Most importantly, as money would be openly directly created by the government to bring about the use of the countries resources as needed it would obviate the need for savings and foreign investment. It would also decrease the government borrowings to zero as they would no longer need to borrow which would eliminate the billions of dollars wasted in interest that the government presently pays out yearly.
Our entire monetary system is fucked as it’s designed to make a few people richer without them actually having to do anything.
And, yeah, that Asian investment bank is just of the same failed system.
Freeloading. Owning a home in several global capital cities and curtailing the muliplier effort of taking those resources out of the local economy. All because Thatcherites discovered that media repeating the lie adnausium , that while civil society builds the engine, and cheapening high dense middle east fuels powered the engine, only a rather extreme now disreputable political economic view created the inevitable market growth. I.e they called dibs on the diving seat while siliencing civil society and claimg growth as proof for their politicial economic non-runner ideology. Thirty years later, climbing debt levels, climate disruption, and a chronical unfit global economy lacking balancing forums to deal as one species. And worse, now the Marxists have been given their day, neo-libs are communist infiltraters, having the luxuries of wealth while corrupting capalism from within. Why does the US Republician party hate capialism so much?
Such a system is not needed and is, IMO, part of the reason why we’re having such problems as anthropogenic climate change. They push growth but prevent development because of the need to pay interest.
Well, China has the sole veto because of the size of its contribution, but I think it will very rarely use it. In essence, the AIIB has been set up to be far more democratic and apolitical than the World Bank or the IMF, which is one reason why 56 countries joined it so quickly.
Well, China has the sole veto because of the size of its contribution, but I think it will very rarely use it.
But it will use it whereas an independent investment bank in each country supplying all the money that that country needs is not under that power.
In essence, the AIIB has been set up to be far more democratic and apolitical than the World Bank or the IMF, which is one reason why 56 countries joined it so quickly.
But it’s still just a copy of the present failed system.
This article gives an interesting insight into how the TPPA is being written and who has the influence.
“The big media lobbyists’ theatrics over this minor amendment are embarrassing, but they do raise one important issue: our trade negotiators are a lot less interested in the needs of ordinary users and creators than the needs of powerful companies. Why else was a last-minute intervention by Google sufficient to bring the USTR back to the negotiating table on this topic, where the sustained interventions of EFF and 10 other major public interest groups from around the world were not?”
Hello everyone, I do hope this is the correct place to post this question/comment combo…
I just saw an ad for Radio Live on YouTube, selling the “balanced” reporting the media is currently so fond of. It is just a mash up of the Radio Live personalities telling us what we’d miss out on if they didn’t give all opinions equal weight regardless of merit.
It opens with Hilary Barry asking “Can you imagine how dull the world would be if we all thought the same?” and is followed by the rest of the team giving us such gems as:
“There would only be one shop.”
“There would only be one colour There’d be no colour” (sorry Physics)
And my favourite:
“There’d be no debate on climate change.”
Is this sort of thing new? I usually use an ad blocker so I haven’t seen it before. I did not realise they were publicly spouting fallacious arguments to support rubbish journalism.
[lprent: Updated to fix a transcription error on the commenter’s request. ]
I’d be tempted to say that the debate on climate change is now about what to do (not whether it’s real), but then I see they had Sean Plunkett giving it as an example.
It’s pretty much the only conversation I’m willing to have about it 😉
(more seriously, I can see the time approaching where I will have no tolerance for talk about what to do, given we know what to do and should just be doing it).
The debate about climate change is as valid as the debate about the earth being round or flat, or the debate about whether the moon landing was a hoax or not.
Balanced reporting like paddy’s piece on the appalling Newsworthy last night which btw looks like an episode of ‘Cops’ more so than a news show.
Little had a soundbite about farming incidents being high then followed by Gower throwing numbers about without any context, averages etc inferring Little had it wrong.
Overt bias on display, if little was in fact wrong there’d be wave after wave of graphs and stats but no just Pants on fire Paddy and his questionable use of numbers.
😈 They are assumptions. But few things take that long to compile any more unless you’re doing a lot of variants or cross compiles.
The worst one I have at present is some old C/C++ code that gets compiled in a redhat9 system (ie circa 2002) in a VM on a version of gcc/g++ that only handles a single core. It is about 500k lines and takes about 5 minutes from scratch. Fortunately it doesn’t have templates.
Three projects, three platforms, two graphics libraries (compiled from source, obv.), and a two core CPU on a laptop with a fragmented 1TB SATA. Nice and warm in here though.
It opens with Hilary Barry asking “Can you imagine how dull the world would be if we all thought the same?”
Hah, that’s amusing because according to National that’s exactly what we do. It’s the total premise that National Standards are based upon and why they fail.
“There would only be one shop.”
Well, we’re not quite there – we duopoly instead.
“There’d be no debate on climate change.”
So, I wonder what debate they’re having with their navel hair because you can’t debate climate change as you simply can’t debate facts.
We can’t see what the public say on the matter of course, because the NZ Herald has again been attacked by gremlins.
The recurrence of this very strange tech issue must be a real headache for them. Once again, despite the number of comments ‘published’ (currently 18) being clearly stated on the home page and the”Politics” section page, once you get to the actual article…. no comments are visible.
It must be so infuriating for the Herald that this keeps happening and so unlucky it only seems to occur on articles that include distinctly negative discussion points on the National Government.
“The Prime Minister says none of the advice the Government received suggested it would be illegal.”
when david cunliffe used a trust to handle his campaign for party leader it was perfectly legal, nevertheless he was pilloried for it.
another example of dirty politics, key and his cronies have not a shred of honour amongst the lot of them. they will use every means at their disposal, honest or not, to gull the public.
how anyone can continue to support someone who lies and prevaricates the way this one does is beyond me.
“”how anyone can continue to support someone who lies and prevaricates the “”
That!! Is the how I feel ,if some one thinks pure capitalism is the way forward I can live with it, but to support this rogues gallery of a political party Lead by a lying sick bully makes me wonder at the morals of the average kiwi.
At least, we hope it was: the idea that departments commonly have spare cash that can be spent without Treasury approval in this way does not bear thinking.
It’s not up to Treasury to give approval for spending. That’s the government’s job.
The scheme to relocate a sheep breeding operation from New Zealand to Saudi Arabia went ahead for other reasons, which will come within the Auditor-General’s inquiry this time.
It’s those ‘other reasons’ that are the concern as all indications are that the spend up on the Saudi Sheep Deal were a bribe.
The Prime Minister says none of the advice the Government received suggested it would be illegal.
The PM is a liar and I’m sure that we do have some laws that cover it but we obviously need stronger laws against such corruption.
If a well-connected Saudi investor’s grievance of the live export ban was obstructing a free trade agreement, it makes sense to offer a settlement.
No, there is never any excuse for such corruption.
Well its fair to say that there was a failry large proportion of NZ voters who didn’t like Helen Clarks on screen image (though I understand shes perfectly charming away from the camera) but she had definately had respect so quite similar to John Key in this instance
nah not even close – I liked a fair chunk of Helen Clark as PM but there were severe lapses imo. Key is just a mindless bumbling liar that should be ashamed of himself but lacks the self awareness to even consider how dull and dim he is.
I always underestimate how much he crumbles when he faces competent reviews from impartial media, like overseas interviewers or just his behaviour summarised by John Oliver (three times in the past year, more than Zimbabwe ffs).
I’m not so sure that we need better wingnuts.
I reckon the wingnuts need better heroes.
https://t.co/gDCChPorOr, which I posted last night, but very relevant to “respect”for John Key, and how Paul Henry was made to see the light. (for a split second)
That was interesting, thanks for posting. Loved the moment when Henry conceded the point on which personality type you’d rather have running a country.
If only that was on Seven Sharp too, might wake people up and I wouldn’t have to listen the same old answer when I ask people why they like Key…”He’s got charisma” Gawd!
Australian Govt, for all their evils, getting serious about foreign investment in residential real estate, including real estate transfer register (#8) residential property money laundering crackdown (#11) and criminal penalties for locals who act as agents to help foreign investors circumvent the prohibition on the purchase of existing properties (#5).
ANDREW LITTLE to the Associate Minister of Finance: Does she stand by the Prime Minister’s statement that “I’d hate to see New Zealanders as tenants in their own country”; if so, how many applications by overseas investors to buy land were declined under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 between January 2012 and June 2015?
ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. This question was originally set down for the Prime Minister, and I therefore seek leave for the House to have the question transferred back to the Prime Minister.
Mr SPEAKER : Order! No. I refer the member to Speaker’s ruling 169/5. I am not prepared to put the leave. It is the prerogative of the Government to decide whom the question goes to. It has made that decision. If the member wants to continue asking it as it is on the Order Paper, he can do so.
Noted that in QT yesterday, Mr Shaw pointed out the string of National precedents when Ministers under investigation were stood down or stood themselves down. Well done James but Key just ducked. So much for open and transparent Government.
Dictatorships don’t work too well when open and transparent and National knows it. People become upset when they realise that the government is screwing them over.
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The point of order is this: it is the tension that the Opposition finds between asking general primary questions and more specific primary questions. What we are endeavouring to do now in most of our questions—rather than asking “Does he stand by all of his statements?”—is actually be more specific and give an indication of the direction of travel of the supplementary questions. The risk of doing this is that now, under this arrangement, the Prime Minister could, in fact, answer next to no questions, because as soon as we give an indication of the nature of the question, he has grounds to transfer it.
(bold mine)
For some time The Speaker and Ministers of the Government have been actively promoting more detailed primary questions from the Opposition and this is the end result they wanted. The Opposition have two choices, ask specific questions and helplessly watch them get transferred from the PM, or be forced to waste supplementary questions by asking what should be primary questions.
