Is Scott Morrison a creationist? A google search doesnt seem to give up that info. Do we really want someone who belives that a fictional character (let's face it, God is a fictional character) waved a magic wand to create this world 6000 years ago in charge of a country?
In addition, it is kinda depressing to see the highly paid workers in the coal, oil, gas and construction sectors throw their lower paid brothers and sisters in the service, retail and hospitality sectors under a bus by voting away their penalty rates for good, and probably voting for futher wage cuts as well. Sad really.
How about quit trying to manipulate liberal / national policy by constructing from the bottom up, internally incoherent gibberish designed to demonstrate how woke you are, and address your own / our own shitty woke policies and fix that up.
I recall a discussion with a fellow MP (in National) who told me he was a creationist. I had very open conversations with colleagues. I asked him how that affected his policy decisions. He said; " In Wellington, I have a Wellingtonian approach to policy. In my personal life I have my beliefs."
In my experience, this approach is quite common among those who have strong religious views and who are also in politics in a major party. They don't only exist in National. Traditionally some are in Labour. There are none in the Greens and probably none were in ACT.
The areas where their religious views does affect their political views is conscience issues. If you know a person is a religious conservative, you also know their views on euthanasia, abortion, gay marriage, drinking age, cannabis, shop trading hours, casinos.
But outside those things you don't. They can be big social spenders or small social spenders, they can be free market or they can be market interventionists.
as we can currently see this approach worked well in the United States were creationism is thought more in schools then actuall science and where god put babies in the bellies of little girls – thus no abortion.
Bill English comes to mind, so godly, so very very godly especially when it comes to the decision that women make about their bodies and reproductive rigths, but then issue defrauding (we would call it theft for any person not Bill English) the goverment to the tune of 40 odd grand for houses that he may or may not live in cause 'he did not know' – even so he never did anything else in his whole working life then life of the government tit.
but i guess so as long as they are National its all good. right?
" If you know a person is a religious conservative, you also know their views on euthanasia, abortion, gay marriage, drinking age, cannabis, shop trading hours, casinos."
Aren't politicians in Government bound to be open-minded and free of prejudice, in the way local body politicians are, Wayne? The training local body politicians regularly undergo, Making Good Decisions, requires a suspension of bias when it comes to making decisions on behalf of the ratepayers. To say that the views of politicians who are religious conservatives is fixed and can be listed, as you have done, is…disturbing.
The things I noted are all regarded as conscience issues. It should not surprise anyone that religious conservatives would vote on these things in a very specific way. I never saw any religious conservative, no matter what their party, who didn't vote in an entirely predictable way on these issues.
In the major parties, once these items were settled by a vote, there was never any further agitation by religious conservatives to change the outcome. They just accepted it. Neither did they ever promote their views outside a specific conscience vote, that is they didn't drive Members Bills on these issues. They would never get consent from their colleagues to do so, and it was never pushed, even sotto voce.
However, in a party where these things were more central, there would be continuing agitation. But such a party would be 5% or less of there parliament and couldn't force a major party to change it views on these issues. What a minor party could do is promote Members bills on these issues. Then others would vote according to conscience.
Have you followed the US over the last three decades or so?
Do you believe that 'it' could not happen here, or are you so cynical that the only thing that matters is hte Party and the country and those that are against the honestly held religious believes of politicians be damned?
And do you really believe that that stale milk toast covered in Margarine has any any chance to keep anything together when religious zealots are a lot more attractive to a certain type of voter then the default National they vote now for lack of choices?
Because at the moment, religious minded people may vote for National as the default party – cause, godly Bill English, godly Alfred Ngaro, goldy Milktoast, – and yes all of these men use their religion and their religious conviction to appeal to their voters more then actual policy that would help the poor, feed the hungry, house the homeless and welcome the stranger to their house.
Do you really thing that the current lot that is running the National party has any chance against some cynical god botherers? Because i don't think so, and i don't think so because i can look at other countries and see what is happening in real time rather then your make believe fantasy world in which the National Party is a force for good rather then just an assembly of men and women happy to be bought at the right price by anyone who would keep them on the government tit – and eventually to a board of a company that they then can help bankrupt.
It’s more interesting that the fringies are falling out of favour with the major parties. So any true radical will see this as an opportunity to unite.
Well "what pays better?" Well it's Braitbart and the Israel lobby that pays better but they've fallen out of favour with the National Party image. To much sin.
New Zealand is much less interested in conservative religious/moral issues than the United States. I would say vastly less so. So no real risk of what you are suggesting.
This is reflected in the major parties. For instance we have had two conservative catholic prime ministers in the last 30 years. Neither of them used their positions to promote those views. The only way their views on such matters were manifested was through their conscience votes.
As I have already said, conscience issues are essentially sectioned off from broader public policy.
An explicitly religious party would be able to get more conscience votes because they most frequently come from Members Bills, and such a party would promote such Bills. However, they would most likely fail in the wider parliament.
Such a party could not force National MP's to vote for these Bills. There is a strong group of socially liberal National MP's (and "middle of the road" MP's) who would not permit that.
However I imagine a religiously based party would be very keen on partnership schools, and faith based welfare programmes. A significant number of conservative Pacific Island communities would want to establish schools with a strong faith based approach, but still teaching the required curriculum. Similar to Catholic integrated schools.
The partnership school approach would make that affordable. Since many Pacific Island communities do not have substantial wealth, they typically cannot afford the high capital costs of establishing a school in the way the traditional churches have done. Partnership school would provide the option.
Such a party could very well make National into a minor party. 🙂 as one could argue that Labour is a 'minor party albeit the largest one among the minor parties. Also see the republican party in the US. it took them a few years, but they – the tea party / evangelic right managed to take over the party. I beg you to point to one sane republican politician who currently would protect a womens right to choose, not threaten her with a criminal offense for having an abortion (irrespective the reason), who did not at some stage favor to electrocute or otherwise train the gays into behaving like a heterosexual, believes that allowing gays to marry is akin bestiality and such. Cause they all said that, enabled it, supported it.
And your current margarine covered milk toast will do exactly that if it means to keep his paycheck, as sitting in parliament is literally the easiest job in the country. You have to achieve nothing and still get paid and perks for life.
The reason many pacific islander don't have wealth is racism (yo National), low wages (yo National), and religion (tithing, no abortion, women submit joyfully to your husband/father, large families a blessing from god etc)
Partnership? The last time National went into partnership with an ethnic party – Maori Party they killed them. I don't think you have the slightest idea what you talk about, but then, you already received your easy wages and now live of your life long government issued tax payer funded perks, so you would be literally the last person to suffer if my scenario would come true rather then your pie in the sky fantasy scenario.
And as the 9 years under national have shown, your party will fuck up given half a chance – so as long as they get to bank, and bank they did.
It is clear from numerous MMP elections, there is around about 4 to 5% conservative christian vote. It comes from across the political spectrum. In fact, arguably more from Labour than National because when the conservative christian vote is high, Labour is low.
Conservative christian vote is no danger to National. Very few National voters are conservative christian, and certainly not to the extent that it is the main determinant of how a person votes. For instance neither of the conservative catholic PM's would have been remotely interested in a conservative christian party. It would be way too narrow for them.
The Maori Party almost survived the last election. It would have had two MP's, but for Tamiti Coffey who beat Te Uroroa Flavell by about 1500 votes. Labour was determined to kill the Maori Party. They succeeded.
that does not include 'environmentally fair, respectful, inovative, and socially minded farmer' .
you know like the dude that has 8 children living of 'working for family' tax payer funded subsidy while holding a sign that says "She's a pretty communist'. What 'godwin type' word would love for that guy? or the guys that killed their cattle with a preventable diseases by flaunting the laws and transporting them willy nilly all over the greenery for profits shits n giggles and now need government tax payer funded hand out to make up for the thousands of dead cows so they then in a few years time can repeat the exact same shit?
I'm sure the party religious conservatives never "agitated" on things like wiping historical crimes for homosexuality. You know it only took until 2018 for that to finally happen.
"this approach is quite common among those who have strong religious views"
Yes but that doesn’t justify holding this view. They are complete nutters to believe this Wayne. It is bollocks. Do you want a nutter running the country?
well are you talking about Saudi Arabia? Quatar? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Iran? Iraq? Algeria? Malaysia? UAE? Marocco? Indonesia? Epypt? Turkey? or any of the others that are too numerous to mention?
They all do have a few things in common.
Very little freedom unless you are the default best human being – a man.
Very little reproductive choices unless you are the default best human being – a man
Very little government representation unless you are the default best human being – a man
Very little education for all (i would exclude the Asian muslim countries as they generally have a good grip on education for all) unless of course you are a male
Very little career option for all, unless you are a male. Then of course you must work cause someone has to feed the little dears women will bear if they have no access to reproductive choice but has to put out on demand in order to earn her dinner. (Women of course also work, but often times only within the family and often times they don't get to keep their pay – very much like it was in our western society until having bank accounts in ones own name became the norm in the late seventies of the last century – 1970 not 1870)
Marriage at a very early age – unless your family is of a certain income aka not poor, or you are a male, then you deserve a pre-teen or several to keep your house and birth you lots of manly children.
Healthcare in certain countries for women does not exist – if she dies in childbirth its gods will.
So you could posit that they indeed manage, and i would posit that the US would also manage under a theocracy, but i would also posit that it would be mainly the women, children, homosexuals, trans, anyone not identifying as a heterosexual, atheist, non Christian that would not manage.
But i understand, details, pesky pesky details. Lucky us right, cause it could never ever happen here.
I would also like to point out that these are stereo types that while all true – not always apply to all countries and certainly don't apply to all people that live in these countries but are bound by the rules.
I for one am very much aware of my privilege and luck – yes luck – to have been born a white girl into a white country at a time or relative enlightenment. If i would have been born into Afghanistan/Bangladesh/Anatolia/Saudi Arabia/Eqypt/Mali/Somalia/Indonesia by now i would have a good chance of being dead. I could have died in the wedding night due to internal injuries/bleeding after fulfilling my martial duties, or died in childbirth, or died of starvation as a widow, or died in a bombing by russia (afghanistan) and then the us, or died being stoned by the taliban/saudi arabia/islamic state for 'crimes against god and such' for trying to survive with my children as a widow by prostituting myself, or for refusing to marry some bloke old enough to by my grandfather.
So yeah, they manage, like we manage, but a lot of that managing comes at the cost of keeping women out of public life, and of denying sexual right and freedom men and women alike, and to chop of hands and legs and whippings in public space. But in saying that Europe survived and they burned women alive at the stake. So its all in good fun, so as long as we manage?
I think it'd take just a smidgeon more than lowering his taxes half a point. If you could throw in a gig or two in the media as a talking head to make sure he remains relevant – that'd be good
Perhaps Australia is a just joke country that's too far gone to worry about? Maybe all we can do is try to avoid unworthy feelings of schadenfreude as they burn up over the next 40 years, while trying to make ourselves more resilient.
Though there's a depressing takeaway about the continuing ability of private money-power (Rupert Murdoch & Clive Palmer) to sway elections. You can't have a proper democracy until private money-power is curbed. Which might lead some people to conclude that democratic means of curbing it are unavailable, and other methods must be employed. And that is a particularly worrisome conclusion.
There's not much point in worrying about Australia. Climate change means the entire country will likely spontaneously combust in the very near future. I keep telling my sisters they should probably move before it's too late.
And while everyine would like to see nurses and teachers pay rates really reflect their input few employees today have the same level of long term job security that goes with those positions.
Both sectors had very little to say and curbed their demands for nine years or so years but now expect magic wand to be whipped out to meet their demands despite the knowledge that housing and the health and welfare of a good number of their pupils is very important to their ability to learn.
NZ deserves to be governed with the "long game" in mind. Funnily I doubt that very many will be willing to sacrifice the balance that is returning to NZers lives and will risk the return of another National Party govt any time soon. They show the same self-interest that led to the "catch-up" being required across many issues and no concern for NZ nothing has changed there, something, if it is not fully realised now, that a lot of NZers will reflect on with their choices next election.
Yes "some" solely obsessed with being elected, that has ever been the case but the intentions after that matter the most. I see merit in righting the ship and keeping the passengers on board before deciding how the deck chairs arranged to get the best outcome for all.
i think sadly, that the left needs to be as radical as the right. Or let me put it this way, if we are not radical, demanding radical solutions everyone is drowning as the whole in the ships bottom is never gonna get fixed. Currently we are all standing in a line bucketing the water out while some of our precious dears are in the captains lodging arguing of whom should get in the one life boat that is on the ship.
We are living in extreme times – environmentally its gonna get worse not better – and we have no plan but a bunch of over paid suits pretending that they can go back to a past that did not exist.
In the meantime we scold kids for taking of fridays.
I'm not scolding kids for taking off Fridays that's for sure, I'm hoping that that will coax some of their "elders" to think hard about how they can be more open to what needs to be done. Currently it is a hard-sell with some people despite it being for a better future, why that is bedevils me and commonsense. In some ways that is possibly how it needs to be to change direction permanently instead of duck-shoving everything back to "government" and expecting overnight miracles. If that is the way it is temporarily it is better than nine more years of willingly damaging lives via divide and rule.
i am not talking about you, but the ones in our media that are so concerned with children taking off school to go on a strike.
also i would like to point to the orange shitshow in the united states that is currently pissing all over the country because the democrats did neither show spine nor guts
You may need to be more specific. On the AM show he definitely ruled out mandating Ngaro's christian revival attempt. Said they would stand a Nat candidate in Botany next year and expect to win there. Since the Nats got 60% there last time, he's right – unless Ngaro stands there for the christians. That could create a three-way split.
Anyway, if your culture war thesis was correct, Bridges would be supporting the artificial construction of a support partner for the Nats, huh?
It would maximise the prospects of JLR, although if Labour fronts with a good candidate a four-way split seems feasible (with rough parity) but tribalism will always give the Nats the edge on the basis of 60% last time.
Bridges spent the whole interview speaking out of sides of his mouth but it is crystal clear that National is planning a dishonest scare campaign based on culture war issues, from saying they support evidence based drug reform whilst pandering to the Family Fist crowd to saying they support conscience votes on issue like abortion whilst offering mealy mouthed equivocation on the establishment of a religious extremist party to help them game MMP.
Seems a reasonable apprehension, but it would be equally reasonable to frame it as simply appealing appealing to the biases of their voter base, wouldn't it?
Anyway, there's an obvious danger for them if they do decide to try the culture war strategy: alienating centrists. So I see it as self-defeating, short-sighted.
Across the Tasman, the Liberals won by refusing to have a detailed manifesto, engaging is dishonest representations of selected opponents policies and running a culture wars by proxy campaign in Queensland and in the Murdoch press.
