over its decisions? Who will strengthen employment and other human rights protections? Who will undermine them?
Now fuck off, tr*ll.
Thanks. I gave up on tv some time ago. Is there a youtube link somewhere ?
I have to weigh in here, I have a good friend who works at the .com mansion, and if her facebook feed is anything to go by, I have to call bullshit on you buddy.
Now that’s interesting.
My sister-in-law used to clean up there with her daughter. Always paid on time always spoken to with courtesy.
How did these folks get work visas to be butlers etc, surely there were unemployed kiwis who could do those jobs?
Please explain ..
3degrees onTV3 last night. Dotcom’s treatment of his Filipino staff exposed. Just shows how far Labour has fallen as the worker’s party that they are not taking this up too. Harre proved as being a total sell out.
Don’t wait for the usual defenders of workers rights to say anything about it here though.
Funny, 3rd Degree aren’t presenting it that way at all this morning.
Look at the video.
I got the gist of it from the article.
I also noticed that you are arguing in bad faith, desperately trying to smear the left with lies.
Had breakfast? Choke on it.
You prove my point. Normally you would be one of the first to attack this behavior, now you want to excuse it and sweep under the carpet.
Now you have to demonstrate that it occurred in the first place, you lying tr*ll. Your source is backing away from the allegations as fast as they can.
If DotCom has treated staff this way it absolutely needs a full DOL investigation, as do any other such instances.
Did Whaleoil have a position of the fisheries slavery allegations?
The DOL will discover that the malicious and illegal actions of the New Zealand government at the behest of the FBI, destroyed the business that was paying these wages.
Though to be fair, kdc did have a few spare million up his sleeve to start the mip alliance. He could have shelled out any time to pay off creditors had he wanted to.
Maybe in the wisdom of a multi millionaire he thought he was being played? I don’t know seems premature to conclude anything about him and it is suspiciously close to an election…
Rushing to conclusions is always a mistake, made worse just prior to making a major decision.
funny how the right arent complaining about the timing the way they complained about snowden and greenwald.
The political-right only complain about such things when it’s them in the sights with their pants down.
Yeah, vote kim, he’s not really a rich prick nugget who shits on his staff like lots of other rich pricks do.
I must have missed something. Is there a candidate named Kim?
Weak effort, but have a look in his pocket if you don’t believe me. There’s one or two tucked away for later use, though that looks more and more unlikely, thank goodness, as ttt is too close to call.
Still polling at half the weirdo conservatives level should give the numbers some context.
Not the big game changer some thought it would be, aye, but then 1.5% to 2% in the polls is a great return on 3mil, apparently.
He says they’ve been paid in full, although these particular ones are demanding too much. I note he’s reemployed quite a few of them.
@The Allen … untrue. his money was frozen for many months. check facts sometimes.
Defend him if you have to, but he had plenty of time to pay the creditors.
I believe 60k per month allowance before he got wedged up fully enough to fund prospective parliamentary candidates and the mip alliance.
KDC doesn’t need me to defend him, even from your venom. You just post some stuff that simply isn’t true.
He had an allowance of around 50k + a month before getting a lump of cash.
What and where is the lie?
And for the record, pointing out the error in bullshit supposition isn’t venom.
It should also be pointed out that he only back paid his debtors when the story broke about how he owed working kiwis.
and exactly how long after the raid was that ? and correct your own stuff .. are you proposing 60K or 50K ? ( are you john key ?)
@ yeshe..
“..You just post some stuff that simply isn’t true..”
..that happens often..
11:17 22/03/2012
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6619000/Kim-Dotcoms-60k-allowance
“are you john key ?”
As far from that as I am a kdc sycophant.
that link makes plain the truth that KDC had no access to any money whatsoever from time of the raid on January 20 until end of March when the court cleared some funds to him.
please don’t believe all the spin you read or write. you will get dizzy and that won’t be good.
He’s a clown and a sideshow, 2014’s Owen Glenn.
Are we supposed to just ignore human rights violations when they occur to wealthy successful clowns?
IF he owes anyone any money, they ought to have been paid by now. As is pointed out he was given an allowance and a lump sum. I am NOT saying he owes anyone (before Phil jumps in with his period frenzy) just that the frozen money excuse ended a while ago.
YOu will have to vote Labour then if you are as concerned as you say about Dot com’s workers.
Labour will increase minimum wages and strengthen employment law so people such as Dot.com’s workers and indeed all workers are protected. Thank you so much for your concern about exploited workers and your follow up action (because you care, don’t you?) of voting Labour
And so will IMP.
National’s co-opted media smear machine still runs pretty smoothly, all things considered.
Of course it does. The media smear machine runs independently of National (as well as running in cahoots with it, when it suits them). Even if National magically disappeared off the face of the Earth, the MSM would still be cheerleading for them and imploring us to vote for them.
Exs
Dottycom does something bad and it’s Labour’s fault.
WTF are you on? Sure aint logic.
Some people can’t smell a Whale Oil smear job at two paces eh? Seems 3rd Degree are still shackled to discredited ways of doing journalism. Note how they appear to have been happy to act on dubious accusations from Wayne Temporo that would have been provided via his new best friend Cameron Slater, to smear KDC. Most telling was the change of tone when the interviewer was asked to consider the timing of the Philippines interviews and the lodging of papers in the Court. The only positive was that the ‘target’ was given the opportunity to comment on the dubious information the accusations were based on.
Tks
@ cc..
..+ 1..
People who use whaleoil as a source clearly need our sympathies.
Listening to Espiner interviewing Winston.
Like trying to cut water 😆
“Guyon, are you ok?” 😀
Great to see someone telling the media where to get off.
“Guyon, are you o.k.? ”
“Who do you think you are. Get a grip on yourself.”
Such a pity Cunliffe doesn’t speak to Hosking in the same manner.
The media really is pathetic.
Seriously?
I know there is this whole let’s hate Guyon no matter what he does thing on ts, but in that interview Espiner was asking completely reasonable and pertinent questions about NZF’s position on working in or supporting a govt that includes the GP, and Peters was being an arsehole. I also thought he sounded unclear and a bit thrown at times, so good on Espiner.
Peters was an out and out bully, even eventually trotting out the classic bully line that he himself was being bullied. He’s a fucking disgrace, both in his behaviour and in his politics. His avowed stance that NZF never talks pre-election about coalition negotiations is bullshit. As Epsiner rightly pointed out multiple times, and questioned, NZF has ruled out some parties already.
Peters is a duplicitous, power-hungry, maniupative thug. Yes he’s very entertaining too, but let’s hope we’re still laughing after Sat (or the next few weeks).
As for telling the media where to get off, yes they have a huge amount to answer for, but we have to be careful here to not condemn them when they are doing their job well. Espiner asked the right questions and persevered when Peters equivocated and obfuscated.
@weka
Agree.
I actually quite enjoy Espiner these days, turning into a morning version of Mary.
You are wrong on so many counts.
Winston Peters does NOT have to tell the media or any one which main party he will support after the election. He may, if he chooses, but does not have to do so. If people are not concerned either way, they will vote for him. If they are, they won’t. If people like him or his policies, they will vote for him anyway. In fact, I put it to you that the position Peters has taken is the correct and the best position that every party should in fact take rather than try to manipulate the voters by saying they would support this party or that after the election. Why second guess before the voters have exercised their own vote based on party’s main personalities and main policies. If a party does not get 50% plus on their own, then it is time to negotiate policies and positions to try to form a coalition. What if NZF gets 50% plus on their own?
If he joins Labour coalition, he will bring in more pragmatism,common sense and curtail any silly or extremist policies from it or from its other coalition partners. With Winston in the mix, he will improve the longer survival of the progressive government for two, three or more terms so that many more economic, social and environmental programmes can be put in place.