Not forgetting of course by not having specifics outlayed in the primary, the PM can forever answer the more detailed supplementaries with “I don’t have the details… ” etc
Meanwhile, a nomination for Most Pathetic Question Asked In Our Parliament For Quite Some Time award
What are the benefits of returning to surplus and paying down debt?
That gem came from Chris Bishop. What a deeply probing intellectually stimulating challenge for the Minister. A question you might expect an eager year eight social studies student to ask of the Minister during a school visit but is just so embarrassing coming from a grown adult being paid over $150,000 a year to help run our country.
@ freedom (9.2) – and another patsy gem that is asked just about every parliamentary session from a variety of good little dopey government back benchers, to minister of finance English … ” what can the minister tell the House about the reports he has received on the economy?” WTF????? Duh! Of course the minister is going to talk up his economic policies!
I can just about anticipate almost every NatzKEY back bencher patsy question now, because I’ve heard the same old, same old, day in day out in Parliament so many times before. It’s just turning into a very bad Vaudeville act!
They are a part of the process of QT and we all grudgingly accept that.
No matter how good an idea it might sound, to remove the government’s allotment of questions only removes the opportunity for the rarely seen ‘question of conscience’* from a back bencher who has realised their government is a corrupt and treasonous bunch of idealogues who wouldn’t know how to find their way out of an open ended culvert.
The government of course has a right to ask itself questions and there are [almost] reasonable grounds for many of the more ridiculous questions to its own navel, but I think it was Bishop’s inability to hide the farcically vacuous nature of the question that made this one stand out. He was sniggering to himself before he even finished asking it. And he was not the only one on the government benches doing so.
I don’t remember any other government that has such obvious disrespect for question time, especially when asking the patsy questions.
We all know they will be asked, but a bit more effort to hide the patsy questions’ inner inanity would be nice.
With Key now on a slow decline, Cabinet are managing Parliamentary process to circle the wagons around him. So we will get a whole bunch more PM-puppy-and-Rugby shots.
We are already seeing Ministers Bennett and English take far more of the media load, with Joyce way down the list and Brownlee and Smith near-invisible.
National are subbing off their Bench with extreme game-playing smarts.
Labour could learn some lessons here – King and Twyford have been outstanding recently, with Little making essentially no hits. Labour need to learn National’s excellent lessons and blood their bench.
With Key now on a slow decline, Cabinet are managing Parliamentary process to circle the wagons around him. So we will get a whole bunch more PM-puppy-and-Rugby shots.
And that will be so obvious that people will wonder why they’re doing it and come to the same conclusion – National don’t have another personable front man to put in front of them and lie.
Their bench is pretty strong – and grooming an English-Bennett combination makes a whole bunch of sense. By 2020 Bennett would be a real contender for the top job.
Two men arrested following a grenade attack over the weekend in Thailand reportedly told police that the “Red Shirt” supporters of the toppled government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra were planning more bomb attacks on up to 100 targets in Bangkok, a security official said.
Yuttana said he was a member of a red-shirt group that communicated on a social network called Line, where they discussed a plot to bomb at least 100 places in the nation’s capital. Mahahin said that the targets included military armories in Chiang Mai and in the Northeast, university campuses and a temple.
On Monday, The Bangkok Post reported that the suspects had linked the attack to former army chief and supreme commander Chaiyasit Shinawatra, a member of the Shinawatra family, led by Yingluck’s self-exiled brother Thaksin. The junta detests the family, but it has won every national election since 2001.
Yup, these hollowed out pricks are carrying out orders and have been doing so for an eternity
Wow, you bought some propaganda wholesale there.
Have you not noticed that the junta has control of the media? Of course sources are going to blame the previous establishment – it suits their aims to stoke negative sentiment against red shirt groups and the Shinawatras.
The junta would do anything to ensure there is no future election that could possibly lead to an election, that would inevitably be won by Pheu Thai or a similar successor to Thai Rak Thai aligned with the Red Shirts
Similarly, the link to Uighur nationalists comes after pressure from China lead to the junta deciding to deport Uighurs back to China.
It suits the junta to link the bombings to Uighur nationalists, to turn public sentiment against their call for asylum.
In reality, the bombing could be from any number of sources – Red shirt activists, separatists from the south, Burmese refugee activists, someone trying to undermine certain junta figures or junta opponents, Uighur activists, or a bunch of random enraged people.
While the Shinawatras are just as corrupt and criminal as the junta is, you should really apply more critical thinking than just linking them to bombings based on statements in media that is junta-controlled.
What comments about the military? I’m well aware of the respect and social standing given to the military in Thailand, and Bangkok in particular, if that is what you are getting at. What exactly of what I have said is inaccurate though?
Well, very briefly, the military have power, they have long standing respect, they support and are supported by the monarchy, and many of the periods of dictatorship have been more stable than the surrounding periods, and plenty more, a good deal of which can be summed up as ‘this is the culture of this country’.
None of this changes that the country is run by a military junta rather than a democratically elected government, and none of that changes that that facile attacks are being made on Uighurs and Red Shirts in the media.
At current, it appears that there was knowledge of the attack in social media groups, and a red shirt leader had a warning of an attack and provided a warning on social media. In due course, it seems likely that the culprits will be able to be identified. It appears now that Prayuth is also playing down the Uighur theory, to his credit.
Much of what you wrote is solid, but there are some comments which stand out to me as a little out of place
None of this changes that the country is run by a military junta rather than a democratically elected government, and none of that changes that that facile attacks are being made on Uighurs and Red Shirts in the media.
So what it’s currently run by the Military if the Thai people are ok with that and they are providing a stability where ‘democracy’ was leading towards civil war. The Monarchy will have instructed the military to step in, that is why the military acted. 95% of Thai people support their Monarchy
Democracy ain’t ‘what it used to be’ , and as you point out, Thailand has been democratically rooted for ages at various times
What do you reckon that is ?
Not sure a reasoned person would call an attack on Red Shirts as facile, given what they have been involved in previously
Perhaps you might like to share where your bias around the Junta / Red Shirts originates
Sounds to me like you’re saying JUNTA = BAD , Democracy = Good
At current, it appears that there was knowledge of the attack in social media groups, and a red shirt leader had a warning of an attack and provided a warning on social media.
Social media groups were frenetic with activity and apparent warnings from some purporting to know the attack was coming
More warnings have also been received pertaining to coming days
Are you Thai, have Thai family or live in Thailand ?
My general problem with the junta is all that dictatorship baggage, you know, the detention of political opponents, suppression of alternative media views, enrichment of elites (admittedly going to be present regardless of who is in charge), that sort of oppression.
At least if there’s a democracy, people that aren’t in powerful positions get some sort of a voice.
I’m consistently called an unrealistic idealist, but I am always confident that a well designed democracy is better for a country, and I am confident that working towards those processes will be good for Thailand in the long term. At the moment, you only don’t have that red v yellow, poor v elites because of the military imposition in things. That conflict is not resolved, so it will just fester. I’d rather both sides have representation, involvement in political processes.
Heard on National Radio (from a source I can’t remember) that they expect milk prices to improve next year. I don’t think anyone knows what is going to happen to milk prices for the next few years. The only thing we can be sure of is price volatility.
Given that fonterra had to limit what they put up to auction to get the lift in prices they got ,and combine that with the fact that dairy factories will be approaching full production in the next month or so ,I’d be very interested to know what they base there optimism on.
The only chance demand will increase is if their is a drought in one or more of the major producing countries.
So far the long range forecast for NZ is El Nino on the rise.
So Prices might go up but N Z could miss out.
Russia allowing us to export Dairy to them is Putin Key in a precarious position with all his NATO mates.
China’s economy is in for a long rough ride.
So Dairy farmers Fairy tale ride is over.
Unless you can pick up a Dairy farm at a firesale price carry no debt ,milk once a day grow all your feed without fertilizer or harvest costs.
Dairy farming will go through a massive reorganisation.
I agree that she should be out of the spotlight though as I have as much interest in her and the crims she hangs around with as I do with the Kardashians
Can’t agree with you marty mars. You must have read the story in a different light to me. It was not nasty. It was honest. And among the words was some very good advice for the young lady in question.
Strokes and heart disease are a major killer in NZ. And working longer hours seems to greatly bump up the risk of suffering from them.
The likely toll of long working hours is revealed in a major new study which shows that employees still at their desks into the evening run an increased risk of stroke – and the longer the hours they put in, the higher the risk.
The largest study conducted on the issue, carried out in three continents and led by scientists at University College London, found that those who work more than 55 hours a week have a 33% increased risk of stroke compared with those who work a 35- to 40-hour week. They also have a 13% increased risk of coronary heart disease.
The findings will confirm the assumptions of many that a long-hours culture, in which people work from early in the morning until well into the evening, with work also intruding into weekends, is potentially harmful to health.
We included 25 studies from 24 cohorts in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The meta-analysis of coronary heart disease comprised data for 603 838 men and women who were free from coronary heart disease at baseline; the meta-analysis of stroke comprised data for 528 908 men and women who were free from stroke at baseline. Follow-up for coronary heart disease was 5·1 million person-years (mean 8·5 years), in which 4768 events were recorded, and for stroke was 3·8 million person-years (mean 7·2 years), in which 1722 events were recorded. In cumulative meta-analysis adjusted for age, sex, and socioeconomic status, compared with standard hours (35–40 h per week), working long hours (≥55 h per week) was associated with an increase in risk of incident coronary heart disease (relative risk [RR] 1·13, 95% CI 1·02–1·26; p=0·02) and incident stroke (1·33, 1·11–1·61; p=0·002). The excess risk of stroke remained unchanged in analyses that addressed reverse causation, multivariable adjustments for other risk factors, and different methods of stroke ascertainment (range of RR estimates 1·30–1·42). We recorded a dose–response association for stroke, with RR estimates of 1·10 (95% CI 0·94–1·28; p=0·24) for 41–48 working hours, 1·27 (1·03–1·56; p=0·03) for 49–54 working hours, and 1·33 (1·11–1·61; p=0·002) for 55 working hours or more per week compared with standard working hours (ptrend<0·0001).
