Finally impeachment is looking like a realistic prospect. I reported the breaking news last night on Open Mike. Nobody commented, so I suspect all the clamour for it last year by the Democrats has everyone in a state of disbelief, assuming it’s fake news.
Not if Cohen is telling the truth that he has proof Trump lied to Congress. That’s serious. The BBC is now onto the case, but gave it to a reporter who flounders around for a while without getting to the point: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46915909
Then, after that preliminary failure, their analyst gets to it: “The report on Thursday night that there is documentary evidence Donald Trump directed his former attorney to lie to Congress just lit a big fuse.” “If the Buzzfeed story is substantiated – and it asserts this evidence is already in the hands of Mr Mueller – this would appear to present a strong case for presidential obstruction of justice.”
Mueller has spent a couple of years taking out the small fry. Seems now’s the time for him to prove that he’s capable of holding a president accountable.
“During a CNN interview, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer blurted out that the only person he knows about who didn’t collude with Russia was Trump himself.”
An unusual legal strategy, eh? The notion that the only apple in the barrel not rotten is the golden one sitting on top is unlikely to fly well in the court of public opinion. Giuliani also offered to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to the Washington Post at a discount price – although it’s possible that this was an attempt to change the subject.
Maybe not – he also made the same offer to NBC. [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/dems-vow-action-after-report-trump-directed-cohen-lie-about-n960156] Looks like he thinks he’ll get a better price via an auction…
“”I want him to have this devil-may-care attitude, someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him.” I adapted and used that portrait, and that was the beginning… Mingo’s defining portrait was used on the cover of Mad #30 in late 1956 as a supposed write-in candidate for the Presidency”
I remember when I first saw it being somewhat horror-struck, thinking “That boy looks just like me!”
Dems are talking about it again, after Cohen revelations
A BuzzFeed report says President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, prompting the talk of impeachment among Democrats even before the special counsel finished his probe, writes @natashabertrand: https://t.co/3e2DwZgQ7t
Ropata, do you know who you’ve just quoted? Jeffrey Goldberg is a cheerleader of the Israeli destruction of Palesitinian life, and was a loud enthusiast for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“Ad hominems?” I was alerting you to the fact you had unwittingly quoted one of the most bloodyminded and shameless propagandists in the United States or anywhere else for that matter.
There is a huge number of reputable, responsible and decent critics of Trump that you could have quoted, but you (unwisely) chose Jeffrey Goldberg.
The talk is that because his Daughter Ivanka and also his sons are implicated in a lot of illegal dealings that he might strike a deal to resign in order to protect her and his sons.
They say he is the only president to have made a profit from his presidential campaign. Except for some initial seed money, he mostly loaned not gave money to his campaign and then got it back with interest as the political donations rolled in. He also rented out properties and event venues he owned to his campaign at way over market rates. Something Ivanka was involved in according to evidence.
Trump’s father was a scam artist and all he knows how to do well is scams. All of his legitimate businesses have ended in bankruptcies and all his main wealth has come from scams and tax avoidance. I would not be surprised if you traced some of the secured creditors from his bankrupt business you would not find Trump himself at the end of the long-hidden trail of money.
There’s been so many “smoking guns” the smell of cordite has addled the Press’ brains
Maybe its time to get back to “the noose is tightening”
I mean Buzzfeed, come on , didnt they break the “piss tape”
“Mueller breaks silence to dispute parts of bombshell report on Michael Cohen
Special counsel says elements of BuzzFeed story, claiming Trump told his former lawyer to lie to Congress, are ‘not accurate’”
So Mueller has felt the necessity of denying the accuracy, but has been careful to do so in general terms only!! Facts are evidently in dispute, but authorities disagree about which ones the public ought to be informed of…
“You’re as likely to get a response out of the Special Prosecutor’s Office as you are to be attacked by a wombat.” That’s what the MSNBC presenter says at the end of a discussion of the dispute between Mueller & Buzzfeed with a former govt legal expert.
Something about it was so significantly wrong that Mueller had to break his own self-imposed policy of media silence.
If you want a fun evaluation of the Buzzfeed report, google this: “Nine Reasons to Be Skeptical of BuzzFeed’s Cohen Report”. I tried to include the link but the Standard computer didn’t publish it, so it must be on the forbidden sources list.
I had to laugh at this excellent headline from a Bloomberg Opinion piece…
“Trump’s Wall Won’t Protect Democrats Forever”.
So many ways to interpret that headline, and all true.
But as to the reality of The Wall..personally I dread the reality of Pelosi’s “technological wall” with little kids from Nicaragua being chased down by drones, and eventually, inevitably, being shot at or ‘marked’ in some horrific post apocalyptic manner…fascinating the way State Violence is hidden behind technological advances.
(Hopefully Democrats and the NZ Green Party can have a read before they lose more voters with campaigns based on identity politics. Having inclusive policies will always trump a narrowing of identity, because as this articles shows, when they talk about a gender aka women, it is a certain type of women they are aiming it at, because women’s views are as diverse as mens!).
Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as
a wisdom teacher.
Jesus teaches the art of metanoia or “going into the larger mind.” Underlying all
his teaching is a clarion call to a radical shift in consciousness: away from the
alienation and polarization of the egoic operating system and into the unified field
of divine abundance that can be perceived only through the heart.
But how does one make this shift in consciousness? It’s one thing to admire it from
a distance, but quite another to create it within oneself. This is where spiritual
praxis comes into play. “Praxis” means the path, the actual practice you follow to
bring about the result that you’re yearning for. I think it’s fair to say that all
of the great spiritual paths lead toward the same center—the larger, nondual mind as
the seat of personal consciousness—but they get there by different routes.
While Jesus is typical of the wisdom tradition in his vision of what a whole and
unified human being looks like, the route he lays out for getting there is very
different from anything that had ever been seen on the planet up to that point. It
is still radical in our own time and definitely the “road less traveled” among the
various schools of human transformation. Many of the difficulties we run into trying
to make our Christianity work stem from the fact that we haven’t realized how
different Jesus’ approach really is. By trying to contain this new wine in old
wineskins, we inadvertently missed its own distinct flavor. In Jesus, everything
hangs together around a single center of gravity, and we need to know what this
center is before we can sense the subtle and cohesive power of his path.
What name might we give to this center? The apostle Paul suggests the word kenosis.
In Greek, the verb kenosein means “to let go,” or “to empty oneself,” and this is
the word Paul chooses to describe “the mind of Christ.”
Here is what Paul has to say (Philippians 2:6-8):
Though his state was that of God,
yet he did not deem equality with God
something he should cling to.
Rather, he emptied himself,
and assuming the state of a slave,
he was born in human likeness.
He, being known as one of us,
humbled himself, obedient unto death,
even death on the cross.
In this beautiful hymn, Paul recognizes that Jesus had only one “operational mode.”
Everything he did, he did by self-emptying. He emptied himself and descended into
human form. And he emptied himself still further, “even unto death on the cross.” In
every life circumstance, Jesus always responded with the same motion of
self-emptying—or to put it another way, descent: taking the lower place, not the
higher.
Unfortunately it is required thinking for entry into whatever sort of land that respectful kind honest and practical people manage to salvage and continue.
From your utterances Ad you seem to want a return to 1980 with better technology and more efficiency. Back to the old New Industrial Revolution with robots and AI GM and other acronyms that hide their meanings in a code for people in a hurry to not waste time thinking, explaining while they move to self-destruct.
Robert I wondered if we could have in the near future of Sundays a post that looks at the various things people can do within their houses and properties to keep them cooler, conserve water. How thick mulch should be on the garden, Is mustard important, can it be used as ground cover and soil nourisher and be clipped for good nutrients into salads etc till when, does it get bitter when it flowers etc.
Is there a closed valve water feature that runs down and is drawn up all the time to take the top off really hot days – is there something. Who would make a spring system that keeps a circular clothesline turning back and forth so clothes get dry on still days. And would it be good to have a roof over a clothesline giving cool shade and unheated ground to sit under. Could apartments have a net sun cover overhead which you would lay your washing on and it would shade you as it dries. How to reduce heat retention around you. How to grow vertical gardens from apartments.
Have a checklist for householders preparing for heat. What should people in caravans and mobile homes do, summer and winter.
I saw doco called In The Zone about USA Black chap called Terrance Wallace who decided to use the system school zones in NZ to get capable schoolkids from poor backgrounds into the school zones of top schools that would give them entry and encourage them to aim for their dreams. He has done this in Auckland. He is trying it back in his home city of Chicago. One of the mothers said that the lack of air conditioning in the poor schools is one of the difficulties that the children from the ‘hood face. So some way of keeping the heat down will be necessary for a continuation of civilised society through knowledge.
Should we be digging basements for all houses, where the temperature is more stable?
As long as they are in areas where sea rise won’t be a problem, Robert.
Coober Pedy does this underground building for whole homes to get insulation from the heat and cold of desert conditions. So we know this works.
Awesome. Thanks Robert.
If words like Jesus, God, Christian etc stick in the craw, try replacing with love, awareness, presence.
This ’emptying of the self’ is common in many traditions.
A Zen master poring water into a cup and as the water approaches the top of the cup, the student urges the master to stop. The master keeps pouring till the cup overflows. “Your mind is like this cup, full, come and see me when your mind is empty”.
The essence is stillness of mind, what can I see, smell, hear, feel right now.
Not the opinions of what I am seeing, smelling etc.
“The most likely action for Congress is inaction”.
Matt Fuller – Huffington Post, January 10, 2019
….Trump has moved from toying with the idea of a national emergency declaration to all but promising it. He said Thursday that, if negotiations don’t work out, “probably I will do it. I would almost say definitely.”
Three senior GOP aides said Thursday that they expect Trump to declare a national emergency as a way of getting out of the shutdown, though all said they hadn’t heard anything specific about timing….
….If there were enough backlash in Congress, Democrats and Republicans could team up to pass legislation blocking Trump’s use of the military construction fund for his wall. But initial reactions from Republicans have skewed more toward support, or at least not opposition, for Trump declaring a national emergency to subvert Congress….
….The point is, Republicans may not love Trump going around Congress, but they don’t seem willing to do anything real to block him at this time…..
Sabine vehemently disagrees with this analysis Here [pardon the profanity]
….The shitstain can declare a state of emergency any time he is on the shitter tweeting.
It would still go to Congress, sign of there, or not, then go to the senate where……the republican majority would have to vote on it. That could be very interesting. At some stage even these guys will ask themselves what their chances of survival and shelf life are in the United states of Trump. I would venture a guess……unless they kiss his arse with abandon and use tongue, they are dead in the water. So they might not actually want to go there and if only for reasons of self preservation.
He can do what he want, he can scream national emergency from the top of all the buildings and without congress and senate nothing would be done. Three equal parts of government….
Subsequent events seem to be trending towards the Huffington Post analysis, that “The most likely action for Congress is inaction” over Sabine’s profanity laced counter opinion.
In the words of Sabine; Mitch McConnel, the Republican Majority Leader of of the Senate, shows himself more than willing, “to kiss his, (Trump’s), arse”, and “use tongue”.
“If Senator McConnell is able to push through an anti-abortion bill to score political points, he surely should be able to schedule a vote on the House of Representatives’ bills to reopen the government.”
Julia Conley, staff writer – Common Dreams, January 17, 2019
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has refused to hold a vote in recent weeks on bills that would reopen the government, but on Thursday called a vote on a extreme anti-choice bill. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Freshman members of Congress and others who have been demanding to know the whereabouts of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in recent days got their answer on Thursday, as McConnell held a Senate vote not on whether to reopen the government, but on a bill that would restrict abortion rights for low-income women…..
….”Sen. McConnell has scheduled a vote today. No, it’s not to reopen the government and begin paying 800,000 federal workers who’ve gone without pay for 27 days. It’s to restrict reproductive health care coverage. Unbelievable.” —Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)The Hyde Amendment already disproportionately affects low-income women, many of whom rely on Medicaid for their healthcare costs. Women’s rights organizations slammed Senate Republicans including McConnell and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) for pushing the vote on a bill that would further harm marginalized women…..
….In addition to objecting to the content of S.109, reproductive rights opponents were appalled that after weeks of refusing to hold a vote on whether to re-open the government, now in the 27th day of the shutdown, McConnell made time for a vote on an extreme anti-choice bill.
“People are hurting and want solutions,”saidSen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Twittter. “They want the government to open and for this Trump Shutdown to end. Yet Republicans want to vote to effectively ban abortion coverage. This is appalling—and women and men across the country aren’t going to stand for it.”
“If Senator McConnell is able to push through an anti-abortion bill to score political points, he surely should be able to schedule a vote on the House of Representatives bills to reopen the government,” said Ragsdale. “I encourage Senator McConnell to focus his time and efforts on ensuring that federal workers are paid for their work rather than on denying people the health care they need.”
As McConnell proceeded with the cloture vote, which took place late Thursday afternoon, 800,000 federal workers were still without paychecks, with hundreds of thousands continuing to report to work and many resorting toGoFundMe fundraisersin order to make ends meet.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has been among those posting under the hashtag #WheresMitch this week as McConnell has refused to hold a vote on reopening the government. While the Democratic-led House has passed multiple bills to end the shutdown, McConnell has declined to do the same because the bills don’t include funding for the border wall President Donald Trump is demanding and he won’t “participate in something that doesn’t lead to an outcome.” ….
McConnell knows the Dems are refusing to compromise, so why would he do what you suggest? Both parties have to be willing to make a deal to end the shut-down. I gather the Dems are refusing to deal because their real target is not Trump: it’s democracy. They want to prove to voters that the electoral mandate is no longer valid. That’s why they keep refusing to meet with Trump to do a deal, apparently.
So the stalemate suits both parties. Nobody has the leverage to achieve a resolution. It can only come via agreement, which can only come via compromise. Instead, both want to win. It’s like neither has heard of win/win outcomes.
Dennis, you seem to be persisting in your wilfull ignorance or misinterpretation of how the US political system works.
The president does not get, cannot get, a mandate for doing something like building a wall. Big policy decisions like that are the sole prerogative of the legislative branch, ie Congress, ie the House and Senate together. The president can only choose to agree or disagree with legislation put forward by Congress, and if he disagrees by exercising his veto Congress may still override that veto.
Here’s the relevant bits of the Constitution:
Article 1 section 1:
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Article 1 section 9 clause 7:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law
The relevant bit of the constitution dealing with the powers of the president is Article 2. Feel free to point out what bit of that gives the president the power to choose to build a wall.
To be sure, the president may choose to try to influence what legislation goes through Congess. But the only tool he has for that is his powers of persuasion.
Yes, but you aren’t factoring in my response last time you made that point. The effect of such political behaviour on voters is to reduce their belief in democracy. That’s why so many don’t vote. A century or two of corruption in both parties has had that alienating effect.
So, to restore faith in the system, we need positive role models. The electoral contract is the moral basis of the mandate. If those elected respect the will and choice of the voters, they will act in accord with that principle.
That’s all good theory, Dennis, but I am with Andre on the above points. The US is very different to NZ in terms of its Constitution and constitutional history and political system; and therefore the thinking and expectations etc of US voters.
It isn’t an either/or situation. Both/and logic applies. Denial of the electoral contract doesn’t work because most people implicitly believe in it. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t vote on the basis of campaign promises, and wouldn’t identify with a party on that basis. The principle lies at the heart of representative democracy. That’s why I had to lobby all the key players so hard after Winston failed to articulate it clearly, to ensure the waka-jumping bill got passed.
No, I didn’t mean to imply that, but it was a sustained campaign of document drafting and letter-writing. I had to counter the one-sided view from Jeanette Fitzsimons & Keith Locke that seemed in denial of the primary principle, to win over the Green MPs first, then the Minister of Justice & the PM. Got the desired result.
Sorry, I immediately thought of last year’s waka jumping bill – not the original one! Whole different ball game. I also thought I had added a LOL at the end to imply that I was having you on, so to speak.
My personal pet theory is American politics swings between getting pissed off at the current prez, and a preference for divided government so the only change that happens is by bipartisan consensus.
First up is the way midterms almost always go against the current prez. The only recent counter-examples are ’96 (likely due to a backlash against the partisan stuntsmanship leading up to Clinton’s impeachment), and ’02 with Shrub getting a boost from his wars.