If he joins National, he will stop National from their and other partner parties’ excessive extremist policies too.
In my opinion, Labour is the best of all the parties overall in candidates and policies and needs all the party votes it can get to be much stronger than indicated by the media polls so far. If the polls had indicated Labour was 33% plus, I would happily consider voting IMP.
I didn’t say Peters had to say anything. I said Espiner was right to call him out for being a hypocrite.
Peters seems incapable of answering some pretty easy straight forward questions without being a bully. Go Winston.
“Why second guess before the voters have exercised their own vote based on party’s main personalities and main policies”
No-one is suggesting second guessing, you just made that up. Peters has ruled out some of the parties he won’t work with, so why not be honest about those which he *might work with. That doesn’t commit NZF to anything. The reason he doens’t want to do that is because he is hedging his bets. Every election he manipulates the media and the public. We will see a big change in MMP culture once Peters retires. I have no problem with NZF as a party, it’s Peters that is the problem.
Danyl Mclauchlan @danylmc 7 hrs
Here’s to three long years of Peters as a senior Minister telling everyone who asks him anything that they’re an idiot and a liar #sigh
Winston “we won’t say what we will do, we will let the people decide” Peters, making himself even more of a hypocrite by endorsing Kelvin Davis. And in the most disingenuous way. Kelvin is best, nothing to do with hobbling Mana.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11327170
Winnie reminds of when the old records used to get stuck and play the same 12 seconds of music over and over. It’s always the same thing since the Winebox – Winnie hinting at stuff that never turns out to be anything remarkable. I’ll be glad when he’s gone.
Kind of how Joyce does now…
Guyon didnt reign Joyce in but Joyce makes it very hard to do it…. He just keeps going, doesnt stop and eventually guyon stops talking first.
IF Nats win and Key goes at some point I wonder if Joyce will step up. He can spin the lies far better than key, just has to stop trying to stop himself laughing at how easy it is though
Guyon has been getting bouquets for the way he has been conducting his interviews with other politicians such as Key. Including from me.
But today Guyon just went over the top. He went from hero to zero. I would much rather have heard a summary of the policies that Winston is going to push.
WInston won totally. He will be seen to be standing up to a bully, and seen to be tough. And in NZ, unfortunately, that seems to be more important than policy for most of the voting public. WInston really is a clever politician, regardless of how much you like or dislike him politically.
He sounds short of breath.
Oh come on. Those are perfectly rational and sane questions that other politicians are prepared to answer. Winston is being a precious little daisy, claiming that he knows what the public does and doesn’t want to know and therefore what questions he will and won’t answer.
Actually I would have liked if he had just answered Guyon’s questions, but he refused.
Frankly I’m surprised Guyon didn’t just cut him off and end the interview.
Yes perfectly reasonable and sane. But there is a limit. Especially as the question was not a matter of huge importance. And it’s Winston’s strategy, and right to say that he will not answer anything until after the election. There will be people like yourself who would have liked to know, but there are probably more people who will actually vote for Winnie, who admire his style. Especially when he seems to have found himself in the box seat this election.
What the public wants to know. Here Winston was right. What was the basis for Guyon saying the “public want to know”? Zilch. I’m tired of anybody (interviewers or politicians) using this line. Usually it’s the politicians: ‘I’ve travelled from Auckland to Taumaranui to Wellington to Hokitika, and therefore I can claim to know what the public are concerned about on 987 policies’
“And it’s Winston’s strategy, and right to say that he will not answer anything until after the election.”
And it’s Espiner’s job and right to call him out in being a hypocrite, which is what he was doing.
Then there was all that bullshit at the start where Peters refused to answer the question until he had the upper hand in the interview. He’s manipulative and a bully. If people want to vote for that, that’s fine, but it’s also fine that the rest of us get reminded of what an arsehole is going to be choosing the next govt.
+1
….and WInston being a “precious daisy”? The most unlikely analogy for Winston that I’ve ever heard. He may be full of outdated ideas, but he knows precisely what he is doing. Cunning, wily, and clever . He will not receive my vote.
@ brian 8.2
Agree
!! Fuck that was funny. And sooo Winston.
Espiner did well to squeeze anything out of him.
BLiP can probably add this to his key “lies”
“Key said that a big regret was that there had not been a chance to have discussions on core issues such as health, education, and the environment. “
Yep, I thought that a reply could have been, well we could have another 30 min now if you like.
‘
Heh! Thing is, it probably was a regret because, chances are, National Ltd™ wasted big bucks employing a crew of spinners to come up with a slew of lies, funny money, and dodgy statistics to show what a wonderful job it had been doing in those areas. It was money Steven Joyce could have put towards the costs which will be awared for stealing Eminiem’s tune.
Apparently it is different when national does it. Twice.
The left are heading for a right pasting this Saturday. Lets face it. Internet-Mana has shot its bolt, the Greens have hit a ceiling and Labour is screwed. The only one to benefit from this whole dirty politics saga is Winston Peters, who has done enough to get his party back to parliament. We should all be worried about the Conservatives, who represent the dark, repressive NZ, the NZ that were willing to pelt women and children with bottles so they could watch a rugby match, and who think that having gay teens kill themselves, and turfing girls onto the street becasuse they get pregnant to the wrong boy is perfectly acceptable. Garth McVicar and Christine Rankin’s attempt to turn this country into 1930’s Virginia should be resisted by every progressive New Zealander. And of course, there is ACT.
I hope after the election Labour doesnt cave into the Jonesites and starts lurching to the right, and remember – Norman Kirk lost 2 elections and Nash the same amount before winning. I hope the Paganist faction thinks about that before dumping him.
IF you are right and IF IPSOS is right, ACT may die too…
I don’t think labour really knows who it stands for anymore.
The wise and august ( or maybe it should be September!) jamie whyte was quoted yesterday as saying thepolling by main Akld Chinese newspaper had Act at 20%.
That is a little scary.
do they mean amongst the Chinese reading population? I guess it depends on what number of that demographic are voting
sorry, Tracey, don’t know. I was too busy having hysterics about whyte’s claim he will be holding the balance of power on sunday morning. will try to find it …
LOL
Not surprising, given that Act are actively campaigning for the Chinese vote in a way that no other party is.
On the corner of St Lukes Rd and Sandringham Road her ein Auckland ( a main commuting route within the city) the ACT billboard is in a Chinese language except for a small bit under the chaps face which says, in english “vote act”
I am not commenting on their right to do that just saying it is not a billboard designed to attract non chinese language reading voters.
Got the same one down here. I live in the Chinese area of town.
once again..and yr ‘point’ is..?
yr ‘point’ is
You are as divisive and disingenuous and have done much of cam slater’s work while he has had his hands full recently.
What do I win?
their deputy is Chinese and yes, I agree with you Lanth.
Labour and National do not present a vision in the same way that most of the minor parties do. Being big is no excuse for not knowing who you stand for.
And yet the left looks likely to lead the next Government. Funny old world you live in, Millsy.
See you on Monday Millsy.
the corporate-media should hire cunnliffe to do their hatchet-jobs on harawira..
..he does a better job than they do..
..imagine if cunnliffe gets what he wants..
..and then stares down defeat..?
..a defeat that the internet/mana mp’s would have turned into a victory..
..cunnliffe is front-runner for tactical-fuck-up-award for this election campaign..
Bless 😆
You crying on here is almost as sad as hone crying to the herald about forces conspiring to force him out of ttt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11326642
It’s called tactical voting, and it’s often used to unseat an unpopular mp or stop a vapid candidate from gaining ascendancy – Just like being done and advocated for months in Epsom by many, if not all on here.
