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6:00 am, August 21st, 2020 - 172 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Former White House political adviser & Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon is federally charged with defrauding a charity that raised money to build a wall along the border with Mexico: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-trump-bannon-wall-showboating-20200820-qi2xm3pfkbb7dbno4optwzsmfe-story.html
Competitive showboating from the hired help was always gonna piss off the chief showboater, eh?
But hey, it's in the spirit of free enterprise! Why not crowd-source funding for lots of different teams of builders doing different sections? If you hire Mexicans to do that, you can even claim Mexico built the wall as predicted. The Don ain't thinking clearly.
All the right wing nutjobs chooks are coming home to roost.
Putin poisoning
Trumps tax returns
Steve Bannon another Trump sycophantic far right nutjob.
One branch of government independent of POTUS and his Senate GOP flinkies, is still operating.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/08/donald-trump-s-bid-to-keep-tax-returns-private-denied-by-judge.html
Only partially, after 3 1/2 years of appointments on criteria that don't include merit.
No POTUS serves long enough to seriously impact the courts.
There may be an exception to that rule if Trump gets a second term to appoint two more to the Supreme Court, there are two aging Democrat appointments (and part of the reason is the GOP blocking Garland and thus launching an uncivil war).
You don't reckon 2 Supremes (and a third if RBG doesn't hang in there) isn't a serious impact? Let alone "Moscow Mitch" rushing through the enormous backlog of vacancies he'd built up through refusing to do his constitutional duty and progress any Obama appointments? Basically it's not one terms worth of impact, it'll be damn near two and a half terms worth of impact by January next year.
He only got one of those two appointees because Garland was blocked, which was indicative of the GOP itself launching an uncivil war (bigger than Trump himself) on women and beyond that – enabling Red States to hindering access to voting rights of minorities.
Don't forget the family connection through Justice Kennedy's son at Deutsche Bank …
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/anthony-kennedy-son-loaned-president-trump-over-a-billion-dollars-2018-6?r=US&IR=T
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/jul/10/blog-posting/did-justice-kennedy-quit-due-family-ties-trump-and/
Politifact did conclude the claim to be false.
But the circumstances of Gorsuch for Garland and then Kavanaugh for Kennedy are quite unusual.
The claim that Politifact ruled false was " Justice Kennedy quit because he and his son helped Trump launder illegal Russian money through Deutsche Bank. ". The Politifact research confirmed a clear connection to large loans overseen by Kennedy's son at Deutsche Bank.
Sure between 1998 and 2009, when junior left the bank, they were a major lender to the Trump business.
But that's surely not the reason/no reason for Justice Kennedy to move on in 2018.
On its own, no. But it quite likely opened the door to the kind of weaseling detailed here:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/donald-trump-justice-anthony-kennedy-retirement
Nothing Trump would not do himself.
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/07/777287610/judge-says-trump-must-pay-2-million-over-misuse-of-foundation-funds
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-distances-himself-bannon-arrest-160404305.html
Unusually perceptive of Donald Trump Jr, that.
Does that mean that Bannon and co ripped off the MAGA crowd, because they would have been the ones most likely to donate towards the wall?
The irony lololz
They're easy marks.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/republican-small-donors-easy-to-swindle-grifters.html
Unfortunately so are a lot of anti-Drumpfers
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/scott-dworkin-resistance/
… and fans of other grifters way too popular among convergence moonbats (including some here) …
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article210775574.html
Cheers for the links Andre much appreciated. I guess when it comes to capitalising on political parties there's greedy people everywhere.
Next week will be a stunner, with agent orange's mate from the US Postal Service having to explain to congress. And, the repug's convention which dodgy bannon is supposed to be speaking at.
I really like the Mother Jones site, btw. Thanks again.
Banonon and Trump the kluless klutz klan
Seymour is making stuff up on RNZ about quarantine .
A big gap in breaking in, other guests being safe and the guest sticking to the strict rule of staying isolated is too big a risk.
Seymour's idea of isolating in BnBs is just stupid. His only method of control is that people have GPS on their phones and so they can be seen if they leave – ROTL – people can just leave their phones behind if they want to go out for a while.
But the bigger problem is that people only get noticed after they break-out which is already too late. We need people to not break-out at all.
It's about delivering tenants and profits to the Air BnB landlord class he cares more about than the rest of us.