Most recently, there wasn’t a whole lot for most people to be pissed off at Obama about and it looked like Clinton had it in the bag, so they delivered a Repug House and Senate. Leading up to 08, they were utterly disgusted with Shrub, which lead to a wholesale clean-out of Repugs. In 00, they were OK with Clinton’s record and the polls were back and forth, so both the House and Senate results were close too.
IMO you have probably hit the nail on the head! It really is a very different political system to ours, and those in the UK, Canada, Australia etc.
Each system has their pros and cons but IMO the US system cannot be directly compared to the others. More importantly, because of the different system and political history, the behavior of US politicians and voters (and the latter’s expectations) are also very different and cannot be predicted or judged on that of voters in these other countries/political systems.
I was drawn into the discussion by the points you made in your 5.1.1, in particular your second paragraph as I spent my teens in Washington DC and was therefore subject to the compulsory US Civics courses at high school – as well as living in the US political capital during interesting times (the 1960s). My comments here were in addition to some comments I made to Dennis earlier today at 18.1.1.1.1.2 on OM 18 Jan re my opinion that religion (including fundamentalist Christianity) plays a much greater role in community and political life in the US than in NZ; and also supporting your comments at 5.1.1.
I’ll try a link but my links within TS seem to do funny things at present and go to the full post rather than the comment itself, so if it does do that, I will delete the link itself.
Since you seem interested in my background: born in Oregon in ’63, when I was 2yr old the family moved to Japan for a year, then to Geneva for three years, California for four years, then to NZ. Grew up in Palmerston North, went to uni at Massey, then Auckland. Spent most of the 90s in the US, 5 years in Philadelphia, 1 year in Madison Wisconsin, 2 years in San Diego. Came back to NZ in 99 and been here ever since.
If you did your high school years in DC then you’ve had more formal US civics education than I have. But it was certainly noticeable that in the US there was a fair bit of awareness about the mechanics of government.
I didn’t particularly directly notice the religious influence. But then the areas I lived and worked in were generally pretty liberal (Bill’s taking a break so it’s low risk of an argument about that word). Being involved in engineering products, sometimes I’d work pretty closely with shop-floor people. It’s possible religion played a bigger part in their lives than I ever cottoned on to, but they just kept it to themselves.
While it’s obvious that a lot of legislation is driven by religious issues, I find it hard to understand exactly how much the vote is influenced by religious issues. There was worried talk about Kennedy taking orders from the Pope, but he still got elected. In the early days of Romney, that he was a Mormon was speculated to be a deal-breaker, but as that campaign progressed it kind of died away. The Great Orange Libertine makes feeble claims every now and then about his religious beliefs, but that sham is immediately obvious and his fervently religious followers don’t care. I can’t help wondering if the expectation that the president be a “person of faith” will be one of those things that is true until suddenly one day it isn’t.
You write about corruption in both parties as if they are equivalent. It’s a false equivalence, and people that repeat it are adding to the problem.
There’s only one party that routinely indulges in efforts to suppress the vote. There’s only one party that regularly seeks to allow increases in ways for organisations favourable to themselves to spend ever more money trying to influence the vote. While it’s possible to find gerrymandering in strongly Democrat jurisdictions (Maryland being the most prominent), it’s a corrupt tool tool that Republicans employ much more readily when they get the chance. The only states that have fully signed up to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact are strongly Democratic.
We’ve just had the best positive role for a long long time in American politics with Obama. So much for that being the panacea American politics needed.
edit: here’s a piece that nicely highlights the differences in viewpoint to respecting the will of the voters between the two parties.
Anyone who reads the history of American politics encounters episodes of corrruption in both parties right back into the 19th century. Only a partisan would deny history. I agree the Republicans have been to the fore on this in recent times.
the choice of the voters in the last midterm was to give the House to the Democrats. That means the Democrats hold the purse.
In the great spirit of Democracy and positive role models, i am all for the shitstain to start paying the 800.000 people and the uncounted contractors – estimated 1 million – who currently aren’t getting their wages, who don’t receive the funds for governmental projects and so forth, who risk loosing their houses, their bank ratings and risk ending up homeless etc etc etc and get on with business, and to respect the wish of the people who elected the Democrats to the House, the constitution and the principle of three equal branches of government.
the dems send the bill Paul Ryan passed before handing over the House, the bill that passed in the Senate, the bill that himself said he was gonna sign until Ann Coulter called him a weakling and a ‘push over’.
that bill has been send three times now to the Senate for signing. The bill that has bipartisan support from the house.
the bill that yertl the turtle refuses to pass because he knows that the weakling and push over in the whitehouse is not gonna sign. Btw, did you know that the Senate under yertl the turtle could over ride a persidential veto?
so no it is not the democrats fault, unless you believe that the opposition is to rubberstamp the president at all times, and then i would like for you to think for a moment and ask yourself if you would hold the same position if the roles were reversed.
It’s a very simple political calculation for Repugs in Congress, most of whom are in very safe Repug seats. Risk the anger of King Con by voting to reopen the government, and reap the wrath of hundreds of thousands of angry Drumpfkins at your next primary. Or just keep cowering in fear hoping to stay out of sight and just coast on through the next primary and election. Yertle McConnell is up for election in 2020, you can be damn sure that’s the only thing he’s thinking about.
@Jenny – How to get there? 5
19 January 2019 at 9:02 am
I could call the shitstain the velveeta shartcannon if you prefer. But i think shitstain is perfect, a shitstain in the annals of history.
I have read your post several times and i have yet to figure what you are saying other then you have an issue with my calling the shitstain a shitstain.
In essence i have laid out what he can do on his own, sit on the shitter, tweet and scream emergency emergency. And then it goes to congress – nope she says, the speaker of the house, and then of to the senate, and yertl the turtle can either do his job and say nope no emergency here, just self inflicted injury to apease Ann Coulter and Hannity, or he can say yes my lord, how high should i jump.
As of today there are still three equal branches of government. They might not be there tomorrow, but yesterday and today it still was / is.
I also said, and you left that out for some reason 🙂 – go figure, that really it is up to the republicans, both in congress, senate and in the voting public who will need to take a decision as to how far they want to go in their submission to the shitstain and if they really want to give up the republic they have to form the United States of Trump.
And believe me, as an astute reader of history and coming from a country with a lot of baggage, i can guarantee you that if they go for the United States of Trump that they will bow, they will kiss his arse and every other arse they are told to kiss and they will use tongue if they want to stay alive, continue to work, keep their privileges and so on.
What the shitstain is currently doing is a shake down, a hostage taking, of a country, a populace, its workers. And the republican held senate and the House – which was repbulcican held until two weeks ago are enabling him. And as someone else said, why would anyone trust the shitstain? The house and senate – under the republicans – about 4 weeks ago signed the bill, send it to the white house for signing and he did not sign it? why ? Ask Ann coulter, cause she squeezed his balls hard and as a result 800000 people directly and 1 million via contractors do not receive their wages and might loose their lifelyhood.
and for some it seems that is all good, cause ………………………..its entertaining? or something?
It’s hilarious watching various Republican senators and House members purportedly ‘holding the faith’ with sour complaints about Pelosi’s intended travel to Afghanistan during the shutdown……looking true to Donald J. Swamp by talking banal (forgettable) trivialities the mouthing of which won’t ultimately impede their scramble to the nearest political emergency exit when the shit hits the fan(boy).
McConnell, Ryan, Cruz, Graham et al are more culpable in their facilitation of Donald J. Swamp pissing on the Constitution than the crazy himself. Essentially Swamp’s a George III (mad) and thus forgiveable in measure……these people (who warned of his unfitness during the primaries) have acted entirely out of the cheapest personal political motives.
‘Because what Hitler and Stalin had done was show us as mass crowds – and that went badly out of control and led to horror.
I think that went very deep into the liberal psyche, that the mob is frightening. It’s dangerous. And that’s why, when we get to this point – where someone like Cheney and the anti-democratic forces around him have taken power away. To challenge that, you’re going to have to bring people together with a very powerful story. But that’s frightening – potentially dangerous. So the left retreat into that mantra which you find everywhere online, that we are all self-contained individuals who all have our own little story. And we’re all going to tell each other those personal stories on Instagram and Twitter, and it’s going to be a nice, stable balance. Well, it’s too late for that now. The have-nots are fed up with that system – and are turning to powerful nationalist stories coming from the far right.’
Walt Disney will never be forgiven for destroying the mystique of Pooh Bear. The crowning insult was to clothe Pooh in a red coat.
Every page of Pooh Bear holds philosophical ideas for me and my boys, which are readily transferable to modern times. Americans should stick to destroying their own heritage and leave the good stuff alone.
Looks like Labour requires to do far more in regards to the “wellbeing” of beneficiaries.
The latest statistics from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) show that more than $100 million was spent on hardship grants in the December quarter of last year.
More than 385,000 grants were issued – an increase of almost 95,000 on the same period the previous year.
Increasing demand for food assistance was one of the leading contributors to the growth in hardship grants, the Ministry said.
Spending on food grants alone was almost $20m, an increase of more than $5m compared to the last three months of 2017.
Susan St John from the Child Poverty Action Group said the situation was desperate for many families and the government needed to act quickly rather than waiting for the budget in May.
“What we would like the government to do is increase benefits by 20 percent immediately and to make sure that all low-income families get the entire Working for Families package,” Ms St John said.
The young woman who boasted from a Thai prison that she had evidence of Russian manipulation in US politics is manhandled in Moscow after being deported from Thailand.
В аэропорту скручивают опасного преступника – Настю Рыбку. Вина её велика: она была проституткой на яхте миллиардера Дерипаски и сняла видео, на которое попал вице-премьер правительства Приходько. Поэтому сейчас Рыбке крутят руки, а к Приходько и Дерипаске у полиции претензий нет pic.twitter.com/MbC7wTa3Fw
Received a pamphlet from Labour today outlining their plan.
Couldn’t help but notice they are still touting lies.
For example, they continue to claim they’ve stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes. Yet, the policy has been released and as we all know, that claim is a lie. The largest foreign investors (Australians) are exempt and foreign investors can buy new Kiwi homes.
Hence, Labour’s insistence continuing on pushing this false line makes them look phony as hell.
How do they expect voters to trust them with this blatant lying carry on taking place?
Labour are still very much in favour of selling off NZ to offshore ‘investors’ and so they put in place ineffective ‘restrictions’ to make it look like they’re doing something about it but refuse to go to the full ban that the majority of people actually want. Yes, it’s an unscientific poll that’s going to be inaccurate as hell but I think it’s good enough in this case to show majority opinion.
To have a Govt. that is not actively full throttle ahead for a rorting economic system was and is an achievement at this stage in practicality, when it comes to the state of the NZ political system.
“Labour are still very much in favour of selling off NZ to offshore ‘investors’ and so they put in place ineffective ‘restrictions’ to make it look like they’re doing something about it but refuse to go to the full ban…”
That is how it looks. Labour policy falling short once again.
They continue to claim they’ve stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes. Yet, the policy has been released and as we all know, that claim is a lie. The largest foreign investors (Australians) are exempt and foreign investors can buy new Kiwi homes.
You are the one who is lying or at best… spinning like a Hooton top.
Labour made it clear well before the election that Australian investors would be exempted (I guess they are not regarded as foreigners) in their ban to exclude foreigners from purchasing existing NZ houses. But if foreign purchasers were to build new houses then they would be welcomed in NZ.
I remember Phil Twford explaining this night after night on TV both before and after the General Election.
Is it NZ Government policy to regard Australian citizens as ‘not foreigners’, at least for the purposes of purchasing NZ houses?
Asking because it seems the Aussie Government currently regards NZ citizens as foreigners in regard to just about everything.
The key question (which Twyford probably explained time-after-time, but I forget) is what was the rationale for exempting Australian ‘investors’? Is it something to do with the AUS/NZ CER agreement?
“NZ citizens living in Australia can therefore purchase any type of real estate they desire. This includes investment properties, and old or new homes to live in. NZ citizens living in NZ and permanent residents of NZ, however, will be treated the same as any other foreign citizens in Australia.”
I don’t have any experience or knowledge in this area, but is CER a reciprocal agreement if Aussie citizens living in Australia are treated as NZ citizens for the purposes of buying (investment) properties in NZ, whereas “NZ citizens living in NZ and permanent residents of NZ, however, will be treated the same as any other foreign citizens in Australia.“?
I’m not sure either. Maybe it’s that Australian citizens living in Australia, and Singaporean citizens living in Singapore, seem to be getting preferential treatment (compared with non-residents that are citizens of other countries) when it comes to buying NZ properties.
Whereas it appears that New Zealand citizens living in NZ have to compete with the rest of the world when purchasing properties in Australia.
Of course I’m all for giving Australians preferential treatment – after all they’re ‘giving it‘ to us!
Neither of the articles you link to talk about New Zealanders buying residential property in Australia. CER is an agreement for ‘closer economic relations’, it is a trade deal not an immigration deal.
As solkta has said, the arrangements re Australians being able to buy property in NZ is part of the Closer Economic Relations (CER) Agreement between NZ and Australia which has been in place for many years (cannnot remember the date).
Yes, the Australians are not exactly acting in accord with the CER deal at present on how they are treating NZ citizens resident in Australia – and all of this is under discussion between the two governments.
With regard to Singapore, the terms of the NZ – Singapore Trade Agreement currently also provides for Singapore citizens to be able to buy property in NZ. Most other similar trade agreements do not specifically cover this, and I understand that discussions are underway with Singapore to remove or put some restrictions on this property provision.
Sorry, all of the top of my head, but am busy at the moment.
IIRC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s website has some very good information on all of the above.
Thanks vv, and solkta. I’m not Aussie-phobic; was visiting family (some long-term resident, some now Aussie citizens) there last month.
Just thought that The Chairman @12 had a legitimate point, if Labour “continue to claim they’ve stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes“, without mentioning that Aussies and Singaporeans are exempt (for valid reasons.)
Do believe (in a hopeful way) that the coalition government are doing what they can to address the shortage of affordable homes/rentals – must be a daunting task.
Seriously Anne? Defending their lying. You are doing more damage than good.
The best thing Labour and their defenders can do is own it and stop touting the lie. Having defenders attempt to defend it is insulting.
I would suggest the main reason Labour have to continually explain that Australian investors and new builds are exempt comes down to them continually touting the lie they’ve stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes. Which creates the confusion, hence their need to explain.
“15 were murdered, 17 committed suicide, seven died from accidents, 14 were executed according to the law and 19 died from diseases”
Also interesting that they imply someone enters the billionaire category at 100 million Yuan, or about USD 15.5 million at the time (2011)
“There were approximately 60,000 people with 100 million yuan in the Chinese mainland at the end of 2010, according to the GroupM Knowledge – Hurun Wealth Report 2011.”
Canterbury Museum curator of natural history and the past-president of the Entomological Society of NZ Cor Vink said people had certainly noticed the ‘windshield effect’.
The windshield effect was the mess made by insects on a cars windscreen after a long drive, or now, the lack of mess.
“Fewer insects means you have less food for birds, some plants might not be as well controlled and there are fewer pollinators around,” Vink said.
“They’re really vital for the environment.
“If all the mammals on Earth disappeared, there wouldn’t be much effect, but if all insects disappeared …”
This obviously needs to be researched but there’s nothing coming from government. Probably won’t make a profit I suppose and it would further point to the fact that we have to change our ways.
A looming crisis. It’s awful to think about the scale of the problem.
This is horrifying. A collapse faster and further than anyone anticipated. We can expect many more tipping points of this kind in our lifetimes, in the absence of a decisive response to #climatebreakdown Report by @dpcarringtonhttps://t.co/SHixIACQPA
i was driving around countryside today and it is a hilly bare brown landscape. Not a tree in sight.
not a shrub in sight.
just brown hills devoid of anything other then brown grass.
Same for the suburbs.
New Zealand really needs to take this shit seriously. Taranaki and Southland councils ought to be sacked for environmental destruction – also ECan and Hawkes Bay while we’re at it – for total negligence of waterways and covering up problems raised by experts in the field like Dr Mike Joy
There is a wee thread that discussed this same thing 7 Jan
Nothing has changed in the garden except aphids are the only insect seen on any plants.
Even on holiday noticed the absence of flies or mosquitoes. Nice but also concerning 😳
Herodotus 6.1
7 January 2019 at 10:20 am
Slight detour
There has been no sign of Cicadas in our local area (yet)
Also notice the absence of Monarch Butterflies (Swan plants are ready to be inundated with caterpillars), as well as few wasps and flies.