You and he sound a little goldsmith/seymour about it all. Shame 🙂
Go on Kelvin.
TAllen
From your NZH link (seeing as there’s already a full days reading online and it’s not even noon):
Sounds more like buckling-down and getting on with the job at hand, than; “crying… about forces conspiring to force him out”.
He said, she said, but the tactical voting point stays intact despite interpretation.
“..He said – she said.”
..and you tell/peddle lies..
That’s a very direct quote. Do you care back it up and provide irrefutable evidence?
And by irrefutable evidence, I mean the kind that sticks, not the slop thrown by kim.
It seems New Zealand First are sending the same message to their voters.
Still weeping into the capacious billionaire’s ample bosom are we?
From straight out of the parable of the man who sold his soul to the devil for straight cash, may Hone’s tears run dry…
I disagree. It is well within the realms of possibility that Cunliffe would love Harawira to get over the line on Saturday. There is absolutely no way in hell, however, that Labour would do anything other than shed votes if Cunliffe came out and supported him. Labour has everything to gain in the long term and in terms of votes right now by attacking National for its tactical voting shenanigans. Engaging in tactical endorsements itself would put Labour in danger of losing its support – and not necessarily only to the Greens or Mana. Specifically endorsing Harawira, or even giving a hint of going soft on him, would give Key two big, shiny sticks to beat Labour with (tactical voting and association with Internet/Mana).
Whichever wa you cut it, endorsing Harawira is a large risk without much hope of gain, since a comparatively strong Labour vote with no Mana MPs leaves the Left bloc largely the same as a weaker Labour vote with a couple of electorate MPs from Mana. Conversely, if Mana get over the line without Labour’s endorsement, Labour can have its cake and eat it, too, with a strong Labour vote and a coup.e of Mana MPs gib
ving support on confidence and supply. They can even sign a Memorandum of Understanding should they so wish, since the Nats’ claiming that that implies political allegiance between Mana and Labour would face the question of whether their previous MoU with the Greens meant that they were affiliated with the Greens, a party which they have consistently described as far-left loonies.
@ Hanswurst…are you sure your arguments are not a tad too sophisticated for the average punter?…..At very least Cunliffe could come out and say Harawira is a fantastic candidate and may the best person win!…( nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
( who cares about Key and ” two big, shiny sticks to beat Labour with” …this is war and Key has used everything…fair and foul …especially foul dirty tricks …. to beat Cunliffe and Labour already)…Cunliffe and Labour by taking the tack they are taking against ManaINT just makes them look mean… and stupid imo.
Yes, it does make them look mean and stupid – to those of us who are to their left. However, that doesn’t hurt them, because we vote to change the government anyway. However, that doesn’t mean that it is a stupid thing to do. For voters who are not inclined to look too probingly at the issues, “Labour-Green-NZFirst” is a fairly simple proposition, whereas headlines reading “Five-headed hydra looms as Cunliffe endorses Mana” with the subhead “Harawira a ‘fantastic candidate’, Labour leader says” would play into exactly the narrative that National and the Herald want to weave. I don’t like it at all, but I simply can’t reach any other conclusion. Cunliffe doesn’t have a good option when it comes to presenting his position on Internet/Mana.
So open warfare with the left after the election and not before is the labour mantra Hanswurst? Or is this the same old, same old from labour? Not like labour exactly have a pristine record on their treatment of other left wing parties.
I have no idea what you are talking about. I didn’t refer to any mantra, Labour or otherwise. Nor did I say that Labour would be more hostile to the Left after the election than before – the opposite, in fact. Their electoral positioning has less to do with “the left” than to do with more nebulous ideas of branding. I don’t really feel inclined to reply in any more depth to a comment that seems to be constructed in slogans concerning how Labour is not a left-wing party (at least as a parliamentary entity) and has a history of screwing its working-class supporters (that is fairly well known).
+100 phillip…have to agree with you on this one….not a good look!
….and my teenage son is outraged against Cunliffe and Labour….he was almost going to Party vote Labour too, ironically enough …or Winnie ( but Winnie committed the same crime)
….so the Greens got his vote instead ( i am not sure what his reason was for not voting IntMana…probably too much Sean Plunkett commercial radio propaganda against Dotcom) …but the Greens gotta win sometimes…and they were the lucky recipient from this particular spat)
“…..the NZ that were willing to pelt women and children with bottles so they could watch a rugby match, and who think that having gay teens kill themselves, and turfing girls onto the street becasuse they get pregnant to the wrong boy is perfectly acceptable…….”
Christians in NZ did not ever do that!! The people who did that when NZ was ‘mostly’ Christian – were mostly the non-christians.
What do you actually think the likes of the Salvation Army aand Anglicare do?
The Christian churches were at the forefront of the anti tour movement.
Oh please clearly they carried a hammer and sicle onto Rugby Park.
I saw that. I saw no-one interviewing them at the scene.
Other than the Police, and afterwards most of the media.
Harriet – wtf? As a gay man I can tell you, the worst abuse I’ve had, my whole long life, has been from Christians of various denominations.
Christians, contrary to ordained advice, often throw the first stones, why do you think they wouldn’t throw beer bottles?
What do you mean by “Christians”, exactly?
No Christians thought their kids killing themselves was perfectly acceptable – those funerals were shunned so that teenagers did not see it as acceptable. However today in NZ kids have facebook pages dedicated to people who have done so. And the media pays attention to that in the affirmitive. Suicide rates are very high – ain’t that so?
Turfing girls onto the streets was not the done thing by Christians either. Unless the Christian adoption agencies are a figment of my imagination.
Drunk Christian husbands who belted their wives and kids were generaly sorted out by their families, friends and Churchs. Generaly their drinking came to attention and no violence then occured.What was lacking back then was police training and techniques, and laws against family violence – that resulted in some non-Christian famlies suffering the worst violence – and also due to lack of connection to charitable[christian] services.
so, what do you mean when you say christians? I’m trying to ascertain who you have in mind when you use that word
@ harriet..and her rose-coloured glasses view of the past..
“..Turfing girls onto the streets was not the done thing by Christians either..”
no..they were ‘sent up the country’..instead.. eh..?
‘..Drunk Christian husbands who belted their wives and kids were generaly sorted out by their families, friends and Churchs…’
oh really..?
..now you know that is just total bullshit..
..’giving the missus a crack’..was almost biblically advocated..
..and ‘belting the kid’..was done by most parents/teachers etc..
..i was an exception from my/those times..in that my parents did not hit me when i was a small child..(and i have never hit either of my now-adult children..patterns repeat..)
..(just why my parents were so advanced in that way..i still don’t know..)
So Harriet as a Christian – you only have two choices to vote for this election. 1. The Maori party 2. Mana. Because they are the only parties which treat the gospels with any respect, they are the only parties which start and end meetings with pray, and they are the only parties who have large Christian memberships. The choice is yours Harriet – but I’d think on these issues too. you should read this before you vote.
http://presbyterian.org.nz/speaking-out/resources-for-speaking-out/discussion-papers/gospel-manifesto-2014
didnt you state t
“us Christians are less than a week away from sorting that sinner out.
We’ll be wading knee deep in blood by the time we’ve finished. And we’ll cut down anyone defending him.”
Well I’ve got a sense of humour. Most Christians do have.
Bizarre sense of humour
Well, we’ve been drinking blood 2000 years before Twilight made it cool.
That’s hilarious. 😉
could conceivably be a case of false flag trolling.
i campaigned for grant robertson in 2011. one of the memorable things he said was “in the last 48 hours of an election campaign there is often more heat than light.” seems like you could extrapolate that to mean “don’t bother reading the comments on political blogs in the home stretch cos there’s gonna be some pretty awful stuff”
Gentlefolk, please give Harriet a break.