I've read that some country is using BNBs overseas. So of course – overseas! – we can do that too. That's where most right-wing policy comes from. They are too tight-fisted and narrow-minded to put money into funding our own people to be informed, professional about systems, and serve NZ's interests in a timely and effective way.
The air bnb idea is bonkers! Why do they think that we have bought the army into these facilities. How many very stupid people have attempted to break out now/????? How many people have attempted to break in???????
the biggest question of it all, who will do a deep clean of said BnB site if one has a positive test? The people running the Air BnB and will that be checked over by the government?
edit: will they have to have a lisence, will they be checked up by the council staff like lisenced food premises? will they have to pay yearly registration fees, will they have to provide the same safeguards as hotels i.e. evac plan, house maintenance on site etc etc etc?
Keep him talking – the more of this he spouts, the more votes he'll lose.
agree stuart . media attention on act is a good thing. really shows there foolishness . looking forward to act having 5 or so m.p.s after election. seymour will spend most of his time putting out fires. his dancing prowess could really be a plus.
And he gets away with it because its not illegal to lie. Immoral, yes. Illegal, no.
Convicted credit card and share scam fraudster, Damien Grant, is having trouble passing a good character test. His application to operate as an insolvency practitioner has twice been rejected by his peers.
There's no specific detail on what grounds. Is it the 30 month prison sentence he received in the 90s? Having run an insolvency business for 15 years now (without going to prison) this historic conviction would likely have little bearing on a good character test today, were he of good character today…
So the new regulatory body, RITANZ, must see something else very wrong with Damien Grant. God knows, the rest of us do.
Could it just be that he's an arsehole?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300087802/26yearold-convictions-could-end-insolvency-practitioner-damien-grants-career
That's quite the image they've used where he's making a strong run at Nigel Farage for the title of "World's Most Punchable Face".
He has done himself no favours with these comments
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/businessman-took-wage-subsidy-despite-believing-company-would-survive-without-wont-pay-back
He had a fair chance of winning in court before that point. It's so I'll do what I want current behaviour character.
A man won a case before the Supreme Court 3-2, of being accepted as a lawyer. – despite a historic drink driving conviction record
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12357153
It's to be hoped it is that as it shows an intention to bend rules as he chooses that in cases of evasion & fraud don't fit with that role, there are basic rules of behaviour not dissimilar to those of law enforcement or Justice of the Peace
Yep. I don't buy the line from Susan Edmunds that his application was rejected twice because of his convictions.
It seems clear he simply fails the good character test now.
Well, I'm not one for much buying into big organisational conspiracy theories, but…
Insolvency practitioners are the very definition of vulture capitalists. I doubt there's many people in that industry that most of us would consider "of good character".
Licensing and professional bodies are quite often used as an underhanded means of restricting access to a trade or profession, and thereby keeping prices high for those services.
So, adding A plus B, I find it plausible that this may be a case of other RITANZ members looking to feather their own nests by turfing out someone that's taking a chunk of their lunches.
Or maybe he really is such an asshole that's he's unfit to work in the industry. (That's saying something!!!!)
Ah, the old Who watches the watchers problem.
Farrar watch: David subscribes to your theory, @Andre.
Unlucky.
That Farrar subscribes to an idea isn't proof that it's wrong, it's merely a strong indication. So it could still be valid.
Or maybe Grant is a big enough asshole … come to think of it, both those things can be true at the same time.
Farrar reckons it's because Grant undercuts and the rest don't like it. I think that is bullshit, but undercutting in an industry is a good way for everyone to get a worse product so I'd not be surprised if they have an issue with it.
One of Farrar's commenters made the important point that if you want to deal with other people's money you'd better not have been proven to have acted fraudulently with it in the past.
SPC made another good point above that Grant's recent statements on the wage subsidy point towards unethical behaviour both from himself and from some of his 'clients'.
What I want to know is why the hell did someone like this get a to write columns for the Herald or wherever he was published????
And all indications are that he will always do so as he simply doesn't have good character:
And, as SPC points out, he almost inevitably chooses to do the wrong thing.
Regular Stuff columnist. Says it all really.
[Fixed typo is user name]
so he's on strike two of the act law that he obviously supports . be a damn shame if he got caught up in someone elses phuckup, and got that third strike…..