Had a scot visitor about 20 years back she reckoned insects were rare in their cities then. A simple moth would freak her out.
These isolated islands and other places free from insecticide spraying that they tout as evidence insecticides are not causing insect population collapses are either lying or conveniently ignoring source-sink dynamics at play. The so called sanctuaries are geographical evolutionary bottlenecks in a matrix of spray zones.
Insects leave. They do not come back. New genes do not arrive.
Yes climate change is a big problem. But so is all the shit they’ve sprayed on and sold us to kill insects since before Rachel Carlson sounded the alarm in 1962 with her aptly named book ‘Silent Spring’.
It is heartening that in many places in NZ bird numbers are rising but without corresponding plant and insect sources to feed them there will be inevitable issues. Having been raised in the country I know: from the lack of windscreen splat, we’ve killed most of the insects we had in the 70’s, all throughout the north islands countryside.
Have our entomologists any plans? Any reports? Power to their prefab?
trying real hard. Was pleased to see bees a few weeks ago enjoying the clover and other flowers in my unkempt lawn. Bumblebees showed up. But no butterflies, no dragon flies, just the standard black fly and mozzies now.
and i live near a wilderniss/wetland/floodzone …. nothing. It is so very very strange.
We can only try and that means create places for them to live and breed. It’s not sensible to try to nominate favourites and tailor plantings for them; plant, plant, plant and make it a complex, wild mix! There’s not too much time left.
its interesting tho that my wild garden seems to be free of fluffy bums, aphids and the likes.
like anyone who grows veggies i check often to make sure i don’t miss a budding pest invasion, and so far toi toi toi.
i generally only keep a few places ‘tidy’ its where i grow my veggies, but even that is only ‘so’ tidy, meaning i still let weeds grow – even dock, and just keep them from overtaking.
It’s not that simple Robert. Go to a plant store buy a swan plant chances are it is covered in insecticide. People are buying plants to save butterflies and helping to kill them.
Those sprays have to go. Only planting is like saying you are going to clean rivers and doing nothing about Dairy.
Poison merchants and lazy husbandry. Both to blame for caring more for money than life.
Big oil and their sleazy chemical counterparts, fucking the planet – again, lying about it with fudged up science and information, again. I try every day to be diplomatic but I have nothing to say to these motherfuckers that isn’t invective and hate.
I’m puzzled by the passion for Monarch butterflies; they’re not native to NZ, nor are they robust enough to survive without the provision of an exotic plant for them to feed from. Perhaps it’s because they don’t fly in the far-south; the only ones we see (briefly) are those escaped through an open window in a child-care centre 🙂 Paper wasps aren’t getting ours, the weather is.
I notice @ 5.1 that even slaters are threatened.
If people buy plants to save insects, but all those plants are coated in insecticide…
Planting is the right move for people who can source safe plants.
Govt and councils must stop the sprays. Garden centres and nurseries are all too heavy handed with such products.
The insects are doomed if they do not stop spraying.
Some think this is a rural issue but they are wrong. It can even be worse in cities where home gardeners, unrestrained by the daunting budgets of a large farm, use substances freely and liberally.
Back in 65 we tested for insecticides in people from non sprayed zones and came up winners!
if it were only the cities I may not have so readily noticed it but I spent over half my time in rural locations over 3 different countries….for all our problems here, and they are many , i dont think we understand how much worse things are in the northern hemisphere
I’m not trolling any party. I’m genuinely here discussing recent political news.
And in that respect, as usual, the Greens are MIA . Hence, little to say about them at the moment other than why aren’t they running with these news items too?
Elder neglect and poverty should be high on their radar. Someone please wake them up.
Partly, yes. It’s a bit less stressful to have any sort of contact with WINZ at the moment so people are finally getting access to what they are entitled to BY LAW. Numbers of grants needed are up only on paper. in reality they were always there and just couldn’t be accessed. Last time I has to physically go near an office (1st time since regime change) the guard was still at the door, but there was no request for ID, no checklist to see if I had an appointment/reason for going, and he was actually very friendly. Even the interaction with the frontline worker was perfectly civil. Encouraging sign.
I don’t like the idea that staff can suddenly switch between being nasty and nice on order of government of the day, but so long as they’re playing by the rules.
@Chairman, given your very real concern for this situation I trust you are writing letters to the editor, posting your thoughts on every blog/news site possible and writing to all politicians with your concerns?
“Numbers of grants needed are up only on paper. in reality they were always there and just couldn’t be accessed…”
Do you have the number of total applications for both periods that back that assertion?
As you can see, I do my bit. And as you well know, democracy doesn’t all rest upon me. It generally takes numbers for political parties to take note. So ask yourself, are you doing your part? Question the ones that aren’t, not the ones that are.
The increased number of hardship grants seems to correlate quite strongly with the number of migrant arrivals over the past year.
(inconvenient narrative alert)
Are you suggesting that in the last year large numbers of migrants have come to NZ to seek hardship benefits? Nothing to do with locals struggling to make ends meet?
At least Jacinda admitted (in her facebook post) more needs to be done, albeit she hasn’t raced to do more.
But I see you have no conscience, you take advantage of the increase to mock National while look to form excuses for the increase when it becomes an inconvenient narrative.
No I am accusing all Governments of negligence in allowing immigration to spiral out of control in the middle of a housing crisis, making inequality even worse, and needlessly throwing thousands of Kiwis into hardship
I have a very critical view of Labour’s neoliberal tendencies… Grant Robertson parsimoniously claiming fiscal responsibility was a serious misstep. His top responsibility is to the people of Aotearoa not his crummy little spreadsheet and certainly not to a bunch of international financiers
From assisting out with a charity over Christmas, I hope that both the volume of those that were assisted will be down next year and those that will need any assistance (food, presents etc) that their needs will not be as severe.
IMO we need to give the current govt a years grace before seeing any improvements, if the needs are similar to Dec 18 (this year was the most severe I have seen) then the govt. does need to be questioned that after 2 years in power anecdotal observations show no sign of improvement.
After their input (Families Package etc) I think they were rather surprised how little impact it really had, forcing Jacinda to publicly acknowledge (on her facebook post when visiting the food bank in the run up to Christmas) more needs to be done.
Anecdotal observations show no sign of improvement now.
Moreover, so does the latest data release.
Hence, Susan St John from the Child Poverty Action Group is calling for action to be taken now.
The worse it is allowed to become the harder and more expensive it will be to fix.
This drips and drabs approach by Labour will end up costing us (socially and fiscally) far more in the long run. Hence, one really needs to question Labour’s claim of being fiscally responsible.
There was/is a lot of expectation from voters when Labour came to power and if they don’t feel things have improved by the next election, there will be a lot of disappointment. Especially so if people feel they are worse off than when Labour came to power.
Therefore, Labour’s inaction now could potentially damage the left’s standing in politics for a long time to come.
No disappointment hardship grants are up almost 95,000 on the same period (the December quarter) the previous year?
Depends.
What’s the reason why its up? Is it because things are worse or because WINZ has a better culture (due to the change in government) where they actually help people?
According to poverty action group and Salvation Army, demand (the need for help) is on the increase. Hence, the call for more to be done now.
The goal for more social housing is still set far to low. And we know core benefit rates are also set far to low. So is the minimum wage.
Moreover, if it’s up merely because WINZ has a better culture, one would have expected Labour to have announced that or at lease highlighted that when questioned on the matter. I’ve seen neither.
Labour’s drips and drabs approach is holding back the required progress. As a result, problems will worsen, hence will become more difficult and expensive to fix.
Even in death, this young woman is insulted by this Australian paper.
This looks like another awful case. Aiia Maasarwe was a young Palestinian Israeli woman who was attacked and killed in Melbourne. This Melbourne Age report deliberately refuses to acknowledge that she is a Palestinian, and labels her by the cynical Israeli government term of “Israeli Arab.”
“In Canberra last week I met some Australian members of parliament. It gave me hope, because until I heard them speak I had always thought that Israel’s right wing politicians were the worst. —-(LAUGHTER)— I’ve never heard any Israeli politician speak about the Palestinian people the way that those Australian politicians did. But they are Australia’s problem, not mine. (LAUGHTER) I spoke with the Australian foreign minister; she talked and she was very nice but we could not agree on anything. (LAUGHTER)”
The RNC, the NRA, Facebook, and the transition team. Why not the NYT?
With the recent revelation that the FBI has long suspected Donald Trump of being a Russian puppet, Dean Baquet owes Liz Spayd an overdue apology.
In May 2017, Baquet, as New York Times executive editor, oversaw the elimination of the paper’s public-editor position, effectively firing Spayd before her two-year term was up. As public editor, it was Spayd’s job to act as an internal Times watchdog, answer reader questions, and address concerns about news coverage.
Why was Spayd pushed out?
[…]
How dubious was the Times’ Russia coverage in 2016? Prior to the election, Times reporters knew about the blockbuster Steele dossier, which detailed international concerns about Trump’s Russia alliance. Over time, the dossier has proven to be remarkably accurate. During the 2016 campaign, the Times knew that the dossier’s author was a respected British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, and could find no holes or red flags in the dossier information that was checkable. Yet the newspaper sat on the sensational news of the dossier’s existence.
This is the same newspaper that had spent 18 months treating Hillary Clinton’s emails like Iran-Contra and Watergate put together.
Some interesting history for those that might not know about these events…
In 1830 Captain John Stewart of the brig Elizabeth made an arrangement with Ngāti Toa leader Te Rauparaha to ferry a taua (war party) of 100 warriors from his base on Kapiti Island to Banks Peninsula. Te Rauparaha wanted to surprise his Ngāi Tahu enemies and avenge the killing and eating of several Ngāti Toa chiefs at Kaiapoi in 1829. Te Pehi Kupe had suffered the ultimate insult when his bones were made into fish-hooks. Te Rauparaha was keen to reassert his mana over his southern rivals…
Kia ora R & R Waiata is good for the wairua each to there own on the money they want to get for there waiata.
Waiata is a good mediam for telling storys truth full storys .
I say that we will find a great maori musicin soon they are out there just need the correct team around them how know how the Papatuanuku works at the minute
Ka kite ano
brexit was a con job from the alt right on the common people who’s belif that its there right to make money anyway they can dream up weather it ruins the country selling state assets kill’s people arms sales or selling out there grandchildrens future global warming and the capitalist system is based on selling out the grandchildrens future targeting inflation this policy is selling the future out making dollars worth less for the grandchildren think about it.
The Tories now treat the nation as they have long treated the poor
brexit did not come from nowhere. The jerry-built utopianism, the indifference to and ignorance of how the British live and what they need to keep them safe, the know-nothing pride in ignorant generalisations and the cocksure love of sweeping solutions have their roots in the right that emerged a decade ago.
Before the Brexiters wrecked the country, they wrecked the lives of the poor. Universal credit was the Conservatives’ fantasy when they took power 2010. Iain Duncan Smith offered a dream so seductive that even his natural critics could not find it in their hearts to condemn him unequivocally. His grand project would remove disincentives to work. It would simplify the complicated and create a benefits system that was “a doorway to real aspiration and achievement”.
If Brexit incinerated the rules of prudence, the right’s treatment of the poor provided the kindling. Universal credit brought homelessness and pushed families to beg at food banks because Duncan Smith and his fellow half-educated idealists thought they could understand poverty like a mathematical theorem. They say now that their revolution failed because the Treasury stabbed their utopian plans in the back when it failed to provide sufficient resources – and you should get used to “stab in the back” theories because you will hear little else as the disillusionment with Brexit grows and the charlatans who led us on bluster like toddlers denying they wrecked the playpen. In truth, universal credit was doomed from the start. The right failed to see the poor as they were rather than as they wanted them to be. People are losing tenancies and going without food not only because universal credit is underfunded but because it imposes delays of five weeks or more before it pays anything at all to claimants. The delays are a matter of deliberate policy. In 2010, rightwingers wanted poverty to be the result of chaotic lives, alcoholism, drug addiction and, above all, for this is was what got the religious right’s rocks off, the breakdown of traditional families. They blamed individuals, not the system. A month’s wait for money would make the feckless pull themselves together and learn to live like members of the respectable middle class, who must wait a month for their first salary cheques when they take new job
Brexit is a globalised version of the same failure to see the world as it is rather than how the right insists it must be. The greatest delusion is one that Burke would have laughed to scorn: the belief that we can have a wrenching economic, diplomatic and constitutional change without breaking into a sweat. Don’t laugh. Millions still believe in a Brexit without tears and their leaders are still promising they can have it.
A second delusion flowed from the first: that the countries of the European Union would quail before the newly resurgent British as we awoke like lions from their slumber and scramble to meet our demands. This is what David Davis meant when he said British negotiators would be striking deals in Berlin rather than Brussels. As it is, the supposedly squabbling nations of the EU have held together, while the British political system has imploded. Ka kite ano link below P.S The whole world need to live with in its means a humble happy world for all
Kia ora R & R I sat te reo should be taught to all tamariki under a certain age. I also say that no tamariki should be allowed to leave school without a education /trade qualification invest in the future and it will pay big dividends for Aotearoa society the people that don’t agree have alternative reason a uneducated person is easily CONTROL con. I also say every one should be part of Kiwi saver. Saving for our future at the minute we’re are spending our future.
Yes Te reo is a taonga treasure for all Kiwis. Ka kite ano
Kia Kaha wahine don’t let the alt right red neck cheat and stop your goals for EQUALITY good on you for the marches around the world letting everyone know its time for CHANGE as MAN has made a MESS of the WORLD
Women in more than 30 countries around the world are expected to gather on Saturday as part of the global Women’s March, to protest against violence against women and the impact of policies of austerity.
In London thousands are expected to gather outside Portland Place in central London at 12.30pm and march to Trafalgar Square by 1.30pm, ending in a two-hour rally.
Saturday marks the third anniversary of the first Women’s March in 2017, when as many as 6 million people around the world gathered in protest at the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Last year thousands gathered in central London for the Time’s Up rally, in honour of the campaign against sexual harassment and honouring the #MeToo movement.
While the global theme of the 2019 Women’s Wave is ending violence against women and girls, the theme of the London march has been named “bread and roses”, in honour of the Polish-born American suffragette and workers’ rights campaigner Rose Schneiderman and reflects marchers’ “hunger to thrive and not just survive on bread”, said organisers. After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 where 146 mainly female garment-industry workers died, Schneiderman declared: “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.”
The UK rally is likely to have an anti-Brexit flavour as organisers accuse the government of ignoring the fact that women would suffer the most severe consequences in a post-Brexit Britain. he phrase “bread and roses” captures a desperate need for women’s voices as the devastating impact of austerity in the noise around Britain’s messy departure from the EU is forgotten, said Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, the founder of the Women in Leadership publication and co-organiser of Women’s March London.
Women’s March to take to streets after controversy divides movement
Read more
“The 1912 bread and roses march revolutionised workers’ rights for women and once again on Saturday women are leading the way in the fight against austerity,” she said. “We see women bearing the brunt of the economic and social impact of austerity and we know that after Brexit women will bear the brunt of the fallout. Our lives are being held to ransom because of politics.
“We know that post-Brexit Britain will not be any better for women unless assurances are put in place to protect us. Yet none of the conversations happening at the moment are focusing on the impact of women and I find that absolutely ridiculous.”
Sarah Green, of the End Violence Against Women coalition, said the link between austerity and violence against women was marked, adding it was harder than ever for women to challenge injustice as a result of cuts to legal aid and the closing of courts Ka kite ano links below P.S I see trumps little puppets trolls have been suppresing this story quite hard to find a positive one on the wahine marchs trump is suppresing the media on climate change topic to
Renewable energy doe not put the huge strains or pollute local water supplies WHY are we still burning carbon to prouduce power when renewable energy has so many positive features . Its the oil barons cheating our grandchildrens future.
TIn addition, wind and solar energy require essentially no water to operate and thus do not pollute water resources or strain supplies by competing with agriculture, drinking water, or other important water needs. In contrast, fossil fuels can have a significant impact on water resources: both coal mining and natural gas drilling can pollute sources of drinking water, and all thermal power plants, including those powered by coal, gas, and oil, withdraw and consume water for cooling.