We should know the results in about a day .. (:-)
Just trying to ascertain who she means when she says “us Christians”? Is it everyone who believes jesus Christ rose from the dead or are there some groups who are more christian than others?
In the practical sense, those who went to Church most Sundays. Even if they stopped going later in life.
A bit of ‘Christian living’ doesn’t hurt any child. It gives them reasonable grounding in history, human behaviour, and values.
Christianity is infact, an education in and of itself.
I don’t have a problem with people living a life to emulate the chap known as Jesus Christ.
I was just trying to work out what you had in mind when you were saying Christian and not Christian.
Was Jesus Christ ever violent to children, do you know? I mean are their parts of the Bible that describe him slapping a child in the head, or taking a belt to them and can you direct me to the circumstances of such violence?
The clarifications are important because, for example, spare the rod spoil the child was not, to my knowledge uttered by Jesus Christos.
“Christianity is infact, an education in and of itself.”
This needs clarification though. What kind of education, based on what?
The only thing I would credit Christianity for, in any way shape or form when linked to education, is the knowledge around morals and how to treat other humans. i.e. do unto others as you would see them unto you, gossip is the root of all evil, etc etc.
Everything else built up around a mythical water walker is just bunkum.
If religious people were rational, there would be no religious people.
By son discovered that the word for “on” and the word for “by” is almost identical and during the translations “by the water” became “on the water.”
How such tiny words can change history!
Harriet is that where you learnt racism and how to kick the poor when they are down then grind them into the ground !
Remember Christ kicked the money changers out of the church now you are bringing them back in.
Most of your posts go directly against Christian teachings
ie greed is god!
A rich man and his camel can get into heaven the poor have to suffer and go to hell!
Is this the same Harriet who supported the Israelis’ recent genocide slaughter against the Palestinians?…
“Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
― Steven Weinberg
The label “Christian” invokes the very best of people and the very worst of people. I make a differentiation between
(a) Christians like the Sallies and the support sections of other main churches such as the Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian etc…..and
(b) Other, more fundamentalist groups (and sometimes within the above churches) use the term Christian to justify bigotry: Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, and an emphasis on punishment; smacking, three strikes etc.
Whether the Conservatives are Christian or not is less important to me than the type of “Great Leap Backward” policies they advocate, which appear to fall into the group (b) issues referred to above.
I just think it can be such a vacuous label.
I mean if Craig’s party is “Christian” won’t all “Christians” vote for it. Of course not, cos Christian means different things to different people. Surely, as you say, tis better to set out the policies or behaviours one is talking about rather than a broad, relatively meaningless label.
Just a thought.
I have always been very suspicious of anybody claiming to be (Christians)I know several,and I have never heard them describe them selfs as such.
I have a friend who has been a catholic nun all her adult life. She no longer wears a habit. Her choice because she doesnt want the attention or false respect (as she puts it) that can come with the uniform.
She never speaks of herself as Christian or whatever.
She is a kind and caring person. She works 80 hours a week and her pay (minimum wage) at an addiction group goes to the church. She is selfless, funny, occasionally bawdy.
She is selfless and has given her life to be of service to others. She lives her life that way rather than talking about it. She not only makes no judgment of my lifestyle( my partner and I have been together for over 23 years) she is openly accepting of it.
I dont think anyone needs to tell people what they are, be it christian or anything else. Just behave the way you wish people to perceive you.
Tracey- Well said. Your friend is simply a good person.
She could be Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist etc. but no other ‘label’ is necessary.
Waitaki District Council loans $17 million to a local irrigation company.
http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/north-otago/316275/conditional-17m-council-loan-irrigation-company
Can anyone imagine what Mr Joyce or National generally would be saying if they were propping up any other damaging industry? A mining company? A gaming software exporter? A used car dealership?
What indeed does Act’s ex-Federated Farmers president have to say about this egregious capitalist favouritism?
And why is a fairly poor Council like Waitaki spending it on this rather than say, oh, running a District’s roading, social housing, stormwater runoff, or children’s parks?
Send in the taxpayers’ union.
All developed parts of rural NZ are basically full blown industrial zones. May as well be covered in concrete.
I have given up on rural NZ and its ecosystems. It is barren and burnt of natural life. When returning from the back of beyond where life is virgin New Zealand I always find rural farming land ugly, barren and burnt.
Virgin New Zealand is something spectacular, which I think very very few people experience or understand in its detail and fullness. People should go spend a decent period of time in these places – and just listen, look and sit quietly.
As long as the development doesn’t spread into undeveloped areas – we must save what we have left.
“..the taxpayers’ union…”
..mouldering up there on the shelf..of failed rightwing front-groups..
..alongside that ‘factcheck’ from that clown george..
“And why is a fairly poor Council like Waitaki spending it on this rather than say, oh, running a District’s roading, social housing, stormwater runoff, or children’s parks?”
That would be the same council that built an Opera House at the same time as cutting funding to outlying recycling stations. Not to worry, country folk will just go back to throwing their rubbish in the ditches that line the road going up the valley, you can’t even see that shit when you are driving so all’s good.
My best guess
Nats 42%
Lab 30%
Green 15%
NZF 8%
Cons 4%
ITT wins TTT, but thats all.
Maori Party, who cares.
ACT wins Epsom, but only 1 seat
Dunne looses Ohariu
It’ll be a fun but anxious ride on Sunday and beyond.
Sounds entirely plausible.
Your no.s are within 2% of where I would put them. But I think IMP remain a 3.5% to 4.0% proposition. Four to five MPs. Minto in Parliament, deservedly, and maybe Yong.
I really doubt that. I rate IMP around 2-2.5%. The non-bombshell on Monday really hurt them, as well as all of the other negative publicity they’ve had over the last 2 weeks or so.
But did it hurt them with IMP voters or potential IMP voters? I’m not sure it did.
Biggest risk to IMP is tactical voting by MP and National supporters up north.
Yeah, I can’t see many IMP voters caring too much about the Email thing. I doubt that’s why they’re voting IMP.
It did make Key declassify some documents to try and “prove” himself. I doubt he would have done that if he thought there was going to be no bombshell.
I do agree that DotCom’s issues have been a huge distraction BUT who else was going to bring Greenwald and Snowden into our living rooms and shine the light on Key’s lies?
Dotcom should have been used more sparingly, and taken much more of a back seat in the last couple of weeks.
Yes, this is my view. He keep saying he doesn’t have day to day involvement in the party.
Then he keeps showing up day to day in election coverage.
/agreed
Tracey
If Dotcom downplaying the email (so giving the Greenwald/ Snowden revelations more prominance) hadn’t been used as a distraction, I’m sure our press Fifth Cloumn (they’ve gone past being the Fourth Estate) could have come up with something else.
Tracy @14.2.1.2 …agreed…..they have been a huge distraction!…nevertheless they brought into focus the huge questions of our time (courtesy of international heavyweights…Grenwald, Snowden, Assange and Amsterdam)
…about the threat to DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS and SOVEREIGNTY facing New Zealand…. (and other countries)
…. by dark surveillance powers used by spy agencies not under the control of their own democratically elected governments…and used for what ?….commercial advantage , sabotage, takeover?…corporate plundering of the planet?…increasing the power of the !% who own just about everything?…suppressing dissent?
…we have a lot to thank Dotcom and his friends for …just that too many New Zealanders have not seen the implications of this mass intrusion human rights violation surveillance yet ….and its very real dangers of eventual fascism and totalitarianism
Do you agree with me CV that if Labour doesn’t poll well enough to seek coalition deals, we can pretty much blame it on their CGT presentation and, to a lesser extent, the raising of the super age?