The lesson National will take from that is that they can wage a proxy culture war by a bunch of extremists – hence this Christian party – and that they should double down on the dishonest culutre war attacks via their media proxies such as Mike Hosking and via the likes of Paula "Gummi Bears" Bennett.
It is an open question if this approach will succeed, especially given how ill-equipped our ideological bankrupt and intellectually cowardly Labour would be to deal with such an assault.
+ 1 yep and they will utilize their sub-groups to hate on people, to create strife, issues – oh we need strong gnat govt to fix these 'issues' blah blah blah
I think the lazer of Jacinda will vapourise them – but the battery life isn't infinity and others are going to have to step up. They are beginning to – the bishop got dealt to, paula benefit is being dealt to, and so on – be good to save winnie for the mega hit counterattack or defense imo
if National wants to win they will run on decriminalizing or tolerating weed as in Holland or based on the system of the US. – i know a few non – voters that will vote for that and they are old, middle aged and young, who literally have no reason to vote for either party other then civic mindedness.
And its nobodies fault but that of the coalition. Every now and then one has to take a risk, and on this issue they actually could.
the rest is business as usual for National. No ideas but pondering to the lowest common denominator and bigotry.
Did you watch the rise of the Tea Party in the US?
Do you understand that the Tea Party has become the Republican Party?
And do you understand that the only Party really in danger of the rise of the christo fascist are those on the right? As they – in order to keep their constituancy need to move ever more right in order to stay electable to the God freaks on the right?
And yes, God Freaks, not godly, not christian, cause anyone who – as in the states, can not allow gun control cause 'fredom and personal choice' but has no issues condeming little girls to give birth to their own aunties/uncles/brothers/sistes/cuzzies is not a christian or a person of faith, but rather a cynical being who literally would offer little girls as a sacrament to advance their very own agenda.
And I have personally met Alfred Ngaro, a man who will not introduce himself when he comes to the shop of a women, who will not say anything other then 'Can i speak to your husband'. WTF? Mr. , I don't have a husband. It was a funny scene, where it no so fucking sad.
You better watch out that you don't end up being the Sorcerers apprentice " the ghost that i have called, i can not rid myself of anymore'.
Well, Sabine, all I can say is that if you think I'm apologising for the Nats then it appears to be evidence of a tendency to read motives into text. Such tendencies, when the motives aren't actually there, can make people delusional!
"The most recent poll on the issue by the Kaiser Family Foundation, conducted in late April, found that two-thirds of the public wants Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, to remain in place. Slightly more than half of Republicans disagree."
i don't say you are a National applogist, and if that is what you got from my comment that says more about you then me.
all i am saying is that we should look at the US and see what happened there and thus stop making fun about it, stop pretending it can't happen here and maybe just be a bit more cautious, cause it can happen here and i fear it will.
Our current lot of do very little politicians do not address climate change with the urgency needed, do not address job security, food security, housing security and energy security with the urgency needed.
And thus they leave a space to be filled by hate peddlers and tithing grifters like tamaki and his ilk. And Alfred Ngaro falls under ilk, as do the brethren, the gloriavale cultists, jehova witnesses and the likes. And i will also tell you that they vote, and their women vote, and they will vote for the hate peddlers and tithing grifters so as long as they pretend to be forced birth, anti gay / other orientation, anti freedom of movement for women (ohio, missoury both have lawed it that a women who leaves the state for an abortion is still a criminal should she dare to come back and so is the driver of the car btw), do with your children as you please – i .e. beat the life out of them (blanket training read up on it), don't vaccinate, don't take to the hospital, don't educate cause property of men.
The point is that they have promised these things, and now thanks to the orange shitshow they are getting what they want. (after all as they said a few years ago, we only need a president who can hold the pen to sign the laws we put in front of him, he is not needed to advance laws or make them). And if you believe that our lot is not equally cynical and monstrous in their intention then i have a two lane bridge flanked by a kauri on either side or ten in Northland to sell to you.
the wall in the US is not to keep the South Americans out, it is to keep the US Americans in.
Sabine And I have personally met Alfred Ngaro, a man who will not introduce himself when he comes to the shop of a woman, who will not say anything other then 'Can i speak to your husband'. WTF?
I know that was the sort of thing that men said and did in the 1960s before the new wave of womens lib/feminism. That was what they organised and protested to change. To hear it has still lingered on and is trying to rise up again from the crypt is very concerning.
Watch this trend of people wanting to take the podium and pronounce on how women should be; jealous men (of their paramount rights) and priggish women (wanting to be seen as perfect examples of womanhood and behaviour, both moral and super-smart, eg Ruth Richardson, Denise L'Estrange-Corbet, Jenny Shipley & other status seekers). Watch for the patriarchal cults, the ones that want women kept in their (lower) place; they are toxic. And often there are economic features and a desire to rob females of their opportunity to develop as their own person, behind the moral pose.
https://www.peggyorenstein.com/potowski-; Peggy Orenstein Cinderella Ate My Daughter! She explored the commercialisation by Disney of an interest that little girls had for dressing as princesses in home-made outfits.
My feeling is that females are the subject of much commercialising and image-making and are vulnerable to peer pressure. They front nearly every magazine in the supermarkets near the checkouts, featuring body shape, looks, scandals, sexual lives, marital tiffs.
Women are squeezed into shape by popular culture and commercialisation – chick flicks where they can watch romantic movies and ditzy stories about the combination of worries they take on as they try to find themselves in a complex of possible images. Cosmetics to cover their faces and bodies to enhance and preserve is a billion dollar industry.
Now it has gone full circle in Alabama and other States of misrule, and the disrespect and downgrading of females has descended to extreme and punitive levels, showing a hate that has been mainly masked with occasional eruptions. Now it has been exposed in all its ugly conceptions, and we need to watch for its diseased head here; no vaccinations are available, but an alert populace knowing the signs of rash behaviour may check and contain it. But it will always remain in pockets of cults here and there which have precepts that aren't well understood. There was a doco in recent NZ Film Festival called Angie about Bert Potter's creative urges that led to his Commune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZlQDHpcMG4 This story Angie shows the difficulty of growing up in a place with no respect for your person, your body and soul.
How can a woman be respected as a person in the USA States that have brought in such strict abortion laws. In other countries if a woman reports her rape, then she becomes a criminal. I thought that western nations had advanced in the respect and rights of all, but it has apparently been a facade. Respect and rights have never reached the skin-deep stage in Alabama, with their violent, hate-filled, race-crimes past and the volume of hate has increased and overflowed to find further victims.
Don't let any of this unChristian posing come to rest in NZ. This is not Christianity and Ngaro and his ilk should be charged with hate speech talking about abortions as being like a holocaust.
Would National develop into a clone of the USA Republican Party if there was advantage for them in it?? Have they already and I have been too naive to see it?
bill english, stale margarine toast, that 'fornication for procreation only dude', the conservative party, the alfred ngaro party
we really in this country and elsewhere need to stop crying about spilled beans and start seeing what is now. We can't go back to the past. Chances are many of us not white standard issue males would not want to go back, and yet, it seems that many in order to receive a few crumbs are very happy to sacrifice women, children, brown people, non conformist people on the altar of 'privileges lost'.
If you mean that Ngaro is brown, and is interested in privileges lost I think that may be a side track. I think he may be a Pacific Islander and has decided to move into what is called conservative Christianity, with a touch of 'prosperity church' and a strength of purpose and mind that is partly built on blame for male violence on women. There is also a trend to small neighbourhood Christian type groups looking for community and companionship and if you can get what is regarded as a Church going, there may be tax advantages.
Motivation of that sort is probably higher than perhaps what you have referred to. Conservative Christians are always bubbling away and see their ideas as being recipes for straightening out the debased society that we live in. A lot of what we have now is modelled on television presentations and sport, which is becoming more aggressive and more lucrative, and self-directed rather than community-connecting. There is less cohesive community mores and goodwill round sport than previously. Maori though seem to do better, they have kapa haka and try to maintain their cohesiveness.
Edit:
But Tamaki, Ngaro are entrepreneurs who can build on isolation and frustration and lack of purpose and belonging in the midst of suburbs in towns and cities; a built-up society without real community. I think this puts their position and that they are politically adept and worldly, and see their tipping point in today's universal and National's particular, dilemmas.
No i say Ngaro is a cynical man who knows that men lost privileges.
Not only white ones ,but men in general, and there is quite a bit of anger out there in some men that would like to get back their union jobs (but without the evil unions) that would like women to be less independent (no birth control / abortion for you missy, you have sex you deserve that pregnancy – all 20 of them even), that would like to spank/beat their kids without government interference and the missus too if she has an issue joyfully submitting to the husband, and that would like to go back to the top of the picking order. And this has very little to do with race but all to do with gender…..and aren't we lucky, the bible agrees with them.
One can be a sexist even when brown.
And yes, there is money – a lot of money in churches, as they are tax exempt, people are expected to tithe, often time all free time is spend in these churches as they pick up were government fails due to lack of funds. Because the same guys that scream government is bad and should be small and lower the taxes are the same guys that will stand at the pulpit and demand their due in the name of god. Tamaki comes to mind. Ngaro in my book wants a piece of the action, and national will enable him at their own peril.
But at the end of the day, as the United States has shown us over the last few weeks, it is not only a problem for the Party that will get taken over, and that is what i now predict for Natonal Politicians to do – our christianise the evangelic / reborn/ christian in order to get elected in the future as seen in the States – but also for the opposition. Cause they have no response to what is happening on the right. They have no response to the misery of people and other then a few band aids in order to 'not rock the boat', get 're-elected' to maybe offer a few more band aids in the next cycle they have nothing on their plate.
I predict the next election to be a shit show of epic proportions. And I predict National to go so far right that if they don't watch out the fall of the plate and to stay on the plate they will do much damage to the most vulnerable of our society, women, children, people of color, elderly, sick and so forth. Cause 'charity' rather then government. I am sure Tamaki can't believe that he will now receive tax payer funded government largess due to the inaction of the same governments of all the previous years irrespective of stripe. Cause we can't for example decrim weed to keep men out of prison. We can't spend money of preventable health care. We can't spend money on decent schools for all. We can't spend moeny on decent housing for all. We can't spend money on equal opportunties. We can do any of that, but we can pay tamaki to go to prison and tell men to 'men up' and please don't beat your wife to the point where she or the kid needs a burial.
(i point to russia into decriminalisng domestic violence 🙂
Russian women suffering domestic violence are being deterred from going to the police since its partial decriminalisation last year, campaigners have claimed after a dramatic fall in reported incidents.
The state statistics, released in July, reveal that the number of cases of domestic violence reported to the police in 2017 almost halved since physical abuse became punishable by a fine rather than time in prison.
Controversial amendments to Russian law decriminalised some forms of domestic violence in February 2017. The changes mean violence against a spouse or children that results in bruising or bleeding but not broken bones is punishable by 15 days in prison or a fine of 30,000 roubles (£380) if they do not happen more than once a year. Previously, these offences carried a maximum jail sentence of two years.
Can't make that shit up. And yes, all of that has to do with loss of privilege, gender privilege, followed by income privilege, followed by racial privilege and all of that anger will be born by women and children.
care to point to anything i said that is 'delusional'
delusional
/dɪˈluːʒ(ə)n(ə)l/
adjective
characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.
"hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia"
based on or having faulty judgement; mistaken.
"their delusional belief in the project's merits never wavers"
I don't know you, but, bless your cotton socks dear, and get a dictionary.
That's just it they won't "say" on anything they can get away with, whereas it seems the govt must reply to the "nth degree" at all times, any slight variation becomes a headline.
He says that now because it's the only thing he can say. Anything else would be political suicide given the ratings he's on.
At least there is recorded evidence of what he said – just got to hope that when he flips that the media has a long enough memory to come back and revisit this recording.
We'll see about that won't we franko. Me, I wouldn't be surprised to find the gnatty candidate helping Alfy Aggro's mob tear down his own posters in praxis.
Sensible centrists and compassionate conservatives seem quite happy to cuddle an authoritarian/fascist when times are tough and their cash-flow is threatened.
they have done that for a while now. They now just admit to it, a bit like in the US where they now happily admit to send women to the death row for having an abortion. Cause 'murder'.
Partisan lines have been widening for a while now. I'm fairly sure the level of animosity between left and right wasn't so toxic or shrill even a decade ago. Social media has exacerbated this. It's easy to be an awful human being when nobody knows who you are or where you live.
"Green MP Chloe Swarbrick explained to her followers that this under the current law this was an administrative decision, while Energy Minister Megan Woods was quick to note that among the offer’s benefits was that it didn’t include offshore oil and gas."
Seems like a damage-control exercise, eh? Yes, we need to get off fossil fuels. No, we don't need to do it fast. Classic centrism, to keep NZF on board.
“Bizarrely, fracking didn’t get a mention in the Ministry for the Environment Environment Aotearoa 2019 report, which clearly identifies climate change as one of its major themes. And yet in Russia, China, the USA and Australia fracking has become one of the most important areas of discussion on environment and energy.”
“The fracking boom in the USA – a country whose conventional oil supplies peaked in 1970 (kept on life support when extraction began in Alaska in the 1980s) – pushed US oil production back to those record levels of 10 million barrels a day in November 2017, likely surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia sometime last year to become the world’s largest producer again.”
As Bill Clinton famously once said “It’s the economy, stupid.” Electoral success means giving voters what they want, and they want more business as usual.
From reporter interview on Radionz this morning – Antony Green says about coal mining inAaustralia having a big effect on voting against Labour. They want BAU and jobs. Labour and Greens have to find a way for them to be employed or go whistle.
Find some work for the working man to do, or face trouble. It isn't rocket science, apparently we can work out the delicate scientific processes that enable rockets, but the well-known human problems are not as intensely interesting, and well-funded, as those of humans which actually will lead to greater disasters than rockets may cause.
maybe the government could people to pick up rubbish, or would that be to demeaning and not manly enough?
there are jobs, as here in NZ, it is just that there is also a certain population that does not want these jobs.
Or is it only coalworkers that have a right to a job that literally needs to be eradicated if we want to survive? Is that again the song of the poor white male working class with economic anxiety?
"For nearly two decades, one of the most overlooked and little known arrests made in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks was that of the so-called “High Fivers,” or the “Dancing Israelis.” However, new information released by the FBI on May 7 has brought fresh scrutiny to the possibility that the “Dancing Israelis,” at least two of whom were known Mossad operatives, had prior knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Shortly after 8:46 a.m. on the day of the attacks, just minutes after the first plane struck the World Trade Center, five men — later revealed to be Israeli nationals — had positioned themselves in the parking lot of the Doric Apartment Complex in Union City, New Jersey, where they were seen taking pictures and filming the attacks while also celebrating the destruction of the towers and “high fiving” each other. At least one eyewitness interviewed by the FBI had seen the Israelis’ van in the parking lot as early as 8:00 a.m. that day, more than 40 minutes prior to the attack. The story received coverage in U.S. mainstream media at the time but has since been largely forgotten."