Biomass and geothermal power plants, like coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, may require water for cooling. Hydroelectric power plants can disrupt river ecosystems both upstream and downstream from the dam. However, NREL’s 80-percent-by-2050 renewable energy study, which included biomass and geothermal, found that total water consumption and withdrawal would decrease significantly in a future with high renewables [7].his page explores the many positive impacts of clean energy, including the benefits of wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass. For more information on their negative impacts—including effective solutions to avoid, minimize, or mitigate—see our page on The Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy Technologies.
Less global warming
Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction.
In the United States, about 29 percent of global warming emissions come from our electricity sector. Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas [1, 2].
Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction.
In the United States, about 29 percent of global warming emissions come from our electricity sector. Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas [1, 2].
In contrast, most renewable energy sources produce little to no global warming emissions. Even when including “life cycle” emissions of clean energy (ie, the emissions from each stage of a technology’s life—manufacturing, installation, operation, decommissioning), the global warming emissions associated with renewable energy are minimal [3].
The comparison becomes clear when you look at the numbers. Burning natural gas for electricity releases between 0.6 and 2 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour (CO2E/kWh); coal emits between 1.4 and 3.6 pounds of CO2E/kWh. Wind, on the other hand, is responsible for only 0.02 to 0.04 pounds of CO2E/kWh on a life-cycle basis; solar 0.07 to 0.2; geothermal 0.1 to 0.2; and hydroelectric between 0.1 and 0.5.
Renewable electricity generation from biomass can have a wide range of global warming emissions depending on the resource and whether or not it is sustainably sourced and harvested. Ka kite ano links below.
Kia ora Newshub condolences to the people who lost there love ones in that oil pipeline explosion in Mexico.
E scooter are becoming a bit of a problem it would be good to see the %data on the accidents
Patel car meet is cool yes not all car loving enthusiast people are not all fools who play silly buggers E cars is coming on strong that is the new age.
It ain’t half hot MUM is a classic TV show given me many sore faces condolences to Windsor Davies whano.
Ka kite ano
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The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
The Workshop is a charitable trust for public good. The Workshop undertake research to find ways of communicating that will build support for the solutions that work to solve complex social and environmental problems. See their Report on Talking about Poverty and Welfare Reform below. ...
Being and Being Bought (Spinifex Press, 2013) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman A synopsis and commentary of Chapters 1-2 by Daphna Whitmore Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book She opens the discussion with a definition of ...
I make no claims to having much legal knowledge, so I defer to those trained in this area.I am very much enjoying this twitter stream from m'learned friend in Edinburgh, deciphering the legal arguments around the Scottish court challenge to Boris Johnson, based on the charmingly obscure principle of Nobile ...
Ivory Folly? The University of Auckland’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, upheld the right of the radical nationalist group, Action Zealandia to exercise their freedom of speech – not matter how distasteful that speech might be. A wiser community of students and scholars would have nodded their agreement and moved on. ...
If you are not convinced terrorist Organisation ‘Extinction Rebellion’ is very, very dangerous – watch this video at one of their recent meetings. Not only is this obviously mentally ill Woman begging the other terrorists to promote killing and “eating” babies and children, if you watch carefully other members nod ...
The Ombudsman has been surveying people about their knowledge of the OIA and the right to information. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that widespread:The Chief Ombudsman says too many New Zealanders were in the dark over their right to access official information. Peter Boshier said an independent survey released yesterday on ...
In the wake of last Friday's climate strike, Peter McKenzie had an article in The Spinoff about protest strategies. The school strike movement is "polite" and cooperates with those in power because that's its kaupapa - its led by schoolkids who understandably don't want to risk arrest. But there's more ...
So, the latest ruminations on the gnews from Westminster (Again, sorry; I'll stop making that pun right now). This follows on from, and likely repeats bits of, my last post, on the suggestion that a Government of National Unity (GNU) should be set up and then oversee a referendum before ...
New Zealand likes to think of itself as not a racist country (despite being founded on the racist dispossession and subjugation of Maori). But for years, we've had a racist refugee policy, which basicly excludes refugees from Africa and the Middle East unless they already have relatives here. Now, the ...
Several people have asked me whether a particular repeat litigant could be declared a vexatious litigant, in light of their recent decision to appeal an adverse High Court ruling. My nascent tweet thread was getting ridiculously long, so it became this blog post instead.The short answer is: no. The particular ...
Appealing To The Past: Action Zealandia, like so many of the organisations springing up on the far-Right, across what they call the “Anglosphere”, is born out of the profound confusion over what a man is supposed to be in the twenty-first century and, more importantly, what he is supposed to do.THE STATUE OF ...
The attempts of anti-democratic transactivists to (often violently) disrupt women’s rights organising is largely ignored by those sections of the left most prone to misogyny and authoritarianism in New Zealand. In Britain, however, scores of trade union and left activists added their names to a letter in July, defending ...
The Justice Committee has reported back on the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill. The Bill would establish an independent, quasi-judicial body to investigate and review potential miscarriages of justice, and refer them back to the Court of appeal if required. It would be a vital backstop to our judiciary, help ...
by The Spark On September 14, a total of 22 drones and cruise missiles struck two oil installations in Saudi Arabia, the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oil field. Abqaiq is the largest oil production facility in the world. For a few days afterwards, Saudi Aramco, the Saudi national ...
How much will NeoLiberal irregulation of the building sector and subsequent leaky homes crisis cost us? $47 billion, according to a new book:The total cost to fix all of New Zealand's leaky homes would be $47 billion, probably. The estimate comes from a new book, Rottenomics written by journalist Peter ...
Below is the start of another excellent article on the Freer Lives blog. Click onto the link at the end of this extract to read the full article. The punch-a-terf, kill-a-terf message pervades social media, always righteously delivered, chin held high. By contrast, the dehumanised “terfs” themselves, that is gender-critical ...
The Reserve Bank is currently planning tighter banking regulation, requiring banks to hold enough local capital to survive a 1-in-200 year financial crisis in order to protect consumers. The big Aussies banks, those foreign leeches who suck $5 billion in profit out of our economy every year, don't like that, ...
Its the usual story: a police officer beats a handcuffed suspect so hard they break one of their own fingers. The IPCA investigates and concludes that the use of force was unlawful. And the police refuse to do anything about it:A man punched repeatedly in the face by a police ...
From time to time we add links to our blogroll. The latest blog we have added is Freer Lives. This is a Marxist gender-critical blog, based in Melbourne, Australia. On it you will find a bunch of excellent articles which use the tools of Marxist analysis to critique the rise ...
Last Friday say the largest protest in a generation, as 170,000 people joined the school strike and marched to demand real action on climate change. The demands of the school strike were simple and clear: declare a climate emergency, set a climate target of net-zero by 2040, impose a total ...
Labour is a rather middle of the road capitalist party and earlier this year we discussed how far from being ‘transformative’, Ardern’s government is. An article published this week in the Guardian, by Bryce Edwards (political scientist and commentator at Victoria University), looks at Ardern’s business as usual performance. Where ...
In the hours since my last interminable wittering about the possibility of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Britain, there has been a slight maybe development:A Corbyn-led caretaker government could then sit for several months while it enacted and delivered a referendum with the support of smaller parties and ...
Jeremy Clarkson says much like Greta Thunberg, Anne Frank “didn’t like what was going on”, but “she didn’t have a tantrum about it.” Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has offered praise to historical figure Anne Frank, comparing her favourably to 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, who he attacked in ...
Press release by Speak Up For Women Lesbians from women’s rights group Speak Up For Women are furious at reports that Rainbow Tick are threatening Massey University with the removal of their ‘tick’ if they let the group’s event go ahead. The group has been under attack from trans ...
By Duncan Garner Before you jump down my throat, nobody cares about the environment more than me. I have a garden, and since my wife and I broke up, I’ve let it grow wildly out of control, so please don’t tell me I’m not doing enough for plants. They’re ten ...
Local government elections are upon us again. It is a fair bet that, when they are over, we will have all the usual complaints that, despite their undoubted importance, the turnout was depressingly low. So, why do local elections attract so little attention and involvement from the general public? I ...
Yesterday the High Court released its decision in Moncrief-Spittle v Regional Facilities Auckland Limited, on the (alleged) decision by the Auckland Council and Mayor Phil Goff to deny use of a public venue to a pair of visiting nazi grifters. Based on the information available back then, I said that ...
Image credit:45 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. ...
So, more on the possibility of a Government of National Unity (GNU) in Britain.Two things, first. The numbers in parliament make things very difficult. And anyone who is saying X will happen or Y is impossible is spinning. We can not tell and will not know until votes are actually ...
The government is promising tough action against climate change via the Zero Carbon Bill and a strengthened ETS. Meanwhile, the Overseas investment Office is granting foreign coal companies permission to expand coal mining:Coal Action Network Aotearoa has slammed a decision by the Overseas Investment Office to allow Bathurst Coal to ...
Don't You Dare Let Them Down, Jacinda! Many New Zealanders, especially young New Zealanders, continue to believe that change – real change – is possible. Do we have criticisms about the way in which Jacinda’s government has gone about “transforming” New Zealand? Of course we do. But the very fact ...
. . With some historical and present context, it should become readily apparent to Pakeha that the occupation at Ihumātao is not a free-for-all conflict for any and everyone to become involved in. First, some important dates: . 1840 . The year in which the Treaty of Waitingi was signed. ...
If this is how you propose to defend free speech, then freedom of speech is in grave danger An open letter from James Robb to Jan Thomas, Vice-chancellor of Massey University Massey University in Wellington is the venue for an event on 13 November called Feminism 2020, organised by Speak Up For ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
Another busy week, from speaking with world leaders on the world stage about climate change, to equipping our school leavers with everything they need to get ahead in life. ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says Air New Zealand has "an obligation to look after Kiwis", and urged the national carrier not to hike up their prices after Jetstar airline announced their withdrawal from regional flights this week. The Provincial Champion also expressed his disappointment at Jetstar’s decision on ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will help fund a new dredge for the Port of Greymouth to ensure the regional fishing fleet have a reliable and productive harbour, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today “Last year the movements of ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said he was "immensely disappointed" at the withdrawal of the Jetstar airline from regional routes. He has also warned national carrier Air New Zealand not to capitalise on the Australian budget airline’s decision by “gouging” regional air travellers. "Air New Zealand has historically challenged ...
International credit ratings agency Moody's gave a glowing assessment of New Zealand’s economy in its latest report, which ranks the country’s economic strength as "very high" while saying growth remains "robust". The report says it's expected New Zealand's economy will grow between 2.5 and 3 percent in the next few ...
The Coalition Government is allocating nearly $6 million to a campaign to stop Australian beekeepers marketing their products as "mānuka" honey. This move comes after Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones accused Australian honey producers of trying to steal what was indigenous to New Zealand. "The Aussies are trying to ...
The Provincial Growth Fund has provided $400,000 to Great South to help the agency drive Southland's regional economic development aspirations. The funding will allow Great South, which is Southland's economic development agency, to appoint a portfolio manager and a project support adviser, who will provide project management expertise and support ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The One Billion Trees Fund has just hit two significant milestones that will create more than 7,500 hectares of new forest cover, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Speaking at a celebratory dinner at Parliament to mark 100 years of the New Zealand Forestry Service, Minister ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at the New Zealand Transport Authority board, telling one of its new members to “get on with your job” or else they would get replaced. His comments come in response to a now deleted tweet from board member Patrick Reynolds, which ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed further details on the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to New Zealand next month. Their Royal Highnesses will visit New Zealand from 17-23 November – their third joint visit to New Zealand and first in four years. They arrive in Auckland ...
Minister of State for Trade and Export Growth and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, heads to Thailand today to attend the final Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Ministerial meeting, as negotiations enter their final stages. “The RCEP Agreement would anchor New Zealand in a regional agreement that covers 16 countries, ...
Pacific young people living in the Hawke’s Bay, Southland and Otago regions will have access to support services that have proved successful in helping young people find new earning and learning opportunities. “Tupu Aotearoa is about changing Pacific young peoples’ lives. Our young people are talented, they are smart, they ...
Introduction As the Minister for ACC I thank you all for the work that you do supporting New Zealanders in their literally most vulnerable moments. From those who hold people’s lives in their hands, to the people who research technique, technology and trends, your work is highly valued. A special ...
Notes prepared for speeches in Christchurch – Wednesday 9 October 2019 Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There ...
Minister of Health Dr David Clark and Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare say this year’s World Mental Health Day theme is a reminder of why the Government’s work on mental health is so important. “This year the World Federation for Mental Health has made suicide prevention the main theme ...
Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni will represent the government at Australia’s Meeting of Cultural Ministers in Adelaide this week. “This year’s meeting is special because New Zealand is expected to become an International Member of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers at this Australian forum,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “The meeting is an opportunity to ...
The Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service has resolved 608 insurance and EQC claims in its first year in operation, Minister Megan Woods has announced. The government service, which celebrates its first birthday today, provides a one stop shop to help Cantabrians still battling to get their homes repaired or rebuilt ...
Today’s topic, “trends and opportunities for the New Zealand economy,” is certainly one getting a great deal of commentary at the moment. Looking across the media landscape lately you’ll notice we aren’t the only ones having this discussion. There has been an increasing amount of attention paid to the outlook ...
The Government is acting swiftly to strengthen NZTA’s regulatory role following a review into the Transport Agency, and Ministry of Transport’s performance as its monitor, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. An independent review by Martin Jenkins has found NZTA failed to properly regulate the transport sector under the previous ...
The Netherlands and New Zealand have a long-standing and close relationship based on many shared interests and values. We value the rule of law, our democracies, and multilateralism. And we value our environment – at home and globally. Right now there are major global challenges in all of these areas – ...
The Government is putting right a decade’s worth of underpayment to nurses, doctors and other health workers, says Health Minister Dr David Clark. Initial sampling of District Health Boards payroll records has found that around $550-$650 million is owed to DHB staff to comply with the Holidays Act. It’s expected ...
A strong surplus and low debt show the economy is performing well, and means the Government is in a good position to meet the challenges of global economic uncertainty. “The surplus and low levels of debt show the economy is in good shape. This allows the Government to spend more ...
New applications from mining company OceanaGold to purchase land in Waihi for new tailings ponds associated with its gold mines have been approved. Minister of Finance Grant Robertson and Associate Minister of Finance David Parker considered the applications under the Overseas Investment Act. Earlier this year, applications from OceanaGold to ...
New Zealanders in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay will witness Māori, Pākehā and Pacific voyaging traditions come together today as the Tuia 250 Voyage flotilla assembles for the first time, Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti Minister Kelvin Davis says. “Tuia 250 is a national commemoration and an opportunity for honest conversations ...
Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker leaves tomorrow for Dubai, London and Berlin for a series of meetings to advance New Zealand’s trade interests. In Dubai he will visit New Zealand’s Pavilion at Expo 2020 where construction is underway. There he will meet Minister of State for International Cooperation, Her ...
Confirmation that PHARMAC will fund two new cancer drugs is further evidence of the good progress the Government is making to improve the treatment of New Zealand’s leading cause of death, Health Minister David Clark says. From 1 December PHARMAC will fund alectinib (Alecensa) for ALK positive advanced non-small cell ...
An additional $2.7 million has been announced for the Government Strategy for Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation on the first anniversary of the strategy’s launch. Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson gave the opening address to the first Sport NZ Women + Girls Summit in Wellington today, ...
As part of its work to ensure businesses can get the skilled workers they need, the Coalition Government is re-opening and re-setting the Parent Category visa programme, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. The move will: support skilled migrants who help fill New Zealand’s skills gaps by providing a pathway for ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has today announced Major General Evan Williams of the New Zealand Defence Force has been selected as the commander of a significant, longstanding peacekeeping mission in the Middle East. In December, Major General Williams takes over as Force Commander for the Multinational Force and Observers ...
A record number of nurses are now working to deliver health services to New Zealanders as the Government’s increased funding and new initiatives rebuild key workforces start to show results, Health Minister Dr David Clark says. • 1458 more DHB nurses since the Government took office • 106 more midwives ...
Farmer and former Nuffield scholar Mel Poulton has been appointed New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, David Parker, and Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, announced today. The position supports key Government objectives, including raising the value of New Zealand agricultural goods and services. Mel is ...
New Zealand’s Pacific and Māori voyaging heritage is acknowledged and celebrated today as waka of the Tuia 250 voyage flotilla arrive in Tūranga / Gisborne. “Today we celebrate Tangata Whenua, the first people of Aotearoa, and the triumphs of the voyaging tradition that brought our ancestors here from Polynesia 1000 ...