Given Labour’s vastly superior policy packages overall to National, I can’t think of any other reason except perhaps a pinch of “dirty politics” thrown in. If I’m right then it further confirms for me my long held belief there is a sizable portion of the NZ Public who really should not vote because they only have the cognisance ability of a 5 year old.
Raising of the super age has barely been mentioned by anyone during the campaign. I think DP and spying has sucked the oxygen out of National’s attack strategy ’cause they’d trumpet this to the high hills otherwise I’m sure.
Anyway, with Labour having to go into coalition with NZFirst, raising the retirement age seems unlikely to go ahead.
“..Anyway, with Labour having to go into coalition with NZFirst, raising the retirement age seems unlikely to go ahead..”
all of which just underlines the question:
..why the fuck did they do it in the first place..?
..why leach all that support..for a policy you will never get thru..?
..face-palming/braindead..
..every time parker came out and trumpeted this example of his neo-lib ideological-purity/vote-killer of a policy/idea…
..(should we call it user-pays for oldies..?..)
..after every trumpeting by parker..labour dropped further in the polls..duh!/doh!..
..i put that policy down as a major reason for labours’ slow spiral downwards in support..
Doesnt the drift from where ever to Conservatives suggest an impact of dirty politics? Although I cant see fromt he polls where that drift to conservs canhave come from Nats if IPSOS is saying Nats are at 54%.
BAN FUCKING POLLS
No polling activity in the 14 days before elections…
In this election all policy seems to have given way to something more like force: the force of corporate money and manipulation versus the force of the sober-minded, the outraged and the frightened. Going by the polls, the former seem to be winning, but the polls too have become part of the game rather than the score-keeper on the sidelines, as has the media.
I wish middle NZ could see that the licence they have given to Key, presumably in exchange for inflicting austerity on the poor so that they don’t have to suffer it , is now available anyone whatsoever who comes after him. This is especially so if they continue to endorse him after all that has been revealed. I just hope that vast numbers of dissenters take them by surprise at the ballot box, but fear at the same time that they really have won, and that we are in for a very rough ride.
Why the hell is everybody immersed in these phoney polls.
We have placed the facts all over the standard & TDB that there are 1.5 million sites on Goggle that prove polls are manipulated globally!
So why are you guys believing them? cause some are now saying “everybody knows Key will win”
Who can tell us that??
Only the count on Saturday will be able to prove that, and really what you all should be worried about is National rigging the results!!!!
I would not put it past them as we see what else they are hiding from us right?
All these phoney privately manipulated pols may be setting us up to believe those results are true when or if they do rig the results, so how are we sure they wont?
Because anyone who reads a newspaper or watches the news to learn about their political options just gets polls.
I think it is the msm and the Dong Liu letter smear (Whale Oil) and the msm.
The Cunliffe Trust issue was a mistake, but it was a well intentioned decision. The msm ran with it for days and days and days and days and days. My recollection is Labour then went down in the polls.
So too with the Dong Liu letter.
+1
Super age = 2% cost to Labour
CGT = 2% cost to Labour
Man ban/apology for being a man = 2% cost to Labour
By rights, against this shit govt and all the unexpected headwinds Key has been struggling with, Labour should be in the opinion polls at 30% and coming in on the day at about 33%.
But Labour has failed to push and build a strong, consistent narrative for its voters to hang on to and turn out for, so it will come in lower than it should.
Aside from those 2% in each case looking a bit high, wouldn’t there be considerable overlap?
1.5% per may be closer to the true figure. Yes there is overlap, but Labour is polling a full 5% to 10% lower than 11m-12m ago.
If male support for Labour was as high as female support, Labour would get an instant 4% to 5% boost.
Labour was polling mid to high 30% mark when Cunliffe took the Leadership under a year ago; Labour has drained in the polls since so there have been some major issues. Understanding precisely what they are is a big challenge though. Not saying things which the electorate wanted to hear, and saying things which dismayed the electorate, central.
If you look at the Roy Morgan Poll numbers, which is of course the only one that polls regularly, you see that Labour’s collapsing vote since Cunliffe became leader has been pretty steady at about 0.8%/month.
Key may be sorry that he called the election for September, rather than late November. Labour would have been down another couple of percent by then and they would be sitting on 22%.
It really does appear that the more people learnt about Cunliffe the more they despise him.
I have two family members who, no BS described him the other day thusly
“You need a leader to represent us on the world stage how can a guy with such an ugly face do that for us”
and
“he looks like he has had a stroke, I mean that face!”
CV the national party smear machine has been working overtime !
Its all about winning at any cost!
If Key and co hadn’t been caught with the Dirty politics They would probably be able to govern alone!
Now everything is on a knife edge more left voters will turn out to vote!
+1 tricledrown
Cunliffe made some errors, yet there have been terrifically severe and ongoing attacks toward him by the media occurring from the beginning of the year. I suspect people have had their views of Cunliffe influenced by these media attacks.
I have learned this year that NZ has a massive problem with a ‘school yard bullying’ culture, no wonder there are so many problems in schools with bullying – kids learn it from somewhere.
We really need to collectively lift our game.
Anyone who is old enough to remember “Rob’s Mob” will realise that that streak of NZ society is still present and strong as ever.
I would say it is worse because neoliberal tactics have cultivated it.
The only way such theories get supported is by dividing people against one another.
The politicians have cultivated division again, and again, and again since Muldoon’s time, in order to ‘win’ (power).
“Dog eat dog” and all that.
(Although I do remember him, I am too young to remember Muldoon’s mob as an adult.)
I’m inclined to believe that it was above all to do with having a leader with relatively low public recognition, for whom many people’s first impression would have been newspaper articles trumpeting that he had not mentioned a minor aspect of a policy that they largely hadn’t heard of yet, that he signed a letter in 2003 and that some fellow bought a bottle of wine at an auction, therefore Cunliffe should resign.
That is a big reason why Cunliffe must stay on even if Labour loses on Saturday. Labour needs to go into the next election with a leader who is well-known, and has built up credibility with the voting public. That way, the inevitable smears from the media will be dismissed by many as at odds with what they have seen of him themselves. A new leader would have an uphill battle to develop that first of all and would probably still be at a disadvantage in that regard heading into the next election. Not all leaders get a flurry of puff pieces and no criticism like Key did when he took over the party leadership, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the next National leader will, and Cunliffe’s existing credibility will be a good counter to that.
Agree. A large number of members, myself included, will be working hard for Cunliffe from Sept 21, regardless of the result (a result within reason… 😈 ).
+1
I think there is another more abscure fact that Labour – and to some extent the Greens – fail to take into consideration when it comes to developing policy. There is a large constituency out there who have a very narrow focus on the world and politics in particular. They will latch on to one or two details they perceive to be detrimental to themselves to the exclusion of all else. They are often wrong (eg. CGT), but because they make little or no attempt to seek out the facts they are vulnerable to misinformation and lies. National happily complies.
Helen Clark is the only Labour leader in recent decades who understood the limitations of the average voter. She didn’t burden them with complex policy. She kept it simple and was then able to guide them during the intervening three years into accepting changes that may not have been fully signaled in advance. Provided the proposed ‘changes’ are in the country’s interest, that is the way to do it. I wish Labour would learn this very simple fact.
This x100.
I mentioned on her before that my bf said “Labour has no policy”, so I showed him their website and he was actually surprised by how much they had. He followed it with “they have too much policy, and clearly aren’t communicating the handful of really important policy ideas that they do have”.
Absolutely. It’s difficult in a party run by academics, intellectuals, pol sci grads and policy wonks. All determined to chase after the mythical middle class centre swing voter.
I was thinking about Helen Clark this morning, and the successful campaign Labour ran over those years. She promised a few very specific things that were likely to be popular, and followed through with them. It worked very well.