Further on in the story: "Yet, the picture released includes a visible date of September 10, 2001, the day before the attacks,"
And: Of the explosive residue, the declassified FBI report states:
A search of the van and individuals was conducted at the time of the vehicle stop. The vehicle was also searched by a trained bomb-sniffing dog which yielded a positive result for the presence of explosive traces. Swabs of the vehicle’s interior were taken, and those samples were sent to the FBI laboratory for further analysis. Final results are still pending.”
And:
According to a FOX News report from December 2001, 60 Israelis were apprehended or detained after September 11, with most deported, and a total of 140 Israelis were arrested and detained in all of 2001 by federal authorities."
and;" The company’s owner — Dominik Otto Suter, an Israeli citizen — had fled to Israel on September 14, 2001, two days after he had been questioned by the FBI. The FBI told ABC News that “Urban Moving may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation.” Surprisingly, since at least 2016, Suter has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works for a contractor for major tech companies like Google and Microsoft. According to the public records database Intelius, in 2006 and 2007 Suter also worked for a telecommunications company — Granite Telecommunications — that works for the U.S. military and several other U.S. government agencies."
There's always been the suspicion that that most efficient spy agency ,Mossad was tracking the hijackers, was aware of their goals, but kept quiet because of the ultimate potential to win sympathy for the Israeli cause
Well, thats the most charitable explanation of Mossad's role
Here's Netenyahu on the very day
"Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, “It’s very good.” Then he edited himself: “Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.” He predicted that the attack would “strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we’ve experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.”
Yeah, a bunch of folks here around a year ago were doing the usual conspiracy theory debunking, so I reminded them of the dancing Israelis. Mossad is known for that kind of thing. It's actually a traditional imperialist strategy: steer a conspiracy from above, without the conspirators knowing that they are merely puppets. Game of thrones has it in various plot-lines due to it being even more traditional than imperialism!
If Iraq wants all foreign troops gone, why is the New Zealand government still uncertain as to whether we will continue to have toops there? My feeling is that Iraq remains an occupied country and sovereignty has never really been returned to it.
"George R. R. Martin, who seemed to specialize in having characters evolve in response to the broader institutional settings, incentives and norms that surround them." Subtlety of an author isn't easily recycled on television, eh?
"Benioff and Weiss steer the narrative lane away from the sociological and shifted to the psychological. That’s the main, and often only, way Hollywood and most television writers tell stories. This is an important shift to dissect because whether we tell our stories primarily from a sociological or psychological point of view has great consequences for how we deal with our world and the problems we encounter."
Seems profound, but is it really? Motives are the key to behaviour, and in politics they are as likely to derive from social context as from personal values & priorities. So both/and logic applies.
"Hollywood mostly knows how to tell psychological, individualized stories. They do not have the right tools for sociological stories, nor do they even seem to understand the job." Precisely. Worse than that, they rarely even get the basics right!
I watched the first episode of GoT (was it really 8 years ago?), thought the casting of spoilt American brats so pathetic a misrepresentation of Martin's characters that I couldn't bring myself to watch another, despite the excellent stagecraft.
"The appeal of a show that routinely kills major characters signals a different kind of storytelling, where a single charismatic and/or powerful individual, along with his or her internal dynamics, doesn’t carry the whole narrative and explanatory burden."
That is indeed a key point! From a semiotic perspective, it signals that the political context is where the action is. Even heroes are merely the cresting waves of the ocean, and the currents in that ocean have their equivalent in the group motivations that drive inter-group competition.
GRR Martin hasn't been involved in GoT the series since season 5 when the series went totally off book. Martin has also stated many times that he's not into allegory story telling, so Star Wars used a lot of WW2 themes in it and G.R.R Martin is against using real world examples because he wants his story telling to be relevant in 200 years time when people can use there own experiences to tell the story.
Dan and Dave who are the directors went straight for CG in season 7 and 8 at the expense of story writing. GoT was supposed to be 10 seasons but for some reason that I don't know it was decided that there would be only 8 seasons and the final 2 seasons would be shortened from 10 episodes to 6. This shortening of screen time has squished the plot so decisions you would expect to be teased over a season happen in one episode. And spoilers, so it took King Robb Stark 1 or 2 seasons to make it to the Northern Boarders of the Kings Lands of Westeros and in the final season the Northern Armies just pop in Kings Landing in one episode.
So in the final 2 seasons we didn't get to see all the plot twists and suttle decision making that went into the battles of the final seasons and because we don't get to see that intricate detail characters are looking extra dictatorial and extra genocidal as all the decisions just look rushed and not really connected to any parts of the show instead relying on CG to compensate the audience.
But there is a consolation to a shortened 2 season series. They've already begun filming of the spin off series of Game of Thrones.
I watched the first episode of GoT (was it really 8 years ago?), thought the casting of spoilt American brats so pathetic a misrepresentation of Martin's characters that I couldn't bring myself to watch another, despite the excellent stagecraft.
Apart from Peter Dinklage who plays Tyrion Lannister, there are no American actors in Game of Thrones.
No kidding? Hollywood really has gone global? Well, if so, my take is that cellphone addiction has morphed youngsters elsewhere into a similar simulation of prefrontal lobotomy as the yanks…
well if we are really nitpicking it was 9 years ago episode one was released. The finanal season was meant to air March 2018 but it had to be delayed a year because it takes ages to CG Dragons to be able to look that cool.
Yeah I don't think GOT was ever that meaningful.I only ever liked Tyrion .Bran became an awful bore, and you’re right, the earlier stuff had less CGI
In the early seasons there was an awful lot of lustiness and explicit sex.When Daenerys(mother of dragons) got mixed up with those horse type people, there was a big animalistic orgy.While I was watching, there seemed to be a lot of slow motion action, then speeding up.I thought for goodness sake, thats getting a bit porn…too far altogether… then I realised my internet speed wasn't up to it and the computer was buffering .
Yes I found that an interesting read too. Here's my takeaway segment:
In German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s classic play, Life of Galileo,Andrea, a former pupil of Galileo, visits him after he recants his seminal findings under pressure from the Catholic Church. Galileo gives Andrea his notebooks, asking him to spread the knowledge they contain. Andrea celebrates this, saying “unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.” Galileo corrects him: “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
Well-run societies don’t need heroes, and the way to keep terrible impulses in check isn’t to dethrone antiheros and replace them with good people. Unfortunately, most of our storytelling—in fiction and also in mass media nonfiction—remains stuck in the hero/antihero narrative. It’s a pity Game of Thrones did not manage to conclude its last season in its original vein. In a historic moment that requires a lot of institution building and incentive changing (technological challenges, climate change, inequality and accountability) we need all the sociological imagination we can get, and fantasy dragons or not, it was nice to have a show that encouraged just that while it lasted.
This aligns with something a good friend once said, "we need to emerge from the age of the sanctified individual, to the sanctified society".
Well the trouble with this 'universal white male guilt' hypothesis is that there have indeed been a lot of 'great white men'. Here is one; Fritz Haber:
He had a turbulent, morally challenging life, yet he left one legacy most people are completely unaware of, that almost half the nitrogen/protein in your body is derived from the Haber-Bosch process that enables the production of industrial scale fertilisers.
Without his contribution you most likely would have never lived. Should that be ‘forgotten’?
History is what is and erasing the parts we find politically inconvenient never helps. While it is true that white people have dominated much of the past 400 odd years of human development, that phase is passing. We are now a global society, albeit one that lacks a moral and political framework to moor it.
Developing a universal social history, and a fresh moral narrative to underpin it, entails embracing all of our past both good and evil. It must be a synthesising, collating, unifying process. Starting from a position of divisiveness ensures only that we remain stuck in the old modes of rivalry, resentment and confrontation.
"Haber is also considered the "father of chemical warfare" for his years of pioneering work developing and weaponizing chlorine and other poisonous gases during World War I, especially his actions during the Second Battle of Ypres."
not so cool – chemical fertilizers that have (imo) fucked the ecosystems and created an illusion of eternal growth that has led to the global warming catastrophe.
Precisely; as I said Haber was a complex character who faced greater moral challenges in his life than most.
Haber bequeathed to us both the gift of abundant protein and the curse of chemical warfare. One enabled agriculture to feed billions, the other was the first weapon of mass destruction, a pre-cursor to the nuclear bomb. Few people left us such a stark legacy. It’s why his story is interesting and cautionary at the same time.
Still it's worth saying that war is hell; that no-one wins with a clear conscience. It is why I persistently return to the theme of the need for a global institution with the sole authority to direct military force at scale. Only this can ultimately eliminate war as the scourge on humanity it has been for so long.
Well as I said, half the protein molecules in your body derive ultimately from the process he invented. If you think that ugly and detrimental, then so also must be the large fraction of living people who depend on it.
Large scale industrial fertilisers are similar to coal, they've enabled the human race to bootstrap out of mean brutal poverty into our modern world. But we cannot rely on either of these long-term; both come with an environmental cost and we have to move beyond them, on that I think we can agree. In my view only the science and engineering platform we have built can do that on the scale necessary for 9 billion people to thrive.
When they first became available they were overused. The big trend now is toward using them more accurately and combined with methods that protect the soil organics.
Fritz Haber invented a process that with little exaggeration, was a crucial factor in doubling the human population. Perhaps more. In 1900 we struggled to feed about 1.6 billion people, now it's over 7 billion.
Along with mechanisation and improved plant genetics, synthetic fertilisers have freed most of humanity from the terrible threat of starvation every winter and killing famines every decade or so.
That's an extraordinary legacy, one that I think few other humans who have ever lived can match. It seems to me would could be at least a little more grateful.
Nine billion people thriving! [RL @12:14 pm]
The associated consumption doesn't bear thinking about.
Shouldn’t ‘we’ be "cutting one's coat according to one's cloth"? Because we are seriously running out of 'cloth'.
The reduction of atmospheric dinitrogen (N2) to two molecules of ammonia (NH3) by the Haber process requires hydrogen (natural gas/methane are sources), an iron-based catalyst, high pressures (200-300 atmospheres), and high temperatures (400-550 degrees Celcius). Yet nitrogen-fixing bacteria (diazotrophs) manage the same feat at 1 atmosphere pressure and ambient temperatures. One day we might catch up to those 'clever' microbes, but not yet!
More Food – More People
A group of scientists led by Johan Rockstrom explored the questions of planetary boundaries in an article recently published by Nature. The usual climate change issue was of course reported. What might surprise you though is that while we have only just slipped past the edge of the CO2 boundary, the nitrogen cycle disruption was deemed to be about three times over the safe limit. This graphic illustrates the extent to which we may be overstepping the nitrogen boundary.
All true; I've been aware of all this much of my life. Hell I recall cycling through the East Coast backcountry in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Bola to attend a biodynamics course in Hastings.
Above I drew the comparison with coal which for several centuries has been vital in building an industrial society and a platform from which we can now build solar, wind and next gen nuclear power sources to replace it.
Very irritating not to mention boring when people respond like this. Either you do not understand what I'm saying or you are wilfully derailing. If the latter your time could probably be spent better elsewhere.
If you explained yourself in whole thoughts maybe I'd stand a better chance. Putting up something cryptic and then attacking me for not getting it correct is also boring and derailing.
Social history is the study of society structures in previous times whereas most history taught is about society's leaders as though the rest of us are of no account
OK thanks … that makes excellent sense. Human history across all of it's dimensions is way more complex than we get taught at school. Personally I've a particular attraction to the history of science and engineering and the impact this has on social development, but that is only one view of the whole story.
The story of how ordinary people lived their lives, and the reason why social structures evolved as they did is also fascinating. It was these people who are our forebears for the most part, who they lay at the turbulent intersection of religion, politics, war, feast and famine every day of their lives. We are the offspring of thousands of generations smart enough and tough enough to survive …
Social history is the study of society structures in previous times whereas most history taught is about society’s leaders as though the rest of us are of no account
Well, when I studied History through to honours level at Uni (two decades ago)… it was almost entirely Social & Cultural history.
It began to eclipse Political & Intellectual history (the areas you're thinking of) back in the 60s and early 70s (although social history had been around in one form or another since at least the 20s … particularly Marxist historiography & the French Annales School).
Maybe it's different at secondary school level … but I doubt it.
Waiting for God-oh! Perhaps there is a little bit of God in all of us, and waiting for the great creator to appear is superfluous – showing a cargo-cult mentality. And on that theme, if we all have a bit of God inside us waiting to be called on and shine, if we meet with others who are the same, do we end up with a large, loving group of people who are more than the sum of their parts?
This bit is significant: "the Hero archetype actually represents an advanced form of child (boy) psychology. That is, while it does represent the peak of the adolescent stage of development, the Hero archetype is still immature."
Young men historically became heroes due to indoctrination of the archetype, because it was promoted by the social matrix they grew up in. We could say it was an off-shoot of the warrior archetype. Knights of the round table mythology is a good example in which a culture developed around an ethical basis for heroism.
Heroism in our culture is exemplified in media stories of men saving someone, and usually denying in subsequent interviews that they are heroes. This tacit discounting of their personification of the archetype is also a cultural bias.
All those Super-Heroe movies are great entertainment and wonderful escapism, don’t get me wrong. But they keep us stuck at an immature stage of development.
Many superhero movies essentially place the elite individual as more significant than social structures and cooperation. Iron Man is essentially John Galt with wrist rockets.
Invincible, indestructible, and almightily good looking with a razor-sharp tongue. The delusional self-image of the average young male high on roids feeding more fantasy stuff into his immature brain. The only social structure and cooperation they are interested in is copulation.
Although to be fair to Stan Lee, apparently he was trying to make an intensely unlikable "hero". But the irony has been lost, except in the name. Most teams are teams of exceptional people largely acting independently (and stupidly).
But there are changes in some movies – Wonder Woman had quite a bit of teamwork in it, including with non-super people.
The juvenile bit is that movies tend to say "willing to sacrifice all", but almost never do. Even when they die, it's just a matter of time until they come back. Heck, Batman retires at least once.
One of the worst ones is Transformers IMO. It has got juvenile boys written all over it and seems like a bad marriage between The Fast and the Furious and The Terminator. I have to confess that I have a soft spot for The Matrix.
Transformers are very bad movies. Bay does excellent composition of large, dynamic scenes, not so hot on everything else.
I thought the first couple of terminator movies were better than the matrix movies, to be frank. Matrix is all about teen fool who is the chosen one and can see through the illusion, Terminator movies started as 4D chess.
I might be a bit sour on Matrix now so many fools talk about red and blue pills.
