Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
I suspect it’s more likely Dems will look at how far left they moved their platform because of pressure from Bernie, look at how hard-lefties still put more effort into bagging Clinton than fighting Trump and voted for Stein or stayed home, and conclude that trying to attract hard-lefties isn’t worth it. After all, Obama was quite centrist and look how popular he finished up.
And if they do ‘stay put’ as you seem to imply they will do, what do you think will happen, given that it appears that many younger voters are rejecting their essentially conservative approach? Do you think perhaps that after a substantial dose of Trumperism even the hard left will run back to mother? – Can’t see it myself!
I think the way hard-lefties didn’t support the Dems and Clinton even after they moved their platform a long way left is going to produce the really crap result of further reinforcing status quo politics and further reducing engagement and turnout, particularly among the young.
I can’t see the Dems emerging from the depths they have plunged to for a very long time. Imo they are corrupt to the core, just like the whole ” American Dream”.
Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
No, he won’t. I hate these communist “After Hitler, us!” fucks. They’re happy to see right-wing authoritarian nationalists wrecking the country because the resulting cruelty and destabilisation may create the conditions for a boot stamping on a human face forever, sorry I meant a communist revolution.
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places … under the guise of fighting communism ….. remember the u.s.a calls health systems like NZ has ‘communism’.
William Blum ‘killing hope’ : …… ” every socialist experiment of any significance in the twentieth century—without exception—has either been crushed, overthrown, or invaded, or corrupted, perverted, subverted, or destabilized, or otherwise had life made impossible for it, by the United States.
Not one socialist government or movement—from the Russian Revolution to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, from Communist China to the FMLN in Salvador—not one was permitted to rise or fall solely on its own merits; not one was left secure enough to drop its guard against the all-powerful enemy abroad and freely and fully relax control at home.
It’s as if the Wright brothers’ first experiments with flying machines all failed because the automobile interests sabotaged each test flight. And then the good and godfearing folk of the world looked upon this, took notice of the consequences, nodded their collective heads wisely, and intoned solemnly: Man shall never fly. ” …
“” By the summer of 1918 some 13,000 American troops could be found in the newly-born Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Two years and thousands of casualties later, the American troops left, having failed in their mission to “strangle at its birth” the Bolshevik state, as Winston Churchill put it.”
————————————————————————-
and John stockwell : …. ” President Reagan allocated 19 million dollars to form an army, a force of contras, they’re called, ex-Somoza national guards, the monsters who were doing the torture and terror in Nicaragua that made the Nicaraguan people rise up and throw out the dictator, and throw out the guard. We went back to create an army of these people. We are killing, and killing, and terrorizing people. Not only in Nicaragua but the Congress has leaked to the press – reported in the New York Times, that there are 50 covert actions going around the world today, CIA covert actions going on around the world today.
“[When the U.S. doesn’t like a government], they send the CIA in, with its resources and activists, hiring people, hiring agents, to tear apart the social and economic fabric of the country, as a technique for putting pressure on the government, hoping that they can make the government come to the U.S.’s terms, or the government will collapse altogether and they can engineer a coup d’etat, and have the thing wind up with their own choice of people in power.
Now ripping apart the economic and social fabric of course is fairly textbook-ish. What we’re talking about is going in and deliberately creating conditions where the farmer can’t get his produce to market, where children can’t go to school, where women are terrified inside their homes as well as outside their homes, where government administration and programs grind to a complete halt, where the hospitals are treating wounded people instead of sick people, where international capital is scared away and the country goes bankrupt. ”
“The Indonesian covert action of 1965, reported by Ralph McGehee, who was in that area division, and had documents on his desk, in his custody about that operation. He said that one of the documents concluded that this was a MODEL operation that should be COPIED elsewhere in the world. Not only did it eliminate the effective communist party (Indonesian communist party), it also eliminated the entire segment of the population that tended to support the communist party – the ethnic Chinese, Indonesian Chinese. And the CIA’s report put the number of dead at 800,000 killed. And that was one covert action. We’re talking about 1 to 3 million people killed in these things. ”
“”Just to give you an example of how complete this is, and how military this has been, between 1900 and W.W. II, we had 5,000 marines in Nicaragua for a total of 28 years. We invaded the Dominican Republic 4 times. Haiti, we occupied it for 12 years. We put our troops into Cuba 4 times, Panama 6 times, Guatemala once, plus a CIA covert action to overthrow the democratic government there once. Honduras, 7 times. And by the way, we put 12,000 troops into the Soviet Union during that same period of time.”
The Narcissistic Billionaire Trump can be criticized for many many things …. but it seems bizarre to me that stopping or lowering The U.s.a’s role in feeding these death-spots with weapons and support is one of them.
How many people are aware of the war against russia which started in 1918 ?
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places …
No, I mean the people Orwell was actually referring to when he wrote that phrase. Still, kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.
“Washington policy makers and diplomats saw the world out there as one composed of “communists” and “anti-communists”, whether of nations, movements or individuals. This comic-strip vision of the world, with righteous American supermen fighting communist evil everywhere, had graduated from a cynical propaganda exercise to a moral imperative of US foreign policy.
John Foster Dulles, one of the major architects of post-war US foreign policy, expressed this succinctly in his typically simple, moralistic way: “For us there are two sorts of people in the world: there are those who are Christians and support free enterprise and there are the others.”14 As several of the case studies in the present hook confirm, Dulles put that creed into rigid practice.”
Over 2 million Vietnamese Killed…. freedom???
800,00-1.5 million Indonesians Murdered …. and a natural partner for NZ according to our nZ mfat webpage … Joshua Oppenheimer’s description of present day Indonesia … Where workers get threatened with the death squads that killed their parents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orD_WOrEN5o
And Sorry if I find John Stockwell,…. an ex cia officer …. to be more credible on cia/usa policy and actions …. than your opinions .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYZ_kWHk3Q
Nicaragua for Instance …….. “To destabilize Nicaragua beginning in 1981, we began funding this force of Somoza’s exnational guardsmen, calling them the contras (the counter-revolutionaries). We created this force, it did not exist until we allocated money. We’ve armed them, put uniforms on their backs, boots on their feet, given them camps in Honduras to live in, medical supplies, doctors, training, leadership, direction, as we’ve sent them in to de-stabilize Nicaragua.
They use terror. This is a technique that they’re using to traumatize the society so that it can’t function. I don’t mean to abuse you with verbal violence, but you have to understand what your government and its agents are doing. They go into villages, they haul out families. With the children forced to watch they castrate the father, they peel the skin off his face, they put a grenade in his mouth and pull the pin. With the children forced to watch they gang-rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes for variety, they make the parents watch while they do these things to the children. This is nobody’s propaganda. There have been over 100,000 American witnesses for peace who have gone down there and they have filmed and photographed and witnessed these atrocities immediately after they’ve happened, and documented 13,000 people killed this way, mostly women and children. These are the activities done by these contras. The contras are the people president Reagan calls `freedom fighters’. He says they’re the moral equivalent of our founding fathers. ”
Sounds like Ukraine Banderist nazi methods if you ask me ….
You know the ones ….. resurrected and backed up by trade sanctions against their enemy’s … solidarity from little ol NZ
well you did say …. “kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.”
…are you unaware of approx 8000 unkraine SS officers given sanctuary and some even recruited by the us.a and other good guys after WWII??? …… Of the Banderist nazi flavor ….. some ended doing operations back home( killing/destroying ) …. and some taught torture.
Which brings me back to Nicaragua …. but I’d like to explore our/Nzs links with Indonesia more next time ….
Given our ‘natural partnership’ with them …. and the flurry of National party + business activity with this gangster nation ….before key made off …
********************************************
Ronny Raygun:”The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.”
“The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years.
The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.
Sandinistas
The Sandinistas weren’t perfect.
They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements.
But they were intelligent, rational and civilised.
They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society.
The death penalty was abolished.
Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead.
Over 100,000 families were given title to land.
Two thousand schools were built.
A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh.
Free education was established and a free health service.
Infant mortality was reduced by a third.
Polio was eradicated.
Dangerous example was being set
The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion.
In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set.
If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things.
There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.
I spoke earlier about ‘a tapestry of lies’ which surrounds us.
Taken generally by the media
President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a ‘totalitarian dungeon’.
This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment.
But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government.
There was no record of torture.
There was no record of systematic or official military brutality.
No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua.
There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary.
El Salvador and Guatemala
The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala.
The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.
Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA.
That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass.
It is estimated that 75,000 people died.
Why were they killed?
They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved.
That belief immediately qualified them as communists.
They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright.
Poverty stricken once again — ‘Democracy’ had prevailed
The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government.
It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people.
They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again.
The casinos moved back into the country.
Free health and free education were over.
Big business returned with a vengeance.
‘Democracy’ had prevailed.
But this ‘policy’ was by no means restricted to Central America.
It was conducted throughout the world.
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
1984 Book 3, Chapter 3
And from Gustave Flaubert:
Inside every revolutionary there is a policeman.
I agree, ‘accelerationists’ as they are called are despicable – they’re happy to see other people suffer even more than they are now for the sake for the sake of the precious revolution, then jerk off over the thought of being in the Inner Party because they’re the ‘pure’ ones. If they want to burn a house down, they should start with their own.
So your take-home message from the large popularity of Sanders is to move the Democrats away from Sanders back toward what lost them the election.
Please go work for the Nats as a tactician.
Registered Democrats are the big leftie group in the US. Clinton won the primary by 55% to 43%. That’s a very clear margin, and a clear signal that leftie Americans were more comfortable with Clinton’s offerings than Sanders. Nevertheless, Clinton and the Democrats changed their platform to align more closely to Sanders’ platform. Then lost the general election. To Trump!!!! How does all of that add up to an argument the Dems should have gone even further away from the mainstream?