You might find answers to some of your questions here. (The original paper in The Lancet).
I think ‘depends’ is a bit misleading in this context. It’s an epidemiological study (and a meta-analysis) not an experiment to identify a causal mechanism.
The correct notion is one of ‘risk’ at the population level.
So the answer to the question “Are long working hours killing Kiwis?” is – almost certainly (unless we systematically differ from the population covered by the meta-analysis); but just which Kiwis might be killed by long working hours ‘depends’ (on the sorts of factors you mention).
Thanks for that – always good to see the actual publication and Yes you are quite right. I think if we narrowed it don to those working more than 60 hours a week, who were overweight, smokers, primarily sedentary, over 50yrs and did frequent long haul air travel the risk of stroke would be red lining.
Yes – always remembering that there is likely to be interactions between those variables (e.g., long-working hours reinforcing sedentary habits, poor diet, etc.)..
And, of course, being over 50 happens to most of us – all going well – eventually 🙂
I blame the people who decided that it would be cheaper to import people to do the job rather than front up with getting NZers to do it. Going to cost a hell of a lot more now.
It seems he can’t fool all the people all the time, judging by the comments.
Leave our bloody flag alone.
+47
“If he was to push legislation through Parliament with 61 votes and enforce a new flag on New Zealand, “rightfully so people would say I was taking their democratic right away,” Key said.”
Like when the public voted against sale of power stations but 61 MPs from the National government rammed it through anyway? I say Key took away our democratic rights on that occasion.
+33
Glad to know old John-boy worries about our democratic right… Now how about you let us vote on the TPPA? It’s the democratic thing to do
It is going to be a very open referendum apparently when it comes to advertising and promotion of viewpoints.
The rules for the referendum advertising restrictions apply to print newspaper tv and radio but that is about it.
All online media, for example, are available for whatever purposes the spin-meisters deem necessary.
I wonder how the lawyers deal with streaming radio & TV services?
Material published online will not be a referendum advertisement and is not subject to the referendum advertising rules. This means an individual or group may publish and/or promote any advertising material in relation to the flag referendums on websites, social media pages or any other online platform and it will not be subject to the referendum advertising rules under the Act.
Of course that doesn’t mean print, radio or television miss out as they still get to report on stories from any media they choose and will be able to publish any advertisement from other media as part of their reporting.
==========
On a related ‘reporting’ issue – as the referendum draws ever closer, we have still not seen any reporting on how a collection of images that have an existing copyright against them and are currently commercially marketed products have been allowed into the flag debate long list in the first place ….
The big PR push happens around the Referendum, once we have had the reminder of the Rugby World Cup next month, Olympics soon, then World Masters Games in Auckland.
PM will have the wind beneath his wings.
Soaring like an eagle.
Shaking his ass like a Bison.
Flashing his tail like a whale.
And lots and lots of puppy shots.
National’s popularity is now moving in wild swings much like the stock market. Trouble on the horizon when no one really knows what the market is doing or if it represents anything based on reality.
No, it’s the polling which is moving about in wild swings. Having said that, National’s jump in this poll is well beyond the margin of error so we can be confident that their support has firmed recently.
However the all important Government Confidence Rating remains weak.
Labour got zero voter traction from the Chinese house buying ploy, and possibly quite the reverse, that much is clear.
On the Government’s side:
– Key understands that wall to wall media coverage is the best way to stay popular
– Chinese voter intentions will harden to National in Auckland
– The National front bench are firing, and providing Key with strong coverage
– TPP protests appear not to have touched underlying popularity
On the Opposition:
– They Opposition remain a long way from looking like an alternative government
– The rural economy has not yet fully soured. (It will)
– Criticising real estate capital growth is not popular
– Winston Peters continues to get better media traction than Little
– Greens have no MSM profile currently
It’s making 2017 look hard for the Progressive side of the fence.
Should have been firing by now.
I agree with all your points. Previously I had thought your statements around the ‘inevitable decline’ of the Key Govt as probably being a bit too early and a bit too optimistic.
Haha! Another rogue poll. And yet the last Roy Morgan poll commented on on this blog was blindingly reflective of the Public’s will for change, judging by the comments on here.
“I’d like to be Richard Branson. SLURP.” The Panel, Radio NZ National, Thursday 20 August 2015
Jim Mora, Peter Elliott, Gary Moore, Zara Potts, Jesse Mulligan
We join the Panelists at the tail end of their reaction to a story about how rubbing coffee into your scalp can cure baldness….
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! GARY MOORE: HA! JESSE MULLIGAN: Ha ha ha ha ha! PETER ELLIOTT: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! ZARA POTTS: He he he he he! JIM MORA: Ha ha ha! Okay, what else have you got? ZARA POTTS: Well, have you heard of a condition called misophonia? JIM MORA: Misophonia. ZARA POTTS: Misophonia is the intense, angry reaction to everyday sounds like chewing, lip-smacking, sniffing, and pen-clicking—sounds that other people can ignore. ……
Now this was mischievous. It is probably not a coincidence that this subject was brought up when Peter Elliott was on the programme. Elliott has built a career out of cultivating a sonorous basso-profundo voice. He is a fine actor, but he has one extremely irritating habit: he is a slurper. If ever there was something to drive a misophonic person into a pit of dark frothing rage, it would be the slurping by Peter Elliott and a former Panel regular, Deborah Hill Cone.
After the 4 o’clock news, Elliott spoke briefly about his recent trip to Los Angeles….
People say L.A. is shallow and violent and nasty. I loved it! Maybe I’m just shallow and violent and nasty! SLURP. ….
Later in the program, Jim Mora asked his guests who they would like to be for a day. Peter Elliott replied like this….
Richard Branson. He owns this beautiful island and he owns an airline and he can fly anywhere he likes. SLURP…
For his Soapbox contribution, the slurping was unconstrained….
I was sad to hear of the demise of the Middle East Cafe. It’s been in Auckland for 25 years. SLURP. I used to go there with my agent Robert Bruce. SLURP. I would be really upset if it became another McDonald’s or Wendy’s or some damn thing. SLURP. But my main topic today is the accuracy of petrol pumps. SLURP. I went on line and checked it out. SLURP. The smallest volume of petrol that can be accurately delivered is two dollars. SLURP….. I just wonder if I am being ripped off at the pump. SLURP….
Poor old Gary Moore must be sick and tired of being paired with slurpers when he comes on this programme. A couple of years ago he had to sit opposite the most notorious slurper of them all, Deborah Hill Cone…..
[lprent: As Chooky says. Nothing to do with the Assange post. I will give you a little leeway as I suspect it could have been an accident. Post this far off topic again, and I’ll have to get educational. ]
Morrissey…entertainining as it is ….shouldnt this be under ‘Open Mike’ ?…cant see what it has to do with Julian Assange allegations, which is the topic of this Post
“ZARA POTTS: Well, have you heard of a condition called misophonia?
JIM MORA: Misophonia.”
*snicker* You nail Mora’s parroting schtick so well, Morrissey. I’m embarrassed to say I usually catch 15 minutes of the Panel on the webcast (more than enough!) and this is basically how he reacts to any panellist introducing something to the show… just repeating what they’ve said with a kind of cheerful incredulity, like it’s the damned punchline.
Hope they had the obligatory discussion about the flag/Auckland property prices. The Panel is a sick Groundhog Day Hell and I’m a sucker for punishment.
Treat them all with scepticism if you like, but don’t treat the ones that suit you as gospel and those that don’t as rogue.
I’d love to hear Colonial Viper’s view of this poll.
He took the last Roy Morgan poll as proof positive that Labour’s “move left” strategy was resonating with the public and that the Nats would be “nervous”.
@Clemgeopin
Chris Trotter says that the young adults are very drawn to yek as he epitomises the virtues of today, money, and essence of cool. What he posits might be an answer to your question. The things you have listed are the sort of things that older Labour voters considered important. Now in the ‘Me’ neo lib era they are not central. http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/heart-of-gold-why-mike-hosking-is-more.html
(1) Our education system does not include the (compulsory) study and discussion about political thought, past revolutions, civics, constitution, local and world history, discussions of ideologies, ethics, philosophical thoughts etc unless a student specifically chooses that and very few do.
(2) The media dumbs down news and the people generally do not take an active interest in democratic participation, thought and discussion on important issues, except for a small part of the population, including the activists. (even in the USA of all places which is a large democratic nation and also where ‘God’ is put on a pedestal and ‘spoken off’ as important by politicians but ‘opposite’ rules in practice, if you know what I mean!)
In the mean time, the world is being taken over by ‘all kinds’ of evil forces! I fear for the children and the future of our world.
P.S : “The things you have listed are the sort of things that older Labour voters considered important’
I didn’t think I was that old, but ok! LOL
greywarshark, have a guess of my age and gender from my comments over time. +/- 5 will do. I am curious. It is interesting.
@Clem
I think that people don’t reach the age of approaching wisdom till they are about 40, as by that time they have had personal life experience and learned a bit about how the world works. So I would put you nearer 50 than 40. Any good? Gender – I feel you are a woman, have a less stoic attitude to others’ difficulties and conditions than the average male.
Myself I have let on earlier. But I’m a late bloomer, really didn’t start thinking hard till I went to uni mid-life and that was my tertiary introduction and I have tried to keep learning, thinking and doing for good democracy since then.
edited
@Clem
I thought you might give an indication as to correctness. You are worse than a cryptic crossword which hold out on me (I really like to do them late and have the answers available to peek at.)