Not rocket science and you don’t need a graduate degree to figure it out
Did I hear Key say (?) in last night’s debate(?) that The Greens had little policy in common with Labour? Another un truth pinokeyo?
He also said that the Greens said they were dumping Labour. That was the reporters slant not the Greens.
Regarding the TV3 exposé of KimDotCoDotNZ’s employment practices….
Is this the first of a series? Can we expect to see similar interviews of John Key’s ex Merrill Lynch employees?
The exposé seemed awfully timely. 3rd degree pulled out all the stops to get it in for the Wednesday show before the election.
@Southern Man, would love to see those interviews..
Good point SM. I thought an expose of the Parata staff employment woes. Bullying, shouting, blaming and denying.
I think we’ve already had the one about the women that clean Key’s office.
An example of our future under TPPA … we must never let this come to be.
Involves surveillance of Yahoo customers’ private data, US Justice Dept, blackmailing Yahoo before attempting to bankrupt this huge public company .. judgement classified and sealed for 25 years .. then revealed into daylight by our hero Edward Snowden’s revelations !!! But not before Yahoo caved in; they had no option.
From Washington Post so go to Herald link for whole story .. it’s remarkably more weird than most fiction. Un-effing-believable in fact.
YAHOO THREATENED WITH TRILLION DOLLAR FINE OVER ACCESS TO USER DATA
‘For an illuminating glimpse of government power in action, it’s hard to beat the fines the US Justice Department threatened to level against Yahoo if it didn’t comply with a secret and sweeping surveillance request in 2008.
News coverage of the case, for which documents were unsealed last week, reported the proposed fines as $250,000 a day. But there was also a clause that called for a doubling of the amount each week if Yahoo refused to comply. It was more than enough to bankrupt the company after just a few months. …….
…… At the six-month mark, the relentlessly doubling fine would have equaled $117 trillion. Depending on the calculation you use, the fine would have exceeded the total dollar value of the entire Earth (including economic assets and the physical value of the planet itself) in either the eighth or ninth month.
At the end of the year, the total would have been $7.9 sextillion. That’s equal to a stack of $100 bills so high that it would go back and forth to the sun 28,769 times (if that many $100 bills actually existed).
As a publicly traded company, Yahoo would have been required by federal securities law to report substantial government fines to its shareholders – something that would have been difficult to do, given that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court classified the order and the court case.
The government motion requesting the fine called for it to be declassified in 2033 – 25 years later. The controversy sparked by the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden prompted an accelerated effort to declassify the case, which is what led to last week’s release of more than 1,500 documents from the legal struggle.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11326405
https://twitter.com/search?q=kim%20dotcom&src=typd
It’s nice to see Cray-Cray getting some attention. What’s this about his press secretary quitting?
I think people go to crazy craig simply because of the name of the party – “Conservative”. People like that and that’s enough. Policies? Don’t matter …
Stand for something. We just don’t know what.
Well, there’s hitting children.
and all round general misogyny and hating gays and gay marriage and safe abortion and all the other stuff hidden from view just under the surface with their new identity …
Have to break with that clear brand name. What about a nice chutney and jam line called Conservative Conserves. The tongue would receive the first message then.
Danyl Mc had some additional info – blonde, attractive press secretary, who accused Cray Cray of being “manipulative.”
was it on 3rd degree????
Felix Marwick retweeted
Barry Soper @barrysoper · 52m
Have just spoken to @ColinCraigNZ long time press secretary a tearful Rachel McGregor who has resigned saying he’s a very manipulative man!
Doesnt Barry know they want to prop up his Nats????
https://twitter.com/danylmc/status/512350304428232705
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/18/what-has-colin-craig-done-for-his-press-secretary-to-quit-2-days-before-election/
A hundred OM comments by 0935 hrs. What is this election week or something.
So what’s everyone doing on Sat?
Bookarama fair.
oooh, lucky you. Is that secondhand books?
Yes.
Walking the dogs, preparing my house for an Open Home and trying to stay warm and dry…
You?
Waiting to see what the weather is like. I haven’t voted yet, so will probably go trad and vote on Sat, then if it’s cold will most likely spend the day online 😉 If it’s nice I’ll go out for the afternoon and be back for the evening. Been trying to figure out if I should find a tv for the night or not bother.
We wont watch the coverage closely. We will flick channels from time to time…
I’ve voted.
One of my brothers sent me a text yesterday jokingly urging me to vote National for a stable government.
I replied I had done by bit and voted for Goldsmith.
Weka
I’ll be scrutineering on election day. It’s a boring job, but better than relying on the Dirty Politics crew not to try pull a fast one – by attempting to have those who are likely to go against their interests vote’s disallowed. Caging lists are a popular technique in past US elections, so anyone who might look too; young, poor, female, or non-european, might be better advised to cast an advance vote, so as to avoid challenge by a malign scrutineer or infiltrated RW official.
There’ll be a TV down at your favoured Party’s election party (and likely people there will be mockingly analysing the pundits analysis, which can be fun in a group). So it might be worth while giving them a call and seeing where that’ll be.
What’s caging?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_caging
Voter caging typically refers to the practice of sending mail to addresses on the voter rolls, compiling a list of the mail that is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters’ registrations and votes on the grounds that the voters on the roll do not legally reside at their registered addresses
Are you suggesting that is happening here? Does that happen at the polling booth?
I’ve never heard of people having their right to vote being challenged in the polling booth in NZ, which seems to be what Pasupial is suggesting.
there was a rumour on twitter yesterday. CV?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk-ku5Oxgd8
Travelling from Vancouver to Toronto 🙂
Love both those cities
Tinfoil hat time……
Has Key called in a favour from his mates in Australia?
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/terror-raids-carried-out-across-sydney-brisbane-20140918-10igft.html
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-church-targeted-by-islamic-state-death-threats-20140918-10ige1.html
another filthy Herald headline about Kim Dotcom on a story that is really a video game review. is there no level too low for them as attack dogs ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11326253
Why hasn’t Key resigned?
Because he did a secret deal with the greens to ‘steal’ a third of labour votes? Or is that your follow up?
@clem — ‘cos he hasn’t found Jason Ede yet ? btw, where is Jason Ede ?
http://instability-in-stability.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wheres_wally.jpg
can’t load it ? can u check url pse .. thx
“btw, where is Jason Ede ?”
Jason Ede is in John Key’s Hawaiian swimming pool …doing many hundreds of laps up and down a day and waiting for his master…and he has a dummie in his mouth and black goggles and ear plugs
What is disappointing about this blog in the past few weeks is it has focused on John Key and what he has done wrong etc and very little substance on what Labour offers.
I think it would be more proactive if left blogs left the hate speech for the right (Slater) and focus purely on the positive.
NZers do not buy into the smear campaigns brought about by “Dirty Politics” and “The Moment of Truth” I personally believe any swing voters out there will be swayed by the policy not “We hate John Key so lets vote for change”
Policy is what builds a better NZ not people.
People who need Key to lose will do what? Cunliffe is a turn off, so they vote for the Labour candidate, and then choose Cunliffe? No, maybe they choose the Greens or NZF. Now why would Cunliffe want that. Well if you vote Labour in the electorate and Labour on the list, Then when the counting takes place, and the first Labour MP is already elected nothing happens, yet if you Labour MP is and you voted say Green, then something crazy happens, a Green MP gets a seat.
You see you get twice. Payback twice, split vote. Labour wants to be a weak llist party and that actually may get Labour-Greens over the line. On polling Labour aren’t going to do it on their own.
So is there a reason why Cunliffe muddles. Yes.