Killed too many security guards for my taste. But I do love me some Dick…
There was an interesting recent streaming series based on his stuff called "Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams". Not as NSFW as it sounds lol. Stand-alone episodes, with some top line actors.
"while it does represent the peak of the adolescent stage of development, the Hero archetype is still immature"
And boys used to die young, before they could grow out of it. With today's life expectancy, older manbabies like many of those in charge have no excuse.
Problem with GOT final season is GRR Martin gave Benniof and Weiss an outline of what was to happen (as final book not complete) and left them to fill in the dialogue, then for what ever reason they decide to jam it all into 6 episodes.
Hence, unhappy viewers.
The Wire was outstanding, from first episode to last.
The disposability of POCs in Game of Thrones is something that we’ve had to get used to. Bye Khal Drogo! Laters, Oberyn! Farewell, Dothraki horde! See you on the other side, Sand Snakes! This is a show with a high kill count, of course, but, when there are already so few black or brown characters, seeing them drop like flies at the hands of white characters, in service to other white characters, makes it all the more frustrating.
Good point. Seems like tacit racism, eh? However, Martin did acknowledge that he modelled the series on 14th century Europe. If my memory is correct. So no surprise that a crusader ethic can be detected…
That's just woke bullshit designed to signal how in touch one is with feelings. There is no racism. Every slave master relationship has its fairytales of triumph and backhanded comments laced with key words designed to get around the censor and communicate complex ideas to simple people with out incurring the wrath of the masters. That's why we only hear of story's about the wealthy because making fun of slaves just ain't funny.
The writers of the show had to make the main characters older and prettier so the show would get a R15 rating instead of the R18 rating the books should have. King Tommen Lanister I mean Beratheon was 9 in the books while he consummated his marriage with Margery, much older. But who gives a flying fuck about Westerosy morals when cancerous normies are attempting to hijack the Game of Thrones logo and reputation so they can build bottom up jargon to demonstrate how fucken awesomely woke they are.
That's a pretty fair call, although not a dealbreaker by any means for me.
The small cove point though, that pissed me off at the time.
What I found disappointing about the penultimate episode was that many of the individual sequences were a pastiche of iconic sequences – Arya does an extended Children of Men finishing with a Jarhead, for example.
I mean, visually it was all awesome, but it wasn't quite as originally awesome as the battle with the night king (that's where I disagree with the article – retconned or deliberately foreshadowed, none of the death came out of nowhere).
And at least we finally saw why dragons were hyped.
Christ. That's like school-yard stuff. "Oh yeah? I'm going to punch you in the face!" "Well, I'm going to kick you in the balls!"
Why are we afflicted with leaders who have an overabundance of testosterone and an obvious lack of grey matter? If America marches to war again, they should use John Bolton and Donald Trump as human shields.
Jenny H at No. 8 in How to Get There 19th May explains her motivations and successes. I don't think I've enough to warrant being in that post of doing and exploring ideas. So I've put mine on open mike.
That was really inspiring Jenny H. I am trying and am concerned just not about CC but also the way that the economic system impoverishes people while it gloats about how good the surface money figures are while those outside the charmed circle wait and whose deficits seem to be a permanent bypass in the body politic. I write here, which I regard as work, and try to keep informed with people from different sectors here and elsewhere, and try to keep the idea of respect and kindness going balanced with practicality.
Aiming for a system that provides balance while not settling down to a 'don't rock the boat at all' approach requires constant adjustment. I also am supportive of various friends, family not far from death, including my oldish self. I am thinking of how I can help young people, and have various ideas that I need to research to do with people support which enhances our lives and adds resilience for the future. A work in progress.
It seems easier for people to latch on to environmental matters but we get annoyed with each other, and pass judgment on and eventually ignore the strugglers – don't give money to beggars say a Council and regard that as dealing with problem people. The animals we can excuse, like destructive kea, but people who have had bad childhoods and upbringing, we can't be bothered looking after them, or really helping parents and children coming along to be both loving and strong and capable. I don't like a possible scenario of a tree covered country full of active animals going about their lives with half-naked people fighting off a powerfully armed bunch of marauding groups; a possibility that must be prevented.
Finding a way to live more simply is hard; we need to accept a less glossy vision for people to aim for, not huge houses on the hill that get redecorated every three years and the change of cars before the warranty expires. More harmony, more respect, more giving a little in many ways, more pleasure in what we have, and trust, these need to be talked about and aimed for.
Knowing how to spot poseurs is helpful, you can't be too trusting as Greenpeace found out after being infiltrated by the French before they fixed a bomb to the Rainbow Warrior – an act of war if done elsewhere. Do we have Sleepers here from the USA as in the TV series from 2013*? Has our government been infiltrated by 5Eyes partners who can request actions of our police and defence forces? We might wonder.
At present I am concerned about the rise of cults that appear to offer stability, security and morality, but in payment want to suck in your soul and mind. We have become aware of EB who were vying to help National. Who issues forth next – Ngaro? Do we need to wipe the no-tax ban on churches, which seems to be a temptation for entities that look more devilish than Christian. We need to look for the worm in the apple, and stop these so-called Christians acting out their swagger over 'dark' people which they found mentioned somewhere in the Bible, and over females with whom there can be no latitude because of the myth of Eve, and who need protecting from themselves. Today they trash USA laws – tomorrow?
The ongoing political quake in Britain has now produced a three-way split: "More voters now say they would back the Brexit Party at a general election than the Conservatives, according to a new poll. Nigel Farage’s five-week-old outfit would finish second in the popular vote, pushing the Tories into third place, the research conducted by Opinium suggests. In total, the Brexit Party would collect 24 per cent of the ballot, with the Conservatives trailing on just 22 per cent, it was found. Labour would win with 27 per cent of the electorate backing them."
"The Conservatives, in that poll, remain fourth – a finding that is expected to heighten despondency in the party and lead to renewed calls for Theresa May to set a definitive timetable for standing down as prime minister. Change UK, meanwhile, a party formed with the express intention of forcing a second Brexit referendum, is struggling with just 3 per cent of voters saying they would back them in either ballot."
Remainers are history then! I suppose most remainers aren't supporting the remainer party, instead clinging to the delusion that Labour will represent them. So the tories may look like the biggest losers, but remainers are really.
The developers behind The Paddington want to build about 150 upmarket terraced houses on Taranaki Street in the central city, with prices starting at $788,000.
The complex is expected to become home to about 300 people, however, the buildings are only two or three storeys high, in an area with a maximum limit of 27 metres…
At the showroom, Thames Pacific developer Stephen Sutorius said there were too many apartment blocks nearby to build another one on the site.
"You can't have high-rise blocks all next to each other. You'll get a city where you have no sun, you have no light throughout the developments or throughout the city," Mr Sutorius said.
Construction was likely to start in November this year, with completion estimated for mid-2021, he said.
Weak. The architect designs, spaces and places so that all share sun and shade. The Council are saying twice the number could be housed there, so that would only be max six storeys high. I am not sure what earthquake possibilities would allow safely. Over a certain height different construction wold be needed perhaps.
Yes Rosemary I forgot about that and the latest worrying news for Wellington. Looking at history it seems we haven't even got as far with facing our problems as Ethelred the Unready.
And Labour Coalition may yet have to carry out a symbolic trip to the beach where they will demonstrate the truths of our reality as did King Canute when he pointed out his limited powers compared to expectations – he couldn't hold back the tide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide
And Cnut the Great 995-1035 He had a father called Sweyn Forkbeard. That’s a great name too. He was King of Denmark, England and Norway. They had interesting relationships then in that area. Now we have come to the end of the world and our Australian cousins don’t add to our gene pool. If we wish to advance the nation I think, if the Maori continue putting up with us, we could build a great nation with their staunchness and practicality. So don’t listen to defunct Brash with his criticism of Maori greetings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut_the_Great
Moved a bit to the side there Rosemary. Back to the point – the insurance matter is something that Robertson and his advisors will need to look at along with the insurance council to see what can be provided by the state.
Or perhaps all the filthy rich who were prepared to work hard and get their hands dirty reorganising the positions of power and privilege after Douglas and neolib and free markets. They can bring Eric Watson's money back and stop him wasting it in foreign lands and Australian ventures that should be here, and tax etc. so we can get some stability for the country.
We don't don't need a Creator. We got John Key and his ugly duckling Simon Bridges to do that for us. Best Creators ever.
We really need Stalin again- that great great man who did so much good too. We need Mr Lenin too. Is he a mate of yours ?
Or do you prefer Hitler. Anorher fine Man of the Right. He got rid of God long before you. While you at it, why not rubbish Confucius. As well as the dutch Apartheid Mongrels of Africa. Also Kill that magnificent Ruler Of Babylon. Such a good man. Kill him !
I imagine that you pagans kill the Women and children first. Like the Americans do. Day after day. You know, – when they Bomb innocent people. I am glad you support those bad men. Keep up the madness Millsy.
I don't think that that man's words should be heard by the tangata of the Papatuanukue Christchurch desaster.
I hope not to many people are losted in the atrocious weather events affecting 4 state in America don that's climate change.
I don't think Trevor should be hung out to dry you have to remember that happened a long time ago things we different in those days it was much easier to servive in those days.
Bulling is a behaviour humans have had for millions of years you see it in the animal herd group culture there is always one in the group that is picked on the same in human societies. I have bullied I try not to but I don't not like seeing it happen to vanuralble tangata I userly call out the bullie. I had that problem in one work place they young fellas try to bullie me I stood them up they ganged up on me and got me sacked because of the 90 day clause there loss.
Muppet puppet after my journey back home.( I have every right to call out muppets puppets who use the word CRACK ARE you marketing the shit.)
Gloriz it's a shame that people like seenothing will use anything to try and float their toilets with out a care on whom they hurt in the process.
Aziz m8 Eco Maori is discrimination against every day of the year.
Moniqe doc is doing a excellent job caring for OUR wild life but I still want a bounty put on opossum and stotes that will give money to the common people and get rid of the vermin I have read about the places in Freordland being the last place Kakapo were found on the main land. The problem with the tourist model doc model is the common people are left in the COLD. Te tangata te tangata te tangata. You mite say that te tangata won’t be able to get into all the hard terrain that’s true but if you wipe out all the vermin in the easy places that will bennafit the wild life and te tangata
The culture needs to change keeping Aotearoa and Papatuanukue free from rubbish and plastic waste is going to be the normal thing as it takes a thousand years to degrade plastic we need to protect Papatuanukue for te Mokopuna Ka kite ano
Kia Kaha students To Eco Maori Your future is so special I Tau toko you 100%
Tens of thousands of students are planning to take to the streets for the second time this year to strike for climate change action.
On Friday, Kiwi students will "rise up to demand climate action from our Government".
From marches and rallies to tree planting and beach clean ups, New Zealand's youth are doing all they can to bring attention to the issue of climate change.
Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming strike
Hi,It’s almost Christmas Day which means it is almost my birthday, where you will find me whimpering in the corner clutching a warm bottle of Baileys.If you’re out of ideas for presents (and truly desperate) then it is possible to gift a full Webworm subscription to a friend (or enemy) ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30am include:Rachel Helyer Donaldson’s scoop via RNZ last night of cuts to maternity jobs in the health system;Maddy Croad’s scoop via The Press-$ this morning on funding cuts for Christchurch’s biggest food rescue charity;Benedict Collins’ scoop last night via 1News on a last-minute ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
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So…
Is Scott Morrison a creationist? A google search doesnt seem to give up that info. Do we really want someone who belives that a fictional character (let's face it, God is a fictional character) waved a magic wand to create this world 6000 years ago in charge of a country?
In addition, it is kinda depressing to see the highly paid workers in the coal, oil, gas and construction sectors throw their lower paid brothers and sisters in the service, retail and hospitality sectors under a bus by voting away their penalty rates for good, and probably voting for futher wage cuts as well. Sad really.
How about quit trying to manipulate liberal / national policy by constructing from the bottom up, internally incoherent gibberish designed to demonstrate how woke you are, and address your own / our own shitty woke policies and fix that up.
Cucks say woke sambam.
Eat my ass.
Your ass is grass sambam, you big ol' cuck.
pfft. You are a bigger wast of time than McTrash
For all I know, Morrison may be a creationist.
I recall a discussion with a fellow MP (in National) who told me he was a creationist. I had very open conversations with colleagues. I asked him how that affected his policy decisions. He said; " In Wellington, I have a Wellingtonian approach to policy. In my personal life I have my beliefs."
In my experience, this approach is quite common among those who have strong religious views and who are also in politics in a major party. They don't only exist in National. Traditionally some are in Labour. There are none in the Greens and probably none were in ACT.
The areas where their religious views does affect their political views is conscience issues. If you know a person is a religious conservative, you also know their views on euthanasia, abortion, gay marriage, drinking age, cannabis, shop trading hours, casinos.
But outside those things you don't. They can be big social spenders or small social spenders, they can be free market or they can be market interventionists.
as we can currently see this approach worked well in the United States were creationism is thought more in schools then actuall science and where god put babies in the bellies of little girls – thus no abortion.
Bill English comes to mind, so godly, so very very godly especially when it comes to the decision that women make about their bodies and reproductive rigths, but then issue defrauding (we would call it theft for any person not Bill English) the goverment to the tune of 40 odd grand for houses that he may or may not live in cause 'he did not know' – even so he never did anything else in his whole working life then life of the government tit.
but i guess so as long as they are National its all good. right?
" If you know a person is a religious conservative, you also know their views on euthanasia, abortion, gay marriage, drinking age, cannabis, shop trading hours, casinos."
Aren't politicians in Government bound to be open-minded and free of prejudice, in the way local body politicians are, Wayne? The training local body politicians regularly undergo, Making Good Decisions, requires a suspension of bias when it comes to making decisions on behalf of the ratepayers. To say that the views of politicians who are religious conservatives is fixed and can be listed, as you have done, is…disturbing.
Robert,
The things I noted are all regarded as conscience issues. It should not surprise anyone that religious conservatives would vote on these things in a very specific way. I never saw any religious conservative, no matter what their party, who didn't vote in an entirely predictable way on these issues.
In the major parties, once these items were settled by a vote, there was never any further agitation by religious conservatives to change the outcome. They just accepted it. Neither did they ever promote their views outside a specific conscience vote, that is they didn't drive Members Bills on these issues. They would never get consent from their colleagues to do so, and it was never pushed, even sotto voce.
However, in a party where these things were more central, there would be continuing agitation. But such a party would be 5% or less of there parliament and couldn't force a major party to change it views on these issues. What a minor party could do is promote Members bills on these issues. Then others would vote according to conscience.
Have you followed the US over the last three decades or so?
Do you believe that 'it' could not happen here, or are you so cynical that the only thing that matters is hte Party and the country and those that are against the honestly held religious believes of politicians be damned?