They didn’t lose the election because of the slight changes in platform, which did nothing to win voters in the rust belt – by comparison, Sanders’ platform would have been vastly more popular in the rust belt. That would come at a cost of votes in conservative states where he was losing anyway.
Gotta say that I’m not aware of anyone in the Dem pipeline that has quite the blindness about how their actions can be made to look that Hillary had, let alone doing that stuff while wearing the stains from 25 years of smears.
The overwhelming weakness of the left is a tendency to believe that if things only get a little worse, they will suddenly flip into a revolution that creates utopia.
Fuck Hegel.
Eager anticipation when things get worse is a clear conflict of interest to actually getting off your arse and improving things.
I’ve mostly thought the biggest weakness of left politics is a lot more lefties are into purity and principle politics to the point of being willing to vote for parties/candidates with no chance, even though it helps their polar opposite opponents win.
Whereas as righties seem to be a bit more pragmatic about voting for the possible winners closest to their views.
In New Zealand, just look at the peak vote for ACT (7% in 2002) and compare to pre-96 votes for say Greens or Alliance.
Thanks, will have a proper read later. I cam across something recently that said one of the core disagreements between Lange and Douglas was Douglas’ UBI proposal. Might be worth looking up to see the NZ neoliberal version.
An interesting read, Xanthe. This guy explores some of my gut-instinct feelings about the current push for a UBI. I do see this in effect becoming a subsidy for employers and landlords. Current policies such as WFF and accommodation grants for people on benefits also work this way, of course, but not in such a wholesale way.
I can’t say I’ve done a lot of research into the issue, and could still be convinced – there probably are models which address my concerns, but any move in this direction would need to be very strongly designed in order to achieve its goals rather than (perversely) acting as a transfer of wealth into the pockets of those who least need it.
He’s also a Fox News commentator accused of groping a female colleague – which makes it clear why he appeals to Trump, but that’s not exactly a great CV when it comes to dealing with New Zealanders.
I imagine for the US (for any administration), picking an ex Senator is seen as a good thing and an affirmation of the relationship.
Obama’s first Ambassador was an ex Senator.
Senators, even when they have lost elections, are usually highly regarded in the US political system. And the fact that he is a Fox commentator would be seen by the Trump administration as a demonstration of his connectedness in the political system.
However, I did not know about the groping accusation referred to by Psycho Milt.
I think it would be going too far to say “no” to him on that basis.
However, I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position, given the strong New Zealand position on this.
It is worth recalling that in 2003/2004 that NZ SAS soldiers strongly protested about American treatment of detainees, and took the issue up the command chain.
Reason,
I strongly protest about what you have said about me. And by implication that National supports torture.
In relation to Afghanistan (your link) in fact I made sure we deployed additional legal officers to Afghanistan so we could ensure, as best we could, that any detainees that the CRU arrested were not ill-treated. This whole issue was a major concern for us. One of our goals during the deployment was to improve the behaviour of the CRU.
A general dilemma that all western nations faced in Afghanistan (in fact in any country where the West or the UN gets involved in) is that the Afghans did not act in accordance to the standards we would expect. NATO/ISAF put in a huge effort to with the Afghan authorities to improve respect for human rights, to improve their prisons and their legal system. Are they yet like out courts and prisons?
No, but they are way better than they used to be.
As a general point, no matter the divergence of view we may have on various things, I don’t think it is necessary to demonise one opponents like that.
I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position,
For those that don’t have our back, we’re taking names.
The problem here is that your torturer mates aren’t from Afghanistan, and your desire to appease them looks a lot like being an accessory.
[lprent: You and AndreReason are starting to go too far. Whilst I have serious doubts about Brown as being inappropriate for NZ, you have to remember that he isn’t here to represent NZ. He is here to represent the USA.
If there was anything definitive in his history (for instance a conviction for groping a fellow Fox presenter) then at a government level we could (maybe) refuse to accept his credentials. However having opinions that are distasteful and obnoxious isn’t a ground for rejecting them. Ambassadors and ambassadorial staff are there for a purpose and are covered by some pretty specific law. We don’t have to like them, we just have to put up (with limits) what they say. ]
lprent, maybe I’m being thick but I’ve carefully re-read what I wrote and I don’t see where I’m near a line. I was genuinely interested in Wayne’s views on the waterboarding and potential rejection as ambassador issues, particularly given the positions he has held in his service to NZ, and didn’t attack him or anyone else. Now that Wayne has shared his views, I’m not inclined to have a go at him for those views.
I’d be grateful if you have the time to explain where I’m close to the line. Or perhaps there was some mix-up between what I said and what Reason said?
[lprent: You notice that I put the warning (from memory) on Reason who was over the line (as Wayne pointed out), and on OAB who was continuing the same theme. I may have copied it on an additional comment of yours? Your first one was ok and from memory Wayne treated it by explaining his opinion. Edit: Oh I see what you mean. I said Andre where I meant Reason. I will adjust. It is because I see the comments running in reverse time order…
However OAB and Reason were effectively saying that the personal actions and opinions of an ex-minister and national party member were those of the government and national party. They were doing it on a topic that even National and their government have little to no leeway on. The law covering diplomatic embassies is pretty draconian.
It amounted to pointless abuse of a person for something where there was absolutely no effective relationship between Wayne and what they were objecting to. It was liable to drop into even more pointless flaming. I intervened to make sure it didn’t escalate into a bullying flamewar I’d have to start banning people for. Like the policy says, we prefer to warn rather than ban.
With that kind of brushwar, I tend to put the warning on each branch of an issue to make sure that everyone is aware of an issue and has no excuse to work around it. That is because of the tree structure of our comments. It is far too easy to miss warnings as the debate branches. ]
Thanks. Your warning to OAB started “lprent: You and Andre are starting to go too far…”, so I take it it should have been reason there instead of me. I was worried maybe I was violating a policy about being too beige or something.
Yeah, unless I jump tabs, when I start editing (rather than quick edit) a comment on the backend comment list. I lose all context. I usually rely on memory. Screwed up this time..
Lprent. Thanks for the longer explanation. It’s Wayne’s opinion as a law commissioner I’m interested in, although I think it’s fair to say that many of the experiences he cites derive from his time as a Minister.
(Sorry to discuss you in the third person Wayne.)
I agree that Browne is the US representative here, and from the sounds of it, he represents POTUS quite well. What I’d like to know is where the line is, for establishment figures like Wayne. How far does the US have to descend before they would consider “cutting ties” (whatever that means to them). Or is there no line – for similar reasons to Hobbes’ dictum that the worst dictator is better than the alternative, or whatever.
I’ll try and be more polite in trying to find out.
I remember going through a rather horrendous set of lectures and readings in dual areas; about the history of diplomacy and the law governing diplomacy in the commonwealth and NZ. Some of those lessons came from my military training and lifelong interest in the military and military history – the application of which is often viewed as being the failures of diplomacy. Being born 14 years after WW2, I grew up in the shadow of the ex-servicemen where i could see the consequences of diplomatic failures.
What you realize after looking at it is that the primary reason for diplomats is to keep open lines of direct communication to stop various types of warfare (from weaponry to trade). The actual quality of the diplomats is of far less importance than that they can accurately reflect both parties to each other. That is because the consequences of miscommunication between monarchs and states will often tend to be somewhat horrendous.
As someone who did law, military and government somewhat more than I did, Wayne probably got a whole lot more of that particular set of horror stories than I did.
But my view is that diplomacy is one area that needs to be somewhat isolated from populist thinking so that it can concentrate on downstream consequences. Of course that is because I know somewhat more clearly what the downstream failures of diplomacy can be than most of the recent generations. But you only really need to reflect on the diplomatic miscommunication and the miscalculations that fell out of the diplomatic schism between the USA/UK and Iraq to see a recent example.
Global Legal Action Network and the Stanford International Human Rights Clinic have taken a case against Australia and various private companies to the ICC.
Should the case proceed, law enforcement officials in New Zealand may be put in the invidious position of having to protect visiting heads of state for whom there are outstanding international arrest warrants. As Idiot Savant has pointed out, these individuals would also be wanted under domestic law.
As someone with a foot in both diplomatic and legal camps, Wayne can shed some light on the practical issues that arise. I still reckon he’ll give them (torturers) a free pass.
PS: in case you’re wondering why I switched from the USA to Australia, the legal and ethical issues are similar: the practical and diplomatic considerations are slightly different.
Not that much. If they are coming under a diplomatic credentials/passport, then there will be bugger all that we could do except to deny their visa or reject their credentials and ship them home.
Visiting heads of state typically come under diplomatic credentials. We’d be more likely to deny entry if they had an ICC warrant.
It is pretty much the same rules as any diplomat, like that guy from the Malaysian embassy a few years ago. We can boot them but that is about all unless they or their country waive immunity.
The alternative for inter-state communication is that effectively every diplomat is a probable hostage. Because trumped up charges could be made for literally anything. Laws could be passed purely to entrap. And no-one would send diplomats anywhere.
If you want to see an example, have a look at the terrible economic price that Iran faced for more than 25 years (and arguably on to today) after a state mob stormed the US embassy in Tehran. Apart from the ongoing sanctions, they were literally starved on any significiant capital and were shunned during a major war that they barely survived.
After all who in the hell would want to send diplomats into the precedent hellhole that the Iranian revolution created.
People who are not currently travelling under diplomatic immunity are private citizens and are fair game. That is what happened to Pinochet and Dotcom. However a case to extradite has to be made under the laws of the arresting country.