The Cabinet is chocablock with liars, but Labour are far too genteel to point this out in words of one syllable. They won’t get Ponyboy into court without goading him into suing someone.
The latest from AVaaz. Sad stuff continues with journalists persecuted Mexican photojournalist Rubén Espinosa was just found tortured and murdered, along with human rights activist Nadia Vera and three other women.
Freedom of expression is under attack in one of Latin America’s oldest democracies, and Rubén is the 14th journalist killed in the southern state of Veracruz where governor Javier Duarte has made open threats against reporters. Almost none of these crimes have been solved.
But this case has sent thousands into the streets and set off an explosion in the national and global media. Now Gael García Bernal, Salman Rushdie, Christiane Amanpour and hundreds of journalists, writers and artists have signed an open letter demanding justice for journalists in Mexico murdered for doing their jobs
Mexico – Committee to Protect Journalists https://cpj.org/americas/mexico/
In the past 10 years, 370 journalists were murdered; in 90 percent of cases, there … Mexican photojournalist who fled violent Veracruz state murdered in capital.
Journalists Killed in Mexico – Committee to Protect Journalists https://cpj.org/killed/americas/mexico/
34 Journalists Killed in Mexico since 1992/Motive Confirmed. — Killed by Country –. — Killed by Country –; All Countries; Afghanistan; Algeria; Angola; Argentina …
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You have stood up for what is fair, and I am sure you will speak for over 7 million people who have been muted and rendered voiceless in Indian occupied Kashmir for more than a 10 days now. I am writing to bring to your notice the plight of Kashmiri ...
In the last 10 months alone, 11 petitions have been delivered to Parliament calling for medicines to be funded by Pharmac. Today, another nine petitions have been launched by Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) members asking that life changing, saving and extending ...
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The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is warning of the dangers of hiking excise tax, in response to calls from a former Prime Minister for stronger action on alcohol harm. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It seems inevitable ...
LGNZ will be cautiously assessing the wider implications of the newly proposed National Position Statement on Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL), noting that that it traverses a number of highly complex policy areas including housing affordability and property ...
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Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee ...
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At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty StevensonThe rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the ...
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Roll Red Roll is a brutal, painfully illuminating documentary on the Steubenville High School rape case, a shocking crime that made headlines worldwide. Emily Writes reviews. This review discusses rape and sexual violenceAugust 11, 2012: two teenage boys rape an unconscious teenage girl as two of their peers watch and ...
By RNZ Pacific Tuvalu’s Prime Minister has condemned the Australian Prime Minister’s conduct at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum, calling Scott Morrison’s attitude “unfortunate” and “neo-colonial,” and questioning Australia’s future in the 18-member body. In an interview with RNZ on Sunday, Enele Sopoaga also threatened to pull Tuvaluan labour from ...
The second hui of the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki takes place in Hamilton today. Newsroom, in partnership with Radio Waatea, are broadcasting it live from 1pm. ...
Prolific, award-winning Palmerston North poet Paula Harris somehow manages to be stroppy and properly vulnerable all at once. Here, she writes about her first slam competition – and why she cried all the way home. I am old enough to have given birth to most of the people here.Sure, there’s a ...
High speed rail links between cities could play a massive role in revitalising regional New Zealand, says a visiting transport infrastructure expert. Professor Andrew McNaughton spoke to Alex Braae. Imagine commuting from Hamilton to Auckland, and it only taking an hour to get there. It’s a vision of how the right ...
On the good days, riding a bike is the best. But in Auckland there aren’t nearly enough of those days, and unless decision makers take urgent action, that’s not going to change.This piece originally appeared on Bike AucklandMy first bike crash in central Auckland happened on Symonds Street. I was ...
It's not since 1989 that a mayoralty campaign in the southern city has been so unpredictable - a record 14 candidates have put their names forward. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Mills, Hon Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney On the morning of the last Monday in April, 2019, federal election officials opened the doors of more than 500 pre-poll voting centres around Australia, and waited for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Veronica Alfano, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University Memorising poetry was once common in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, gone out of style. There are good reasons for this. Memorisation can clash with creativity and analytical thought. Rote learning can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University What do J.J. Abrams, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Shonda Rhimes, David Lynch, Aaron Sorkin, Donald Glover, Jenji Kohan, Jordan Peele, Tina Fey, and Joss Whedon have in common? They ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mayors launch bids to return in Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton’s skyline could change significantly, and support for cannabis legalisation plummets in poll.Two incumbent mayors have launched their re-election campaigns over the weekend, with a bigger fight on their hands than ...
MediaWorks has been lobbying the Government to turn TVNZ 1 into a non-commercial channel to help stem its own financial bleeding. Frustrated, and getting nowhere, it’s decided to change tack. ...
Customs has cracked down on a GST rort, leaving Trade Me to pay back thousands of dollars to customers who had new cameras and smartphones seized at the border. ...
The 37-8 result meant the Black Ferns finished with a handy 5-1 record for the year, suggesting they are tracking well enough towards a successful defence of the 2021 World Cup. ...
New Zealand has long been the world’s imagined lifeboat – and increasingly for something more than just escape, writes Elle Hunt.One Friday morning in January 1847, Charles Dickens wrote to his friend John Forster that he was “disposed to go to New Zealand and start a magazine”. The quote was ...
New Zealand is one of only two developed countries, along with the US, that permits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, and it needs to stop, writes Dr David Menkes. It’s been a long time coming: a new Consumer report makes it clear that most New Zealanders want to see a ban ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison has a sharp lecture for bureaucrats about their KPIs, in a comprehensive speech laying down how he expects the Australian Public Service to operate under his government. Morrison stresses the service must be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has issued a timetable for the government’s dealing with the recommendations from the royal commission into banking, superannuation and financial services, which aims to have all measures needing legislation introduced by the ...
By Ghinan Salman in Surabaya As many as 43 Papuan students were taken to the district police headquarters after Indonesian police fired teargas and forced their way into a student dormitory in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya at the weekend. The Papuan students were forcibly removed from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Each new generation of Australians since Federation has enjoyed a better standard of living than the one that came before it. Until now. Today’s young Australians are in danger of falling behind. A new Grattan Institute ...
Jamie Wall reviews Jonah, the two-part Three telefeature that follows the life of our most famous All Black, and finds it an effective but mixed retelling of the legend.Honestly, it’s a wee bit disappointing that the only notable on-screen dramatisation of the All Blacks in recent years was centred on replacement ...
We love it battered and served with chips, but tarakihi stocks aren’t doing well and another big cut to commercial catch limits is in the works. Ah yes, terrakee, that’s a fish, right?Well, first things first, let’s say it correctly. Pronounce every syllable, remember the Māori vowel sounds (A-E-I-O-U), roll the ...
Good on their own, even better with cheese – these crisp, moreish crackers are destined to become your new go-to savoury snack.These crackers have been on high rotation in our household – they’ve filled lunchboxes, accompanied fine cheeses on evening platters and been eaten by the fistful straight from the jar. ...
Open mike 20/08/2015 
Open mike is your post.