And the long term consequences if we all start split voting? Well the value of single MP parties is lost. Dunne, Banks, Anderson, all had massive of power because they were single MPs and most people votes Lab-Lab or Nat-Nat. That all changes. And since these single MPs could attract right wing money, diminishing them means there is less influence from the big money right hopefully.
Colin Craig doing an AMA on reddit this afternoon 😈
http://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/2gfluy/rnz_ama_with_conservative_party_leader_colin/
War Monger Alert: Terror raids carried out across Sydney making Tony Abbott happy. What about John Key? Are we next? http://fb.me/6ZoiCnjGu
timing is everything!…and isnt Tony Abbott and ex- Jesuit Priest?
Oh nos….
Colin Craig has just had his press secretary resign calling him “a manipulative man”. And here we all thought he was just weird.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10513520/Colin-Craigs-media-manager-quits
I think that if Key utters the phrase, “I think people/New Zealanders will see it for what it is” even once more, people/New Zealanders will collectively throw up.
Re Spying. This letter to John Key is incredibly detailed and dead serious. (Has it already been discussed?)
…”Set out below are several questions that I believe the public of New Zealand would like to have answered. Please consider these questions to be submitted pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982. I note that you have been quoted by media as saying that when your reputation is questioned you consider it appropriate to declassify and release previously classified documents.
Therefore should any of these requests be refused in a manner that is inconsistent with your recent decision to declassify documents the matter will be referred to the Office of the Ombudsman citing your declassification decision as precedent……..”
Daniel Ayers
Special Tactics Limited:
http://wikisend.com/download/172780/Letter%20Rt%20Hon%20John%20Key%20re%20Mass%20Surveillance%20and%20NSA%20In%20NZ.pdf
In this letter he details the evidence that Key says repeatedly, doesn’t exist.
(HT Russell Brown on Public Address.)
Christian Coalition 1996 polling 6.7% received 4.4 ..Leader went into hiding
Conservatives 2014 polling 4.9%
No post on Kim.com and his staff today?
write one.
@infused …here you are from the horse’s mouth
….imo Dotcom is being setup…by you know who
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/3rd-degree/dotcom-i-have-never-bullied-staff-2014091721
lol, and you’d believe him?
Seems more credible than our MSM. You believe them?
Well, this will probably get lost in all the election stuff, but a beneficiary friend has an interesting problem that, if I understand it correctly, affects thousands of people: they had their wallet lost/stolen, so need emergency assistance from msd. Apparently they have to show ID to be let in the door?
How does someone without ID get assistance these days?
i wouldn’t think they’d be able to. They would have to rely on the goodness of the case manager to open their file and verify their details. Maybe there’s a procedure already in place?
Someone would surely have to phone ird and get the number attached to their address and flick winz a mail to confirm. Wouldn’t be quick though.
Not acceptable if you have no money for food and there are children going hungry.
cheers for that Al1en 🙂
All good. Weka had it sussed though.
If they’re already a beneficiary, they should phone the call centre and ask for their local office and see if they will be let in without an ID. Apparently it varies from office to office. Don’t ask the call centre, insist on being put through to the local office they want to get to, and get a name from the person that tells them they will or won’t be let in. Tell them upfront the ID has been lost/stolen. They won’t be the first bene in this situation, so WINZ should have a process by now.
Better yet, if they already have something in process with WINZ, ask to speak to the case manager involved, or email them. Pretty much everything can be done by phone/email, including getting emergency assistance. They will have to do some hoop jumping though (emailing proof of bank balance etc).
If they don’t have a phone or internet, I’d go to either an advocy service or the local leftie MP (am assuming they’re in the same town as you).
If they need immediate assistance, eg food today or tomorrow, then I’d go hard directly with WINZ. If they need something within a week, I’d suggest it would be way easier to try and replace the ID and avoid having to deal with WINZ altogether.
The ID on the door policy is fucked up, and I doubt it would be applied to too many other govt departments.
cheers for that, weka.
Seems to me that it’s a cunning plan to cut the number of beneficiaries – just don’t let them in the damned door in the first place. 🙁
@McFlock I’d be interested to hear how your friend got on in the end. A few years back I was helping a young man who was living rough and had lost his ID. At that time I helped him out to get a copy of his birth certificate so he had some ID but dealing with WINZ has become a more challenging experience since then.
Piece on inequality in Hamilton, compares a poor and rich street.
i.stuff.co.nz/business/money/10511908/The-haves-and-have-nots-a-tale-of-two-streets
The poor street is: ”
It’s tough. The colour of your hoodie will start a fight. Big mamas and bros sit smoking on steps, dogs bark from behind tatty fences – the kind you don’t put a hand out to. Residents stop talking and watch if an unknown car drives by.”
The rich street is: River Oaks is behind security gates. “It’s home to taxpayers and retired taxpayers”
So poor people don’t pay GST? They’re taxpayers, just like the rest.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/10511908/The-haves-and-have-nots-a-tale-of-two-streets
the key-cartoon in todays’ herald is particularly on the money…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11326596
indeed phillip .. both ‘on’ and ‘of’ the money. what a bloody tragedy for NZ isn’t he ?
actually in the last debate I though Key looked like a cooked goose…no more Mr Aggressive Winner but more Mr Bewildered nice guy ….reckon he is already planning his flight to Hawaii…
Yeah, I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Such a smiling assassin, open and innocent grin no matter what he has been up to.
Here is a link to the AUDIO of the press conference conducted after the Moment of Truth.
(Don’t know whether this has been linked to before or not)
Just when I had started to think that our media were lifting their game, this audio shows that our press chose to use the 20 minutes they had with Greenwald, Amsterdam, Harre & Dotcom to ask the same question again, and again and again, after it had already been answered.
One experienced member of our press eventually snapped out of this and instead decided to try and discuss with the international guests, why New Zealanders should listen to foreigners and accusing these guests of ‘damaging our democratic process’ by the way they have come here to inform us all. 😯
Have the members of our media no intelligence… or shame?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Moment_of_Truth_Press_Conference.ogg
+100 blue leopard…”Have the members of our media no intelligence… or shame?”
Our media have all watched far too much of Homer in the Simpsons. Remember the trip with Apu to the Kwik-E-Mart guru high in the Himalayas.
The President of the Kwik-E-Mart: Welcome, my friends. You may ask any three questions.
Homer: Are you really the head of the Kwik-E-Mart?
The Kwik-E-Mart President: Yes.
Homer: Really?
The Kwik-E-Mart President: Yes.
Homer: Really?
The Kwik-E-Mart President: Yes. Thank you, come again.
Lol, that sums it up really, really, really well! 🙂
Weird alright. “Paddy get your priorities right!”
Oh so true!
I do give some kudos to Paddy for playing the full clip of what Dotcom said to him.
That Paddy did (I assume it was Paddies choice), is what made me go looking for the whole press conference. I was curious as to what drove Dotcom to say it.
It seems our press has an inability or unwillingness to formulate questions that actually matter.
Agree, can’t help puzzling which one of the two it is.
The above audio makes me lean toward ….um….both
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/254918/nz-link-to-chinese-anti-corruption-case
maybe Crusher knows them ? 😀
Andrea Vance
“Over and over, Key aligned Cunliffe with Kim Dotcom. Clever, because the German tech mogul and his fake email about a deal with Hollywood bosses have polarised people this week.”
Whoa, was the email proven to be fake and I missed it?
I don’t think so. Vance being Vance suckered into following Key’s line.
some people, including many MSM, were pissed off that the email wasn’t focussed on on Monday night. It was meant to be the big reveal and they’re all cross because they didn’t get their big drama.
Ah I see, so Andrea Vance has a mini-tanty and throws journalistic integrity out the window instead of talking about the much bigger and more important reveal that they WERE given on Monday night.