But I can assure you we (NZDF and myself) put a lot of effort in trying to ensure fundamental human rights were protected in Afghanistan.
An interesting and insightful discussion on the role of Ambassadors by Iprent.
Presumably during the confirmation hearings Brown will have the opportunity to say the right thing. Surely as relatively senior JAG officer he must know the law in this area in detail. And he should be well informed by State of the New Zealand view.
I am certain the ICC will refuse jurisdiction in the Australian case. Whatever the Australian defaults, they do not reach the threshold required by the ICC.
“The Iraq War was an act of pure aggression, no different in moral or legal standing from Hitler’s invasion of Poland. That is what Bush and Blair made themselves. Small Hitlers, betraying all the hopes of the generation of 1945, which dreamed of forestalling further such atrocities.
Had the war been launched in response to Saddam Hussain’s own attack on Iran in 1980, and had there been a consensus at the UNSC for such a move, it could have been justified. But in 2003 there was no international emergency calling for such a war. The level of Western hypocrisy can be measured, however, by the lack of any move to punish Iraq for invading Iran and starting an 8-year war that killed hundreds of thousands. Worse yet, the Reagan administration actually swung behind Iraq in 1983, allied with Saddam, and shielded him from charges brought by Iran to the UNSC that he used mustard gas and perhaps Sarin on Iranian troops at the front. And then the Reagan administration authorized the sale to Iraq of precursors for anthrax. ”
And your wanting NZ not to be bound by international law … ” the fact remains that under international law, any non-defensive war waged without its approval is illegal and a crime. So when Wayne Mapp says he doesn’t want our foreign policy to be subject to a UN veto, what he is really saying is that he wants to wage war in contravention of international law and the UN charter – in other words, he wants us to be a rogue nation, just like the US… ”
I just presumed a little water boarding …. would be water of a ducks back among a few million dead Iraqis …or Afghans .
Don’t be so racist about the Afghans wayne ………… how come if they are naturally so bad …. how is it that Afghanistan was a safe place for women and others to travel too and through? …. in that the time before the usa armed Muslim extremists there ….
I don’t regard a person who has openly advocated torture methods like waterboarding is a suitable person to send to NZ, but I appreciate in Trump’s world it would be seen as a plus…
Would you like to back up that statement Joe, and or disprove the quote?
Repeated use of insults, no matter how much of a release from the issues you refer to in your life this blog provides you, is no excuse
[lprent: While we are on that subject – where is the source of that quotation? That was what you rightfully were pulled up on.
Since you objected to being pulled up, then I will object to you avoiding substantiating your out of context quote. Banned for 2 weeks. Read the policy and look at your own damn behaviour before trying to exercise moderator powers on this site. ]
However, I did not know about the groping accusation referred to by Psycho Milt.
One of his ex fellow Fox presenters has alleged that he groped her at work. She is suing Fox, him, and I believe several managerial staff at Fox both for the grope and that her complaint caused her bosses to push her out, She alleges that Fox is a hotbed of misogyny.
I can see how Trump might see groping female workmates as a plus. I can’t see how it would endear him to most of NZ.
Edit From the link that Anne put up
Former Fox News contributor Andrea Tantaros filed a complaint with the New York Supreme Court against the Fox News Network, its former president Roger Ailes and four others alleging sexual harassment.
She claims: “Fox News masquerades as defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.”
Tantaros also mentions being groped by Brown in documents filed with the court.
“On or about August 18, 2015, former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown appeared on (Fox panel show) Outnumbered.
“Brown made a number of sexually inappropriate comments to Tantaros on set, including, and in a suggestive manner, that Tantaros “would be fun to go to a nightclub with”.
“After the show was over, Brown snuck up behind Tantaros while she was purchasing lunch and put his hands on her lower waist. She immediately pulled back, telling Brown to ‘stop’.
“Tantaros then immediately met with (Fox News co-president Bill) Shine to complain, asking him to ensure that Brown would never be booked on the show again. Shine said that he would talk to Scott. Thereafter, Shine and Scott ignored Tantaros’s complaint, and continued to book Brown on Outnumbered.”
Tantaros also alleged she rejected the Ailes’ advances and was punished by being removed from Fox shows.
Brown has denied the allegations, and the lawsuit is ongoing.
Yes waterboarding is one enhanced interrogation technique – there are many other ones within that category. Brown endorsed them all not just waterboarding. This is important because when you search and read the list of what they do under enhanced interrogation techniques it will turn your stomach.
David Dunning of Dunning-Kruger effect fame reckons Trump is the most public example of the Dunning-Kruger effect he’s ever seen. Ouch.
In hindsight, this kind self-reflection may have been useful in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, when mentions of Dunning-Kruger on social media reached a new high. In the beginning, many of them were in reference to the candidate Donald Trump, whose combination of over the top blustering (“My IQ is one of the highest,” he has claimed) and obvious ignorance in areas such as foreign policy struck many Twitters users as, “the personification of the Dunning-Kruger effect.”
The 57-year-old supports torture, posed nude for a photoshoot, and was named as having groped and made sexually inappropriate comments towards by former Fox News contributor Andrea Tantaros. Brown denies the allegations.
May we should refuse to give him a visa because he is not fit and moral character.
Andrew Littles handling of the Willie Jackson selection/waiver debacle has finally lost the votes of myself and my wife. I’m a middle of the road swing voter and my wife is/was true Labour (she is a union rep). I change between parties but my wife has never even thought of anything but Labour. The biggest problem for Labour is I will never vote green and she may or may not. If Andrew is still looking for the missing million he can add one maybe two more to that number.
I detest swing voters. They’re even worse than National voters. Swing voters are fence-sitters, without the courage or conviction to stand by their principles.
I have always been a swing voter, you detest me? I don’t detest you muttonbird. Do you blindly follow one party no matter what policy they do or don’t produce?
My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.
“My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
Andrew, has it ever occurred to you to vote on the basis of others’ needs, and not just your own?
I’m less than thrilled by the Jackson selection. I do understand the reasoning behind it, though, and I would like to hear from the guy himself. Willie, if you’re out there, how about fronting up like Greg O’Connor and putting your side of the story? I would have questions for you and I’m sure others would too.
You don’t think they can establish a building program or raise taxes on the top?
I suggest you look at the expansion in the state housing stock during the period 1999-2008, the increase in the tax rate in 1999, and note that unemployment was at ~3% by 2007.
Did they fix everything? No. Have many indicators (everything from the rule of law to the infectious disease admission rate) declined since 2008? Yep. Are we getting mentioned in too many UN reports for all the wrong reasons? Yep.
Does the National Party care, let alone have the competence?
Make sure you also read the comments esp. the one from Stephen Ihaka. I still have many reservations about Willie but without he has done a lot for poor, urban Māori over the years.
I’m going to try and put a post up about that in the next day or so. I disagree with her evaluation of the relative treatments of Māori and Pākehā radio hosts (but based on memory, I haven’t gone back and looked), but more interesting to me is that I read her piece as an example of how Māori handle things differently than Pākehā. More willing to forgive and be understanding of frailty and find ways of being inclusive as part of the solution.
A lot of the arguments about WJ in the past few weeks look to me to have been (white) feminists arguing with (white) men over rape culture issues and how they play out in Pākehā cultures. Not that all the people arguing have been white, but that the discourse I saw has happened in predominantly Pākehā spaces and those values are there. If women had equitably shared power in Labour, this would have played out differently, and the whole thing is a showcase of the patriarchy within Labour, and the wider culture as much as anything. It’s the still relative powerlessness of women in Pākehā society that jumps out.
Good to have a wahine Māori perspective just to bring that into focus as well as just hear how it looks from that side.
One thing I am tired of though is this idea that a good person can’t be misogynistic in certain areas. We really need to get over that.
then there’s this, which is a very good example of exactly why so much is still made of the issue and will continue to be despite WJ’s other good works.
“Sean Plunket
@SeanPlunket
@etangata good piece. Way to much made of roastbusters affair willy was asking legit questions that reflected the position of many kiwis.”
My ongoing problem with Willie is that he still seems to play down the effect of homophobia, misogyny, rape culture etc although I do think he has more understanding now than in the past (I am mainly basing this on tweets from Alison Mau and comments made to me by a couple of Māori friends who know him well).
He is also a bit of a loose cannon and a better talker than he is a listener. These traits can cause more problems than they solve sometimes.
Translation: I am now wealthy enough that I can afford not to give a toss about the people who are struggling to get by. The Willie Jackson issue is a smokescreen to justify to myself voting National so I can stay wealthy, even though I know deep down that National are full of far worse people than Jackson and their policies are terrible for New Zealand as a whole.
@ Andrew (6.3.1) you state …
“my needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
This attitude is the reason we still have a National government. People voting for THEIR personal needs, with little thought as to what’s beneficial for the nation as a whole, is what’s destroying NZ.
If more voters gave considered attention to what’s best for their country in general, instead of themselves, NZ just might become a more egalitarian place for all Kiwis to live and enjoy.
Well here is an almighty one $Billion dollar Government stuff up. Joyce and Bridges are going to have egg on their faces over this;
“Transport blogger Patrick Reynolds said the purpose of the western ring route was to provide free-flowing traffic but it had been badly designed and would open to gridlock.”
“The reason for that is because of the failure to build parallel rapid transit. There is no busway,” Reynolds said.
“He claimed the ramp signals were being installed because of limitations on the ventilation system in the event of traffic coming to a standstill inside the tunnels.”
I recall Transport Minister Simon Bridges saying “the Waterview tunnel and ring route would be a faultless marvel” kind of thought at the time he would put the kiss of death on the ‘faultless’.