“Fijian Language Week starts on Sunday and the theme reminds us how important it is that we each have something to anchor ourselves to, something that can help us pause and feel in control in a rapidly changing world,” says Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio. “Family, culture, faith, ...
The Government is establishing an Airspace Integration Trials Programme to support the safe testing and development of advanced unmanned aircraft and accelerate their integration into the aviation system, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods announced today. The Government will work with leading, innovative aviation industry partners to test and ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today welcomed the NZ Transport Agency’s decision to fund urgent safety improvements and confirm the designation of the Ōtaki to North of Levin highway. Safety upgrades will be made along 23.4km of the existing state highway, running along SH1 from the end of the Peka Peka ...
New Zealand playing its part in Asia-Pacific and globally are behind changes announced today to the Coalition Government’s three year refugee quota policy, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “We are proud to be a welcoming and inclusive nation committed to supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable people to rebuild ...
Creating thriving regions and inclusive local communities is the aim of the Welcoming Communities programme being rolled out across the country, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway today. A successful pilot of the scheme ran over the last 2 years led by Immigration New Zealand and involved ten councils across five regions ...
Takahē may be flightless but their population is flying high with the official count reaching 418 after a record breeding season that produced an estimated 65 juveniles, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. “The population reaching a high of 418 is great news for takahē which were considered ...
New Zealand is today taking action to reduce the potent global warming hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases, Climate Minister James Shaw and Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. “The global agreement to reduce these potent greenhouse gases is another step in New Zealand’s commitment to reduce global warming. It is estimated ...
The Inquiry has today published Minute No 21. This Minute sets out how the Inquiry intends to proceed given that the Attorney-General the Hon David Parker has agreed to extend the Inquiry’s reporting date by three months to 31 March 2020. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grace Skrzypiec, Senior Lecturer, Flinders University Many Australian students don’t know the difference between banter and bullying, with some saying they joke about wishing their friend would “drown” or “die in a car crash”. More than 800 Australian students aged 11-16 took ...
But he did play a crucial role in helping journeyman Andy Foster knock over Justin Lester. Team Gone By Lunchtime size up the local elections, gaze plaintively at the dramas in the NZ First Party, and ask how bad the new poll is for Jacinda Ardern.Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and ...
In the fifth episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect Artificial Intelligence has on our lives, Russell Brown speaks to Ben Reid, executive director of the AI Forum, about the role of government in embracing and regulating AI.Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below.To ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Local government Henry Cooke (Stuff): How to lose an election: Over-promise or under-deliver Simon Collins ...
By RNZ Pacific A Solomon Islands province has agreed to lease a large island to a Chinese developer to develop into a special economic zone, weeks after the country opened diplomatic ties with China. But already cracks abound; there has been no official announcement and the provincial premier says the ...
The New Zealand First MP and Minister Shane Jones is still backing the firearms ban, despite being pictured with what appears to be an AR-15 semi-automatic while holidaying in Asia. ...
Everyone needs to be concerned about the draft National Policy Statement on Urban Development that the Ministry for the Environment has released. It is incompatible with the spirit of transparency and inclusiveness. ...
Prodigal Son is a new crime procedural coming hot and fresh to TVNZ 1 on Mondays at 8.30pm.Jean Sergent has a few reasons why you should be watching it. If you like serial killer shows, Michael Sheen, dark drama, Michael Sheen, twisted family dynamics, or Michael Sheen – strap yourself ...
Voters in the 2019 local elections have elected the largest number of new mayors in 30 years, with 26 candidates set to don mayoral chains for the first time later this month. ...
A team of investigators dedicated to stamping out violent extremism online is being set up with the government announcing $17 million in funding over four years. ...
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The final dinner party on Married at First Sight NZ brought an ugly misogyny to light. But it was far from the first time sexism reared its head this season, writes Alex Casey.It began with a man being edited out of the show after his domestic violence charges came to ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is recommending members hold on to potentially illegal shotgun shells containing steel shot until the law banning certain types of ammunition is clarified. ...
New collaborative gifting platform Joyable is looking to shake up how we group-purchase gifts. Co-founders (and sisters) Rochelle Sheldon and Kimberley Crossman explain how their latest venture works. Joyable (not to be confused with the social anxiety-reducing app of the same name) is a somewhat left-field move for co-founder Rochelle ...
The extraordinary battle for the Tron has ended in a way no one quite saw coming, with the city relinquishing its stranglehold on the title of New Zealand’s most embarrassing council. Angela Cuming reports.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a ...
On the eve of the announcement of the winner of the 2019 Booker prize, Spinoff books editor Catherine Woulfe outs herself as a giant know-nothing. Booker time. Tomorrow morning I will sit there refreshing Twitter like the drinking bird on The Simpsons. A winner will be announced. And I’ll be gripped ...
National's claim that things only went south when Phil Twyford took charge of transport is not supported by us at CEAC and we see that this begun in 2008 as we witnessed the change then while working as a partnership group with NZTA then. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Churchill, Research Fellow in Sociology, University of Melbourne There’s an old maxim: not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. But there are some things we should count, and gender and sexual diversity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Pollock, Climatologist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Northern Australia is likely to see fewer cyclones than usual this season, but hot, dry weather will increase the risk of fire and heatwaves across eastern and southern Australia. The Bureau of Meteorology today released ...
We are in The Good Time for avocados. Alex Casey talked to an expert on how to make the most of it. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. A time when a new avocado headline is published somewhere in New Zealandeverysingleday. A time when it is ...
Sexual harassment and assault are an issue in all walks of life, but addressing the problem is particularly difficult when the perpetrator holds public office. Today campaigner Carrie Buckmaster launches a parliamentary petition calling for more transparency on the issue.The ongoing Labour Party scandal around handling of sexual harassment allegations ...
Dunedin’s new mayor Aaron Hawkins is the first official Green Party mayor in NZ and, arguably, the first to represent the city’s student population as much as its older residents. Josie Adams, who guessed he would win, asked him ten questions about his win.The Spinoff local election ...
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (F&P) has upgraded its full year guidance again after gaining the right to sell its new full face mask in the United States. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Shadow foreign minister Penny Wong says Australia needs to “define the boundaries” of its engagement with China now the relationship between the two countries is in a new phase. Focusing on China policy in a ...
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With the government recently announcing a desire to help our cities grow up and out, leading New Zealand IoT expert Kriv Naicker today questioned whether New Zealand is falling behind in the use of smart city technology to help achieve this goal. ...
You famously said climate change was this generation’s nuclear-free moment. But when Extinction Rebellion uses the tactics of the Nuclear Free movement, you say you aren’t impressed. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Regina Jefferies, Affiliate, Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW In the past five years, more than 95,000 people who arrived by plane have lodged a claim for asylum in Australia, new statistics show. Labor’s Immigration Spokesperson, Senator Kristina ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Waller, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Organs from potential donors once rejected as being unsafe to transplant may not be as risky as once thought, new Australian research shows. Our study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, suggests organs from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Merrilyn Delporte, PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology Australia’s refugee policy has led to a two-track education system. Those processed offshore, and deemed refugees by the time they have arrived in Australia, are entitled to fee support for university. But the almost ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marion Terrill, Transport and Cities Program Director, Grattan Institute Congestion charging should be introduced in Australia’s largest cities, as Grattan Institute’s latest report shows. Our analysis also finds that the people who commute to the Melbourne and Sydney CBDs by driving are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David C. Ribar, Professorial Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Australia, like the United States, makes it hard for people who get benefits to stay on them. It’s not simply a matter of withdrawing benefits as people get jobs and work more hours ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ana Silkatcheva, Doctoral Candidate (Oriental Studies – Islamic Art and Archaeology), University of Oxford; Curatorial Researcher, Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney In 2005, the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) opened Australia’s first permanent galleries of Islamic art. ...
Council's can expected more pressure from their own ranks to tackle climate change with a new crop of young councillors determined to fight it head on. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Analysis that hits the mark after a big weekend of local elections, new party poll released, and Dunedinites turn out to clean up in honour of killed student.By now, you probably know whether or not you have a new local ...
Would any of the politicians who opposed the marriage equality bill have voted differently if it had passed today? Greta Yeoman asked them.Just over five years ago, New Zealand politicians voted 77-44 to legalise gay marriage, making this country the 13th in the world to do so. Of the 44 ...
We have been on a collision course with freshwater in this country for over a century, writes Dr Jonathan West. Time to make some uncomfortable choices. ...
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Teenager Ella Benn has lost part of her left leg, and part of her right lung, to cancer. But with the guidance of a Paralympic legend, she's determined to be a swimming star in her own right. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The ALP has announced an inquiry into the head office of the NSW ALP, after weeks of shocking revelations at the Independent Commission against Corruption about scandals in the handling of donations. The review, announced ...
The new Canterbury Regional Council is set to have a 50-50 gender balance, a younger average age, and people from backgrounds including law, science, farming, insurance and landscape architecture. ...
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Four of NZ's six largest cities changed mayors on Saturday, three through incumbents being ousted at the local polls. The new crew now need to be the change they promised. ...
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Sophie Handford, one of the country's youngest new councillors, hadn't expected to get elected and was at a barn dance when she found out the results. ...
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In one of the biggest surprises of the local elections, Andy Foster has seized the Wellington mayoralty from Justin Lester. In this cheat sheet, we answer some of the big questions about Andy Foster, such as ‘who is Andy Foster?’ The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff ...
Wellington mayoral frontrunner Andy Foster says if he gets into office his backer Sir Peter Jackson won't be influencing what happens within the new council. ...
Fritters are a New Zealand classic and these ones, packed with fresh spring produce, make a perfect light lunch or dinner.Spring is well and truly upon us – my garden has exploded and I take such pleasure in being able to harvest its bounty on a daily basis. We are ...
Anna Knox, who spent four years living in Saudi Arabia, has been waiting for a book like Celestial Bodies – a story that shakes up entrenched ideas of women in the Middle East. Early on in Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies, Abdullah, son of Sulayman the Merchant, describes his family home in the ...
Madeleine Chapman celebrates the girl truths of Netflix’s hit show about puberty, Big Mouth.Girls are horny too. Girls are angry too. How to have an orgasm. The episode titles of Big Mouth are literal and accurate. Girls are horny too! Girls are angry too! How to have an orgasm!Big Mouth follows ...
The Māori Party has selected Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to win back the Te Tai Hauāuru seat in next year’s general election, it announced at its AGM in Whangaehu today. ...
Open Mike 19/01/2019 
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Finally impeachment is looking like a realistic prospect. I reported the breaking news last night on Open Mike. Nobody commented, so I suspect all the clamour for it last year by the Democrats has everyone in a state of disbelief, assuming it’s fake news.
Not if Cohen is telling the truth that he has proof Trump lied to Congress. That’s serious. The BBC is now onto the case, but gave it to a reporter who flounders around for a while without getting to the point: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46915909
Then, after that preliminary failure, their analyst gets to it: “The report on Thursday night that there is documentary evidence Donald Trump directed his former attorney to lie to Congress just lit a big fuse.” “If the Buzzfeed story is substantiated – and it asserts this evidence is already in the hands of Mr Mueller – this would appear to present a strong case for presidential obstruction of justice.”
Mueller has spent a couple of years taking out the small fry. Seems now’s the time for him to prove that he’s capable of holding a president accountable.
“The circular firing squad: Mueller targets turn on each other” https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/17/giuliani-mueller-collusion-investigation-1110671
“During a CNN interview, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer blurted out that the only person he knows about who didn’t collude with Russia was Trump himself.”
An unusual legal strategy, eh? The notion that the only apple in the barrel not rotten is the golden one sitting on top is unlikely to fly well in the court of public opinion. Giuliani also offered to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to the Washington Post at a discount price – although it’s possible that this was an attempt to change the subject.
Maybe not – he also made the same offer to NBC. [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/dems-vow-action-after-report-trump-directed-cohen-lie-about-n960156] Looks like he thinks he’ll get a better price via an auction…
I wouldn’t be celebrating until Trump has actually packed his bags and is boarding the helicopter on the White House lawn.
Then you have President Mike Pence to worry about.
Reminds me of the old “What, me worry?” from when I was a kid.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman
“”I want him to have this devil-may-care attitude, someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him.” I adapted and used that portrait, and that was the beginning… Mingo’s defining portrait was used on the cover of Mad #30 in late 1956 as a supposed write-in candidate for the Presidency”
I remember when I first saw it being somewhat horror-struck, thinking “That boy looks just like me!”
The Atlantic certainly thinks so, in this excellent piece
https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/1086266440297127937
Dems are talking about it again, after Cohen revelations
Ropata, do you know who you’ve just quoted? Jeffrey Goldberg is a cheerleader of the Israeli destruction of Palesitinian life, and was a loud enthusiast for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
You’re quoting him approvingly?
Do I care about ad hominems? No I am linking an article from the Atlantic about impeaching Trump
“Ad hominems?” I was alerting you to the fact you had unwittingly quoted one of the most bloodyminded and shameless propagandists in the United States or anywhere else for that matter.
There is a huge number of reputable, responsible and decent critics of Trump that you could have quoted, but you (unwisely) chose Jeffrey Goldberg.
Still, it’s your reputation at stake.
Doesn’t negate the value of arguments for impeachment, my reputation is already shot so no worries on that front 🙂
Don’t you worry, ropata—your reputation is still sky high amongst the team here at Daisycutter Sports Inc.
The talk is that because his Daughter Ivanka and also his sons are implicated in a lot of illegal dealings that he might strike a deal to resign in order to protect her and his sons.
They say he is the only president to have made a profit from his presidential campaign. Except for some initial seed money, he mostly loaned not gave money to his campaign and then got it back with interest as the political donations rolled in. He also rented out properties and event venues he owned to his campaign at way over market rates. Something Ivanka was involved in according to evidence.
Trump’s father was a scam artist and all he knows how to do well is scams. All of his legitimate businesses have ended in bankruptcies and all his main wealth has come from scams and tax avoidance. I would not be surprised if you traced some of the secured creditors from his bankrupt business you would not find Trump himself at the end of the long-hidden trail of money.
There’s been so many “smoking guns” the smell of cordite has addled the Press’ brains
Maybe its time to get back to “the noose is tightening”
I mean Buzzfeed, come on , didnt they break the “piss tape”
“Mueller breaks silence to dispute parts of bombshell report on Michael Cohen
Special counsel says elements of BuzzFeed story, claiming Trump told his former lawyer to lie to Congress, are ‘not accurate’”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/18/michael-cohen-robert-mueller-responds-lying-congress-buzzfeed-report
Yes, 3News just reported the same. Seems remarkable! The initial report was validated by a couple of govt insiders (ex-officials).
“The statement by Robert Mueller’s office on Friday night doesn’t cite any specific errors.” https://news.yahoo.com/latest-trump-claims-cohen-lying-reduce-jail-time-155631653–politics.html
So Mueller has felt the necessity of denying the accuracy, but has been careful to do so in general terms only!! Facts are evidently in dispute, but authorities disagree about which ones the public ought to be informed of…
“You’re as likely to get a response out of the Special Prosecutor’s Office as you are to be attacked by a wombat.” That’s what the MSNBC presenter says at the end of a discussion of the dispute between Mueller & Buzzfeed with a former govt legal expert.
The gist of his take is that Mueller is so alarmed by the interpretive spin Buzzfeed put on the facts that he felt the unprecedented need to perform counter-spin.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/mueller-filing-offers-insight-into-core-of-buzzfeed-cohen-report-1428745795556
The Mueller statement talks about the characterisation being wrong,
but says zip about the content.
Something about it was so significantly wrong that Mueller had to break his own self-imposed policy of media silence.
If you want a fun evaluation of the Buzzfeed report, google this: “Nine Reasons to Be Skeptical of BuzzFeed’s Cohen Report”. I tried to include the link but the Standard computer didn’t publish it, so it must be on the forbidden sources list.
Ah yes, Breitfart, the bastion of truth.
Dunno if I’d go quite that far… 😎
It’s not a case of Trump being merely the gangrenous limb. The whole organism is driseased.
A constitutional coup
The Republican controlled Senate, will do nothing to block Trump’s grab for ultimate power. See below.
If and when Trump makes his move,
What are the consequences for New Zealand?