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...3 hours ago
Last week, Australia sabotaged the Pacific Forum by opposing action on climate change. Their Deputy Prime Minister followed that up by saying that Pacific Peoples could always pick Australian fruit - just as they had done in the era of blackbirding. And now, that arrogant, tone-deaf approach has drawn a ...3 hours ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...1 day ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...1 day ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...3 days ago
3 days ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...3 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...5 days ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...5 days ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...5 days ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...5 days ago
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...5 days ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...5 days ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 5 days ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...6 days ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...1 week ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...1 week ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...1 week ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...2 weeks ago
There is a military phrase: “Full spectrum dominance”. It refers to the all-encompassing policy to dominate across all spheres of war. Lately, that has come to include the internet – in other words, cyberwarfare initiatives. That is in addition to land, sea, air and the like. Now, if ...2 weeks ago
The IMF issued a Report on the state of the Economy as it is at present. Some of it points out significant issues that certainly warrant attention, but that we know already exist. Some of it is very much tied to the very obvious context of global concerns, that everyone ...2 weeks ago
I'm glad to see the Lib Dems won.I had a moment of terror yesterday thinking that the Conservatives might cling on, due to a combination of Johnson's elevation to the premiership, the apparent uselessness of the Lib Dem candidate (who had failed to be elected in other constituencies) and the ...2 weeks ago
. . Current Leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges gave the usual rah-rah speech to the Loyal & Faithful in Christchurch today (27 July). With National’s party polling and his own personal popularity sliding steadily in the polls, Mr Bridges has not much left to reverse his fortunes. ...2 weeks ago
Those concerned for Langridge’s wellbeing say they hope he’ll change his mind when he sees the ocean coming. The protester who has vowed to stand outside Parliament every day until the Government announces a climate emergency says he accepts that his quest will most likely end in drowning. Ollie Langridge, ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
An Auckland Homelessness Collective is optimistic extra government support for sustaining tenancies signals a commitment to a multi-pronged approach to tackling homelessness. ...4 hours ago
The Commerce Commission's first market study will wade into the complex fuel market - here's what you need to know. ...43 mins ago
The new joint from the team behind one of Wellington’s favourite craft beer bars is dedicated to minimal-intervention, organic wine – and more exciting things are coming to the heritage building it’s housed in.Before the Cadbury factory opened in Dunedin in 1930, New Zealanders ate Cadbury chocolate made in England. ...1 hour ago
A new five-year strategy comes with a new prison population reduction target from the minister. ...1 hour ago
Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee ...2 hours ago
The way things are going, Germany may soon be 'the sick man of Europe' again. ...3 hours ago
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At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty StevensonThe rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the ...3 hours ago
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
Protesters occupying land at Ihumātao will begin a four-hour hikoi to Mt Albert on Thursday to present a petition calling on the Prime Minister to visit the land. ...3 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Walvisch, Lecturer, Monash University This morning an Extinction Rebellion protester was arrested after hanging from a rope over the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, blocking all lanes to peak hour traffic. And earlier this month in Brisbane, more than 70 climate ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Jobson, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Monash University Many of us enjoy writing in a diary, reading autobiographies or nostalgically reflecting with others about past times. Why is remembering our past so important? Are there downsides? And what can we do ...4 hours ago
Roll Red Roll is a brutal, painfully illuminating documentary on the Steubenville High School rape case, a shocking crime that made headlines worldwide. Emily Writes reviews. This review discusses rape and sexual violenceAugust 11, 2012: two teenage boys rape an unconscious teenage girl as two of their peers watch and ...4 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Tuvalu’s Prime Minister has condemned the Australian Prime Minister’s conduct at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum, calling Scott Morrison’s attitude “unfortunate” and “neo-colonial,” and questioning Australia’s future in the 18-member body. In an interview with RNZ on Sunday, Enele Sopoaga also threatened to pull Tuvaluan labour from ...4 hours ago
New Zealand's economy is not headed for recession, ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley says. ...6 hours ago
The second hui of the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki takes place in Hamilton today. Newsroom, in partnership with Radio Waatea, are broadcasting it live from 1pm. ...6 hours ago
We continue our series on bookstores around New Zealand as Wilma van den Bosch explains how she opened Petronella's in Lake Tekapo. ...6 hours ago
Prolific, award-winning Palmerston North poet Paula Harris somehow manages to be stroppy and properly vulnerable all at once. Here, she writes about her first slam competition – and why she cried all the way home. I am old enough to have given birth to most of the people here.Sure, there’s a ...6 hours ago
The country's wood processors say the international log price war and protected overseas economies are crippling the New Zealand trade. ...7 hours ago
On the good days, riding a bike is the best. But in Auckland there aren’t nearly enough of those days, and unless decision makers take urgent action, that’s not going to change.This piece originally appeared on Bike AucklandMy first bike crash in central Auckland happened on Symonds Street. I was ...8 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Mills, Hon Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney On the morning of the last Monday in April, 2019, federal election officials opened the doors of more than 500 pre-poll voting centres around Australia, and waited for ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Hart, Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Last week, federal health minister Greg Hunt announced that more than 60,000 Australians will be asked about their mental health and well-being as part of the Intergenerational Health and Mental Health Study. The mental ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Veronica Alfano, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University Memorising poetry was once common in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, gone out of style. There are good reasons for this. Memorisation can clash with creativity and analytical thought. Rote learning can ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University What do J.J. Abrams, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Shonda Rhimes, David Lynch, Aaron Sorkin, Donald Glover, Jenji Kohan, Jordan Peele, Tina Fey, and Joss Whedon have in common? They ...10 hours ago
The inverted yield curve is to economists what Voldemort was to Harry Potter - the dark lord whose name should never be mentioned. ...11 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mayors launch bids to return in Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton’s skyline could change significantly, and support for cannabis legalisation plummets in poll.Two incumbent mayors have launched their re-election campaigns over the weekend, with a bigger fight on their hands than ...12 hours ago
MediaWorks has been lobbying the Government to turn TVNZ 1 into a non-commercial channel to help stem its own financial bleeding. Frustrated, and getting nowhere, it’s decided to change tack. ...13 hours ago
The Wallabies arrived in Auckland with one hand on the Bledisloe Cup and flew home with it amputated. ...13 hours ago
Customs has cracked down on a GST rort, leaving Trade Me to pay back thousands of dollars to customers who had new cameras and smartphones seized at the border. ...13 hours ago
The 37-8 result meant the Black Ferns finished with a handy 5-1 record for the year, suggesting they are tracking well enough towards a successful defence of the 2021 World Cup. ...13 hours ago
Nikki Mandow tells us why social procurement is more exciting than it sounds - and how it might change the world. ...13 hours ago
New Zealand is one of only two developed countries, along with the US, that permits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, and it needs to stop, writes Dr David Menkes. It’s been a long time coming: a new Consumer report makes it clear that most New Zealanders want to see a ban ...14 hours ago
A look at how our banks behave when the rules aren't tough enough. ...14 hours ago
By Ghinan Salman in Surabaya As many as 43 Papuan students were taken to the district police headquarters after Indonesian police fired teargas and forced their way into a student dormitory in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya at the weekend. The Papuan students were forcibly removed from ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Each new generation of Australians since Federation has enjoyed a better standard of living than the one that came before it. Until now. Today’s young Australians are in danger of falling behind. A new Grattan Institute ...19 hours ago
Jamie Wall reviews Jonah, the two-part Three telefeature that follows the life of our most famous All Black, and finds it an effective but mixed retelling of the legend.Honestly, it’s a wee bit disappointing that the only notable on-screen dramatisation of the All Blacks in recent years was centred on replacement ...22 hours ago
We love it battered and served with chips, but tarakihi stocks aren’t doing well and another big cut to commercial catch limits is in the works. Ah yes, terrakee, that’s a fish, right?Well, first things first, let’s say it correctly. Pronounce every syllable, remember the Māori vowel sounds (A-E-I-O-U), roll the ...24 hours ago
The debate over cancer drug funding us further complicated by lobby groups and opaque agenda. ...1 day ago
Investment bank for NZ too? Sidelski makes the case for such things….
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/19/corbynomics-why-we-should-take-it-seriously
…and it would ours, rather than this
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/276332/nz-to-join-new-asian-investment-bank
which seems to be about being the member for another club, for $125 million!
Real Monetary Reform
Our entire monetary system is fucked as it’s designed to make a few people richer without them actually having to do anything.
And, yeah, that Asian investment bank is just of the same failed system.
Freeloading. Owning a home in several global capital cities and curtailing the muliplier effort of taking those resources out of the local economy. All because Thatcherites discovered that media repeating the lie adnausium , that while civil society builds the engine, and cheapening high dense middle east fuels powered the engine, only a rather extreme now disreputable political economic view created the inevitable market growth. I.e they called dibs on the diving seat while siliencing civil society and claimg growth as proof for their politicial economic non-runner ideology. Thirty years later, climbing debt levels, climate disruption, and a chronical unfit global economy lacking balancing forums to deal as one species. And worse, now the Marxists have been given their day, neo-libs are communist infiltraters, having the luxuries of wealth while corrupting capalism from within. Why does the US Republician party hate capialism so much?
Hardly.
For starters it is not dominated by the US and western European powers.
Smart move for NZ to be a founding member.
No, it’ll be dominated by China.
Such a system is not needed and is, IMO, part of the reason why we’re having such problems as anthropogenic climate change. They push growth but prevent development because of the need to pay interest.
Well, China has the sole veto because of the size of its contribution, but I think it will very rarely use it. In essence, the AIIB has been set up to be far more democratic and apolitical than the World Bank or the IMF, which is one reason why 56 countries joined it so quickly.
But it will use it whereas an independent investment bank in each country supplying all the money that that country needs is not under that power.
But it’s still just a copy of the present failed system.
This article gives an interesting insight into how the TPPA is being written and who has the influence.
“The big media lobbyists’ theatrics over this minor amendment are embarrassing, but they do raise one important issue: our trade negotiators are a lot less interested in the needs of ordinary users and creators than the needs of powerful companies. Why else was a last-minute intervention by Google sufficient to bring the USTR back to the negotiating table on this topic, where the sustained interventions of EFF and 10 other major public interest groups from around the world were not?”
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150818/14190431997/mpaa-throws-hissy-fit-over-ustr-even-thinking-about-expanding-fair-use-tpp.shtml
I love one of the comments below re the public stakeholders being ignored.:
“It is our pie that they are carving up. Why would we be invited to it?”
Hello everyone, I do hope this is the correct place to post this question/comment combo…
I just saw an ad for Radio Live on YouTube, selling the “balanced” reporting the media is currently so fond of. It is just a mash up of the Radio Live personalities telling us what we’d miss out on if they didn’t give all opinions equal weight regardless of merit.
It opens with Hilary Barry asking “Can you imagine how dull the world would be if we all thought the same?” and is followed by the rest of the team giving us such gems as:
“There would only be one shop.”
“
There would only be one colourThere’d be no colour” (sorry Physics)And my favourite:
“There’d be no debate on climate change.”
Is this sort of thing new? I usually use an ad blocker so I haven’t seen it before. I did not realise they were publicly spouting fallacious arguments to support rubbish journalism.
[lprent: Updated to fix a transcription error on the commenter’s request. ]
P.s. Any excuse to link John Oliver:
Any chance of a link to the ad? Choice handle 🙂
Ah, I’m not sure how to link to an ad, but I did grab it off YouTube before it finished, so I have a copy.
Check it out here:
I’d be tempted to say that the debate on climate change is now about what to do (not whether it’s real), but then I see they had Sean Plunkett giving it as an example.
Wouldn’t it be super if the only debate we were having on climate change was what to do about it.
It’s pretty much the only conversation I’m willing to have about it 😉
(more seriously, I can see the time approaching where I will have no tolerance for talk about what to do, given we know what to do and should just be doing it).
The debate about climate change is as valid as the debate about the earth being round or flat, or the debate about whether the moon landing was a hoax or not.
And it’s the same people who treat it seriously.
Thanks.
So I wonder if this is the new lie from denier trash: that they’re performing a public service?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug
Balanced reporting like paddy’s piece on the appalling Newsworthy last night which btw looks like an episode of ‘Cops’ more so than a news show.