Kind of odd from the same author as this article entitled Moment of truth’- do believe the hype. In it she focuses on Snowden’s contribution to the evening, and is unconvinced by the documents that Key has released.
confusing, isn’t it ??
maybe she just made a mistake … she has seemed to be understanding of the broader significances of Monday’s moments.
It was just as well for Kiwi public that the visiting investigative reporter was not a woman. Our media would have been sidetracked further from the main issue, indeed some seeing a critique of the female appearance and presentation as a main issue.
Always useful for sidestepping the facts of the real story is commenting on her hair style, makeup, or lack of it, whether her clothes were appropriate for the occasion and showed some unique international style. I think that this would be likely from many newshounds, with the consequent waste of precious column space for new dispatches from the 21st century’s playing arenas.
They did get a big drama – they just didn’t like it as it showed Key as the liar he is.
Key denied knowledge (no surprise), the guy from Warners said it was a fake and Dotcom wouldn’t answer questions on it or offer any evidence to back it up so its probably not 100% accurate
The reported reason for his silence is his lawyers advised Dotcom to say nothing. It is evidence in his extradition hearing; Paul Davison QC mentioned it outside Akld High Court on Monday.
The rest is just more spin from National’s washing machine.
Undecided, my every instinct screams at me that this is a fake email (too convenient – who writes like that ffs?), and the fact remains that the accused parties’ denial is precisely what they’d do if it were genuine, nor have we any information as to its provenance.
As I’ve already stated, I expect the courts to order Dotcom’s extradition despite the manifest illegality and bad faith exhibited by the FBI and crown.
The official record of “political pressure” picked a medium-sized hole in my confidence level, and the judge may yet order that further material be released that goes to the question. I doubt we’ll get to see it though.
Meanwhile, the case has opened up various aspects of illegal government activities. The right is baying for his blood on the basis of tribal loyalty, and I think any government that, listening to them, perverts justice to attack its political rivals deserves open insurrection, never mind a few movie downloads.
Get it into your head – the government’s treatment of this clown is not justified by you or I not liking him.
The thought that goes through my head is, if it was a fake, wouldn’t they have made just a little more attempt to make it look more like a normal email?
It occurred to me that the Hollywood script might include the good guys planting the email so that the bad guy would lose credibility by relying on it, and by that point I’d rather just throw them all in a very deep hole and set sharp strict High Court judges on the lot of them.
Key, Ede, Dotcom, the FBI, Slater, Lusk, Collins, Odgers and Uncle Tom Cobbley: they all need Judge Roughneck.
hmm yes that is a plausible theory.
…but why would Dotcom believe the email when it looks so dodgy? One has to assume he has had it checked out, he has classy lawyers working for him too, remember.
you mean like added fake metadata? 🙂
My personal estimate is that unless somebody discloses server logs, comes clean as the pa or BCC’d recipient who forwarded the email to kdc’s team (or the teenager who produced the fake document), or accidentally makes a slip of the tongue, it simply reinforces what people already believe – either way.
But based on past reputation, it’s probably legit.
Emmerson,
“Hold your nerve agent Key, only 3 more sleeps to go”
https://twitter.com/SamaraMcDowell/status/512315301925773312/photo/1
Key overruled by Ombudsperson on who released OIA to Slater … fair sheets it home to where it belongs …
Felix Marwick @felixmarwick · 2h
PM’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Phil De Joux received the SIS briefing regarding the Slater OIA. Ombudsmen have ruled there be disclosure
and this …..
Felix Marwick @felixmarwick · 1h
Goff says ID of PM’s ex- Deputy chief of staff as receiving SIS briefing on OIA release to Slater is evidence there was a leak to WhaleOil
Reading about the alleged Sydney beheading plot and the killing of Palmira Silva in London seems to be a popular reference so I had a wee look .
This is not an “isolated incident”. She is the third woman to have been beheaded in London in less than six months. On the 3 June 2014, Tahira Ahmed, 38, was decapitated. Her husband, Naveed Ahmed, 41, was charged with her murder. In April 2014, Judith Nibbs, 60, was decapitated, allegedly by her estranged husband Demsey Nibbs, 67.
Last year, in June, Reema Ramzan, 18, was decapitated by boyfriend, Aras Hussain, 21. The year before, in October 2012, Catherine Gowing, 39, was decapitated and raped by serial rapist Clive Sharp, 47. In March the same year Elizabeth Coriat, 76, was decapitated by her son Daniel Coriat, 43; earlier the same month, Gemma McCluskie, 29, had been decapitated by her brother Tony McCluskie, 36.
http://kareningalasmith.com/2014/09/04/beheaded/
another friend of Crusher’s? we do seem to offer residency and citizenship to some odd folk … bribes of $43 million in China ? Wow. NZ must be his picnic basket !
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11327173
“London’s Financial Times reports that Tan Bingzhao, a New Zealand citizen, allegedly paid “huge bribes” to vice-mayor Cao Jianliao in return for cheap land and commercial contracts.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11327173
Peter Goodfellow is also being linked.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/254918/nz-link-to-chinese-anti-corruption-case
Herald seems to have managed to avoid mentioning Peter Goodfellow at all. Amazing
Yet another National Party corruption case pops up?
Now the President of the National Party Peter Goodfellow is caught up in a Chinese property scam!
This is just getting worse by the day.
Did key say last night to Cunliffe that National is a stable Government??
Ha Ha, shouldn’t the electorate know of this?
Strange stuff:
The Maori Party, The National party and The NZF party…..all seem to directly or indirectly support the Labour’s Kelvin Davis!
Easy conclusion and a no brainer:
Give your candidate vote to Mr Hone Harawira.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10513413/Hone-Harawira-accuses-Maori-Party-of-sabotage
The IMP is crucial for a left wing progressive government.
No Right Turn has interesting post re the briefing of SIS:
” Right to the top
Thanks to the Ombudsman, we now know the identity of the staff member in the Prime Minister’s office who was briefed by the SIS over its release of classified material to Cameron Slater: (former) Deputy Chief of Staff Phil De Joux.
Its unclear at this stage whether de Joux himself asked for the briefing or whether someone higher up did – but either way it suggests that dirty politics went right to the top of the Key government, and was almost certainly known about by Key himself. To point out the obvious, a deputy chief of staff doesn’t receive a briefing on the release of classified material and not tell the Prime Minister. Which makes the next question what did Key know and when did he know it?”
Well that was scary.
Just had a phone call from John Key!
It was an automated message.
He didn’t say anything about resigning, so I hung up.
lol…he has his eye on you!
@ Chooky
The Eye of Sauron you mean?
I haven’t had a call from John Key. Have had an automated call from Cunliffe – it was a good positive call, with an authorisation message.
And if you needed more proof that the Māori Party are in National’s pocket
Māori Party exec ask Tai Tokerau candidate to stand down
+100. tragedy.
Like New Zealand First you mean?
Voting just commenced, In 15 hours time will Scotland still be part of the union?
In England only news item is watching current high profile mp’s going to the polls. Interesting only Scottish residents vote, not those who reside on the wrong side of the boarder, most on tv are calling it still too close to call.
Taika Waititi @TaikaWaititi 14m
“Hey Scotland, my mum was way happier once she left my dad.”
A bit of late night tin foil hattery..
I saw a Herald online story (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11327176) with a concerning “View More” story linked at the bottom.
That story is a dead link that links back to the main page. It’s title? “Moment of Truth gifts Team Key late bounce in polls”. Do I understand correctly that the Herald (despite leaking conservative party figures) are planning to drop their results the morning before election day?
Well, colour me a left wing conspiracy theorist, but I can’t believe how desperate they are to keep-in-the-vote with the foregone conclusion narrative.