What would it mean for our military and security forces which are closely tied to the US military and intelligence services?
Will our government order these ties to be cut until the US returns to democracy?
What if they refuse?
I had to laugh at this excellent headline from a Bloomberg Opinion piece…
“Trump’s Wall Won’t Protect Democrats Forever”.
So many ways to interpret that headline, and all true.
But as to the reality of The Wall..personally I dread the reality of Pelosi’s “technological wall” with little kids from Nicaragua being chased down by drones, and eventually, inevitably, being shot at or ‘marked’ in some horrific post apocalyptic manner…fascinating the way State Violence is hidden behind technological advances.
The system has been perverted by their greed and selfishness.
Wealth no matter what. They have a class system based on wealth.
So-called ‘women voters’ don’t exist. So why can’t we stop talking about them?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/18/democratic-party-women-jessa-crispin
(Hopefully Democrats and the NZ Green Party can have a read before they lose more voters with campaigns based on identity politics. Having inclusive policies will always trump a narrowing of identity, because as this articles shows, when they talk about a gender aka women, it is a certain type of women they are aiming it at, because women’s views are as diverse as mens!).
Jesus: Wisdom Teacher
The Path of Descent
Friday, January 18, 2019
Guest writer and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault continues exploring Jesus as
a wisdom teacher.
Jesus teaches the art of metanoia or “going into the larger mind.” Underlying all
his teaching is a clarion call to a radical shift in consciousness: away from the
alienation and polarization of the egoic operating system and into the unified field
of divine abundance that can be perceived only through the heart.
But how does one make this shift in consciousness? It’s one thing to admire it from
a distance, but quite another to create it within oneself. This is where spiritual
praxis comes into play. “Praxis” means the path, the actual practice you follow to
bring about the result that you’re yearning for. I think it’s fair to say that all
of the great spiritual paths lead toward the same center—the larger, nondual mind as
the seat of personal consciousness—but they get there by different routes.
While Jesus is typical of the wisdom tradition in his vision of what a whole and
unified human being looks like, the route he lays out for getting there is very
different from anything that had ever been seen on the planet up to that point. It
is still radical in our own time and definitely the “road less traveled” among the
various schools of human transformation. Many of the difficulties we run into trying
to make our Christianity work stem from the fact that we haven’t realized how
different Jesus’ approach really is. By trying to contain this new wine in old
wineskins, we inadvertently missed its own distinct flavor. In Jesus, everything
hangs together around a single center of gravity, and we need to know what this
center is before we can sense the subtle and cohesive power of his path.
What name might we give to this center? The apostle Paul suggests the word kenosis.
In Greek, the verb kenosein means “to let go,” or “to empty oneself,” and this is
the word Paul chooses to describe “the mind of Christ.”
Here is what Paul has to say (Philippians 2:6-8):
Though his state was that of God,
yet he did not deem equality with God
something he should cling to.
Rather, he emptied himself,
and assuming the state of a slave,
he was born in human likeness.
He, being known as one of us,
humbled himself, obedient unto death,
even death on the cross.
In this beautiful hymn, Paul recognizes that Jesus had only one “operational mode.”
Everything he did, he did by self-emptying. He emptied himself and descended into
human form. And he emptied himself still further, “even unto death on the cross.” In
every life circumstance, Jesus always responded with the same motion of
self-emptying—or to put it another way, descent: taking the lower place, not the
higher.
How many more wet metaphors can someone pack into a bad paragraph?
Cut past Paul and go back to the language of Christ himself.
You grow things Robert.
Start there.
Unfortunately it is required thinking for entry into whatever sort of land that respectful kind honest and practical people manage to salvage and continue.
From your utterances Ad you seem to want a return to 1980 with better technology and more efficiency. Back to the old New Industrial Revolution with robots and AI GM and other acronyms that hide their meanings in a code for people in a hurry to not waste time thinking, explaining while they move to self-destruct.
Robert I wondered if we could have in the near future of Sundays a post that looks at the various things people can do within their houses and properties to keep them cooler, conserve water. How thick mulch should be on the garden, Is mustard important, can it be used as ground cover and soil nourisher and be clipped for good nutrients into salads etc till when, does it get bitter when it flowers etc.
Is there a closed valve water feature that runs down and is drawn up all the time to take the top off really hot days – is there something. Who would make a spring system that keeps a circular clothesline turning back and forth so clothes get dry on still days. And would it be good to have a roof over a clothesline giving cool shade and unheated ground to sit under. Could apartments have a net sun cover overhead which you would lay your washing on and it would shade you as it dries. How to reduce heat retention around you. How to grow vertical gardens from apartments.
Have a checklist for householders preparing for heat. What should people in caravans and mobile homes do, summer and winter.
I saw doco called In The Zone about USA Black chap called Terrance Wallace who decided to use the system school zones in NZ to get capable schoolkids from poor backgrounds into the school zones of top schools that would give them entry and encourage them to aim for their dreams. He has done this in Auckland. He is trying it back in his home city of Chicago. One of the mothers said that the lack of air conditioning in the poor schools is one of the difficulties that the children from the ‘hood face. So some way of keeping the heat down will be necessary for a continuation of civilised society through knowledge.
Should we be digging basements for all houses, where the temperature is more stable?
As long as they are in areas where sea rise won’t be a problem, Robert.
Coober Pedy does this underground building for whole homes to get insulation from the heat and cold of desert conditions. So we know this works.
Awesome. Thanks Robert.
If words like Jesus, God, Christian etc stick in the craw, try replacing with love, awareness, presence.
This ’emptying of the self’ is common in many traditions.
A Zen master poring water into a cup and as the water approaches the top of the cup, the student urges the master to stop. The master keeps pouring till the cup overflows. “Your mind is like this cup, full, come and see me when your mind is empty”.
The essence is stillness of mind, what can I see, smell, hear, feel right now.
Not the opinions of what I am seeing, smelling etc.
I was so sure you’d play this clip…
Thank you, thank you, Siobhan and Adrian! !
Nice comment Robert.
Jesus. Praxis. Jesus.
Praxis makes perfect.
Rule you like a King II
Trump’s ‘National Emergency’ Gambit May Be The Easiest End To The Shutdown
“The most likely action for Congress is inaction”.
Matt Fuller – Huffington Post, January 10, 2019
Sabine vehemently disagrees with this analysis Here [pardon the profanity]
Subsequent events seem to be trending towards the Huffington Post analysis, that “The most likely action for Congress is inaction” over Sabine’s profanity laced counter opinion.
In the words of Sabine; Mitch McConnel, the Republican Majority Leader of of the Senate, shows himself more than willing, “to kiss his, (Trump’s), arse”, and “use tongue”.
The ‘Shameful’ Answer to #WheresMitch?
“If Senator McConnell is able to push through an anti-abortion bill to score political points, he surely should be able to schedule a vote on the House of Representatives’ bills to reopen the government.”
Julia Conley, staff writer – Common Dreams, January 17, 2019
McConnell knows the Dems are refusing to compromise, so why would he do what you suggest? Both parties have to be willing to make a deal to end the shut-down. I gather the Dems are refusing to deal because their real target is not Trump: it’s democracy. They want to prove to voters that the electoral mandate is no longer valid. That’s why they keep refusing to meet with Trump to do a deal, apparently.
So the stalemate suits both parties. Nobody has the leverage to achieve a resolution. It can only come via agreement, which can only come via compromise. Instead, both want to win. It’s like neither has heard of win/win outcomes.
Dennis, you seem to be persisting in your wilfull ignorance or misinterpretation of how the US political system works.
The president does not get, cannot get, a mandate for doing something like building a wall. Big policy decisions like that are the sole prerogative of the legislative branch, ie Congress, ie the House and Senate together. The president can only choose to agree or disagree with legislation put forward by Congress, and if he disagrees by exercising his veto Congress may still override that veto.
Here’s the relevant bits of the Constitution:
Article 1 section 1:
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Article 1 section 9 clause 7:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law
The relevant bit of the constitution dealing with the powers of the president is Article 2. Feel free to point out what bit of that gives the president the power to choose to build a wall.
To be sure, the president may choose to try to influence what legislation goes through Congess. But the only tool he has for that is his powers of persuasion.
Yes, but you aren’t factoring in my response last time you made that point. The effect of such political behaviour on voters is to reduce their belief in democracy. That’s why so many don’t vote. A century or two of corruption in both parties has had that alienating effect.
So, to restore faith in the system, we need positive role models. The electoral contract is the moral basis of the mandate. If those elected respect the will and choice of the voters, they will act in accord with that principle.
That’s all good theory, Dennis, but I am with Andre on the above points. The US is very different to NZ in terms of its Constitution and constitutional history and political system; and therefore the thinking and expectations etc of US voters.
It isn’t an either/or situation. Both/and logic applies. Denial of the electoral contract doesn’t work because most people implicitly believe in it. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t vote on the basis of campaign promises, and wouldn’t identify with a party on that basis. The principle lies at the heart of representative democracy. That’s why I had to lobby all the key players so hard after Winston failed to articulate it clearly, to ensure the waka-jumping bill got passed.
That’s why I had to lobby all the key players so hard after Winston failed to articulate it clearly, to ensure the waka-jumping bill got passed.
Really???????
The waka jumping bill only passed because you lobbied the key players?
No, I didn’t mean to imply that, but it was a sustained campaign of document drafting and letter-writing. I had to counter the one-sided view from Jeanette Fitzsimons & Keith Locke that seemed in denial of the primary principle, to win over the Green MPs first, then the Minister of Justice & the PM. Got the desired result.
OK.
Sorry, I immediately thought of last year’s waka jumping bill – not the original one! Whole different ball game. I also thought I had added a LOL at the end to imply that I was having you on, so to speak.
My personal pet theory is American politics swings between getting pissed off at the current prez, and a preference for divided government so the only change that happens is by bipartisan consensus.
First up is the way midterms almost always go against the current prez. The only recent counter-examples are ’96 (likely due to a backlash against the partisan stuntsmanship leading up to Clinton’s impeachment), and ’02 with Shrub getting a boost from his wars.
Most recently, there wasn’t a whole lot for most people to be pissed off at Obama about and it looked like Clinton had it in the bag, so they delivered a Repug House and Senate. Leading up to 08, they were utterly disgusted with Shrub, which lead to a wholesale clean-out of Repugs. In 00, they were OK with Clinton’s record and the polls were back and forth, so both the House and Senate results were close too.
IMO you have probably hit the nail on the head! It really is a very different political system to ours, and those in the UK, Canada, Australia etc.
Each system has their pros and cons but IMO the US system cannot be directly compared to the others. More importantly, because of the different system and political history, the behavior of US politicians and voters (and the latter’s expectations) are also very different and cannot be predicted or judged on that of voters in these other countries/political systems.
I was drawn into the discussion by the points you made in your 5.1.1, in particular your second paragraph as I spent my teens in Washington DC and was therefore subject to the compulsory US Civics courses at high school – as well as living in the US political capital during interesting times (the 1960s). My comments here were in addition to some comments I made to Dennis earlier today at 18.1.1.1.1.2 on OM 18 Jan re my opinion that religion (including fundamentalist Christianity) plays a much greater role in community and political life in the US than in NZ; and also supporting your comments at 5.1.1.
I’ll try a link but my links within TS seem to do funny things at present and go to the full post rather than the comment itself, so if it does do that, I will delete the link itself.
Since you seem interested in my background: born in Oregon in ’63, when I was 2yr old the family moved to Japan for a year, then to Geneva for three years, California for four years, then to NZ. Grew up in Palmerston North, went to uni at Massey, then Auckland. Spent most of the 90s in the US, 5 years in Philadelphia, 1 year in Madison Wisconsin, 2 years in San Diego. Came back to NZ in 99 and been here ever since.
If you did your high school years in DC then you’ve had more formal US civics education than I have. But it was certainly noticeable that in the US there was a fair bit of awareness about the mechanics of government.
I didn’t particularly directly notice the religious influence. But then the areas I lived and worked in were generally pretty liberal (Bill’s taking a break so it’s low risk of an argument about that word). Being involved in engineering products, sometimes I’d work pretty closely with shop-floor people. It’s possible religion played a bigger part in their lives than I ever cottoned on to, but they just kept it to themselves.
While it’s obvious that a lot of legislation is driven by religious issues, I find it hard to understand exactly how much the vote is influenced by religious issues. There was worried talk about Kennedy taking orders from the Pope, but he still got elected. In the early days of Romney, that he was a Mormon was speculated to be a deal-breaker, but as that campaign progressed it kind of died away. The Great Orange Libertine makes feeble claims every now and then about his religious beliefs, but that sham is immediately obvious and his fervently religious followers don’t care. I can’t help wondering if the expectation that the president be a “person of faith” will be one of those things that is true until suddenly one day it isn’t.
You write about corruption in both parties as if they are equivalent. It’s a false equivalence, and people that repeat it are adding to the problem.
There’s only one party that routinely indulges in efforts to suppress the vote. There’s only one party that regularly seeks to allow increases in ways for organisations favourable to themselves to spend ever more money trying to influence the vote. While it’s possible to find gerrymandering in strongly Democrat jurisdictions (Maryland being the most prominent), it’s a corrupt tool tool that Republicans employ much more readily when they get the chance. The only states that have fully signed up to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact are strongly Democratic.
We’ve just had the best positive role for a long long time in American politics with Obama. So much for that being the panacea American politics needed.
edit: here’s a piece that nicely highlights the differences in viewpoint to respecting the will of the voters between the two parties.
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/18/18188150/mitch-mcconnell-house-democrats-anti-corruption-bill-hr1
Anyone who reads the history of American politics encounters episodes of corrruption in both parties right back into the 19th century. Only a partisan would deny history. I agree the Republicans have been to the fore on this in recent times.
the choice of the voters in the last midterm was to give the House to the Democrats. That means the Democrats hold the purse.
In the great spirit of Democracy and positive role models, i am all for the shitstain to start paying the 800.000 people and the uncounted contractors – estimated 1 million – who currently aren’t getting their wages, who don’t receive the funds for governmental projects and so forth, who risk loosing their houses, their bank ratings and risk ending up homeless etc etc etc and get on with business, and to respect the wish of the people who elected the Democrats to the House, the constitution and the principle of three equal branches of government.
It’s his stated policy to build a wall.
It’s not within his power to legislate for it, or fund it.
Same for the tax cuts.
His policy, their means.
He might argue it can be done under existing legislation.
the dems send the bill Paul Ryan passed before handing over the House, the bill that passed in the Senate, the bill that himself said he was gonna sign until Ann Coulter called him a weakling and a ‘push over’.
that bill has been send three times now to the Senate for signing. The bill that has bipartisan support from the house.
the bill that yertl the turtle refuses to pass because he knows that the weakling and push over in the whitehouse is not gonna sign. Btw, did you know that the Senate under yertl the turtle could over ride a persidential veto?
so no it is not the democrats fault, unless you believe that the opposition is to rubberstamp the president at all times, and then i would like for you to think for a moment and ask yourself if you would hold the same position if the roles were reversed.
So please stop posting this bullshit.
It’s a very simple political calculation for Repugs in Congress, most of whom are in very safe Repug seats. Risk the anger of King Con by voting to reopen the government, and reap the wrath of hundreds of thousands of angry Drumpfkins at your next primary. Or just keep cowering in fear hoping to stay out of sight and just coast on through the next primary and election. Yertle McConnell is up for election in 2020, you can be damn sure that’s the only thing he’s thinking about.
@Jenny – How to get there? 5
19 January 2019 at 9:02 am
I could call the shitstain the velveeta shartcannon if you prefer. But i think shitstain is perfect, a shitstain in the annals of history.
I have read your post several times and i have yet to figure what you are saying other then you have an issue with my calling the shitstain a shitstain.
In essence i have laid out what he can do on his own, sit on the shitter, tweet and scream emergency emergency. And then it goes to congress – nope she says, the speaker of the house, and then of to the senate, and yertl the turtle can either do his job and say nope no emergency here, just self inflicted injury to apease Ann Coulter and Hannity, or he can say yes my lord, how high should i jump.
As of today there are still three equal branches of government. They might not be there tomorrow, but yesterday and today it still was / is.
I also said, and you left that out for some reason 🙂 – go figure, that really it is up to the republicans, both in congress, senate and in the voting public who will need to take a decision as to how far they want to go in their submission to the shitstain and if they really want to give up the republic they have to form the United States of Trump.