And do you really believe that that stale milk toast covered in Margarine has any any chance to keep anything together when religious zealots are a lot more attractive to a certain type of voter then the default National they vote now for lack of choices?
Because at the moment, religious minded people may vote for National as the default party – cause, godly Bill English, godly Alfred Ngaro, goldy Milktoast, – and yes all of these men use their religion and their religious conviction to appeal to their voters more then actual policy that would help the poor, feed the hungry, house the homeless and welcome the stranger to their house.
Do you really thing that the current lot that is running the National party has any chance against some cynical god botherers? Because i don't think so, and i don't think so because i can look at other countries and see what is happening in real time rather then your make believe fantasy world in which the National Party is a force for good rather then just an assembly of men and women happy to be bought at the right price by anyone who would keep them on the government tit – and eventually to a board of a company that they then can help bankrupt.
It’s more interesting that the fringies are falling out of favour with the major parties. So any true radical will see this as an opportunity to unite.
Alfred Ngaro has a choice, be a list MP or be head honcho.
What pays better?
Well "what pays better?" Well it's Braitbart and the Israel lobby that pays better but they've fallen out of favour with the National Party image. To much sin.
It's 'Breitbart'.
And the lobby who pay particularly well are the Palestinian Authority. If you're the family of a terrorist that is.
The only way that your comment makes sense is if the National Party minders are desperate for coalition partners.
My comment had nothing to do with coalition partners. Yet it still makes sense. Don't wind yourself up too much trying to understand.
Sabine,
New Zealand is much less interested in conservative religious/moral issues than the United States. I would say vastly less so. So no real risk of what you are suggesting.
This is reflected in the major parties. For instance we have had two conservative catholic prime ministers in the last 30 years. Neither of them used their positions to promote those views. The only way their views on such matters were manifested was through their conscience votes.
As I have already said, conscience issues are essentially sectioned off from broader public policy.
An explicitly religious party would be able to get more conscience votes because they most frequently come from Members Bills, and such a party would promote such Bills. However, they would most likely fail in the wider parliament.
Such a party could not force National MP's to vote for these Bills. There is a strong group of socially liberal National MP's (and "middle of the road" MP's) who would not permit that.
However I imagine a religiously based party would be very keen on partnership schools, and faith based welfare programmes. A significant number of conservative Pacific Island communities would want to establish schools with a strong faith based approach, but still teaching the required curriculum. Similar to Catholic integrated schools.
The partnership school approach would make that affordable. Since many Pacific Island communities do not have substantial wealth, they typically cannot afford the high capital costs of establishing a school in the way the traditional churches have done. Partnership school would provide the option.
you don't have the slightest idea, do you?
Such a party could very well make National into a minor party. 🙂 as one could argue that Labour is a 'minor party albeit the largest one among the minor parties. Also see the republican party in the US. it took them a few years, but they – the tea party / evangelic right managed to take over the party. I beg you to point to one sane republican politician who currently would protect a womens right to choose, not threaten her with a criminal offense for having an abortion (irrespective the reason), who did not at some stage favor to electrocute or otherwise train the gays into behaving like a heterosexual, believes that allowing gays to marry is akin bestiality and such. Cause they all said that, enabled it, supported it.
And your current margarine covered milk toast will do exactly that if it means to keep his paycheck, as sitting in parliament is literally the easiest job in the country. You have to achieve nothing and still get paid and perks for life.
The reason many pacific islander don't have wealth is racism (yo National), low wages (yo National), and religion (tithing, no abortion, women submit joyfully to your husband/father, large families a blessing from god etc)
Partnership? The last time National went into partnership with an ethnic party – Maori Party they killed them. I don't think you have the slightest idea what you talk about, but then, you already received your easy wages and now live of your life long government issued tax payer funded perks, so you would be literally the last person to suffer if my scenario would come true rather then your pie in the sky fantasy scenario.
And as the 9 years under national have shown, your party will fuck up given half a chance – so as long as they get to bank, and bank they did.
Sabine,
It is clear from numerous MMP elections, there is around about 4 to 5% conservative christian vote. It comes from across the political spectrum. In fact, arguably more from Labour than National because when the conservative christian vote is high, Labour is low.
Conservative christian vote is no danger to National. Very few National voters are conservative christian, and certainly not to the extent that it is the main determinant of how a person votes. For instance neither of the conservative catholic PM's would have been remotely interested in a conservative christian party. It would be way too narrow for them.
The Maori Party almost survived the last election. It would have had two MP's, but for Tamiti Coffey who beat Te Uroroa Flavell by about 1500 votes. Labour was determined to kill the Maori Party. They succeeded.
yes dear.
Hi Wayne. I understand your meaning. You wrote:
"I never saw any religious conservative, no matter what their party, who didn't vote in an entirely predictable way on these issues."
I've found that: "I never saw any farmer-conservative who didn't vote in an entirely predictable way on environmental issues.
We need the farmer equivalent word for Godwins law .
he said 'farmer – conservative'
that does not include 'environmentally fair, respectful, inovative, and socially minded farmer' .
you know like the dude that has 8 children living of 'working for family' tax payer funded subsidy while holding a sign that says "She's a pretty communist'. What 'godwin type' word would love for that guy? or the guys that killed their cattle with a preventable diseases by flaunting the laws and transporting them willy nilly all over the greenery for profits shits n giggles and now need government tax payer funded hand out to make up for the thousands of dead cows so they then in a few years time can repeat the exact same shit?
The word is 'flouting'
I've decided the word for commenters bringing farmers in to a post that has nothing to do with farming will be hogwin .
not mooving the goalposts?
You've decided?
Good-O.
That's reassuring we have your word on that…
I'm sure the party religious conservatives never "agitated" on things like wiping historical crimes for homosexuality. You know it only took until 2018 for that to finally happen.
Are MP's their to represent their constituents or themselves?
Act would have to be the ultimate faith-based party.
and Epsom votes for them all the time, cause the faith is strong in those that benefit from certain tax cuts and tax loopholes.
Their prayers to the almighty market are answered daily.
@ Wayne
"this approach is quite common among those who have strong religious views"
Yes but that doesn’t justify holding this view. They are complete nutters to believe this Wayne. It is bollocks. Do you want a nutter running the country?
How do muslim countries manage to function gitty?
well are you talking about Saudi Arabia? Quatar? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Iran? Iraq? Algeria? Malaysia? UAE? Marocco? Indonesia? Epypt? Turkey? or any of the others that are too numerous to mention?
They all do have a few things in common.
Very little freedom unless you are the default best human being – a man.
Very little reproductive choices unless you are the default best human being – a man
Very little government representation unless you are the default best human being – a man
Very little education for all (i would exclude the Asian muslim countries as they generally have a good grip on education for all) unless of course you are a male
Very little career option for all, unless you are a male. Then of course you must work cause someone has to feed the little dears women will bear if they have no access to reproductive choice but has to put out on demand in order to earn her dinner. (Women of course also work, but often times only within the family and often times they don't get to keep their pay – very much like it was in our western society until having bank accounts in ones own name became the norm in the late seventies of the last century – 1970 not 1870)
Marriage at a very early age – unless your family is of a certain income aka not poor, or you are a male, then you deserve a pre-teen or several to keep your house and birth you lots of manly children.
Healthcare in certain countries for women does not exist – if she dies in childbirth its gods will.
So you could posit that they indeed manage, and i would posit that the US would also manage under a theocracy, but i would also posit that it would be mainly the women, children, homosexuals, trans, anyone not identifying as a heterosexual, atheist, non Christian that would not manage.
But i understand, details, pesky pesky details. Lucky us right, cause it could never ever happen here.
I would also like to point out that these are stereo types that while all true – not always apply to all countries and certainly don't apply to all people that live in these countries but are bound by the rules.
I for one am very much aware of my privilege and luck – yes luck – to have been born a white girl into a white country at a time or relative enlightenment. If i would have been born into Afghanistan/Bangladesh/Anatolia/Saudi Arabia/Eqypt/Mali/Somalia/Indonesia by now i would have a good chance of being dead. I could have died in the wedding night due to internal injuries/bleeding after fulfilling my martial duties, or died in childbirth, or died of starvation as a widow, or died in a bombing by russia (afghanistan) and then the us, or died being stoned by the taliban/saudi arabia/islamic state for 'crimes against god and such' for trying to survive with my children as a widow by prostituting myself, or for refusing to marry some bloke old enough to by my grandfather.
So yeah, they manage, like we manage, but a lot of that managing comes at the cost of keeping women out of public life, and of denying sexual right and freedom men and women alike, and to chop of hands and legs and whippings in public space. But in saying that Europe survived and they burned women alive at the stake. So its all in good fun, so as long as we manage?
If it would lower his taxes half a point, Wayne would vote for Ted Bundy.
I think it'd take just a smidgeon more than lowering his taxes half a point. If you could throw in a gig or two in the media as a talking head to make sure he remains relevant – that'd be good
Why would christens be against cannabis
They should be happy that the stuff that come out of the ground has trickled through to all wages in Au, hence the highest wage costs in the world
So…
Why be surprised that the ockies got the leader they deserve?
Perhaps Australia is a just joke country that's too far gone to worry about? Maybe all we can do is try to avoid unworthy feelings of schadenfreude as they burn up over the next 40 years, while trying to make ourselves more resilient.
Though there's a depressing takeaway about the continuing ability of private money-power (Rupert Murdoch & Clive Palmer) to sway elections. You can't have a proper democracy until private money-power is curbed. Which might lead some people to conclude that democratic means of curbing it are unavailable, and other methods must be employed. And that is a particularly worrisome conclusion.
There's not much point in worrying about Australia. Climate change means the entire country will likely spontaneously combust in the very near future. I keep telling my sisters they should probably move before it's too late.
And while everyine would like to see nurses and teachers pay rates really reflect their input few employees today have the same level of long term job security that goes with those positions.
Both sectors had very little to say and curbed their demands for nine years or so years but now expect magic wand to be whipped out to meet their demands despite the knowledge that housing and the health and welfare of a good number of their pupils is very important to their ability to learn.
NZ deserves to be governed with the "long game" in mind. Funnily I doubt that very many will be willing to sacrifice the balance that is returning to NZers lives and will risk the return of another National Party govt any time soon. They show the same self-interest that led to the "catch-up" being required across many issues and no concern for NZ nothing has changed there, something, if it is not fully realised now, that a lot of NZers will reflect on with their choices next election.
NZ deserves to be governed with the "long game" in mind.
so well said it needed to be repeated.
sadly we are governed by the interest of some to be re-elected.
Yes "some" solely obsessed with being elected, that has ever been the case but the intentions after that matter the most. I see merit in righting the ship and keeping the passengers on board before deciding how the deck chairs arranged to get the best outcome for all.
i think sadly, that the left needs to be as radical as the right. Or let me put it this way, if we are not radical, demanding radical solutions everyone is drowning as the whole in the ships bottom is never gonna get fixed. Currently we are all standing in a line bucketing the water out while some of our precious dears are in the captains lodging arguing of whom should get in the one life boat that is on the ship.
We are living in extreme times – environmentally its gonna get worse not better – and we have no plan but a bunch of over paid suits pretending that they can go back to a past that did not exist.
In the meantime we scold kids for taking of fridays.
I'm not scolding kids for taking off Fridays that's for sure, I'm hoping that that will coax some of their "elders" to think hard about how they can be more open to what needs to be done. Currently it is a hard-sell with some people despite it being for a better future, why that is bedevils me and commonsense. In some ways that is possibly how it needs to be to change direction permanently instead of duck-shoving everything back to "government" and expecting overnight miracles. If that is the way it is temporarily it is better than nine more years of willingly damaging lives via divide and rule.
i am not talking about you, but the ones in our media that are so concerned with children taking off school to go on a strike.
also i would like to point to the orange shitshow in the united states that is currently pissing all over the country because the democrats did neither show spine nor guts
Simon Bridges was on natrrad this morning, it sounds like the National party is gearing up to go full culture war next election.
It is dispiriting to see the USA exporting it's ideological poison of far right culture wars.
Still, it is good to know a vote for National will be a vote for the religious extremism of whatever fundy party National tries to cuddle up to.
You may need to be more specific. On the AM show he definitely ruled out mandating Ngaro's christian revival attempt. Said they would stand a Nat candidate in Botany next year and expect to win there. Since the Nats got 60% there last time, he's right – unless Ngaro stands there for the christians. That could create a three-way split.
Anyway, if your culture war thesis was correct, Bridges would be supporting the artificial construction of a support partner for the Nats, huh?
A three-way split between the Nat Electorate Candidate (not on the List, of course, unlike Paul Goldsmith in Epsom), Ngaro, and JLR?
It would maximise the prospects of JLR, although if Labour fronts with a good candidate a four-way split seems feasible (with rough parity) but tribalism will always give the Nats the edge on the basis of 60% last time.
JLR will come a distant 4th in that race
Who are you, Pete George?
Bridges spent the whole interview speaking out of sides of his mouth but it is crystal clear that National is planning a dishonest scare campaign based on culture war issues, from saying they support evidence based drug reform whilst pandering to the Family Fist crowd to saying they support conscience votes on issue like abortion whilst offering mealy mouthed equivocation on the establishment of a religious extremist party to help them game MMP.
Seems a reasonable apprehension, but it would be equally reasonable to frame it as simply appealing appealing to the biases of their voter base, wouldn't it?
Anyway, there's an obvious danger for them if they do decide to try the culture war strategy: alienating centrists. So I see it as self-defeating, short-sighted.
Across the Tasman, the Liberals won by refusing to have a detailed manifesto, engaging is dishonest representations of selected opponents policies and running a culture wars by proxy campaign in Queensland and in the Murdoch press.
The lesson National will take from that is that they can wage a proxy culture war by a bunch of extremists – hence this Christian party – and that they should double down on the dishonest culutre war attacks via their media proxies such as Mike Hosking and via the likes of Paula "Gummi Bears" Bennett.
It is an open question if this approach will succeed, especially given how ill-equipped our ideological bankrupt and intellectually cowardly Labour would be to deal with such an assault.
+ 1 yep and they will utilize their sub-groups to hate on people, to create strife, issues – oh we need strong gnat govt to fix these 'issues' blah blah blah
I think the lazer of Jacinda will vapourise them – but the battery life isn't infinity and others are going to have to step up. They are beginning to – the bishop got dealt to, paula benefit is being dealt to, and so on – be good to save winnie for the mega hit counterattack or defense imo
i have said before and i will say it again,
if National wants to win they will run on decriminalizing or tolerating weed as in Holland or based on the system of the US. – i know a few non – voters that will vote for that and they are old, middle aged and young, who literally have no reason to vote for either party other then civic mindedness.