Bound to be hotly debated at the Mt Albert By-Election Transport Debate next Wednesday night.
There is no separated congestion-free busway on either North-Western or South-Western motorways like the one on the Northern motorway from Albany to the Harbour Bridge.
Buses have to merge back into clogged traffic at every overbridge where the shoulder lanes disappear. Transport agencies are only belatedly adding shoulder lanes to the SW motorway in any case.
Seems like another very expensive stuff-up like when the SW was first connected to the Southern motorways, requiring urgent remedial work to correct problems. The whole Western Ring Route from Manukau to Albany totals $4b, yet people have been giving its sub-projects a free pass and whinging instead about the core rail link budgeted at half that amount.
Akl has suffered under every single national govt when it comes to transport.
Muldoon wouldn’t finish the suburban rail network, Williamson sat by whilst Bolger and Shipley plundered the fuel and RUC charges to use elsewhere and now this mob.
Not only has the shonky reign screwed over public transport since day 1 it’s double whammied it by flooding akl with moneyed migrants.
Ad you should know by now that it’s not too far in the future for complete gridlock in Auckland. The situation deteriorates by the day. It’s very obvious to someone who travels into the city once or twice a month, and not on a daily basis. Over the past 2 – 3 years the traffic flows have become slower and slower and gridlocks occur at anytime of the day. The opening up of SH 20 at Waterview onto SH16 will simply sift the problem from one point to another.
Gridlocks are not necessarily caused by accidents. They invariably occur when too many vehicles all want to be in the same place at the same time – ie the roads become choked and cannot carry the number of vehicles wanting to use them. All over Auckland now this situation is occurring on a daily basis at almost any time of the day. It can take up to 2 hours now in the late afternoon to travel from Auckland airport to Pukekohe a distance of around 40 km.
Accidents of course exacerbate the problem.
Yes – a picture (or in this case video) is worth a thousand words.
That is what we are now experiencing daily on Auckland’s motorways. It’s obvious that what is really needed is not more motorways. What is needed is better public transport thereby relieving the pressure on over crowed motorways.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re ramping up the conflict angle. The post I read was balanced and good-humoured, and the comments have had a similar tone. Hardly “taking aim at critics”. Plus the old chestnut “Labour-aligned bog”. Sigh…
Got to love the out going President of Bolivia. President Correa talks to Abby Martin, about what the last 9 years have meant for him, his administration, and the people of Bolivia.
Just a small correction. Correa is the outgoing president of Ecuador, not Bolivia. Evo Morales is the president of Bolivia. What is true is that in spite of some problems both Ecuador and Bolivia have done pretty well under Left rule.
The defense of qualified privilege permits persons in positions of authority or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered slander and libel if made by anyone else – Wikipedia.
“Emotionally fragile farmers still trying to rebuild their lives after the earthquake are at breaking point, with police having to confiscate guns for fear of self-harm.”
Often we think when things have tidied up after a traumatic event that people just get on with the job. But for many it just doesn’t work like that. It can take years if not a lifetime to work through some trauma and the fallout from it. Trauma has a cascading effect into relationships, self esteem, financial issues, motivation and depression and for most it takes expert help to navigate through these very dangerous shoals.
I know mental health resources are scarce and it can take severe behaviour to trigger them sometimes.
I suppose what I am saying is that if you know someone who may be affected then it is worthwhile offering a compassionate ear to listen to them – it is possible to validate how they are feeling without agreeing with what they are saying eg “It must be really difficult to be feeling that way.” At the bottom of the article are the links to the support services out there – they are important and necessary for helping people and they can help people.
rich, poor, famous, unknown, father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, young, experienced, talented, loud, quiet – don’t be fooled into thinking some are not living in a very difficult place…
Interesting topic MM. I think people who have gone through trauma carry it with them for a long time. From what I’ve seen it’s often dealt with not by talking but its released through other outlets, violence, depression, anger, addictions. Especially men I think find it hard to discuss these/their issues and probably struggle with these things for longer.
I’m not sure what the answers are, a free availability of all kinds of mental health care would be great, getting it out front and centre would reduce the stigma of people too scared to go for help. Maybe also having a compulsory counsellor/psychotherapist always present and available at the local doctor’s practice, so anyone can drop in and know they can get mental health help at any time. That could also help with making people aware that going to the doctor is not about just physical health too. Integrate it so noone bats an eyelid.
To Levchin, prepping for survival is a moral miscalculation; he prefers to “shut down party conversations” on the topic. “I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.” In his view, this is the time to invest in solutions, not escape. “At the moment, we’re actually at a relatively benign point of the economy. When the economy heads south, you will have a bunch of people that are in really bad shape. What do we expect then?”
[…]
By January, 2015, Johnson was sounding the alarm: the tensions produced by acute income inequality were becoming so pronounced that some of the world’s wealthiest people were taking steps to protect themselves. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Johnson told the audience, “I know hedge-fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway.”
I read quite a bit of stuff about Peter Thiel’s citizenship. It got all political, no surprise, and there were all sorts of angles, all sorts of pros and cons and explanations.
To sum all that up without the politics and put it into the sort of succinct reality that big business people like:
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
I suspect it’s more likely Dems will look at how far left they moved their platform because of pressure from Bernie, look at how hard-lefties still put more effort into bagging Clinton than fighting Trump and voted for Stein or stayed home, and conclude that trying to attract hard-lefties isn’t worth it. After all, Obama was quite centrist and look how popular he finished up.
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/18/out-of-darkness-light-will-the-trumpian-nightmare-lead-to-a-real-political-revolution-after-all/
And if they do ‘stay put’ as you seem to imply they will do, what do you think will happen, given that it appears that many younger voters are rejecting their essentially conservative approach? Do you think perhaps that after a substantial dose of Trumperism even the hard left will run back to mother? – Can’t see it myself!
I think the way hard-lefties didn’t support the Dems and Clinton even after they moved their platform a long way left is going to produce the really crap result of further reinforcing status quo politics and further reducing engagement and turnout, particularly among the young.
So do you think the growing number of disillusioned and disengaged will just continue to sit on the sidelines and grizzle?
Yep, mostly. But I hope I’m wrong.
I can’t see the Dems emerging from the depths they have plunged to for a very long time. Imo they are corrupt to the core, just like the whole ” American Dream”.
Will Slavoj Zizek be correct, that Trump will be so bad it will bring about the left revolution?
No, he won’t. I hate these communist “After Hitler, us!” fucks. They’re happy to see right-wing authoritarian nationalists wrecking the country because the resulting cruelty and destabilisation may create the conditions for a boot stamping on a human face forever, sorry I meant a communist revolution.
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places … under the guise of fighting communism ….. remember the u.s.a calls health systems like NZ has ‘communism’.
William Blum ‘killing hope’ : …… ” every socialist experiment of any significance in the twentieth century—without exception—has either been crushed, overthrown, or invaded, or corrupted, perverted, subverted, or destabilized, or otherwise had life made impossible for it, by the United States.
Not one socialist government or movement—from the Russian Revolution to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, from Communist China to the FMLN in Salvador—not one was permitted to rise or fall solely on its own merits; not one was left secure enough to drop its guard against the all-powerful enemy abroad and freely and fully relax control at home.
It’s as if the Wright brothers’ first experiments with flying machines all failed because the automobile interests sabotaged each test flight. And then the good and godfearing folk of the world looked upon this, took notice of the consequences, nodded their collective heads wisely, and intoned solemnly: Man shall never fly. ” …
“” By the summer of 1918 some 13,000 American troops could be found in the newly-born Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Two years and thousands of casualties later, the American troops left, having failed in their mission to “strangle at its birth” the Bolshevik state, as Winston Churchill put it.”
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and John stockwell : …. ” President Reagan allocated 19 million dollars to form an army, a force of contras, they’re called, ex-Somoza national guards, the monsters who were doing the torture and terror in Nicaragua that made the Nicaraguan people rise up and throw out the dictator, and throw out the guard. We went back to create an army of these people. We are killing, and killing, and terrorizing people. Not only in Nicaragua but the Congress has leaked to the press – reported in the New York Times, that there are 50 covert actions going around the world today, CIA covert actions going on around the world today.
You have to be asking yourself, why are we destabilizing 50 corners of the troubled world”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYZ_kWHk3Q
“[When the U.S. doesn’t like a government], they send the CIA in, with its resources and activists, hiring people, hiring agents, to tear apart the social and economic fabric of the country, as a technique for putting pressure on the government, hoping that they can make the government come to the U.S.’s terms, or the government will collapse altogether and they can engineer a coup d’etat, and have the thing wind up with their own choice of people in power.
Now ripping apart the economic and social fabric of course is fairly textbook-ish. What we’re talking about is going in and deliberately creating conditions where the farmer can’t get his produce to market, where children can’t go to school, where women are terrified inside their homes as well as outside their homes, where government administration and programs grind to a complete halt, where the hospitals are treating wounded people instead of sick people, where international capital is scared away and the country goes bankrupt. ”
“The Indonesian covert action of 1965, reported by Ralph McGehee, who was in that area division, and had documents on his desk, in his custody about that operation. He said that one of the documents concluded that this was a MODEL operation that should be COPIED elsewhere in the world. Not only did it eliminate the effective communist party (Indonesian communist party), it also eliminated the entire segment of the population that tended to support the communist party – the ethnic Chinese, Indonesian Chinese. And the CIA’s report put the number of dead at 800,000 killed. And that was one covert action. We’re talking about 1 to 3 million people killed in these things. ”
“”Just to give you an example of how complete this is, and how military this has been, between 1900 and W.W. II, we had 5,000 marines in Nicaragua for a total of 28 years. We invaded the Dominican Republic 4 times. Haiti, we occupied it for 12 years. We put our troops into Cuba 4 times, Panama 6 times, Guatemala once, plus a CIA covert action to overthrow the democratic government there once. Honduras, 7 times. And by the way, we put 12,000 troops into the Soviet Union during that same period of time.”