Little had a soundbite about farming incidents being high then followed by Gower throwing numbers about without any context, averages etc inferring Little had it wrong.
Overt bias on display, if little was in fact wrong there’d be wave after wave of graphs and stats but no just Pants on fire Paddy and his questionable use of numbers.
Is it possible to edit comments after the timer has expired? I misquoted:
“There would only be one colour” should be “There’d be no colour”.
[lprent: Nope (FFS it is something like eight minutes). However I will change it for you. ]
Thanks Lynn. For the record, the edit time is something less than how long it takes to rebuild my projects in Eclipse. You know what I mean 🙂
Well there is half of your problem. Use a make and a -j 7 or the equivalent on your compiler. Compile on n-1 cores.
Thank you, wise one. Please lay upon me your solution to the other half of my problem, with at least as many assumptions.
😈 They are assumptions. But few things take that long to compile any more unless you’re doing a lot of variants or cross compiles.
The worst one I have at present is some old C/C++ code that gets compiled in a redhat9 system (ie circa 2002) in a VM on a version of gcc/g++ that only handles a single core. It is about 500k lines and takes about 5 minutes from scratch. Fortunately it doesn’t have templates.
Nailed it 🙂
Three projects, three platforms, two graphics libraries (compiled from source, obv.), and a two core CPU on a laptop with a fragmented 1TB SATA. Nice and warm in here though.
Release day!
Urrggh… That would explain it.
Hah, that’s amusing because according to National that’s exactly what we do. It’s the total premise that National Standards are based upon and why they fail.
Well, we’re not quite there – we duopoly instead.
So, I wonder what debate they’re having with their navel hair because you can’t debate climate change as you simply can’t debate facts.
It makes me uneasy how proud they all seem to be about it, they must know what they are doing is wrong… right?
Don’t count on it. There’s a reason they’re journalists rather than say, engineers.
Even Granny Herald says McCully should be stood down. He is in big trouble.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11499775
We can’t see what the public say on the matter of course, because the NZ Herald has again been attacked by gremlins.
The recurrence of this very strange tech issue must be a real headache for them. Once again, despite the number of comments ‘published’ (currently 18) being clearly stated on the home page and the”Politics” section page, once you get to the actual article…. no comments are visible.
It must be so infuriating for the Herald that this keeps happening and so unlucky it only seems to occur on articles that include distinctly negative discussion points on the National Government.
They’re there for me. This is the first one:
and minutes later, as if by magic, the comments appear – interactive media, gotta love it 😆
“”how anyone can continue to support someone who lies and prevaricates the “”
That!! Is the how I feel ,if some one thinks pure capitalism is the way forward I can live with it, but to support this rogues gallery of a political party Lead by a lying sick bully makes me wonder at the morals of the average kiwi.
It’s not up to Treasury to give approval for spending. That’s the government’s job.
It’s those ‘other reasons’ that are the concern as all indications are that the spend up on the Saudi Sheep Deal were a bribe.
The PM is a liar and I’m sure that we do have some laws that cover it but we obviously need stronger laws against such corruption.
No, there is never any excuse for such corruption.
“The Prime Minister says none of the advice the Government received suggested it would be illegal.”
I note the word legal doesn’t appear in front of the word advice. Tricky Prime Minister.
john key “”I don’t get respect because I’m Prime Minister of New Zealand but I hopefully earn respect because people think I do a good job.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/71284637/kids-need-to-know-the-value-of-work–john-key
You are a zero respect monkey
no mention of honesty or integrity I note
Three election wins is probably a good indicator of the respect in which hes held
lol – good one unde
Well its fair to say that there was a failry large proportion of NZ voters who didn’t like Helen Clarks on screen image (though I understand shes perfectly charming away from the camera) but she had definately had respect so quite similar to John Key in this instance
nah not even close – I liked a fair chunk of Helen Clark as PM but there were severe lapses imo. Key is just a mindless bumbling liar that should be ashamed of himself but lacks the self awareness to even consider how dull and dim he is.
but lacks the self awareness to even consider how dull and dim he is
and therein lies the major problem with the left in regards to John Key, consistantly underestimating him
I always underestimate how much he crumbles when he faces competent reviews from impartial media, like overseas interviewers or just his behaviour summarised by John Oliver (three times in the past year, more than Zimbabwe ffs).
I’m not so sure that we need better wingnuts.
I reckon the wingnuts need better heroes.
john key “”I don’t get respect because I’m Prime Minister of New Zealand but I hopefully earn respect because people think I do a good job.”
Well that explains why he treats the PM role with such disdain and doesn’t mind making us a laughing stock via it.
https://t.co/gDCChPorOr, which I posted last night, but very relevant to “respect”for John Key, and how Paul Henry was made to see the light. (for a split second)
The end bit where the guy interviewed refused to say if John Key was a psychopath it was obvious that that was exactly what he thought John Key was 😈
That was interesting, thanks for posting. Loved the moment when Henry conceded the point on which personality type you’d rather have running a country.
If only that was on Seven Sharp too, might wake people up and I wouldn’t have to listen the same old answer when I ask people why they like Key…”He’s got charisma” Gawd!
Australian Govt, for all their evils, getting serious about foreign investment in residential real estate, including real estate transfer register (#8) residential property money laundering crackdown (#11) and criminal penalties for locals who act as agents to help foreign investors circumvent the prohibition on the purchase of existing properties (#5).
http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Publications/2015/Foreign-Investment-in-Residential-Real-Estate
Jane Clifton on Key dodging the question.
http://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-dominion-post/20150820/281543699665007/TextView
edit: the question transferred to Bennett.
ANDREW LITTLE to the Associate Minister of Finance: Does she stand by the Prime Minister’s statement that “I’d hate to see New Zealanders as tenants in their own country”; if so, how many applications by overseas investors to buy land were declined under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 between January 2012 and June 2015?
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/business/qoa/00HOH_OralQuestions/list-of-questions-for-oral-answer
Question No. 3 to Minister
ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. This question was originally set down for the Prime Minister, and I therefore seek leave for the House to have the question transferred back to the Prime Minister.
Mr SPEAKER : Order! No. I refer the member to Speaker’s ruling 169/5. I am not prepared to put the leave. It is the prerogative of the Government to decide whom the question goes to. It has made that decision. If the member wants to continue asking it as it is on the Order Paper, he can do so.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/debates/51HansD_20150819_00000012/oral-questions-%E2%80%94-questions-to-ministers-questions-to-members
Noted that in QT yesterday, Mr Shaw pointed out the string of National precedents when Ministers under investigation were stood down or stood themselves down. Well done James but Key just ducked. So much for open and transparent Government.
Dictatorships don’t work too well when open and transparent and National knows it. People become upset when they realise that the government is screwing them over.
(bold mine)
For some time The Speaker and Ministers of the Government have been actively promoting more detailed primary questions from the Opposition and this is the end result they wanted. The Opposition have two choices, ask specific questions and helplessly watch them get transferred from the PM, or be forced to waste supplementary questions by asking what should be primary questions.
Not forgetting of course by not having specifics outlayed in the primary, the PM can forever answer the more detailed supplementaries with “I don’t have the details… ” etc
Meanwhile, a nomination for Most Pathetic Question Asked In Our Parliament For Quite Some Time award
That gem came from Chris Bishop. What a deeply probing intellectually stimulating challenge for the Minister. A question you might expect an eager year eight social studies student to ask of the Minister during a school visit but is just so embarrassing coming from a grown adult being paid over $150,000 a year to help run our country.
@ freedom (9.2) – and another patsy gem that is asked just about every parliamentary session from a variety of good little dopey government back benchers, to minister of finance English … ” what can the minister tell the House about the reports he has received on the economy?” WTF????? Duh! Of course the minister is going to talk up his economic policies!
I can just about anticipate almost every NatzKEY back bencher patsy question now, because I’ve heard the same old, same old, day in day out in Parliament so many times before. It’s just turning into a very bad Vaudeville act!
They are a part of the process of QT and we all grudgingly accept that.
No matter how good an idea it might sound, to remove the government’s allotment of questions only removes the opportunity for the rarely seen ‘question of conscience’* from a back bencher who has realised their government is a corrupt and treasonous bunch of idealogues who wouldn’t know how to find their way out of an open ended culvert.
The government of course has a right to ask itself questions and there are [almost] reasonable grounds for many of the more ridiculous questions to its own navel, but I think it was Bishop’s inability to hide the farcically vacuous nature of the question that made this one stand out. He was sniggering to himself before he even finished asking it. And he was not the only one on the government benches doing so.
I don’t remember any other government that has such obvious disrespect for question time, especially when asking the patsy questions.
We all know they will be asked, but a bit more effort to hide the patsy questions’ inner inanity would be nice.
* (if you’re gonna dream, dream big i say)
Well caught Joe.
With Key now on a slow decline, Cabinet are managing Parliamentary process to circle the wagons around him. So we will get a whole bunch more PM-puppy-and-Rugby shots.
We are already seeing Ministers Bennett and English take far more of the media load, with Joyce way down the list and Brownlee and Smith near-invisible.
National are subbing off their Bench with extreme game-playing smarts.
Labour could learn some lessons here – King and Twyford have been outstanding recently, with Little making essentially no hits. Labour need to learn National’s excellent lessons and blood their bench.
And that will be so obvious that people will wonder why they’re doing it and come to the same conclusion – National don’t have another personable front man to put in front of them and lie.
Their bench is pretty strong – and grooming an English-Bennett combination makes a whole bunch of sense. By 2020 Bennett would be a real contender for the top job.
“With Key now on a slow decline”
Nor too sure of that.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6406-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-august-2015-201508200049
He is on a slow decline he just doesn’t know it yet, neither do voters.
The ‘Chinagate blip’, eh?