And its nobodies fault but that of the coalition. Every now and then one has to take a risk, and on this issue they actually could.
the rest is business as usual for National. No ideas but pondering to the lowest common denominator and bigotry.
Did you watch the rise of the Tea Party in the US?
Do you understand that the Tea Party has become the Republican Party?
And do you understand that the only Party really in danger of the rise of the christo fascist are those on the right? As they – in order to keep their constituancy need to move ever more right in order to stay electable to the God freaks on the right?
And yes, God Freaks, not godly, not christian, cause anyone who – as in the states, can not allow gun control cause 'fredom and personal choice' but has no issues condeming little girls to give birth to their own aunties/uncles/brothers/sistes/cuzzies is not a christian or a person of faith, but rather a cynical being who literally would offer little girls as a sacrament to advance their very own agenda.
And I have personally met Alfred Ngaro, a man who will not introduce himself when he comes to the shop of a women, who will not say anything other then 'Can i speak to your husband'. WTF? Mr. , I don't have a husband. It was a funny scene, where it no so fucking sad.
You better watch out that you don't end up being the Sorcerers apprentice " the ghost that i have called, i can not rid myself of anymore'.
None of that stuff has anything to do with me. Nor does it seem relevant to my comment. You seem to have someone else in mind…
yep, Alfred Ngaro and hte no mates party and their apologists. 🙂
Well, Sabine, all I can say is that if you think I'm apologising for the Nats then it appears to be evidence of a tendency to read motives into text. Such tendencies, when the motives aren't actually there, can make people delusional!
For the record, I consider your warnings re christian bigotry totally appropriate. The Alabama/Missouri roll-back of abortion rights is a travesty of justice. Even Trump has now found it necessary to disagree with the patriarchs: "Trump reiterated his position that abortion should be legal following rape or incest." https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-republicans-distance-themselves-from-alabama-abortion-law/2019/05/19/d44036d8-7a3f-11e9-8bb7-0fc796cf2ec0_story.html?utm_term=.cd7722fa42b2
"The most recent poll on the issue by the Kaiser Family Foundation, conducted in late April, found that two-thirds of the public wants Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, to remain in place. Slightly more than half of Republicans disagree."
i don't say you are a National applogist, and if that is what you got from my comment that says more about you then me.
all i am saying is that we should look at the US and see what happened there and thus stop making fun about it, stop pretending it can't happen here and maybe just be a bit more cautious, cause it can happen here and i fear it will.
Our current lot of do very little politicians do not address climate change with the urgency needed, do not address job security, food security, housing security and energy security with the urgency needed.
And thus they leave a space to be filled by hate peddlers and tithing grifters like tamaki and his ilk. And Alfred Ngaro falls under ilk, as do the brethren, the gloriavale cultists, jehova witnesses and the likes. And i will also tell you that they vote, and their women vote, and they will vote for the hate peddlers and tithing grifters so as long as they pretend to be forced birth, anti gay / other orientation, anti freedom of movement for women (ohio, missoury both have lawed it that a women who leaves the state for an abortion is still a criminal should she dare to come back and so is the driver of the car btw), do with your children as you please – i .e. beat the life out of them (blanket training read up on it), don't vaccinate, don't take to the hospital, don't educate cause property of men.
The point is that they have promised these things, and now thanks to the orange shitshow they are getting what they want. (after all as they said a few years ago, we only need a president who can hold the pen to sign the laws we put in front of him, he is not needed to advance laws or make them). And if you believe that our lot is not equally cynical and monstrous in their intention then i have a two lane bridge flanked by a kauri on either side or ten in Northland to sell to you.
the wall in the US is not to keep the South Americans out, it is to keep the US Americans in.
Sabine And I have personally met Alfred Ngaro, a man who will not introduce himself when he comes to the shop of a woman, who will not say anything other then 'Can i speak to your husband'. WTF?
I know that was the sort of thing that men said and did in the 1960s before the new wave of womens lib/feminism. That was what they organised and protested to change. To hear it has still lingered on and is trying to rise up again from the crypt is very concerning.
Watch this trend of people wanting to take the podium and pronounce on how women should be; jealous men (of their paramount rights) and priggish women (wanting to be seen as perfect examples of womanhood and behaviour, both moral and super-smart, eg Ruth Richardson, Denise L'Estrange-Corbet, Jenny Shipley & other status seekers). Watch for the patriarchal cults, the ones that want women kept in their (lower) place; they are toxic. And often there are economic features and a desire to rob females of their opportunity to develop as their own person, behind the moral pose.
Some thoughts from Jane Clifton in the Listener of August 13 2011 archived now from Noted: The Princess Industrial Complex. https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2011/the-princess-industrial-complex/
https://www.peggyorenstein.com/potowski-; Peggy Orenstein Cinderella Ate My Daughter! She explored the commercialisation by Disney of an interest that little girls had for dressing as princesses in home-made outfits.
My feeling is that females are the subject of much commercialising and image-making and are vulnerable to peer pressure. They front nearly every magazine in the supermarkets near the checkouts, featuring body shape, looks, scandals, sexual lives, marital tiffs.
Women are squeezed into shape by popular culture and commercialisation – chick flicks where they can watch romantic movies and ditzy stories about the combination of worries they take on as they try to find themselves in a complex of possible images. Cosmetics to cover their faces and bodies to enhance and preserve is a billion dollar industry.
Now it has gone full circle in Alabama and other States of misrule, and the disrespect and downgrading of females has descended to extreme and punitive levels, showing a hate that has been mainly masked with occasional eruptions. Now it has been exposed in all its ugly conceptions, and we need to watch for its diseased head here; no vaccinations are available, but an alert populace knowing the signs of rash behaviour may check and contain it. But it will always remain in pockets of cults here and there which have precepts that aren't well understood. There was a doco in recent NZ Film Festival called Angie about Bert Potter's creative urges that led to his Commune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZlQDHpcMG4 This story Angie shows the difficulty of growing up in a place with no respect for your person, your body and soul.
How can a woman be respected as a person in the USA States that have brought in such strict abortion laws. In other countries if a woman reports her rape, then she becomes a criminal. I thought that western nations had advanced in the respect and rights of all, but it has apparently been a facade. Respect and rights have never reached the skin-deep stage in Alabama, with their violent, hate-filled, race-crimes past and the volume of hate has increased and overflowed to find further victims.
Don't let any of this unChristian posing come to rest in NZ. This is not Christianity and Ngaro and his ilk should be charged with hate speech talking about abortions as being like a holocaust.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1905/S00188/ngaros-support-of-abortion-equals-holocaust.htm
Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross has criticised National's Alfred Ngaro for sharing a controversial abortion post https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12232353
Simon Bridges: "National leader Simon Bridges is defending one of his MP's comments on abortion, saying while "it's not something I would say", people have a right to voice their opinion." https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/simon-bridges-weighs-in-on-mps-abortion-post-its-not-something-i-would-say/
Would National develop into a clone of the USA Republican Party if there was advantage for them in it?? Have they already and I have been too naive to see it?
they have.
bill english, stale margarine toast, that 'fornication for procreation only dude', the conservative party, the alfred ngaro party
we really in this country and elsewhere need to stop crying about spilled beans and start seeing what is now. We can't go back to the past. Chances are many of us not white standard issue males would not want to go back, and yet, it seems that many in order to receive a few crumbs are very happy to sacrifice women, children, brown people, non conformist people on the altar of 'privileges lost'.
If you mean that Ngaro is brown, and is interested in privileges lost I think that may be a side track. I think he may be a Pacific Islander and has decided to move into what is called conservative Christianity, with a touch of 'prosperity church' and a strength of purpose and mind that is partly built on blame for male violence on women. There is also a trend to small neighbourhood Christian type groups looking for community and companionship and if you can get what is regarded as a Church going, there may be tax advantages.
Motivation of that sort is probably higher than perhaps what you have referred to. Conservative Christians are always bubbling away and see their ideas as being recipes for straightening out the debased society that we live in. A lot of what we have now is modelled on television presentations and sport, which is becoming more aggressive and more lucrative, and self-directed rather than community-connecting. There is less cohesive community mores and goodwill round sport than previously. Maori though seem to do better, they have kapa haka and try to maintain their cohesiveness.
Edit:
But Tamaki, Ngaro are entrepreneurs who can build on isolation and frustration and lack of purpose and belonging in the midst of suburbs in towns and cities; a built-up society without real community. I think this puts their position and that they are politically adept and worldly, and see their tipping point in today's universal and National's particular, dilemmas.
No i say Ngaro is a cynical man who knows that men lost privileges.
Not only white ones ,but men in general, and there is quite a bit of anger out there in some men that would like to get back their union jobs (but without the evil unions) that would like women to be less independent (no birth control / abortion for you missy, you have sex you deserve that pregnancy – all 20 of them even), that would like to spank/beat their kids without government interference and the missus too if she has an issue joyfully submitting to the husband, and that would like to go back to the top of the picking order. And this has very little to do with race but all to do with gender…..and aren't we lucky, the bible agrees with them.
One can be a sexist even when brown.
And yes, there is money – a lot of money in churches, as they are tax exempt, people are expected to tithe, often time all free time is spend in these churches as they pick up were government fails due to lack of funds. Because the same guys that scream government is bad and should be small and lower the taxes are the same guys that will stand at the pulpit and demand their due in the name of god. Tamaki comes to mind. Ngaro in my book wants a piece of the action, and national will enable him at their own peril.
But at the end of the day, as the United States has shown us over the last few weeks, it is not only a problem for the Party that will get taken over, and that is what i now predict for Natonal Politicians to do – our christianise the evangelic / reborn/ christian in order to get elected in the future as seen in the States – but also for the opposition. Cause they have no response to what is happening on the right. They have no response to the misery of people and other then a few band aids in order to 'not rock the boat', get 're-elected' to maybe offer a few more band aids in the next cycle they have nothing on their plate.
I predict the next election to be a shit show of epic proportions. And I predict National to go so far right that if they don't watch out the fall of the plate and to stay on the plate they will do much damage to the most vulnerable of our society, women, children, people of color, elderly, sick and so forth. Cause 'charity' rather then government. I am sure Tamaki can't believe that he will now receive tax payer funded government largess due to the inaction of the same governments of all the previous years irrespective of stripe. Cause we can't for example decrim weed to keep men out of prison. We can't spend money of preventable health care. We can't spend money on decent schools for all. We can't spend moeny on decent housing for all. We can't spend money on equal opportunties. We can do any of that, but we can pay tamaki to go to prison and tell men to 'men up' and please don't beat your wife to the point where she or the kid needs a burial.
(i point to russia into decriminalisng domestic violence 🙂
Can't make that shit up. And yes, all of that has to do with loss of privilege, gender privilege, followed by income privilege, followed by racial privilege and all of that anger will be born by women and children.
you really need to get a grip of yourself Sabine, you are becoming delusional as you work yourself up
care to point to anything i said that is 'delusional'
delusional
/dɪˈluːʒ(ə)n(ə)l/
adjective
"hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia"
"their delusional belief in the project's merits never wavers"
I don't know you, but, bless your cotton socks dear, and get a dictionary.
That's just it they won't "say" on anything they can get away with, whereas it seems the govt must reply to the "nth degree" at all times, any slight variation becomes a headline.
He says that now because it's the only thing he can say. Anything else would be political suicide given the ratings he's on.
At least there is recorded evidence of what he said – just got to hope that when he flips that the media has a long enough memory to come back and revisit this recording.
We'll see about that won't we franko. Me, I wouldn't be surprised to find the gnatty candidate helping Alfy Aggro's mob tear down his own posters in praxis.
Sensible centrists and compassionate conservatives seem quite happy to cuddle an authoritarian/fascist when times are tough and their cash-flow is threatened.
they have done that for a while now. They now just admit to it, a bit like in the US where they now happily admit to send women to the death row for having an abortion. Cause 'murder'.
Partisan lines have been widening for a while now. I'm fairly sure the level of animosity between left and right wasn't so toxic or shrill even a decade ago. Social media has exacerbated this. It's easy to be an awful human being when nobody knows who you are or where you live.
Except for lprent. He's like the Eye of Sauron.
TDB has a good review of the Taranaki fracking situation here, by a trade unionist: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/05/16/guest-blog-edward-miller-why-is-it-ok-to-frack-taranaki-if-were-going-carbon-neutral/
"Green MP Chloe Swarbrick explained to her followers that this under the current law this was an administrative decision, while Energy Minister Megan Woods was quick to note that among the offer’s benefits was that it didn’t include offshore oil and gas."
Seems like a damage-control exercise, eh? Yes, we need to get off fossil fuels. No, we don't need to do it fast. Classic centrism, to keep NZF on board.
“Bizarrely, fracking didn’t get a mention in the Ministry for the Environment Environment Aotearoa 2019 report, which clearly identifies climate change as one of its major themes. And yet in Russia, China, the USA and Australia fracking has become one of the most important areas of discussion on environment and energy.”
“The fracking boom in the USA – a country whose conventional oil supplies peaked in 1970 (kept on life support when extraction began in Alaska in the 1980s) – pushed US oil production back to those record levels of 10 million barrels a day in November 2017, likely surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia sometime last year to become the world’s largest producer again.”
As Bill Clinton famously once said “It’s the economy, stupid.” Electoral success means giving voters what they want, and they want more business as usual.
From reporter interview on Radionz this morning – Antony Green says about coal mining inAaustralia having a big effect on voting against Labour. They want BAU and jobs. Labour and Greens have to find a way for them to be employed or go whistle.
Find some work for the working man to do, or face trouble. It isn't rocket science, apparently we can work out the delicate scientific processes that enable rockets, but the well-known human problems are not as intensely interesting, and well-funded, as those of humans which actually will lead to greater disasters than rockets may cause.
maybe the government could people to pick up rubbish, or would that be to demeaning and not manly enough?
there are jobs, as here in NZ, it is just that there is also a certain population that does not want these jobs.
Or is it only coalworkers that have a right to a job that literally needs to be eradicated if we want to survive? Is that again the song of the poor white male working class with economic anxiety?
"For nearly two decades, one of the most overlooked and little known arrests made in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks was that of the so-called “High Fivers,” or the “Dancing Israelis.” However, new information released by the FBI on May 7 has brought fresh scrutiny to the possibility that the “Dancing Israelis,” at least two of whom were known Mossad operatives, had prior knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Shortly after 8:46 a.m. on the day of the attacks, just minutes after the first plane struck the World Trade Center, five men — later revealed to be Israeli nationals — had positioned themselves in the parking lot of the Doric Apartment Complex in Union City, New Jersey, where they were seen taking pictures and filming the attacks while also celebrating the destruction of the towers and “high fiving” each other. At least one eyewitness interviewed by the FBI had seen the Israelis’ van in the parking lot as early as 8:00 a.m. that day, more than 40 minutes prior to the attack. The story received coverage in U.S. mainstream media at the time but has since been largely forgotten."