The Narcissistic Billionaire Trump can be criticized for many many things …. but it seems bizarre to me that stopping or lowering The U.s.a’s role in feeding these death-spots with weapons and support is one of them.
How many people are aware of the war against russia which started in 1918 ?
How many russians would know ?
.. do you mean the u.s.a boot stamping cruelty in south America and other places …
No, I mean the people Orwell was actually referring to when he wrote that phrase. Still, kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.
You quote Orwell …. in a cartoonist way
“Washington policy makers and diplomats saw the world out there as one composed of “communists” and “anti-communists”, whether of nations, movements or individuals. This comic-strip vision of the world, with righteous American supermen fighting communist evil everywhere, had graduated from a cynical propaganda exercise to a moral imperative of US foreign policy.
John Foster Dulles, one of the major architects of post-war US foreign policy, expressed this succinctly in his typically simple, moralistic way: “For us there are two sorts of people in the world: there are those who are Christians and support free enterprise and there are the others.”14 As several of the case studies in the present hook confirm, Dulles put that creed into rigid practice.”
Over 2 million Vietnamese Killed…. freedom???
800,00-1.5 million Indonesians Murdered …. and a natural partner for NZ according to our nZ mfat webpage … Joshua Oppenheimer’s description of present day Indonesia … Where workers get threatened with the death squads that killed their parents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orD_WOrEN5o
South America …. running drugs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIVbFhVYB64
And Sorry if I find John Stockwell,…. an ex cia officer …. to be more credible on cia/usa policy and actions …. than your opinions .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmYZ_kWHk3Q
Nicaragua for Instance …….. “To destabilize Nicaragua beginning in 1981, we began funding this force of Somoza’s exnational guardsmen, calling them the contras (the counter-revolutionaries). We created this force, it did not exist until we allocated money. We’ve armed them, put uniforms on their backs, boots on their feet, given them camps in Honduras to live in, medical supplies, doctors, training, leadership, direction, as we’ve sent them in to de-stabilize Nicaragua.
They use terror. This is a technique that they’re using to traumatize the society so that it can’t function. I don’t mean to abuse you with verbal violence, but you have to understand what your government and its agents are doing. They go into villages, they haul out families. With the children forced to watch they castrate the father, they peel the skin off his face, they put a grenade in his mouth and pull the pin. With the children forced to watch they gang-rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes for variety, they make the parents watch while they do these things to the children. This is nobody’s propaganda. There have been over 100,000 American witnesses for peace who have gone down there and they have filmed and photographed and witnessed these atrocities immediately after they’ve happened, and documented 13,000 people killed this way, mostly women and children. These are the activities done by these contras. The contras are the people president Reagan calls `freedom fighters’. He says they’re the moral equivalent of our founding fathers. ”
Sounds like Ukraine Banderist nazi methods if you ask me ….
You know the ones ….. resurrected and backed up by trade sanctions against their enemy’s … solidarity from little ol NZ
Another natural partner perhaps ?
Sounds like Ukraine Banderist nazi methods if you ask me ….
No-one did. But you do get today’s High Score for false equivalence.
well you did say …. “kudos for the lengthy apologia for the worst totalitarian regimes in the world’s history – most people are too duplicitous or have too strong a sense of shame to be up-front about it.”
…are you unaware of approx 8000 unkraine SS officers given sanctuary and some even recruited by the us.a and other good guys after WWII??? …… Of the Banderist nazi flavor ….. some ended doing operations back home( killing/destroying ) …. and some taught torture.
Which brings me back to Nicaragua …. but I’d like to explore our/Nzs links with Indonesia more next time ….
Given our ‘natural partnership’ with them …. and the flurry of National party + business activity with this gangster nation ….before key made off …
********************************************
Ronny Raygun:”The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.”
http://thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2006/torture_death_and_nicaragua.htm
“The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years.
The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.
Sandinistas
The Sandinistas weren’t perfect.
They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements.
But they were intelligent, rational and civilised.
They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society.
The death penalty was abolished.
Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead.
Over 100,000 families were given title to land.
Two thousand schools were built.
A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh.
Free education was established and a free health service.
Infant mortality was reduced by a third.
Polio was eradicated.
Dangerous example was being set
The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion.
In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set.
If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things.
There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador.
I spoke earlier about ‘a tapestry of lies’ which surrounds us.
Taken generally by the media
President Reagan commonly described Nicaragua as a ‘totalitarian dungeon’.
This was taken generally by the media, and certainly by the British government, as accurate and fair comment.
But there was in fact no record of death squads under the Sandinista government.
There was no record of torture.
There was no record of systematic or official military brutality.
No priests were ever murdered in Nicaragua.
There were in fact three priests in the government, two Jesuits and a Maryknoll missionary.
El Salvador and Guatemala
The totalitarian dungeons were actually next door, in El Salvador and Guatemala.
The United States had brought down the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954 and it is estimated that over 200,000 people had been victims of successive military dictatorships.
Six of the most distinguished Jesuits in the world were viciously murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989 by a battalion of the Alcatl regiment trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA.
That extremely brave man Archbishop Romero was assassinated while saying mass.
It is estimated that 75,000 people died.
Why were they killed?
They were killed because they believed a better life was possible and should be achieved.
That belief immediately qualified them as communists.
They died because they dared to question the status quo, the endless plateau of poverty, disease, degradation and oppression, which had been their birthright.
Poverty stricken once again — ‘Democracy’ had prevailed
The United States finally brought down the Sandinista government.
It took some years and considerable resistance but relentless economic persecution and 30,000 dead finally undermined the spirit of the Nicaraguan people.
They were exhausted and poverty stricken once again.
The casinos moved back into the country.
Free health and free education were over.
Big business returned with a vengeance.
‘Democracy’ had prevailed.
But this ‘policy’ was by no means restricted to Central America.
It was conducted throughout the world.
It was never-ending.
And it is as if it never happened. ”
http://thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2006/torture_death_and_nicaragua.htm
whose shameless?????
My Grandfather got sent to war and fought the Nazis …. Unlike you he knew what to do with them.
It would be a disgrace to shut up and now pretend there are good nazis …. like some do.
Mind you, I doubt he went to war so a sleaze like Key could sell out his great grand-kids futures either ….
Another quote from Orwell that seems appropriate:
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
1984 Book 3, Chapter 3
And from Gustave Flaubert:
Inside every revolutionary there is a policeman.
I agree, ‘accelerationists’ as they are called are despicable – they’re happy to see other people suffer even more than they are now for the sake for the sake of the precious revolution, then jerk off over the thought of being in the Inner Party because they’re the ‘pure’ ones. If they want to burn a house down, they should start with their own.
So your take-home message from the large popularity of Sanders is to move the Democrats away from Sanders back toward what lost them the election.
Please go work for the Nats as a tactician.
Registered Democrats are the big leftie group in the US. Clinton won the primary by 55% to 43%. That’s a very clear margin, and a clear signal that leftie Americans were more comfortable with Clinton’s offerings than Sanders. Nevertheless, Clinton and the Democrats changed their platform to align more closely to Sanders’ platform. Then lost the general election. To Trump!!!! How does all of that add up to an argument the Dems should have gone even further away from the mainstream?
They didn’t lose the election because of the slight changes in platform, which did nothing to win voters in the rust belt – by comparison, Sanders’ platform would have been vastly more popular in the rust belt. That would come at a cost of votes in conservative states where he was losing anyway.
The dems might consider supporting an honest unentangled candidate.
Or not.
Gotta say that I’m not aware of anyone in the Dem pipeline that has quite the blindness about how their actions can be made to look that Hillary had, let alone doing that stuff while wearing the stains from 25 years of smears.
The overwhelming weakness of the left is a tendency to believe that if things only get a little worse, they will suddenly flip into a revolution that creates utopia.
Fuck Hegel.
Eager anticipation when things get worse is a clear conflict of interest to actually getting off your arse and improving things.
I’ve mostly thought the biggest weakness of left politics is a lot more lefties are into purity and principle politics to the point of being willing to vote for parties/candidates with no chance, even though it helps their polar opposite opponents win.
Whereas as righties seem to be a bit more pragmatic about voting for the possible winners closest to their views.
In New Zealand, just look at the peak vote for ACT (7% in 2002) and compare to pre-96 votes for say Greens or Alliance.
That is another big issue, too
This is interesting, how a UBI could go wrong
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Basic-Income-as-a-Neoliberal-Weapon-20170217-0009.html
Thanks, will have a proper read later. I cam across something recently that said one of the core disagreements between Lange and Douglas was Douglas’ UBI proposal. Might be worth looking up to see the NZ neoliberal version.
An interesting read, Xanthe. This guy explores some of my gut-instinct feelings about the current push for a UBI. I do see this in effect becoming a subsidy for employers and landlords. Current policies such as WFF and accommodation grants for people on benefits also work this way, of course, but not in such a wholesale way.
I can’t say I’ve done a lot of research into the issue, and could still be convinced – there probably are models which address my concerns, but any move in this direction would need to be very strongly designed in order to achieve its goals rather than (perversely) acting as a transfer of wealth into the pockets of those who least need it.