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bangkok-bomb-thai-authorities-suspect-uighur-link-erawan-shrine-attack-1516045
Sponsored and supported by the worlds biggest criminal enterprises
Still massively pissed at their Shinawatra puppets being removed
Thaksin posted a message on Youtube denouncing urging his followers to reject the junta’s proposed constitution because he said it was undemocratic
Usual suspects will be behind this atrocity
http://thediplomat.com/2015/03/100-more-bomb-attacks-planned-in-thailand-police-told/
March 10 2015
Two men arrested following a grenade attack over the weekend in Thailand reportedly told police that the “Red Shirt” supporters of the toppled government of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra were planning more bomb attacks on up to 100 targets in Bangkok, a security official said.
Yuttana said he was a member of a red-shirt group that communicated on a social network called Line, where they discussed a plot to bomb at least 100 places in the nation’s capital. Mahahin said that the targets included military armories in Chiang Mai and in the Northeast, university campuses and a temple.
On Monday, The Bangkok Post reported that the suspects had linked the attack to former army chief and supreme commander Chaiyasit Shinawatra, a member of the Shinawatra family, led by Yingluck’s self-exiled brother Thaksin. The junta detests the family, but it has won every national election since 2001.
Yup, these hollowed out pricks are carrying out orders and have been doing so for an eternity
Buckle up Thailand
Wow, you bought some propaganda wholesale there.
Have you not noticed that the junta has control of the media? Of course sources are going to blame the previous establishment – it suits their aims to stoke negative sentiment against red shirt groups and the Shinawatras.
The junta would do anything to ensure there is no future election that could possibly lead to an election, that would inevitably be won by Pheu Thai or a similar successor to Thai Rak Thai aligned with the Red Shirts
Similarly, the link to Uighur nationalists comes after pressure from China lead to the junta deciding to deport Uighurs back to China.
It suits the junta to link the bombings to Uighur nationalists, to turn public sentiment against their call for asylum.
In reality, the bombing could be from any number of sources – Red shirt activists, separatists from the south, Burmese refugee activists, someone trying to undermine certain junta figures or junta opponents, Uighur activists, or a bunch of random enraged people.
While the Shinawatras are just as corrupt and criminal as the junta is, you should really apply more critical thinking than just linking them to bombings based on statements in media that is junta-controlled.
No proganda onboarded here bro, I am very aware of the situations in Thailand as well as the history
Given your comments about the military , it is clear you know fuck all about the situation on the ground, or how the locals feel about it
Go on, tell me about the locals and the military
What comments about the military? I’m well aware of the respect and social standing given to the military in Thailand, and Bangkok in particular, if that is what you are getting at. What exactly of what I have said is inaccurate though?
The premise of your response was :
JUNTA
Propaganda
controlled media
The word Junta was used numerous times, those are your comments
An overwhelming majority of ALL Thai people support the military
Perhaps you can explain why that is
Well, very briefly, the military have power, they have long standing respect, they support and are supported by the monarchy, and many of the periods of dictatorship have been more stable than the surrounding periods, and plenty more, a good deal of which can be summed up as ‘this is the culture of this country’.
None of this changes that the country is run by a military junta rather than a democratically elected government, and none of that changes that that facile attacks are being made on Uighurs and Red Shirts in the media.
At current, it appears that there was knowledge of the attack in social media groups, and a red shirt leader had a warning of an attack and provided a warning on social media. In due course, it seems likely that the culprits will be able to be identified. It appears now that Prayuth is also playing down the Uighur theory, to his credit.
Much of what you wrote is solid, but there are some comments which stand out to me as a little out of place
None of this changes that the country is run by a military junta rather than a democratically elected government, and none of that changes that that facile attacks are being made on Uighurs and Red Shirts in the media.
So what it’s currently run by the Military if the Thai people are ok with that and they are providing a stability where ‘democracy’ was leading towards civil war. The Monarchy will have instructed the military to step in, that is why the military acted. 95% of Thai people support their Monarchy
Democracy ain’t ‘what it used to be’ , and as you point out, Thailand has been democratically rooted for ages at various times
What do you reckon that is ?
Not sure a reasoned person would call an attack on Red Shirts as facile, given what they have been involved in previously
Perhaps you might like to share where your bias around the Junta / Red Shirts originates
Sounds to me like you’re saying JUNTA = BAD , Democracy = Good
At current, it appears that there was knowledge of the attack in social media groups, and a red shirt leader had a warning of an attack and provided a warning on social media.
Social media groups were frenetic with activity and apparent warnings from some purporting to know the attack was coming
More warnings have also been received pertaining to coming days
Are you Thai, have Thai family or live in Thailand ?
My general problem with the junta is all that dictatorship baggage, you know, the detention of political opponents, suppression of alternative media views, enrichment of elites (admittedly going to be present regardless of who is in charge), that sort of oppression.
At least if there’s a democracy, people that aren’t in powerful positions get some sort of a voice.
I’m consistently called an unrealistic idealist, but I am always confident that a well designed democracy is better for a country, and I am confident that working towards those processes will be good for Thailand in the long term. At the moment, you only don’t have that red v yellow, poor v elites because of the military imposition in things. That conflict is not resolved, so it will just fester. I’d rather both sides have representation, involvement in political processes.
Heard on National Radio (from a source I can’t remember) that they expect milk prices to improve next year. I don’t think anyone knows what is going to happen to milk prices for the next few years. The only thing we can be sure of is price volatility.
This from the same people who did such a good job forecasting this years milk prices…
Anyways I suppose $4.10/kg can be considered “improved”
Given that fonterra had to limit what they put up to auction to get the lift in prices they got ,and combine that with the fact that dairy factories will be approaching full production in the next month or so ,I’d be very interested to know what they base there optimism on.
The only chance demand will increase is if their is a drought in one or more of the major producing countries.
So far the long range forecast for NZ is El Nino on the rise.
So Prices might go up but N Z could miss out.
Russia allowing us to export Dairy to them is Putin Key in a precarious position with all his NATO mates.
China’s economy is in for a long rough ride.
So Dairy farmers Fairy tale ride is over.
Unless you can pick up a Dairy farm at a firesale price carry no debt ,milk once a day grow all your feed without fertilizer or harvest costs.
Dairy farming will go through a massive reorganisation.
hahaha!
When Misinformed Is Just Another Word For Muppet!
rosemary mcleod – nasty piece of shit
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/71234125/millie-elderholmes-deserves-to-be-out-of-the-spotlight-now
millie – keep moving forward, kia kaha
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11499975
I agree that she should be out of the spotlight though as I have as much interest in her and the crims she hangs around with as I do with the Kardashians
Can’t agree with you marty mars. You must have read the story in a different light to me. It was not nasty. It was honest. And among the words was some very good advice for the young lady in question.
Auckland Transport Blog
Large PDF
You want page 50.
And this is the story about the PPPs being shortlisted for that loss of money meaning that the loss will be even greater because PPPs are simply bad.
Are long working hours killing Kiwis?
Strokes and heart disease are a major killer in NZ. And working longer hours seems to greatly bump up the risk of suffering from them.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/20/working-longer-hours-increases-stroke-risk
“Are long working hours killing Kiwis?”
Depends really doesn’t it.
Do they have other risk factors ? Are the long hours over long periods or intermittent ? What type of jobs are they in…etc etc
From The Lancet:
Hi northshoredoc,
You might find answers to some of your questions here. (The original paper in The Lancet).
I think ‘depends’ is a bit misleading in this context. It’s an epidemiological study (and a meta-analysis) not an experiment to identify a causal mechanism.
The correct notion is one of ‘risk’ at the population level.
So the answer to the question “Are long working hours killing Kiwis?” is – almost certainly (unless we systematically differ from the population covered by the meta-analysis); but just which Kiwis might be killed by long working hours ‘depends’ (on the sorts of factors you mention).
Thanks for that – always good to see the actual publication and Yes you are quite right. I think if we narrowed it don to those working more than 60 hours a week, who were overweight, smokers, primarily sedentary, over 50yrs and did frequent long haul air travel the risk of stroke would be red lining.
Yes – always remembering that there is likely to be interactions between those variables (e.g., long-working hours reinforcing sedentary habits, poor diet, etc.)..
And, of course, being over 50 happens to most of us – all going well – eventually 🙂
Blame the irish for the shoddy ChCh rebuild, so says the CEO of Fletcher Construction, http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/71284076/irish-outraged-at-fletcher-construction-ceo-comments-over-shoddy-quake-repairs & http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/fury-after-new-zealand-construction-6279973
I blame the people who decided that it would be cheaper to import people to do the job rather than front up with getting NZers to do it. Going to cost a hell of a lot more now.
Article on stuff giving the PM free reign on his flag change.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/71285531/john-key-lists-his-reasons-for-a-new-flag
It seems he can’t fool all the people all the time, judging by the comments.
+47
+33
+58
It is going to be a very open referendum apparently when it comes to advertising and promotion of viewpoints.
The rules for the referendum advertising restrictions apply to print newspaper tv and radio but that is about it.
All online media, for example, are available for whatever purposes the spin-meisters deem necessary.
I wonder how the lawyers deal with streaming radio & TV services?
(bold mine)
http://www.elections.org.nz/events/referendums-new-zealand-flag-0/referendum-advertising-rules
Of course that doesn’t mean print, radio or television miss out as they still get to report on stories from any media they choose and will be able to publish any advertisement from other media as part of their reporting.
==========
On a related ‘reporting’ issue – as the referendum draws ever closer, we have still not seen any reporting on how a collection of images that have an existing copyright against them and are currently commercially marketed products have been allowed into the flag debate long list in the first place ….
The big PR push happens around the Referendum, once we have had the reminder of the Rugby World Cup next month, Olympics soon, then World Masters Games in Auckland.