Further on in the story: "Yet, the picture released includes a visible date of September 10, 2001, the day before the attacks,"
And: Of the explosive residue, the declassified FBI report states:
A search of the van and individuals was conducted at the time of the vehicle stop. The vehicle was also searched by a trained bomb-sniffing dog which yielded a positive result for the presence of explosive traces. Swabs of the vehicle’s interior were taken, and those samples were sent to the FBI laboratory for further analysis. Final results are still pending.”
And:
According to a FOX News report from December 2001, 60 Israelis were apprehended or detained after September 11, with most deported, and a total of 140 Israelis were arrested and detained in all of 2001 by federal authorities."
and;" The company’s owner — Dominik Otto Suter, an Israeli citizen — had fled to Israel on September 14, 2001, two days after he had been questioned by the FBI. The FBI told ABC News that “Urban Moving may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation.” Surprisingly, since at least 2016, Suter has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works for a contractor for major tech companies like Google and Microsoft. According to the public records database Intelius, in 2006 and 2007 Suter also worked for a telecommunications company — Granite Telecommunications — that works for the U.S. military and several other U.S. government agencies."
https://www.mintpressnews.com/newly-released-fbi-docs-shed-light-on-apparent-mossad-foreknowledge-of-9-11-attacks/258581/?fbclid=IwAR2Jp39KcfTgrd9WWW4Rz7fuPY4isBREzuS4yQtZd1ktQTznK9R8KddtycA#.XOCL6V0eb2o.facebook
There's always been the suspicion that that most efficient spy agency ,Mossad was tracking the hijackers, was aware of their goals, but kept quiet because of the ultimate potential to win sympathy for the Israeli cause
Well, thats the most charitable explanation of Mossad's role
Here's Netenyahu on the very day
"Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, “It’s very good.” Then he edited himself: “Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.” He predicted that the attack would “strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we’ve experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/its-very-good-recalling-benjamin-netanyahus-words-day-911-attacks
Yeah, a bunch of folks here around a year ago were doing the usual conspiracy theory debunking, so I reminded them of the dancing Israelis. Mossad is known for that kind of thing. It's actually a traditional imperialist strategy: steer a conspiracy from above, without the conspirators knowing that they are merely puppets. Game of thrones has it in various plot-lines due to it being even more traditional than imperialism!
If Iraq wants all foreign troops gone, why is the New Zealand government still uncertain as to whether we will continue to have toops there? My feeling is that Iraq remains an occupied country and sovereignty has never really been returned to it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-18/iraqi-parliament-vote-bill-would-ban-us-military-troops-iraq
that was the outcome from the get go.
After all we can't have the dears decide what they do with their country, their resources, their lifes right?
For anyone with a Rebel Soul,
Love it. Shows what the thinking French people think of their police.
well the police shows them what they think of the populace
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-03/wheelchair-bound-yellow-vest-pepper-sprayed-french-cops-another-shot-man-face
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/30/french-police-tactics-scrutiny-gilets-jaunes-injuries-paris
https://www.rt.com/news/452916-man-shot-yellow-vests-paris/
Interesting view on the cultural context of story telling, and goes on to explain why the last season of GOT is so disappointing for fans.
Not a facile Hollywood take
Also explains why The Wire was so appealing .That show was a brilliant portrayal of a city (Baltimore)and the power structures that underpinned it.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-real-reason-fans-hate-the-last-season-of-game-of-thrones/?redirect=1
"George R. R. Martin, who seemed to specialize in having characters evolve in response to the broader institutional settings, incentives and norms that surround them." Subtlety of an author isn't easily recycled on television, eh?
"Benioff and Weiss steer the narrative lane away from the sociological and shifted to the psychological. That’s the main, and often only, way Hollywood and most television writers tell stories. This is an important shift to dissect because whether we tell our stories primarily from a sociological or psychological point of view has great consequences for how we deal with our world and the problems we encounter."
Seems profound, but is it really? Motives are the key to behaviour, and in politics they are as likely to derive from social context as from personal values & priorities. So both/and logic applies.
"Hollywood mostly knows how to tell psychological, individualized stories. They do not have the right tools for sociological stories, nor do they even seem to understand the job." Precisely. Worse than that, they rarely even get the basics right!
I watched the first episode of GoT (was it really 8 years ago?), thought the casting of spoilt American brats so pathetic a misrepresentation of Martin's characters that I couldn't bring myself to watch another, despite the excellent stagecraft.
"The appeal of a show that routinely kills major characters signals a different kind of storytelling, where a single charismatic and/or powerful individual, along with his or her internal dynamics, doesn’t carry the whole narrative and explanatory burden."
That is indeed a key point! From a semiotic perspective, it signals that the political context is where the action is. Even heroes are merely the cresting waves of the ocean, and the currents in that ocean have their equivalent in the group motivations that drive inter-group competition.
GRR Martin hasn't been involved in GoT the series since season 5 when the series went totally off book. Martin has also stated many times that he's not into allegory story telling, so Star Wars used a lot of WW2 themes in it and G.R.R Martin is against using real world examples because he wants his story telling to be relevant in 200 years time when people can use there own experiences to tell the story.
Dan and Dave who are the directors went straight for CG in season 7 and 8 at the expense of story writing. GoT was supposed to be 10 seasons but for some reason that I don't know it was decided that there would be only 8 seasons and the final 2 seasons would be shortened from 10 episodes to 6. This shortening of screen time has squished the plot so decisions you would expect to be teased over a season happen in one episode. And spoilers, so it took King Robb Stark 1 or 2 seasons to make it to the Northern Boarders of the Kings Lands of Westeros and in the final season the Northern Armies just pop in Kings Landing in one episode.
So in the final 2 seasons we didn't get to see all the plot twists and suttle decision making that went into the battles of the final seasons and because we don't get to see that intricate detail characters are looking extra dictatorial and extra genocidal as all the decisions just look rushed and not really connected to any parts of the show instead relying on CG to compensate the audience.
But there is a consolation to a shortened 2 season series. They've already begun filming of the spin off series of Game of Thrones.
I watched the first episode of GoT (was it really 8 years ago?), thought the casting of spoilt American brats so pathetic a misrepresentation of Martin's characters that I couldn't bring myself to watch another, despite the excellent stagecraft.
Apart from Peter Dinklage who plays Tyrion Lannister, there are no American actors in Game of Thrones.
No kidding? Hollywood really has gone global? Well, if so, my take is that cellphone addiction has morphed youngsters elsewhere into a similar simulation of prefrontal lobotomy as the yanks…
well if we are really nitpicking it was 9 years ago episode one was released. The finanal season was meant to air March 2018 but it had to be delayed a year because it takes ages to CG Dragons to be able to look that cool.
Yeah I don't think GOT was ever that meaningful.I only ever liked Tyrion .Bran became an awful bore, and you’re right, the earlier stuff had less CGI
In the early seasons there was an awful lot of lustiness and explicit sex.When Daenerys(mother of dragons) got mixed up with those horse type people, there was a big animalistic orgy.While I was watching, there seemed to be a lot of slow motion action, then speeding up.I thought for goodness sake, thats getting a bit porn…too far altogether… then I realised my internet speed wasn't up to it and the computer was buffering .
Yes I found that an interesting read too. Here's my takeaway segment:
This aligns with something a good friend once said, "we need to emerge from the age of the sanctified individual, to the sanctified society".
Perhaps when we start teaching our children social history instead of 'great white men' stuff they will understand this and act accordingly
Well the trouble with this 'universal white male guilt' hypothesis is that there have indeed been a lot of 'great white men'. Here is one; Fritz Haber:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber
He had a turbulent, morally challenging life, yet he left one legacy most people are completely unaware of, that almost half the nitrogen/protein in your body is derived from the Haber-Bosch process that enables the production of industrial scale fertilisers.
Without his contribution you most likely would have never lived. Should that be ‘forgotten’?
History is what is and erasing the parts we find politically inconvenient never helps. While it is true that white people have dominated much of the past 400 odd years of human development, that phase is passing. We are now a global society, albeit one that lacks a moral and political framework to moor it.
Developing a universal social history, and a fresh moral narrative to underpin it, entails embracing all of our past both good and evil. It must be a synthesising, collating, unifying process. Starting from a position of divisiveness ensures only that we remain stuck in the old modes of rivalry, resentment and confrontation.
"Haber is also considered the "father of chemical warfare" for his years of pioneering work developing and weaponizing chlorine and other poisonous gases during World War I, especially his actions during the Second Battle of Ypres."
not so cool – chemical fertilizers that have (imo) fucked the ecosystems and created an illusion of eternal growth that has led to the global warming catastrophe.
Precisely; as I said Haber was a complex character who faced greater moral challenges in his life than most.
Haber bequeathed to us both the gift of abundant protein and the curse of chemical warfare. One enabled agriculture to feed billions, the other was the first weapon of mass destruction, a pre-cursor to the nuclear bomb. Few people left us such a stark legacy. It’s why his story is interesting and cautionary at the same time.
Still it's worth saying that war is hell; that no-one wins with a clear conscience. It is why I persistently return to the theme of the need for a global institution with the sole authority to direct military force at scale. Only this can ultimately eliminate war as the scourge on humanity it has been for so long.
the achievements you mention seem ugly and detrimental to me.
Well as I said, half the protein molecules in your body derive ultimately from the process he invented. If you think that ugly and detrimental, then so also must be the large fraction of living people who depend on it.
Large scale industrial fertilisers are similar to coal, they've enabled the human race to bootstrap out of mean brutal poverty into our modern world. But we cannot rely on either of these long-term; both come with an environmental cost and we have to move beyond them, on that I think we can agree. In my view only the science and engineering platform we have built can do that on the scale necessary for 9 billion people to thrive.
Industrial fertilizer – lol good for you.
Look around idiot – we are fucking the planet and animals and ourselves – good that you are proud of your cohorts contribution to that.
But without industrial fertilizer you likely would not be alive. You need to decide which you prefer.
Look around idiot
Where I said "both come with an environmental cost and we have to move beyond them".
hey you and your mate industrial fertilizer are well suited
You mock it, yet without it billions would starve. Why do you think this is funny?
are there any negative effects from industrial fertilizers iyo
Yes of course there are:
https://agrihunt.com/articles/fertilizer-industry/negative-effects-of-chemical-fertilizers/
When they first became available they were overused. The big trend now is toward using them more accurately and combined with methods that protect the soil organics.
oh is that the big trend
Fritz Haber invented a process that with little exaggeration, was a crucial factor in doubling the human population. Perhaps more. In 1900 we struggled to feed about 1.6 billion people, now it's over 7 billion.
Along with mechanisation and improved plant genetics, synthetic fertilisers have freed most of humanity from the terrible threat of starvation every winter and killing famines every decade or so.
That's an extraordinary legacy, one that I think few other humans who have ever lived can match. It seems to me would could be at least a little more grateful.
Nine billion people thriving! [RL @12:14 pm]
The associated consumption doesn't bear thinking about.
Shouldn’t ‘we’ be "cutting one's coat according to one's cloth"? Because we are seriously running out of 'cloth'.
The reduction of atmospheric dinitrogen (N2) to two molecules of ammonia (NH3) by the Haber process requires hydrogen (natural gas/methane are sources), an iron-based catalyst, high pressures (200-300 atmospheres), and high temperatures (400-550 degrees Celcius). Yet nitrogen-fixing bacteria (diazotrophs) manage the same feat at 1 atmosphere pressure and ambient temperatures. One day we might catch up to those 'clever' microbes, but not yet!
All true; I've been aware of all this much of my life. Hell I recall cycling through the East Coast backcountry in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Bola to attend a biodynamics course in Hastings.
Above I drew the comparison with coal which for several centuries has been vital in building an industrial society and a platform from which we can now build solar, wind and next gen nuclear power sources to replace it.
Very irritating not to mention boring when people respond like this. Either you do not understand what I'm saying or you are wilfully derailing. If the latter your time could probably be spent better elsewhere.
Either you do not understand what I'm saying
If you explained yourself in whole thoughts maybe I'd stand a better chance. Putting up something cryptic and then attacking me for not getting it correct is also boring and derailing.
It wasn't intended to be cryptic – the terms I used are common enough in the study of history – obviously not your forte.
It wasn't intended to be cryptic – the terms I used are common enough in the study of history – obviously not your forte.
Well as the expert in the study of history could you please explain it to this dumbarse engineer.
Social history is the study of society structures in previous times whereas most history taught is about society's leaders as though the rest of us are of no account
OK thanks … that makes excellent sense. Human history across all of it's dimensions is way more complex than we get taught at school. Personally I've a particular attraction to the history of science and engineering and the impact this has on social development, but that is only one view of the whole story.
The story of how ordinary people lived their lives, and the reason why social structures evolved as they did is also fascinating. It was these people who are our forebears for the most part, who they lay at the turbulent intersection of religion, politics, war, feast and famine every day of their lives. We are the offspring of thousands of generations smart enough and tough enough to survive …
Sorry about the misunderstanding.
All ok
Well, when I studied History through to honours level at Uni (two decades ago)… it was almost entirely Social & Cultural history.
It began to eclipse Political & Intellectual history (the areas you're thinking of) back in the 60s and early 70s (although social history had been around in one form or another since at least the 20s … particularly Marxist historiography & the French Annales School).
Maybe it's different at secondary school level … but I doubt it.
JanM Saying 'old white men' would be an opener for Redlogix.
After that it all ended up as fertiliser.
lol – very good that one
He he
One human, two barrows.
https://twitter.com/Sammy4121958/status/1129788862878965760
That was an amazingly interesting tweet joe 90 thanks.
it is way easier to wait for a saviour / hero then actually be a decent human being.
its a bit like waiting for Godot.
Waiting for God-oh! Perhaps there is a little bit of God in all of us, and waiting for the great creator to appear is superfluous – showing a cargo-cult mentality. And on that theme, if we all have a bit of God inside us waiting to be called on and shine, if we meet with others who are the same, do we end up with a large, loving group of people who are more than the sum of their parts?
“Let's go." "We can't." "Why not?" "We're waiting for Godot.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
current world governments in regards to everything.
I plucked this from a quick Google search and I think you (and Dennis Frank) might like it.
Hero Archetype: Decoding This Powerful Archetype in Film & Life
This bit is significant: "the Hero archetype actually represents an advanced form of child (boy) psychology. That is, while it does represent the peak of the adolescent stage of development, the Hero archetype is still immature."
Young men historically became heroes due to indoctrination of the archetype, because it was promoted by the social matrix they grew up in. We could say it was an off-shoot of the warrior archetype. Knights of the round table mythology is a good example in which a culture developed around an ethical basis for heroism.