Trump’s pick for diplomatic posting an “insult to NZ”.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/89560459/its-an-insult-backlash-against-trumps-pick-for-diplomatic-post-to-new-zealand
He’s also a Fox News commentator accused of groping a female colleague – which makes it clear why he appeals to Trump, but that’s not exactly a great CV when it comes to dealing with New Zealanders.
I imagine for the US (for any administration), picking an ex Senator is seen as a good thing and an affirmation of the relationship.
Obama’s first Ambassador was an ex Senator.
Senators, even when they have lost elections, are usually highly regarded in the US political system. And the fact that he is a Fox commentator would be seen by the Trump administration as a demonstration of his connectedness in the political system.
However, I did not know about the groping accusation referred to by Psycho Milt.
Wayne, how do you feel about Brown’s reported enthusiasm for waterboarding?
Any view on Jonathan Milne’s opinion that Brown’s support of waterboarding is a good reason for New Zealand to say no, we don’t accept him?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/89507191/jonathan-milne-if-we-as-a-nation-find-senator-scott-browns-actions-abhorrent-we-can-do-more-than-talk–we-can-say-no
Andre,
I think it would be going too far to say “no” to him on that basis.
However, I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position, given the strong New Zealand position on this.
It is worth recalling that in 2003/2004 that NZ SAS soldiers strongly protested about American treatment of detainees, and took the issue up the command chain.
Reason,
I strongly protest about what you have said about me. And by implication that National supports torture.
In relation to Afghanistan (your link) in fact I made sure we deployed additional legal officers to Afghanistan so we could ensure, as best we could, that any detainees that the CRU arrested were not ill-treated. This whole issue was a major concern for us. One of our goals during the deployment was to improve the behaviour of the CRU.
A general dilemma that all western nations faced in Afghanistan (in fact in any country where the West or the UN gets involved in) is that the Afghans did not act in accordance to the standards we would expect. NATO/ISAF put in a huge effort to with the Afghan authorities to improve respect for human rights, to improve their prisons and their legal system. Are they yet like out courts and prisons?
No, but they are way better than they used to be.
As a general point, no matter the divergence of view we may have on various things, I don’t think it is necessary to demonise one opponents like that.
You’re out of touch.
I would expect him to acknowledge that is not New Zealand’s view, and to recognise that he needs to adjust his position,
The problem here is that your torturer mates aren’t from Afghanistan, and your desire to appease them looks a lot like being an accessory.
[lprent: You and
AndreReason are starting to go too far. Whilst I have serious doubts about Brown as being inappropriate for NZ, you have to remember that he isn’t here to represent NZ. He is here to represent the USA.If there was anything definitive in his history (for instance a conviction for groping a fellow Fox presenter) then at a government level we could (maybe) refuse to accept his credentials. However having opinions that are distasteful and obnoxious isn’t a ground for rejecting them. Ambassadors and ambassadorial staff are there for a purpose and are covered by some pretty specific law. We don’t have to like them, we just have to put up (with limits) what they say. ]
OAB,
Did you not read or understand my comment. I expect Brown to change his position on this issue.
When he doesn’t, you will advocate appeasement.
[lprent: See my note above. ]
Lprent, I’m more interested in Wayne’s movable feast of ethics than Brown’s. Warning noted.
lprent, maybe I’m being thick but I’ve carefully re-read what I wrote and I don’t see where I’m near a line. I was genuinely interested in Wayne’s views on the waterboarding and potential rejection as ambassador issues, particularly given the positions he has held in his service to NZ, and didn’t attack him or anyone else. Now that Wayne has shared his views, I’m not inclined to have a go at him for those views.
I’d be grateful if you have the time to explain where I’m close to the line. Or perhaps there was some mix-up between what I said and what Reason said?
[lprent: You notice that I put the warning (from memory) on Reason who was over the line (as Wayne pointed out), and on OAB who was continuing the same theme. I may have copied it on an additional comment of yours? Your first one was ok and from memory Wayne treated it by explaining his opinion. Edit: Oh I see what you mean. I said Andre where I meant Reason. I will adjust. It is because I see the comments running in reverse time order…
However OAB and Reason were effectively saying that the personal actions and opinions of an ex-minister and national party member were those of the government and national party. They were doing it on a topic that even National and their government have little to no leeway on. The law covering diplomatic embassies is pretty draconian.
It amounted to pointless abuse of a person for something where there was absolutely no effective relationship between Wayne and what they were objecting to. It was liable to drop into even more pointless flaming. I intervened to make sure it didn’t escalate into a bullying flamewar I’d have to start banning people for. Like the policy says, we prefer to warn rather than ban.
With that kind of brushwar, I tend to put the warning on each branch of an issue to make sure that everyone is aware of an issue and has no excuse to work around it. That is because of the tree structure of our comments. It is far too easy to miss warnings as the debate branches. ]
Thanks. Your warning to OAB started “lprent: You and Andre are starting to go too far…”, so I take it it should have been reason there instead of me. I was worried maybe I was violating a policy about being too beige or something.
Yeah, unless I jump tabs, when I start editing (rather than quick edit) a comment on the backend comment list. I lose all context. I usually rely on memory. Screwed up this time..
Lprent. Thanks for the longer explanation. It’s Wayne’s opinion as a law commissioner I’m interested in, although I think it’s fair to say that many of the experiences he cites derive from his time as a Minister.
(Sorry to discuss you in the third person Wayne.)
I agree that Browne is the US representative here, and from the sounds of it, he represents POTUS quite well. What I’d like to know is where the line is, for establishment figures like Wayne. How far does the US have to descend before they would consider “cutting ties” (whatever that means to them). Or is there no line – for similar reasons to Hobbes’ dictum that the worst dictator is better than the alternative, or whatever.
I’ll try and be more polite in trying to find out.
I remember going through a rather horrendous set of lectures and readings in dual areas; about the history of diplomacy and the law governing diplomacy in the commonwealth and NZ. Some of those lessons came from my military training and lifelong interest in the military and military history – the application of which is often viewed as being the failures of diplomacy. Being born 14 years after WW2, I grew up in the shadow of the ex-servicemen where i could see the consequences of diplomatic failures.
What you realize after looking at it is that the primary reason for diplomats is to keep open lines of direct communication to stop various types of warfare (from weaponry to trade). The actual quality of the diplomats is of far less importance than that they can accurately reflect both parties to each other. That is because the consequences of miscommunication between monarchs and states will often tend to be somewhat horrendous.
As someone who did law, military and government somewhat more than I did, Wayne probably got a whole lot more of that particular set of horror stories than I did.
But my view is that diplomacy is one area that needs to be somewhat isolated from populist thinking so that it can concentrate on downstream consequences. Of course that is because I know somewhat more clearly what the downstream failures of diplomacy can be than most of the recent generations. But you only really need to reflect on the diplomatic miscommunication and the miscalculations that fell out of the diplomatic schism between the USA/UK and Iraq to see a recent example.
Perhaps “cutting ties” is a poor choice of words.
Global Legal Action Network and the Stanford International Human Rights Clinic have taken a case against Australia and various private companies to the ICC.
Should the case proceed, law enforcement officials in New Zealand may be put in the invidious position of having to protect visiting heads of state for whom there are outstanding international arrest warrants. As Idiot Savant has pointed out, these individuals would also be wanted under domestic law.
As someone with a foot in both diplomatic and legal camps, Wayne can shed some light on the practical issues that arise. I still reckon he’ll give them (torturers) a free pass.
PS: in case you’re wondering why I switched from the USA to Australia, the legal and ethical issues are similar: the practical and diplomatic considerations are slightly different.
Not that much. If they are coming under a diplomatic credentials/passport, then there will be bugger all that we could do except to deny their visa or reject their credentials and ship them home.
Visiting heads of state typically come under diplomatic credentials. We’d be more likely to deny entry if they had an ICC warrant.
It is pretty much the same rules as any diplomat, like that guy from the Malaysian embassy a few years ago. We can boot them but that is about all unless they or their country waive immunity.
The alternative for inter-state communication is that effectively every diplomat is a probable hostage. Because trumped up charges could be made for literally anything. Laws could be passed purely to entrap. And no-one would send diplomats anywhere.
If you want to see an example, have a look at the terrible economic price that Iran faced for more than 25 years (and arguably on to today) after a state mob stormed the US embassy in Tehran. Apart from the ongoing sanctions, they were literally starved on any significiant capital and were shunned during a major war that they barely survived.
After all who in the hell would want to send diplomats into the precedent hellhole that the Iranian revolution created.
People who are not currently travelling under diplomatic immunity are private citizens and are fair game. That is what happened to Pinochet and Dotcom. However a case to extradite has to be made under the laws of the arresting country.
That’s true..
But didn’t stop the US border officials stopping the ex Norwegian PM travelling on a diplomatic passport to a prayer meeting in the US because he had visited Iran on a humanitarian visit a few years back..
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/03/former-norway-pm-bondevik-held-washington-dulles-airport-2014-visit-iran
What’s good for the goose….
OAB
I really don’t have any more to add.
But I can assure you we (NZDF and myself) put a lot of effort in trying to ensure fundamental human rights were protected in Afghanistan.
An interesting and insightful discussion on the role of Ambassadors by Iprent.
Presumably during the confirmation hearings Brown will have the opportunity to say the right thing. Surely as relatively senior JAG officer he must know the law in this area in detail. And he should be well informed by State of the New Zealand view.
I am certain the ICC will refuse jurisdiction in the Australian case. Whatever the Australian defaults, they do not reach the threshold required by the ICC.
Sorry Lprent …..
good on you wayne… for your strong protest…. about you , the nats and torture…………. I legally accept your plausible deniability
Its a shame about the mass amounts of torture and brutal killing of civilians that have directly resulted from the bits of war you do support ….