PM will have the wind beneath his wings.
Soaring like an eagle.
Shaking his ass like a Bison.
Flashing his tail like a whale.
And lots and lots of puppy shots.
Them too ugh?
http://nyti.ms/1LchAdQ
People are waking up, I tells ya:
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6406-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-august-2015-201508200049
Wow. Collectively as a country we are so bloody dense it hurts.
Stop thinking collectively.
Why? We function as a society, not as individuals in isolation.
Rogue poll by the looks.
Yet another one.
So last months poll was not a rogue poll then ???
National’s popularity is now moving in wild swings much like the stock market. Trouble on the horizon when no one really knows what the market is doing or if it represents anything based on reality.
No, it’s the polling which is moving about in wild swings. Having said that, National’s jump in this poll is well beyond the margin of error so we can be confident that their support has firmed recently.
However the all important Government Confidence Rating remains weak.
Labour got zero voter traction from the Chinese house buying ploy, and possibly quite the reverse, that much is clear.
Draco, it’s a shame last months poll wasn’t a rogue one!!!!!
On the Government’s side:
– Key understands that wall to wall media coverage is the best way to stay popular
– Chinese voter intentions will harden to National in Auckland
– The National front bench are firing, and providing Key with strong coverage
– TPP protests appear not to have touched underlying popularity
On the Opposition:
– They Opposition remain a long way from looking like an alternative government
– The rural economy has not yet fully soured. (It will)
– Criticising real estate capital growth is not popular
– Winston Peters continues to get better media traction than Little
– Greens have no MSM profile currently
It’s making 2017 look hard for the Progressive side of the fence.
Should have been firing by now.
I agree with all your points. Previously I had thought your statements around the ‘inevitable decline’ of the Key Govt as probably being a bit too early and a bit too optimistic.
Haha! Another rogue poll. And yet the last Roy Morgan poll commented on on this blog was blindingly reflective of the Public’s will for change, judging by the comments on here.
That many people over that much time are not wrong.
Except they are quite obviously wrong, as they keep voting for National!
“I’d like to be Richard Branson. SLURP.”
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Thursday 20 August 2015
Jim Mora, Peter Elliott, Gary Moore, Zara Potts, Jesse Mulligan
We join the Panelists at the tail end of their reaction to a story about how rubbing coffee into your scalp can cure baldness….
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
GARY MOORE: HA!
JESSE MULLIGAN: Ha ha ha ha ha!
PETER ELLIOTT: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
ZARA POTTS: He he he he he!
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha! Okay, what else have you got?
ZARA POTTS: Well, have you heard of a condition called misophonia?
JIM MORA: Misophonia.
ZARA POTTS: Misophonia is the intense, angry reaction to everyday sounds like chewing, lip-smacking, sniffing, and pen-clicking—sounds that other people can ignore. ……
Now this was mischievous. It is probably not a coincidence that this subject was brought up when Peter Elliott was on the programme. Elliott has built a career out of cultivating a sonorous basso-profundo voice. He is a fine actor, but he has one extremely irritating habit: he is a slurper. If ever there was something to drive a misophonic person into a pit of dark frothing rage, it would be the slurping by Peter Elliott and a former Panel regular, Deborah Hill Cone.
After the 4 o’clock news, Elliott spoke briefly about his recent trip to Los Angeles….
Later in the program, Jim Mora asked his guests who they would like to be for a day. Peter Elliott replied like this….
For his Soapbox contribution, the slurping was unconstrained….
Poor old Gary Moore must be sick and tired of being paired with slurpers when he comes on this programme. A couple of years ago he had to sit opposite the most notorious slurper of them all, Deborah Hill Cone…..
[lprent: As Chooky says. Nothing to do with the Assange post. I will give you a little leeway as I suspect it could have been an accident. Post this far off topic again, and I’ll have to get educational. ]
Morrissey…entertainining as it is ….shouldnt this be under ‘Open Mike’ ?…cant see what it has to do with Julian Assange allegations, which is the topic of this Post
It was indeed an accident. Please accept my apologies.
*snicker* You nail Mora’s parroting schtick so well, Morrissey. I’m embarrassed to say I usually catch 15 minutes of the Panel on the webcast (more than enough!) and this is basically how he reacts to any panellist introducing something to the show… just repeating what they’ve said with a kind of cheerful incredulity, like it’s the damned punchline.
Hope they had the obligatory discussion about the flag/Auckland property prices. The Panel is a sick Groundhog Day Hell and I’m a sucker for punishment.
“The latest Roy Morgan political poll has the John Key-led National Party’s support jumping 7.5 per cent to 50.5 per cent.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/71308270/national-jumps-to-outright-majority-in-latest-roy-morgan-poll
Last Roy Morgan with a big jump for Labour and the standard commented:
“Key and his advisors will be very nervous now”
I wonder if Little and his advisors will be very nervous now?
Labour is way back at 27%. I still think that they will drop from here.
The swings are so big and numbers so inconsistent that I don’t think Roy Morgan polls are good enough to wipe your arse with.
Treat them all with scepticism if you like, but don’t treat the ones that suit you as gospel and those that don’t as rogue.
I’d love to hear Colonial Viper’s view of this poll.
He took the last Roy Morgan poll as proof positive that Labour’s “move left” strategy was resonating with the public and that the Nats would be “nervous”.
– Gormless Fool
And I don’t.
Colonial Viper and yourself may choose to analyse polls looking for answers that aren’t there, and you are welcome to do that.
Yes, this poll has been a big disappointment for me and a surprise that National has risen in spite of….
(1) TPP shenanigans
(2) Low milk price
(3) Housing crisis
(4) Saudi Sheep shit bribe (and investigation)
(5) Pony tail investigation
(6) State house asset sales
(7) Homelessness increase
(9) Job losses left, right and centre!
(10) Undermining of workers
Don’t know what gives! Remains to be seen in the next TV1 & TV3 polls if there is a trend or if this poll is a strange unexpected aberration.
@Clemgeopin
Chris Trotter says that the young adults are very drawn to yek as he epitomises the virtues of today, money, and essence of cool. What he posits might be an answer to your question. The things you have listed are the sort of things that older Labour voters considered important. Now in the ‘Me’ neo lib era they are not central.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/heart-of-gold-why-mike-hosking-is-more.html
There is a lot of truth in that…sadly!
Two other reasons for that are, in my opinion,
(1) Our education system does not include the (compulsory) study and discussion about political thought, past revolutions, civics, constitution, local and world history, discussions of ideologies, ethics, philosophical thoughts etc unless a student specifically chooses that and very few do.
(2) The media dumbs down news and the people generally do not take an active interest in democratic participation, thought and discussion on important issues, except for a small part of the population, including the activists. (even in the USA of all places which is a large democratic nation and also where ‘God’ is put on a pedestal and ‘spoken off’ as important by politicians but ‘opposite’ rules in practice, if you know what I mean!)
In the mean time, the world is being taken over by ‘all kinds’ of evil forces! I fear for the children and the future of our world.
P.S :
“The things you have listed are the sort of things that older Labour voters considered important’
I didn’t think I was that old, but ok! LOL
greywarshark, have a guess of my age and gender from my comments over time. +/- 5 will do. I am curious. It is interesting.
@Clem
I think that people don’t reach the age of approaching wisdom till they are about 40, as by that time they have had personal life experience and learned a bit about how the world works. So I would put you nearer 50 than 40. Any good? Gender – I feel you are a woman, have a less stoic attitude to others’ difficulties and conditions than the average male.
Myself I have let on earlier. But I’m a late bloomer, really didn’t start thinking hard till I went to uni mid-life and that was my tertiary introduction and I have tried to keep learning, thinking and doing for good democracy since then.
edited
Thanks for the response, greywarshark. Much appreciated. Have an enjoyable day. Cheers!
@Clem
I thought you might give an indication as to correctness. You are worse than a cryptic crossword which hold out on me (I really like to do them late and have the answers available to peek at.)
LOL! You did quite Ok, I will leave it at that. Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you in the first place. My bad a tad as the sad mad lad.
John Oliver and Clarke and Dawe touching on Tony Abbott (with a bargepole).
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3IaKVmkXuk)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6T0S7KAHCE)
The Cabinet is chocablock with liars, but Labour are far too genteel to point this out in words of one syllable. They won’t get Ponyboy into court without goading him into suing someone.
Overseas deaths of honourable people.
Khaled al-Asaad Syrian archaeologist aged 81 beheaded by ISIS.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33984006
The latest from AVaaz. Sad stuff continues with journalists persecuted
Mexican photojournalist Rubén Espinosa was just found tortured and murdered, along with human rights activist Nadia Vera and three other women.
Freedom of expression is under attack in one of Latin America’s oldest democracies, and Rubén is the 14th journalist killed in the southern state of Veracruz where governor Javier Duarte has made open threats against reporters. Almost none of these crimes have been solved.
But this case has sent thousands into the streets and set off an explosion in the national and global media. Now Gael García Bernal, Salman Rushdie, Christiane Amanpour and hundreds of journalists, writers and artists have signed an open letter demanding justice for journalists in Mexico murdered for doing their jobs
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/aug/18/500-writers-sign-letter-to-mexicos-president-over-journalists-murders
Mexico – Committee to Protect Journalists
https://cpj.org/americas/mexico/
In the past 10 years, 370 journalists were murdered; in 90 percent of cases, there … Mexican photojournalist who fled violent Veracruz state murdered in capital.
Journalists Killed in Mexico – Committee to Protect Journalists
https://cpj.org/killed/americas/mexico/
34 Journalists Killed in Mexico since 1992/Motive Confirmed. — Killed by Country –. — Killed by Country –; All Countries; Afghanistan; Algeria; Angola; Argentina …
Bloody hell!