And believe me, as an astute reader of history and coming from a country with a lot of baggage, i can guarantee you that if they go for the United States of Trump that they will bow, they will kiss his arse and every other arse they are told to kiss and they will use tongue if they want to stay alive, continue to work, keep their privileges and so on.
What the shitstain is currently doing is a shake down, a hostage taking, of a country, a populace, its workers. And the republican held senate and the House – which was repbulcican held until two weeks ago are enabling him. And as someone else said, why would anyone trust the shitstain? The house and senate – under the republicans – about 4 weeks ago signed the bill, send it to the white house for signing and he did not sign it? why ? Ask Ann coulter, cause she squeezed his balls hard and as a result 800000 people directly and 1 million via contractors do not receive their wages and might loose their lifelyhood.
and for some it seems that is all good, cause ………………………..its entertaining? or something?
but yeah, profanity, priorities.
but don’t believe me, believe her?
One hopes Labour’s commitment to focus on “wellbeing” doesn’t overlook the “wellbeing” of our vulnerable elderly.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/109967742/hidden-pain-in-aged-care-delayed-and-missed-care-commonplace–survey
Thrown under the ‘targeting’ bus I gather.
Can you expand on that, millsy?
Where is Winston on this elder neglect now that he’s in power?
It’s hilarious watching various Republican senators and House members purportedly ‘holding the faith’ with sour complaints about Pelosi’s intended travel to Afghanistan during the shutdown……looking true to Donald J. Swamp by talking banal (forgettable) trivialities the mouthing of which won’t ultimately impede their scramble to the nearest political emergency exit when the shit hits the fan(boy).
McConnell, Ryan, Cruz, Graham et al are more culpable in their facilitation of Donald J. Swamp pissing on the Constitution than the crazy himself. Essentially Swamp’s a George III (mad) and thus forgiveable in measure……these people (who warned of his unfitness during the primaries) have acted entirely out of the cheapest personal political motives.
Thank God for The Grandma from San Francisco !
Funny too that there were republicans on that bus.
Pelosi is mentioned, but that delegation was bipartisan. A little lesson for the repubs, don’t ever piss of the tyrant, lest you get stuck on the bus.
Who’s vice is it, the power takers or ours, for refusing to confront them?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/18/adam-curtis-and-vice-director-adam-mckay-on-how-dick-cheney-masterminded-a-rightwing-revolution
‘Because what Hitler and Stalin had done was show us as mass crowds – and that went badly out of control and led to horror.
I think that went very deep into the liberal psyche, that the mob is frightening. It’s dangerous. And that’s why, when we get to this point – where someone like Cheney and the anti-democratic forces around him have taken power away. To challenge that, you’re going to have to bring people together with a very powerful story. But that’s frightening – potentially dangerous. So the left retreat into that mantra which you find everywhere online, that we are all self-contained individuals who all have our own little story. And we’re all going to tell each other those personal stories on Instagram and Twitter, and it’s going to be a nice, stable balance. Well, it’s too late for that now. The have-nots are fed up with that system – and are turning to powerful nationalist stories coming from the far right.’
Happy #WinnieThePoohDay peeps!
I love it!
I get really heart-broken when constantly confronted with the awfulness of the American Pooh et al, but these are so cool 🙂
Walt Disney will never be forgiven for destroying the mystique of Pooh Bear. The crowning insult was to clothe Pooh in a red coat.
Every page of Pooh Bear holds philosophical ideas for me and my boys, which are readily transferable to modern times. Americans should stick to destroying their own heritage and leave the good stuff alone.
That character in the bottom strip, with the mane and pinned-on tail – The Chairman?
Looks like Labour requires to do far more in regards to the “wellbeing” of beneficiaries.
The latest statistics from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) show that more than $100 million was spent on hardship grants in the December quarter of last year.
More than 385,000 grants were issued – an increase of almost 95,000 on the same period the previous year.
Increasing demand for food assistance was one of the leading contributors to the growth in hardship grants, the Ministry said.
Spending on food grants alone was almost $20m, an increase of more than $5m compared to the last three months of 2017.
Susan St John from the Child Poverty Action Group said the situation was desperate for many families and the government needed to act quickly rather than waiting for the budget in May.
“What we would like the government to do is increase benefits by 20 percent immediately and to make sure that all low-income families get the entire Working for Families package,” Ms St John said.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/380435/government-benefits-still-not-enough-a-poverty-action-group-says
Government’s response? Points to the high cost of housing, but no new action to better address the growing problem mentioned.
Are we here on the left all comfortable with that or would you like to see more being done?
I for one am far from comfortable with this inaction, hence give the Government my full support to do more.
Who knows, if more of us express our concern and support for the Government to do more, perhaps they might take heed.
Or we can sit there and say nothing, largely reaffirming we are happy with the status quo.
The young woman who boasted from a Thai prison that she had evidence of Russian manipulation in US politics is manhandled in Moscow after being deported from Thailand.
https://www.newsweek.com/nastya-rybka-escort-trump-russia-823374
Oh yes, those Russian masterminds. They control everyone. They’re supersmart, just like those dastardly North Korean masterminds.
Yes indeed.
Vote Hillary. (She’s endorsed by Beyoncé.)
Received a pamphlet from Labour today outlining their plan.
Couldn’t help but notice they are still touting lies.
For example, they continue to claim they’ve stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes. Yet, the policy has been released and as we all know, that claim is a lie. The largest foreign investors (Australians) are exempt and foreign investors can buy new Kiwi homes.
Hence, Labour’s insistence continuing on pushing this false line makes them look phony as hell.
How do they expect voters to trust them with this blatant lying carry on taking place?
Labour are still very much in favour of selling off NZ to offshore ‘investors’ and so they put in place ineffective ‘restrictions’ to make it look like they’re doing something about it but refuse to go to the full ban that the majority of people actually want. Yes, it’s an unscientific poll that’s going to be inaccurate as hell but I think it’s good enough in this case to show majority opinion.
To have a Govt. that is not actively full throttle ahead for a rorting economic system was and is an achievement at this stage in practicality, when it comes to the state of the NZ political system.
“Labour are still very much in favour of selling off NZ to offshore ‘investors’ and so they put in place ineffective ‘restrictions’ to make it look like they’re doing something about it but refuse to go to the full ban…”
That is how it looks. Labour policy falling short once again.
You are the one who is lying or at best… spinning like a Hooton top.
Labour made it clear well before the election that Australian investors would be exempted (I guess they are not regarded as foreigners) in their ban to exclude foreigners from purchasing existing NZ houses. But if foreign purchasers were to build new houses then they would be welcomed in NZ.
I remember Phil Twford explaining this night after night on TV both before and after the General Election.
Is it NZ Government policy to regard Australian citizens as ‘not foreigners’, at least for the purposes of purchasing NZ houses?
Asking because it seems the Aussie Government currently regards NZ citizens as foreigners in regard to just about everything.
The key question (which Twyford probably explained time-after-time, but I forget) is what was the rationale for exempting Australian ‘investors’? Is it something to do with the AUS/NZ CER agreement?
CER yes. Would breach this agreement.
I don’t have any experience or knowledge in this area, but is CER a reciprocal agreement if Aussie citizens living in Australia are treated as NZ citizens for the purposes of buying (investment) properties in NZ, whereas “NZ citizens living in NZ and permanent residents of NZ, however, will be treated the same as any other foreign citizens in Australia.“?
https://www.homeloanexperts.com.au/blog/non_resident/australian-mortgages-for-new-zealand-citizens/#
New Zealanders can buy residential property in Australia. I’m not sure what point you are trying to make.
I’m not sure either. Maybe it’s that Australian citizens living in Australia, and Singaporean citizens living in Singapore, seem to be getting preferential treatment (compared with non-residents that are citizens of other countries) when it comes to buying NZ properties.
Whereas it appears that New Zealand citizens living in NZ have to compete with the rest of the world when purchasing properties in Australia.
Of course I’m all for giving Australians preferential treatment – after all they’re ‘giving it‘ to us!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/377727/andrew-little-to-raise-nz-citizens-concerns-over-treatment-in-australia-at-talks
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1807/S00125/australia-new-zealand-in-a-duel-over-deportations.htm
Neither of the articles you link to talk about New Zealanders buying residential property in Australia. CER is an agreement for ‘closer economic relations’, it is a trade deal not an immigration deal.
Sorry solkta, the relevant link was in the comment @12.2.1.1.1
As solkta has said, the arrangements re Australians being able to buy property in NZ is part of the Closer Economic Relations (CER) Agreement between NZ and Australia which has been in place for many years (cannnot remember the date).
Yes, the Australians are not exactly acting in accord with the CER deal at present on how they are treating NZ citizens resident in Australia – and all of this is under discussion between the two governments.
With regard to Singapore, the terms of the NZ – Singapore Trade Agreement currently also provides for Singapore citizens to be able to buy property in NZ. Most other similar trade agreements do not specifically cover this, and I understand that discussions are underway with Singapore to remove or put some restrictions on this property provision.
Sorry, all of the top of my head, but am busy at the moment.
IIRC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s website has some very good information on all of the above.
Thanks vv, and solkta. I’m not Aussie-phobic; was visiting family (some long-term resident, some now Aussie citizens) there last month.
Just thought that The Chairman @12 had a legitimate point, if Labour “continue to claim they’ve stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes“, without mentioning that Aussies and Singaporeans are exempt (for valid reasons.)
Do believe (in a hopeful way) that the coalition government are doing what they can to address the shortage of affordable homes/rentals – must be a daunting task.
NZ with money and high skills I believe can get into a more accepted level of settlers and might even get Oz citizenship.
It’s the ordinary citizen that gets the Aussie salute. It’s a bit like the practice we pull on people coming here.
Seriously Anne? Defending their lying. You are doing more damage than good.
The best thing Labour and their defenders can do is own it and stop touting the lie. Having defenders attempt to defend it is insulting.
I would suggest the main reason Labour have to continually explain that Australian investors and new builds are exempt comes down to them continually touting the lie they’ve stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes. Which creates the confusion, hence their need to explain.
You are lying Chairman and what’s more you know it. Time to disconnect you from TS because your’e just a f*****g troll.
I’m not lying, Anne. As you acknowledged, there are vast exemptions, hence they haven’t stopped foreign purchasing of Kiwi homes.
Their measures may have reduced it somewhat or simply redirected it to new builds but they haven’t stopped it.
Therefore, your assertion that I’m a troll coupled with your call to have me disconnected is outrageously out of order.
Continually touting the lie is not in Labour’s interest if they want voters to trust them.
Moreover, imagine the embarrassment if they are officially caught out (if someone lays a complaint) for misleading advertising.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-07/22/content_12959437.htm
Probably just coincidence
Like the breakdown of cause of death…
“15 were murdered, 17 committed suicide, seven died from accidents, 14 were executed according to the law and 19 died from diseases”
Also interesting that they imply someone enters the billionaire category at 100 million Yuan, or about USD 15.5 million at the time (2011)
“There were approximately 60,000 people with 100 million yuan in the Chinese mainland at the end of 2010, according to the GroupM Knowledge – Hurun Wealth Report 2011.”
Disappearing insects cause for concern
This obviously needs to be researched but there’s nothing coming from government. Probably won’t make a profit I suppose and it would further point to the fact that we have to change our ways.
A looming crisis. It’s awful to think about the scale of the problem.
i was driving around countryside today and it is a hilly bare brown landscape. Not a tree in sight.
not a shrub in sight.
just brown hills devoid of anything other then brown grass.
Same for the suburbs.
and my neighbors are winging about the lawns.
New Zealand really needs to take this shit seriously. Taranaki and Southland councils ought to be sacked for environmental destruction – also ECan and Hawkes Bay while we’re at it – for total negligence of waterways and covering up problems raised by experts in the field like Dr Mike Joy
as a recent visitor to europe the overwhelming impression was the dearth of wildlife, particularly birds…it was concerningly noticeable.
Sad. I have seen only 1 monarch butterfly this summer. New Zealand is not immune to these issues
There is a wee thread that discussed this same thing 7 Jan
Nothing has changed in the garden except aphids are the only insect seen on any plants.
Even on holiday noticed the absence of flies or mosquitoes. Nice but also concerning 😳
Herodotus 6.1
7 January 2019 at 10:20 am
Slight detour
There has been no sign of Cicadas in our local area (yet)
Also notice the absence of Monarch Butterflies (Swan plants are ready to be inundated with caterpillars), as well as few wasps and flies.
the wasps are one of the reasons we don’t have Monarchs, they love the larvae of the Monarchs.
Had a scot visitor about 20 years back she reckoned insects were rare in their cities then. A simple moth would freak her out.
These isolated islands and other places free from insecticide spraying that they tout as evidence insecticides are not causing insect population collapses are either lying or conveniently ignoring source-sink dynamics at play. The so called sanctuaries are geographical evolutionary bottlenecks in a matrix of spray zones.
Insects leave. They do not come back. New genes do not arrive.
Yes climate change is a big problem. But so is all the shit they’ve sprayed on and sold us to kill insects since before Rachel Carlson sounded the alarm in 1962 with her aptly named book ‘Silent Spring’.
It is heartening that in many places in NZ bird numbers are rising but without corresponding plant and insect sources to feed them there will be inevitable issues. Having been raised in the country I know: from the lack of windscreen splat, we’ve killed most of the insects we had in the 70’s, all throughout the north islands countryside.
Have our entomologists any plans? Any reports? Power to their prefab?
Plant for insects – plant plentifully, plant variously and plant like there’s no tomorrow!
trying real hard. Was pleased to see bees a few weeks ago enjoying the clover and other flowers in my unkempt lawn. Bumblebees showed up. But no butterflies, no dragon flies, just the standard black fly and mozzies now.
and i live near a wilderniss/wetland/floodzone …. nothing. It is so very very strange.
We can only try and that means create places for them to live and breed. It’s not sensible to try to nominate favourites and tailor plantings for them; plant, plant, plant and make it a complex, wild mix! There’s not too much time left.
its interesting tho that my wild garden seems to be free of fluffy bums, aphids and the likes.
like anyone who grows veggies i check often to make sure i don’t miss a budding pest invasion, and so far toi toi toi.
i generally only keep a few places ‘tidy’ its where i grow my veggies, but even that is only ‘so’ tidy, meaning i still let weeds grow – even dock, and just keep them from overtaking.
And it works i find.
It’s not that simple Robert. Go to a plant store buy a swan plant chances are it is covered in insecticide. People are buying plants to save butterflies and helping to kill them.
Those sprays have to go. Only planting is like saying you are going to clean rivers and doing nothing about Dairy.
Poison merchants and lazy husbandry. Both to blame for caring more for money than life.
Big oil and their sleazy chemical counterparts, fucking the planet – again, lying about it with fudged up science and information, again. I try every day to be diplomatic but I have nothing to say to these motherfuckers that isn’t invective and hate.
I’m puzzled by the passion for Monarch butterflies; they’re not native to NZ, nor are they robust enough to survive without the provision of an exotic plant for them to feed from. Perhaps it’s because they don’t fly in the far-south; the only ones we see (briefly) are those escaped through an open window in a child-care centre 🙂 Paper wasps aren’t getting ours, the weather is.
I notice @ 5.1 that even slaters are threatened.
Missed the point.
If people buy plants to save insects, but all those plants are coated in insecticide…
Planting is the right move for people who can source safe plants.
Govt and councils must stop the sprays. Garden centres and nurseries are all too heavy handed with such products.
The insects are doomed if they do not stop spraying.
Some think this is a rural issue but they are wrong. It can even be worse in cities where home gardeners, unrestrained by the daunting budgets of a large farm, use substances freely and liberally.
Back in 65 we tested for insecticides in people from non sprayed zones and came up winners!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2475895/
Now it is convenient not to look at fats – or facts.
if it were only the cities I may not have so readily noticed it but I spent over half my time in rural locations over 3 different countries….for all our problems here, and they are many , i dont think we understand how much worse things are in the northern hemisphere
Must feel weird for the Nats to pretend to have a conscience *now* after all the poverty that they created
With Slater lying low due to his health issues, Demcracymum is set to take over as National’s head attack blogger.
How about your conscience? No disappointment hardship grants are up almost 95,000 on the same period (the December quarter) the previous year?
It is one thing to mock the Nats but shouldn’t we also let our side know we’re not happy about it and we expect better?