Heroism in our culture is exemplified in media stories of men saving someone, and usually denying in subsequent interviews that they are heroes. This tacit discounting of their personification of the archetype is also a cultural bias.
All those Super-Heroe movies are great entertainment and wonderful escapism, don’t get me wrong. But they keep us stuck at an immature stage of development.
Many superhero movies essentially place the elite individual as more significant than social structures and cooperation. Iron Man is essentially John Galt with wrist rockets.
Invincible, indestructible, and almightily good looking with a razor-sharp tongue. The delusional self-image of the average young male high on roids feeding more fantasy stuff into his immature brain. The only social structure and cooperation they are interested in is copulation.
Although to be fair to Stan Lee, apparently he was trying to make an intensely unlikable "hero". But the irony has been lost, except in the name. Most teams are teams of exceptional people largely acting independently (and stupidly).
But there are changes in some movies – Wonder Woman had quite a bit of teamwork in it, including with non-super people.
The juvenile bit is that movies tend to say "willing to sacrifice all", but almost never do. Even when they die, it's just a matter of time until they come back. Heck, Batman retires at least once.
One of the worst ones is Transformers IMO. It has got juvenile boys written all over it and seems like a bad marriage between The Fast and the Furious and The Terminator. I have to confess that I have a soft spot for The Matrix.
Transformers are very bad movies. Bay does excellent composition of large, dynamic scenes, not so hot on everything else.
I thought the first couple of terminator movies were better than the matrix movies, to be frank. Matrix is all about teen fool who is the chosen one and can see through the illusion, Terminator movies started as 4D chess.
I might be a bit sour on Matrix now so many fools talk about red and blue pills.
Fair enough.
Big Pharma must love that movie (TM) 😉
The themes and symbolism are great IMO and it felt like a Dickian movie to me. But you do have to see through or past all the teen angst stuff …
Killed too many security guards for my taste. But I do love me some Dick…
There was an interesting recent streaming series based on his stuff called "Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams". Not as NSFW as it sounds lol. Stand-alone episodes, with some top line actors.
Yes, I did read that with interest but had forgotten about it so thanks for the reminder.
"while it does represent the peak of the adolescent stage of development, the Hero archetype is still immature"
And boys used to die young, before they could grow out of it. With today's life expectancy, older manbabies like many of those in charge have no excuse.
Problem with GOT final season is GRR Martin gave Benniof and Weiss an outline of what was to happen (as final book not complete) and left them to fill in the dialogue, then for what ever reason they decide to jam it all into 6 episodes.
Hence, unhappy viewers.
The Wire was outstanding, from first episode to last.
I loved that series
It gave such an understanding of how stuff works.It encompassed both the personal and the wider sociological/political context.
Yes, thanks – this angle is interesting too
Good point. Seems like tacit racism, eh? However, Martin did acknowledge that he modelled the series on 14th century Europe. If my memory is correct. So no surprise that a crusader ethic can be detected…
That's just woke bullshit designed to signal how in touch one is with feelings. There is no racism. Every slave master relationship has its fairytales of triumph and backhanded comments laced with key words designed to get around the censor and communicate complex ideas to simple people with out incurring the wrath of the masters. That's why we only hear of story's about the wealthy because making fun of slaves just ain't funny.
oh sham you know nothing – woke up dim
The writers of the show had to make the main characters older and prettier so the show would get a R15 rating instead of the R18 rating the books should have. King Tommen Lanister I mean Beratheon was 9 in the books while he consummated his marriage with Margery, much older. But who gives a flying fuck about Westerosy morals when cancerous normies are attempting to hijack the Game of Thrones logo and reputation so they can build bottom up jargon to demonstrate how fucken awesomely woke they are.
That's a pretty fair call, although not a dealbreaker by any means for me.
The small cove point though, that pissed me off at the time.
What I found disappointing about the penultimate episode was that many of the individual sequences were a pastiche of iconic sequences – Arya does an extended Children of Men finishing with a Jarhead, for example.
I mean, visually it was all awesome, but it wasn't quite as originally awesome as the battle with the night king (that's where I disagree with the article – retconned or deliberately foreshadowed, none of the death came out of nowhere).
And at least we finally saw why dragons were hyped.
The thin-skinned, brain-damaged orange shit-gibbon is anything but a peace-maker. The potential for global disaster grows every day.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/389584/us-president-donald-trump-threatens-iran-in-tweet
Christ. That's like school-yard stuff. "Oh yeah? I'm going to punch you in the face!" "Well, I'm going to kick you in the balls!"
Why are we afflicted with leaders who have an overabundance of testosterone and an obvious lack of grey matter? If America marches to war again, they should use John Bolton and Donald Trump as human shields.
Jenny H at No. 8 in How to Get There 19th May explains her motivations and successes. I don't think I've enough to warrant being in that post of doing and exploring ideas. So I've put mine on open mike.
That was really inspiring Jenny H. I am trying and am concerned just not about CC but also the way that the economic system impoverishes people while it gloats about how good the surface money figures are while those outside the charmed circle wait and whose deficits seem to be a permanent bypass in the body politic. I write here, which I regard as work, and try to keep informed with people from different sectors here and elsewhere, and try to keep the idea of respect and kindness going balanced with practicality.
Aiming for a system that provides balance while not settling down to a 'don't rock the boat at all' approach requires constant adjustment. I also am supportive of various friends, family not far from death, including my oldish self. I am thinking of how I can help young people, and have various ideas that I need to research to do with people support which enhances our lives and adds resilience for the future. A work in progress.
It seems easier for people to latch on to environmental matters but we get annoyed with each other, and pass judgment on and eventually ignore the strugglers – don't give money to beggars say a Council and regard that as dealing with problem people. The animals we can excuse, like destructive kea, but people who have had bad childhoods and upbringing, we can't be bothered looking after them, or really helping parents and children coming along to be both loving and strong and capable. I don't like a possible scenario of a tree covered country full of active animals going about their lives with half-naked people fighting off a powerfully armed bunch of marauding groups; a possibility that must be prevented.
Finding a way to live more simply is hard; we need to accept a less glossy vision for people to aim for, not huge houses on the hill that get redecorated every three years and the change of cars before the warranty expires. More harmony, more respect, more giving a little in many ways, more pleasure in what we have, and trust, these need to be talked about and aimed for.
Knowing how to spot poseurs is helpful, you can't be too trusting as Greenpeace found out after being infiltrated by the French before they fixed a bomb to the Rainbow Warrior – an act of war if done elsewhere. Do we have Sleepers here from the USA as in the TV series from 2013*? Has our government been infiltrated by 5Eyes partners who can request actions of our police and defence forces? We might wonder.
*(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4D96fPl_hI
At present I am concerned about the rise of cults that appear to offer stability, security and morality, but in payment want to suck in your soul and mind. We have become aware of EB who were vying to help National. Who issues forth next – Ngaro? Do we need to wipe the no-tax ban on churches, which seems to be a temptation for entities that look more devilish than Christian. We need to look for the worm in the apple, and stop these so-called Christians acting out their swagger over 'dark' people which they found mentioned somewhere in the Bible, and over females with whom there can be no latitude because of the myth of Eve, and who need protecting from themselves. Today they trash USA laws – tomorrow?
The ongoing political quake in Britain has now produced a three-way split: "More voters now say they would back the Brexit Party at a general election than the Conservatives, according to a new poll. Nigel Farage’s five-week-old outfit would finish second in the popular vote, pushing the Tories into third place, the research conducted by Opinium suggests. In total, the Brexit Party would collect 24 per cent of the ballot, with the Conservatives trailing on just 22 per cent, it was found. Labour would win with 27 per cent of the electorate backing them."
"The surprise finding comes as the group – which has no manifesto and just a single policy of demanding a no-deal Brexit – continue to top the polls for next week’s European Parliament elections. Some 34 per cent of voters say they will back it on Thursday, Opinium found. That compares to just 20 per cent who say they will support Labour in second place and 15 per cent who indicate they would vote for the Lib Dems." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-party-poll-election-farage-tories-labour-lib-dems-change-uk-a8920371.html
"The Conservatives, in that poll, remain fourth – a finding that is expected to heighten despondency in the party and lead to renewed calls for Theresa May to set a definitive timetable for standing down as prime minister. Change UK, meanwhile, a party formed with the express intention of forcing a second Brexit referendum, is struggling with just 3 per cent of voters saying they would back them in either ballot."
Remainers are history then! I suppose most remainers aren't supporting the remainer party, instead clinging to the delusion that Labour will represent them. So the tories may look like the biggest losers, but remainers are really.
Wouldn't it be good for government to have planning ability and use it? That's what the are thinking in Wellington. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/389599/council-powerless-to-stop-waste-of-space-housing-development
The developers behind The Paddington want to build about 150 upmarket terraced houses on Taranaki Street in the central city, with prices starting at $788,000.
The complex is expected to become home to about 300 people, however, the buildings are only two or three storeys high, in an area with a maximum limit of 27 metres…
At the showroom, Thames Pacific developer Stephen Sutorius said there were too many apartment blocks nearby to build another one on the site.
"You can't have high-rise blocks all next to each other. You'll get a city where you have no sun, you have no light throughout the developments or throughout the city," Mr Sutorius said.
Construction was likely to start in November this year, with completion estimated for mid-2021, he said.
Weak. The architect designs, spaces and places so that all share sun and shade. The Council are saying twice the number could be housed there, so that would only be max six storeys high. I am not sure what earthquake possibilities would allow safely. Over a certain height different construction wold be needed perhaps.
And then there's the whole insurance problem…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018695812/earthquake-damage-insurance-dr-megan-woods
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018686414/no-secret-about-wellington-insurance-risk-insurance-council
Yes Rosemary I forgot about that and the latest worrying news for Wellington. Looking at history it seems we haven't even got as far with facing our problems as Ethelred the Unready.
And Labour Coalition may yet have to carry out a symbolic trip to the beach where they will demonstrate the truths of our reality as did King Canute when he pointed out his limited powers compared to expectations – he couldn't hold back the tide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide
And Cnut the Great 995-1035 He had a father called Sweyn Forkbeard. That’s a great name too. He was King of Denmark, England and Norway. They had interesting relationships then in that area. Now we have come to the end of the world and our Australian cousins don’t add to our gene pool. If we wish to advance the nation I think, if the Maori continue putting up with us, we could build a great nation with their staunchness and practicality. So don’t listen to defunct Brash with his criticism of Maori greetings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut_the_Great
Moved a bit to the side there Rosemary. Back to the point – the insurance matter is something that Robertson and his advisors will need to look at along with the insurance council to see what can be provided by the state.
Or perhaps all the filthy rich who were prepared to work hard and get their hands dirty reorganising the positions of power and privilege after Douglas and neolib and free markets. They can bring Eric Watson's money back and stop him wasting it in foreign lands and Australian ventures that should be here, and tax etc. so we can get some stability for the country.
"You can't have high-rise blocks all next to each other"
Genius, Bruce.
Stealing – rustling in rural communities. Farmers need protection from crime.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/389590/65-000-worth-of-sheep-stolen-from-southland-property-police
Millsy you are so Right.
We don't don't need a Creator. We got John Key and his ugly duckling Simon Bridges to do that for us. Best Creators ever.
We really need Stalin again- that great great man who did so much good too. We need Mr Lenin too. Is he a mate of yours ?
Or do you prefer Hitler. Anorher fine Man of the Right. He got rid of God long before you. While you at it, why not rubbish Confucius. As well as the dutch Apartheid Mongrels of Africa. Also Kill that magnificent Ruler Of Babylon. Such a good man. Kill him !
I imagine that you pagans kill the Women and children first. Like the Americans do. Day after day. You know, – when they Bomb innocent people. I am glad you support those bad men. Keep up the madness Millsy.
Kia ora The AM Show.
I don't think that that man's words should be heard by the tangata of the Papatuanukue Christchurch desaster.
I hope not to many people are losted in the atrocious weather events affecting 4 state in America don that's climate change.
I don't think Trevor should be hung out to dry you have to remember that happened a long time ago things we different in those days it was much easier to servive in those days.
Bulling is a behaviour humans have had for millions of years you see it in the animal herd group culture there is always one in the group that is picked on the same in human societies. I have bullied I try not to but I don't not like seeing it happen to vanuralble tangata I userly call out the bullie. I had that problem in one work place they young fellas try to bullie me I stood them up they ganged up on me and got me sacked because of the 90 day clause there loss.
Muppet puppet after my journey back home.( I have every right to call out muppets puppets who use the word CRACK ARE you marketing the shit.)
Gloriz it's a shame that people like seenothing will use anything to try and float their toilets with out a care on whom they hurt in the process.
Aziz m8 Eco Maori is discrimination against every day of the year.
Moniqe doc is doing a excellent job caring for OUR wild life but I still want a bounty put on opossum and stotes that will give money to the common people and get rid of the vermin I have read about the places in Freordland being the last place Kakapo were found on the main land. The problem with the tourist model doc model is the common people are left in the COLD. Te tangata te tangata te tangata. You mite say that te tangata won’t be able to get into all the hard terrain that’s true but if you wipe out all the vermin in the easy places that will bennafit the wild life and te tangata
The culture needs to change keeping Aotearoa and Papatuanukue free from rubbish and plastic waste is going to be the normal thing as it takes a thousand years to degrade plastic we need to protect Papatuanukue for te Mokopuna Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/fKopy74weus
He tangata he tangata he tangata
Its all the people that need to be loved and cared for not just the wealthy.
I'm glad I called them out this morning PEEEEE is killing the common people off
Nicola is an outreach worker and helps homeless Aucklanders in desperate need.
The video above is episode three of K Rd Chronicles, an eight-part video web series about homelessness in New Zealand's biggest city.
This episode focuses on Nicola, an outreach worker who helps Aucklanders in desperate need.
K Rd Chronicles was made for Stuff by Top Shelf Productions, funded by NZ On Air.
The series is hosted by a transgender journalist called Six, who was homeless for six years.
The videos touch on addiction, specifically P and synthetic cannabis abuse Ka kite ano links below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/112462604/k-rd-chronicles-episode-3-nicola-the-outreach-worker
https://youtu.be/OxhyumdiVtw
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/w5tWYmIOWGk
Kia Kaha students To Eco Maori Your future is so special I Tau toko you 100%
Tens of thousands of students are planning to take to the streets for the second time this year to strike for climate change action.
On Friday, Kiwi students will "rise up to demand climate action from our Government".
From marches and rallies to tree planting and beach clean ups, New Zealand's youth are doing all they can to bring attention to the issue of climate change.
Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming strike
Ka kite ano links below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/112728366/school-students-strike-for-climate-change-what-you-need-to-know
https://youtu.be/LHULg2BefKg
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/Xo7WjnC8ekQ