………..http://www.juancole.com/2016/07/real-problem-illegal.html
“The Iraq War was an act of pure aggression, no different in moral or legal standing from Hitler’s invasion of Poland. That is what Bush and Blair made themselves. Small Hitlers, betraying all the hopes of the generation of 1945, which dreamed of forestalling further such atrocities.
Had the war been launched in response to Saddam Hussain’s own attack on Iran in 1980, and had there been a consensus at the UNSC for such a move, it could have been justified. But in 2003 there was no international emergency calling for such a war. The level of Western hypocrisy can be measured, however, by the lack of any move to punish Iraq for invading Iran and starting an 8-year war that killed hundreds of thousands. Worse yet, the Reagan administration actually swung behind Iraq in 1983, allied with Saddam, and shielded him from charges brought by Iran to the UNSC that he used mustard gas and perhaps Sarin on Iranian troops at the front. And then the Reagan administration authorized the sale to Iraq of precursors for anthrax. ”
And your wanting NZ not to be bound by international law … ” the fact remains that under international law, any non-defensive war waged without its approval is illegal and a crime. So when Wayne Mapp says he doesn’t want our foreign policy to be subject to a UN veto, what he is really saying is that he wants to wage war in contravention of international law and the UN charter – in other words, he wants us to be a rogue nation, just like the US… ”
I just presumed a little water boarding …. would be water of a ducks back among a few million dead Iraqis …or Afghans .
Don’t be so racist about the Afghans wayne ………… how come if they are naturally so bad …. how is it that Afghanistan was a safe place for women and others to travel too and through? …. in that the time before the usa armed Muslim extremists there ….
It was on the hippy trail and a nice country http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/03/11/road-trip-to-afghanistan-snapshots-from-the-lost-hippie-trail/
Apart from bombs, shells and troops …. the usa brought the ‘Phoenix /El Salvador option’ to Iraq and Afghanistan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN4Sn5u_pK0
very very nasty stuff …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxHEI603bF4
My research has found that vicious dog handlers were in big demand and paid very well in Iraq post invasion …..
Given all the torture and prisoner abuse ……… should mark Mitchell clear up exactly what he was doing over there earning his money ….
Just so we know Mike Sabins replacement is squeaky clean ..
….. after that whale oil email in Nicky Hagers ‘Dirty Politics” book ….something about ‘bite em till they scream’
Mark Mitchell said he was gong to sue ………………… http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10429236/MP-considers-legal-action-against-Nicky-Hager
Any info on that? …. or Judith … I think she threatened to sue too ?
I don’t regard a person who has openly advocated torture methods like waterboarding is a suitable person to send to NZ, but I appreciate in Trump’s world it would be seen as a plus…
Barack Obama…
“..We tortured some folks”…
Dishonest cocksplat quote mines.
Would you like to back up that statement Joe, and or disprove the quote?
Repeated use of insults, no matter how much of a release from the issues you refer to in your life this blog provides you, is no excuse
[lprent: While we are on that subject – where is the source of that quotation? That was what you rightfully were pulled up on.
Since you objected to being pulled up, then I will object to you avoiding substantiating your out of context quote. Banned for 2 weeks. Read the policy and look at your own damn behaviour before trying to exercise moderator powers on this site. ]
Incomplete citation is technique used by the dishonest.
Joe’s right: what you did is called “quote mining”, and is a form of lying. Hence “dishonest”.
Did you think no-one would notice?
cocksplat? Nice one.
Browns endorsement of torture, would make him not suitable for most NZ citizens ..
He would be ok by the Nats …
And perfect to someone like wayne …. http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/search?q=mapp%2Btorture
… there might even be a trade deal in it.
[lprent: see my note above ]
One of his ex fellow Fox presenters has alleged that he groped her at work. She is suing Fox, him, and I believe several managerial staff at Fox both for the grope and that her complaint caused her bosses to push her out, She alleges that Fox is a hotbed of misogyny.
I can see how Trump might see groping female workmates as a plus. I can’t see how it would endear him to most of NZ.
Edit From the link that Anne put up
Yes waterboarding is one enhanced interrogation technique – there are many other ones within that category. Brown endorsed them all not just waterboarding. This is important because when you search and read the list of what they do under enhanced interrogation techniques it will turn your stomach.
He sounds like just the man to represent the current US administration. He has it all!
/sarc
Sorry, a little late to the discussion. Since I was cited in the article about Mr. Brown here is a more detailed elaboration of my views on his possible nomination: http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2017/02/where-to-draw-the-line/
Readers wil note that there is a cautionary tale for Wayne at the end of my post, given his position during the period the IG is looking at.
David Dunning of Dunning-Kruger effect fame reckons Trump is the most public example of the Dunning-Kruger effect he’s ever seen. Ouch.
In hindsight, this kind self-reflection may have been useful in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, when mentions of Dunning-Kruger on social media reached a new high. In the beginning, many of them were in reference to the candidate Donald Trump, whose combination of over the top blustering (“My IQ is one of the highest,” he has claimed) and obvious ignorance in areas such as foreign policy struck many Twitters users as, “the personification of the Dunning-Kruger effect.”
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/01/why-donald-trump-will-be-the-dunning-kruger-president.html?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/89560459/its-an-insult-backlash-against-trumps-pick-for-diplomatic-post-to-new-zealand
Does he need a visa to travel to US territory? They’d just put him in the diplomatic bag 🙂
Andrew Littles handling of the Willie Jackson selection/waiver debacle has finally lost the votes of myself and my wife. I’m a middle of the road swing voter and my wife is/was true Labour (she is a union rep). I change between parties but my wife has never even thought of anything but Labour. The biggest problem for Labour is I will never vote green and she may or may not. If Andrew is still looking for the missing million he can add one maybe two more to that number.
Why will you never vote Green?
My personal dealings with the Greens have been arduous. I won’t go into specifics but I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.
Oh, well done, Andrew. One issue, the selection of a mouth as a candidate has put you off voting Labour. Great.
So you’d rather have another three years of the most appalling government this country has had since the last National government.
And very likely you will not even be in the same electorate as Willie. But take your principled stand – and suffer the consequences.
You give short-sightedness a whole new dimension!
It’s not one issue Tony, for me it’s the culmination of scores of issues. For my wife however, I believe it does rest on the Willie Jackson issue.
@ Andrew
I would be interested to see a list of the “scores of issues” you refer to
I detest swing voters. They’re even worse than National voters. Swing voters are fence-sitters, without the courage or conviction to stand by their principles.
I have always been a swing voter, you detest me? I don’t detest you muttonbird. Do you blindly follow one party no matter what policy they do or don’t produce?
My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.
“My needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
Andrew, has it ever occurred to you to vote on the basis of others’ needs, and not just your own?
I’m less than thrilled by the Jackson selection. I do understand the reasoning behind it, though, and I would like to hear from the guy himself. Willie, if you’re out there, how about fronting up like Greg O’Connor and putting your side of the story? I would have questions for you and I’m sure others would too.
Can you give an example or two of Labour policies which will help the Country. I’m struggling to find any I think would work.
You don’t think they can establish a building program or raise taxes on the top?
I suggest you look at the expansion in the state housing stock during the period 1999-2008, the increase in the tax rate in 1999, and note that unemployment was at ~3% by 2007.
Did they fix everything? No. Have many indicators (everything from the rule of law to the infectious disease admission rate) declined since 2008? Yep. Are we getting mentioned in too many UN reports for all the wrong reasons? Yep.
Does the National Party care, let alone have the competence?
Three years free tertiary education 😀 I firmly believe that will work.
The career development plan and the Future of Work Commission.
I just want ‘value’ for my tax dollars, not bailouts, not ministry overspending or mismanagement . I want an educated society/community. That’s what’s important to me.
Red-blooded –
Re Willie Jackson you may find the piece from Moana Maniapoto in today’s
e-tangata interesting:
http://e-tangata.co.nz/news/moana-maniapoto-the-willie-jackson-i-know
Make sure you also read the comments esp. the one from Stephen Ihaka. I still have many reservations about Willie but without he has done a lot for poor, urban Māori over the years.
I’m going to try and put a post up about that in the next day or so. I disagree with her evaluation of the relative treatments of Māori and Pākehā radio hosts (but based on memory, I haven’t gone back and looked), but more interesting to me is that I read her piece as an example of how Māori handle things differently than Pākehā. More willing to forgive and be understanding of frailty and find ways of being inclusive as part of the solution.
A lot of the arguments about WJ in the past few weeks look to me to have been (white) feminists arguing with (white) men over rape culture issues and how they play out in Pākehā cultures. Not that all the people arguing have been white, but that the discourse I saw has happened in predominantly Pākehā spaces and those values are there. If women had equitably shared power in Labour, this would have played out differently, and the whole thing is a showcase of the patriarchy within Labour, and the wider culture as much as anything. It’s the still relative powerlessness of women in Pākehā society that jumps out.
Good to have a wahine Māori perspective just to bring that into focus as well as just hear how it looks from that side.
One thing I am tired of though is this idea that a good person can’t be misogynistic in certain areas. We really need to get over that.
then there’s this, which is a very good example of exactly why so much is still made of the issue and will continue to be despite WJ’s other good works.
“Sean Plunket
@SeanPlunket
@etangata good piece. Way to much made of roastbusters affair willy was asking legit questions that reflected the position of many kiwis.”
https://twitter.com/mizjwilliams/status/833167309216714753
I agree with most of your points.
My ongoing problem with Willie is that he still seems to play down the effect of homophobia, misogyny, rape culture etc although I do think he has more understanding now than in the past (I am mainly basing this on tweets from Alison Mau and comments made to me by a couple of Māori friends who know him well).