Or do you see it as more of a case of Labour won the election so who on the left really cares now how they run the place?
our side
@10 Are we here on the left
You are working it real hard today. I notice that you seem to have given up concern trolling the Greens and are now focusing on Labour.
I’m not trolling any party. I’m genuinely here discussing recent political news.
And in that respect, as usual, the Greens are MIA . Hence, little to say about them at the moment other than why aren’t they running with these news items too?
Elder neglect and poverty should be high on their radar. Someone please wake them up.
Could this rising figure be due to a more compassionate policy being observed than previously?
Going off the large queues at the foodbank this year, one would say not.
To know for sure, we’d have to know total numbers applying and not just grants issued for both periods.
However, if that is the case, one would expect Labour to have released a press statement highlighting that. I’ve yet to see one, have you?
Partly, yes. It’s a bit less stressful to have any sort of contact with WINZ at the moment so people are finally getting access to what they are entitled to BY LAW. Numbers of grants needed are up only on paper. in reality they were always there and just couldn’t be accessed. Last time I has to physically go near an office (1st time since regime change) the guard was still at the door, but there was no request for ID, no checklist to see if I had an appointment/reason for going, and he was actually very friendly. Even the interaction with the frontline worker was perfectly civil. Encouraging sign.
I don’t like the idea that staff can suddenly switch between being nasty and nice on order of government of the day, but so long as they’re playing by the rules.
@Chairman, given your very real concern for this situation I trust you are writing letters to the editor, posting your thoughts on every blog/news site possible and writing to all politicians with your concerns?
“Numbers of grants needed are up only on paper. in reality they were always there and just couldn’t be accessed…”
Do you have the number of total applications for both periods that back that assertion?
As you can see, I do my bit. And as you well know, democracy doesn’t all rest upon me. It generally takes numbers for political parties to take note. So ask yourself, are you doing your part? Question the ones that aren’t, not the ones that are.
The increased number of hardship grants seems to correlate quite strongly with the number of migrant arrivals over the past year.
(inconvenient narrative alert)
Are you suggesting that in the last year large numbers of migrants have come to NZ to seek hardship benefits? Nothing to do with locals struggling to make ends meet?
At least Jacinda admitted (in her facebook post) more needs to be done, albeit she hasn’t raced to do more.
But I see you have no conscience, you take advantage of the increase to mock National while look to form excuses for the increase when it becomes an inconvenient narrative.
No I am accusing all Governments of negligence in allowing immigration to spiral out of control in the middle of a housing crisis, making inequality even worse, and needlessly throwing thousands of Kiwis into hardship
I see.
And where is this concern of negligence when it comes to Labour’s inaction to do more?
I have a very critical view of Labour’s neoliberal tendencies… Grant Robertson parsimoniously claiming fiscal responsibility was a serious misstep. His top responsibility is to the people of Aotearoa not his crummy little spreadsheet and certainly not to a bunch of international financiers
I hear you and totally agree.
From assisting out with a charity over Christmas, I hope that both the volume of those that were assisted will be down next year and those that will need any assistance (food, presents etc) that their needs will not be as severe.
IMO we need to give the current govt a years grace before seeing any improvements, if the needs are similar to Dec 18 (this year was the most severe I have seen) then the govt. does need to be questioned that after 2 years in power anecdotal observations show no sign of improvement.
After their input (Families Package etc) I think they were rather surprised how little impact it really had, forcing Jacinda to publicly acknowledge (on her facebook post when visiting the food bank in the run up to Christmas) more needs to be done.
Anecdotal observations show no sign of improvement now.
Moreover, so does the latest data release.
Hence, Susan St John from the Child Poverty Action Group is calling for action to be taken now.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/380435/government-benefits-still-not-enough-a-poverty-action-group-says
The worse it is allowed to become the harder and more expensive it will be to fix.
This drips and drabs approach by Labour will end up costing us (socially and fiscally) far more in the long run. Hence, one really needs to question Labour’s claim of being fiscally responsible.
Have to agree with Bernard Hickey on this.
@ ropata
Indeed. Bernard is right. Time to think big.
There was/is a lot of expectation from voters when Labour came to power and if they don’t feel things have improved by the next election, there will be a lot of disappointment. Especially so if people feel they are worse off than when Labour came to power.
Therefore, Labour’s inaction now could potentially damage the left’s standing in politics for a long time to come.
Depends.
What’s the reason why its up? Is it because things are worse or because WINZ has a better culture (due to the change in government) where they actually help people?
According to poverty action group and Salvation Army, demand (the need for help) is on the increase. Hence, the call for more to be done now.
The goal for more social housing is still set far to low. And we know core benefit rates are also set far to low. So is the minimum wage.
Moreover, if it’s up merely because WINZ has a better culture, one would have expected Labour to have announced that or at lease highlighted that when questioned on the matter. I’ve seen neither.
Labour’s drips and drabs approach is holding back the required progress. As a result, problems will worsen, hence will become more difficult and expensive to fix.
Even in death, this young woman is insulted by this Australian paper.
This looks like another awful case. Aiia Maasarwe was a young Palestinian Israeli woman who was attacked and killed in Melbourne. This Melbourne Age report deliberately refuses to acknowledge that she is a Palestinian, and labels her by the cynical Israeli government term of “Israeli Arab.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/110032290/aspiring-rapper-codey-herrmann-arrested-over-death-of-israeli-student-aiia-maasarwe-in-melbourne
“In Canberra last week I met some Australian members of parliament. It gave me hope, because until I heard them speak I had always thought that Israel’s right wing politicians were the worst. —-(LAUGHTER)— I’ve never heard any Israeli politician speak about the Palestinian people the way that those Australian politicians did. But they are Australia’s problem, not mine. (LAUGHTER) I spoke with the Australian foreign minister; she talked and she was very nice but we could not agree on anything. (LAUGHTER)”
—-Famed Israeli journalist GIDEON LEVY, speaking in Auckland, Dec. 3, 2017
The RNC, the NRA, Facebook, and the transition team. Why not the NYT?
With the recent revelation that the FBI has long suspected Donald Trump of being a Russian puppet, Dean Baquet owes Liz Spayd an overdue apology.
In May 2017, Baquet, as New York Times executive editor, oversaw the elimination of the paper’s public-editor position, effectively firing Spayd before her two-year term was up. As public editor, it was Spayd’s job to act as an internal Times watchdog, answer reader questions, and address concerns about news coverage.
Why was Spayd pushed out?
[…]
How dubious was the Times’ Russia coverage in 2016? Prior to the election, Times reporters knew about the blockbuster Steele dossier, which detailed international concerns about Trump’s Russia alliance. Over time, the dossier has proven to be remarkably accurate. During the 2016 campaign, the Times knew that the dossier’s author was a respected British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, and could find no holes or red flags in the dossier information that was checkable. Yet the newspaper sat on the sensational news of the dossier’s existence.
This is the same newspaper that had spent 18 months treating Hillary Clinton’s emails like Iran-Contra and Watergate put together.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/17/1827048/-The-New-York-Times-is-overdue-on-a-Russia-reckoning-What-went-wrong-in-2016
Someone’s got themselves deep in it.
irony alert
“US Vice-President Mike Pence has called criticism of his wife’s decision to resume teaching at an anti-LGBT school “deeply offensive”.
In an interview with a Catholic TV network, Mr Pence said it amounted to an “attack” on religious education.
The school that Mrs Pence chose bars staff from engaging in or condoning “homosexual or lesbian sexual activity” and “transgender identity”.
She previously taught art there for 12 years while Mr Pence was in Congress.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46924489
Some interesting history for those that might not know about these events…
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/maori-european-contact-pre-1840/captain-stewart-and-the-elizabeth
Kia ora R & R Waiata is good for the wairua each to there own on the money they want to get for there waiata.
Waiata is a good mediam for telling storys truth full storys .
I say that we will find a great maori musicin soon they are out there just need the correct team around them how know how the Papatuanuku works at the minute
Ka kite ano
brexit was a con job from the alt right on the common people who’s belif that its there right to make money anyway they can dream up weather it ruins the country selling state assets kill’s people arms sales or selling out there grandchildrens future global warming and the capitalist system is based on selling out the grandchildrens future targeting inflation this policy is selling the future out making dollars worth less for the grandchildren think about it.
The Tories now treat the nation as they have long treated the poor
brexit did not come from nowhere. The jerry-built utopianism, the indifference to and ignorance of how the British live and what they need to keep them safe, the know-nothing pride in ignorant generalisations and the cocksure love of sweeping solutions have their roots in the right that emerged a decade ago.
Before the Brexiters wrecked the country, they wrecked the lives of the poor. Universal credit was the Conservatives’ fantasy when they took power 2010. Iain Duncan Smith offered a dream so seductive that even his natural critics could not find it in their hearts to condemn him unequivocally. His grand project would remove disincentives to work. It would simplify the complicated and create a benefits system that was “a doorway to real aspiration and achievement”.
If Brexit incinerated the rules of prudence, the right’s treatment of the poor provided the kindling. Universal credit brought homelessness and pushed families to beg at food banks because Duncan Smith and his fellow half-educated idealists thought they could understand poverty like a mathematical theorem. They say now that their revolution failed because the Treasury stabbed their utopian plans in the back when it failed to provide sufficient resources – and you should get used to “stab in the back” theories because you will hear little else as the disillusionment with Brexit grows and the charlatans who led us on bluster like toddlers denying they wrecked the playpen. In truth, universal credit was doomed from the start. The right failed to see the poor as they were rather than as they wanted them to be. People are losing tenancies and going without food not only because universal credit is underfunded but because it imposes delays of five weeks or more before it pays anything at all to claimants. The delays are a matter of deliberate policy. In 2010, rightwingers wanted poverty to be the result of chaotic lives, alcoholism, drug addiction and, above all, for this is was what got the religious right’s rocks off, the breakdown of traditional families. They blamed individuals, not the system. A month’s wait for money would make the feckless pull themselves together and learn to live like members of the respectable middle class, who must wait a month for their first salary cheques when they take new job
Brexit is a globalised version of the same failure to see the world as it is rather than how the right insists it must be. The greatest delusion is one that Burke would have laughed to scorn: the belief that we can have a wrenching economic, diplomatic and constitutional change without breaking into a sweat. Don’t laugh. Millions still believe in a Brexit without tears and their leaders are still promising they can have it.
A second delusion flowed from the first: that the countries of the European Union would quail before the newly resurgent British as we awoke like lions from their slumber and scramble to meet our demands. This is what David Davis meant when he said British negotiators would be striking deals in Berlin rather than Brussels. As it is, the supposedly squabbling nations of the EU have held together, while the British political system has imploded. Ka kite ano link below P.S The whole world need to live with in its means a humble happy world for all
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/19/tories-now-treat-the-nation-as-they-have-long-treated-the-poor-universal-credit-brexit
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
Kia ora R & R I sat te reo should be taught to all tamariki under a certain age. I also say that no tamariki should be allowed to leave school without a education /trade qualification invest in the future and it will pay big dividends for Aotearoa society the people that don’t agree have alternative reason a uneducated person is easily CONTROL con. I also say every one should be part of Kiwi saver. Saving for our future at the minute we’re are spending our future.
Yes Te reo is a taonga treasure for all Kiwis. Ka kite ano
R & R compolsery voting big yes from ECO Maori Ka kite ano
Kia Kaha wahine don’t let the alt right red neck cheat and stop your goals for EQUALITY good on you for the marches around the world letting everyone know its time for CHANGE as MAN has made a MESS of the WORLD
Women in more than 30 countries around the world are expected to gather on Saturday as part of the global Women’s March, to protest against violence against women and the impact of policies of austerity.
In London thousands are expected to gather outside Portland Place in central London at 12.30pm and march to Trafalgar Square by 1.30pm, ending in a two-hour rally.
Saturday marks the third anniversary of the first Women’s March in 2017, when as many as 6 million people around the world gathered in protest at the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Last year thousands gathered in central London for the Time’s Up rally, in honour of the campaign against sexual harassment and honouring the #MeToo movement.
While the global theme of the 2019 Women’s Wave is ending violence against women and girls, the theme of the London march has been named “bread and roses”, in honour of the Polish-born American suffragette and workers’ rights campaigner Rose Schneiderman and reflects marchers’ “hunger to thrive and not just survive on bread”, said organisers. After the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 where 146 mainly female garment-industry workers died, Schneiderman declared: “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.”
The UK rally is likely to have an anti-Brexit flavour as organisers accuse the government of ignoring the fact that women would suffer the most severe consequences in a post-Brexit Britain. he phrase “bread and roses” captures a desperate need for women’s voices as the devastating impact of austerity in the noise around Britain’s messy departure from the EU is forgotten, said Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, the founder of the Women in Leadership publication and co-organiser of Women’s March London.
Women’s March to take to streets after controversy divides movement
Read more
“The 1912 bread and roses march revolutionised workers’ rights for women and once again on Saturday women are leading the way in the fight against austerity,” she said. “We see women bearing the brunt of the economic and social impact of austerity and we know that after Brexit women will bear the brunt of the fallout. Our lives are being held to ransom because of politics.
“We know that post-Brexit Britain will not be any better for women unless assurances are put in place to protect us. Yet none of the conversations happening at the moment are focusing on the impact of women and I find that absolutely ridiculous.”
Sarah Green, of the End Violence Against Women coalition, said the link between austerity and violence against women was marked, adding it was harder than ever for women to challenge injustice as a result of cuts to legal aid and the closing of courts Ka kite ano links below P.S I see trumps little puppets trolls have been suppresing this story quite hard to find a positive one on the wahine marchs trump is suppresing the media on climate change topic to
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/18/womens-march-30-countries-set-to-take-part-in-third-global-protest
Renewable energy doe not put the huge strains or pollute local water supplies WHY are we still burning carbon to prouduce power when renewable energy has so many positive features . Its the oil barons cheating our grandchildrens future.
TIn addition, wind and solar energy require essentially no water to operate and thus do not pollute water resources or strain supplies by competing with agriculture, drinking water, or other important water needs. In contrast, fossil fuels can have a significant impact on water resources: both coal mining and natural gas drilling can pollute sources of drinking water, and all thermal power plants, including those powered by coal, gas, and oil, withdraw and consume water for cooling.
Biomass and geothermal power plants, like coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, may require water for cooling. Hydroelectric power plants can disrupt river ecosystems both upstream and downstream from the dam. However, NREL’s 80-percent-by-2050 renewable energy study, which included biomass and geothermal, found that total water consumption and withdrawal would decrease significantly in a future with high renewables [7].his page explores the many positive impacts of clean energy, including the benefits of wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass. For more information on their negative impacts—including effective solutions to avoid, minimize, or mitigate—see our page on The Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy Technologies.
Less global warming
Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction.
In the United States, about 29 percent of global warming emissions come from our electricity sector. Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas [1, 2].
Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction.
In the United States, about 29 percent of global warming emissions come from our electricity sector. Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas [1, 2].
In contrast, most renewable energy sources produce little to no global warming emissions. Even when including “life cycle” emissions of clean energy (ie, the emissions from each stage of a technology’s life—manufacturing, installation, operation, decommissioning), the global warming emissions associated with renewable energy are minimal [3].
The comparison becomes clear when you look at the numbers. Burning natural gas for electricity releases between 0.6 and 2 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour (CO2E/kWh); coal emits between 1.4 and 3.6 pounds of CO2E/kWh. Wind, on the other hand, is responsible for only 0.02 to 0.04 pounds of CO2E/kWh on a life-cycle basis; solar 0.07 to 0.2; geothermal 0.1 to 0.2; and hydroelectric between 0.1 and 0.5.
Renewable electricity generation from biomass can have a wide range of global warming emissions depending on the resource and whether or not it is sustainably sourced and harvested. Ka kite ano links below.
https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/renewable-energy/public-benefits-of-renewable-power#.XEPjIPZuJjo
https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/energy-water-use/water-energy-electricity-overview#.XEPnR_ZuJjo
Kia ora Newshub condolences to the people who lost there love ones in that oil pipeline explosion in Mexico.
E scooter are becoming a bit of a problem it would be good to see the %data on the accidents
Patel car meet is cool yes not all car loving enthusiast people are not all fools who play silly buggers E cars is coming on strong that is the new age.
It ain’t half hot MUM is a classic TV show given me many sore faces condolences to Windsor Davies whano.
Ka kite ano