He is also a bit of a loose cannon and a better talker than he is a listener. These traits can cause more problems than they solve sometimes.
Translation: I am now wealthy enough that I can afford not to give a toss about the people who are struggling to get by. The Willie Jackson issue is a smokescreen to justify to myself voting National so I can stay wealthy, even though I know deep down that National are full of far worse people than Jackson and their policies are terrible for New Zealand as a whole.
I do not own a home and am not wealthy. I would love Labour to take the lead on issues that I think are important but they don’t.
such as?
Make them work for their vote Andrew.
You do not owe it to them or to any other party.
Labour’s got a long, long way to go before it can show it’s bringing back swing voters.
The great majority of whom will be women.
@ Andrew (6.3.1) you state …
“my needs from my government have changed over the last 40 years.”
This attitude is the reason we still have a National government. People voting for THEIR personal needs, with little thought as to what’s beneficial for the nation as a whole, is what’s destroying NZ.
If more voters gave considered attention to what’s best for their country in general, instead of themselves, NZ just might become a more egalitarian place for all Kiwis to live and enjoy.
Part of the problem is that the Right spends all its time destroying society, and then says it’s all about choice.
The system and players are the problem…(let’s ignore those behind the curtain for now)
And when combined with folk who believe that a regular vote equates to ‘freedom/democracy’…
The decline rapidly increases
Voting/voters are the problem you’re incorrectly identifying!
pentagon pays 500m to UK PR firm to create ministry of truth in Iraq,who would have though that?
http://labs.thebureauinvestigates.com/fake-news-and-false-flags/
Well here is an almighty one $Billion dollar Government stuff up. Joyce and Bridges are going to have egg on their faces over this;
“Transport blogger Patrick Reynolds said the purpose of the western ring route was to provide free-flowing traffic but it had been badly designed and would open to gridlock.”
“The reason for that is because of the failure to build parallel rapid transit. There is no busway,” Reynolds said.
“He claimed the ramp signals were being installed because of limitations on the ventilation system in the event of traffic coming to a standstill inside the tunnels.”
I recall Transport Minister Simon Bridges saying “the Waterview tunnel and ring route would be a faultless marvel” kind of thought at the time he would put the kiss of death on the ‘faultless’.
Bound to be hotly debated at the Mt Albert By-Election Transport Debate next Wednesday night.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11803442
If you watch the video it says there’s dedicated bus shoulder lanes.
There is no separated congestion-free busway on either North-Western or South-Western motorways like the one on the Northern motorway from Albany to the Harbour Bridge.
Buses have to merge back into clogged traffic at every overbridge where the shoulder lanes disappear. Transport agencies are only belatedly adding shoulder lanes to the SW motorway in any case.
Seems like another very expensive stuff-up like when the SW was first connected to the Southern motorways, requiring urgent remedial work to correct problems. The whole Western Ring Route from Manukau to Albany totals $4b, yet people have been giving its sub-projects a free pass and whinging instead about the core rail link budgeted at half that amount.
Akl has suffered under every single national govt when it comes to transport.
Muldoon wouldn’t finish the suburban rail network, Williamson sat by whilst Bolger and Shipley plundered the fuel and RUC charges to use elsewhere and now this mob.
Not only has the shonky reign screwed over public transport since day 1 it’s double whammied it by flooding akl with moneyed migrants.
Patrick would do well to keep his powder dry until the SH20 Waterview system actually opens. Lest he’s wrong and looks like a complete dick.
And who would have thunk it? The interviews for the three vacant Auckland Transport Board appointments are in a matter of days.
Ad you should know by now that it’s not too far in the future for complete gridlock in Auckland. The situation deteriorates by the day. It’s very obvious to someone who travels into the city once or twice a month, and not on a daily basis. Over the past 2 – 3 years the traffic flows have become slower and slower and gridlocks occur at anytime of the day. The opening up of SH 20 at Waterview onto SH16 will simply sift the problem from one point to another.
I agree it’s getting worse – and more brittle. Only takes one crash at AM or PM peak to really throw things for an hour.
But NZTA are not proposing SH20 Waterview as a solution to gridlock.
Gridlocks are not necessarily caused by accidents. They invariably occur when too many vehicles all want to be in the same place at the same time – ie the roads become choked and cannot carry the number of vehicles wanting to use them. All over Auckland now this situation is occurring on a daily basis at almost any time of the day. It can take up to 2 hours now in the late afternoon to travel from Auckland airport to Pukekohe a distance of around 40 km.
Accidents of course exacerbate the problem.
it is an interesting area of study
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goVjVVaLe10
Yes – a picture (or in this case video) is worth a thousand words.
That is what we are now experiencing daily on Auckland’s motorways. It’s obvious that what is really needed is not more motorways. What is needed is better public transport thereby relieving the pressure on over crowed motorways.
The Standard leading the political news with Newshub quoting directly from Greg O’Conner’s guest post.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/02/labour-s-h-riu-candidate-greg-o-connor-takes-aim-at-critics.html
Farrar will be spewing.
Heh, thanks for that.
“Labour-aligned blog”. Hmmm. Is that them shit-stirring, or them simply not grasping what TS is? Maybe just being lazy in explaining it properly.
The MSM being lazy? So it ain’t so…
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re ramping up the conflict angle. The post I read was balanced and good-humoured, and the comments have had a similar tone. Hardly “taking aim at critics”. Plus the old chestnut “Labour-aligned bog”. Sigh…
Yep, it’s all in the headline; ‘takes aim’, ‘gun-toting’, ‘fascist cop’.
Poor old Dan Satherley had to get the Standard to do his work for him today though.
Got to love the out going President of Bolivia. President Correa talks to Abby Martin, about what the last 9 years have meant for him, his administration, and the people of Bolivia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwUwzv7cBbk
Farkinell. Could he please come and run New Zealand after he retires?
Just a small correction. Correa is the outgoing president of Ecuador, not Bolivia. Evo Morales is the president of Bolivia. What is true is that in spite of some problems both Ecuador and Bolivia have done pretty well under Left rule.
I think I’m going to post more from this site, which I really enjoy reading. This arrived into my mail box this morning, be prepared to be challenged.
“WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE”
ONE MUJERISTA TALKS BACK TO INTERSECTIONALITY AND WHITE FEMINISM
https://bitchmedia.org/article/dont-let-intersectionality-be-years-buzzword/one-mujerista-lays-out-harmful-realities-white
Thanks for posting this.
Is North Korea Done? I think it may be.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-north-korea-sanctions-coal-economics-nuclear-tests-kim-jong-nam-donald-trump-a7587931.html
Case finally thrown out. Seen this?
http://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/media/council/2017/02/defamation-case-struck-out/
The defense of qualified privilege permits persons in positions of authority or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered slander and libel if made by anyone else – Wikipedia.
It’s a very detailed written judgement for such a trivial case.
I’m worried about these people.
“Emotionally fragile farmers still trying to rebuild their lives after the earthquake are at breaking point, with police having to confiscate guns for fear of self-harm.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/89383876/Gun-confiscated-as-Marlborough-farmers-battle-quake-trauma
Often we think when things have tidied up after a traumatic event that people just get on with the job. But for many it just doesn’t work like that. It can take years if not a lifetime to work through some trauma and the fallout from it. Trauma has a cascading effect into relationships, self esteem, financial issues, motivation and depression and for most it takes expert help to navigate through these very dangerous shoals.
I know mental health resources are scarce and it can take severe behaviour to trigger them sometimes.
I suppose what I am saying is that if you know someone who may be affected then it is worthwhile offering a compassionate ear to listen to them – it is possible to validate how they are feeling without agreeing with what they are saying eg “It must be really difficult to be feeling that way.” At the bottom of the article are the links to the support services out there – they are important and necessary for helping people and they can help people.
Let’s try and help them if we can.
rich, poor, famous, unknown, father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, young, experienced, talented, loud, quiet – don’t be fooled into thinking some are not living in a very difficult place…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11803773
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503426&objectid=11802202
Interesting topic MM. I think people who have gone through trauma carry it with them for a long time. From what I’ve seen it’s often dealt with not by talking but its released through other outlets, violence, depression, anger, addictions. Especially men I think find it hard to discuss these/their issues and probably struggle with these things for longer.
I’m not sure what the answers are, a free availability of all kinds of mental health care would be great, getting it out front and centre would reduce the stigma of people too scared to go for help. Maybe also having a compulsory counsellor/psychotherapist always present and available at the local doctor’s practice, so anyone can drop in and know they can get mental health help at any time. That could also help with making people aware that going to the doctor is not about just physical health too. Integrate it so noone bats an eyelid.
Lots of attention given to Peter Thiel’s fast-tracked citizenship, so here’s a bit of context.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
To Levchin, prepping for survival is a moral miscalculation; he prefers to “shut down party conversations” on the topic. “I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.” In his view, this is the time to invest in solutions, not escape. “At the moment, we’re actually at a relatively benign point of the economy. When the economy heads south, you will have a bunch of people that are in really bad shape. What do we expect then?”
[…]
By January, 2015, Johnson was sounding the alarm: the tensions produced by acute income inequality were becoming so pronounced that some of the world’s wealthiest people were taking steps to protect themselves. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Johnson told the audience, “I know hedge-fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway.”
I read quite a bit of stuff about Peter Thiel’s citizenship. It got all political, no surprise, and there were all sorts of angles, all sorts of pros and cons and explanations.
To sum all that up without the politics and put it into the sort of succinct reality that big business people like:
Peter Thiel bought citizenship in New Zealand.