Was Pootee's poisoning team just a bit bored and wanted something to do? A training exercise to keep their hand in? A new poison they wanted to check out?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53844958
Another Trump close aide heading to prison.
Rydges Auckland is a weird place. It's a very cramped hotel. When you go in there you feel like you are very close to other people.
On Putin Poison.
What crap,. Mr 0.1 percent. No danger to Putin at all. Blown up by the West media as the main opposition leader, only in the immagination of the West. Navalny earlier announced that he would close his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) after a series of scandals around its activities and a criminal probe into the suspected laundering of around 1 billion roubles ($15.3 million), obtained by the foundation via criminal means. Hardly an opposition leader at all when the second most popular party is the Russian Communist Party, Navalny's wannabe party is the equivalent of ACT, FA chance of winning an election and no threat to any of the many political parties in Russia, so why bother trying to bump off a non starter like him (a Yale fellow), sounds more likely a CIA job in the vain hope of regime change and to point the finger. If any party could bring down the Totalitarian regime of Putin it would be the Communists.
Ok, it's lockdown so a glimpse down the rabbit-hole might be some entertainment. So I'm curious what sources you use to come to those opinions. Mind linking?
In a kleptothug totalitarian state, do you think there might still be some benefit in having an officially tolerated puppet opposition? Y'know, to create a facade for suckers to buy into?
D'you reckon a totalitarian thug might still find some usefulness in having his apparatus hokey up charges to create a facade of due process, rather than just nakedly do whatever he wants? Y'know, for suckers to buy into?
If any party could bring down the Totalitarian regime of Putin it would be the Communists.
Projection, much? Putin's running a kleptocracy, it's in no sense totalitarian. The Communists, however…
Pooters would never trump up charges against an enemy. Guy prolly poisoned himself just to make Pooters look bad.
This may have been posted already…
Jonathon Pie, getting things off his chest.
Issues that I struggle to convey, done with passion and conviction, acres of hyperbole too.
Who's the Shirley he's ranting at?
It takes acres of hyperbole to get through the shroud hanging over reasonable speech that can be used in discussion. I could put a big comment about 'woke' superior authoritarianism and control but there are more important things to discuss, and it will be the same going forward till the end of the century or as long as we are given by the planet to try to rise above our inertia.
Jonathan Pie is great at expressing the feelings of progressives who can't because of blockades of some sort.
I don't think he said Shirley. I think it was 'surely', slightly squeezed. But I found something about a Dame Shirley, what an amazing woman.
..Having experienced sexism in her workplace, "being fondled, being pushed against the wall", she wanted to create job opportunities for women with dependents, and predominantly employed women, with only three male programmers in the first 300 staff, until the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made that practice illegal.
She also adopted the name "Steve" to help her in the male-dominated business world, given that company letters signed using her real name were not responded to…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Shirley
What do Kiwiblog commenters think of National's border plan? Not a lot, on the whole. This character got to post this, unchallenged, which says a lot on a blog where anyone other than a Farrar sycophant routinely gets blanked-out or piled-upon.
ObligatoryMarxist
[Re-formatted and used block-quotes to make it easier to see quoted text – Incognito]
Morning Robert,
When quoting a word or even part of a sentence, quotation marks work well, usually. However, when quoting a longer piece of text, the quotation marks tend to get lost and it can become unclear what is quoted and what’s not, although not in this particular case. In that case, it might help to use block quotes. I’ve re-formatted your comment to show you what I mean.
Elegant work, Incognito!
I could not have done it without you!
Well..
https://twitter.com/KiwiCraig74/status/1295545249922613251
Inter National rescue blunderbirds are go
Who's pulling the strings?
ROFL, I can't wait to show mum that one re muldoon/judith, she's going to laugh so hard. Much respect to the creator of the graphic tooo funny !!!
Is that Col Mul?
An excellent graphic indication of Nationals alternative border control.
History shows their previous Civil Emergengy Response strategies were outright failures.
Probably why they don't use them as examples of thier competency today.
Gerry is the Janos Slynt of border protection.
poor thing…..when the grift is good and you get so sloppy that you get indicted and even your bosses biggest cheerleaders might see the need to throw you quickly under a passing bus to save bossman
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/it-doesnt-look-good-for-him-fox-news-analyst-explains-why-steve-bannon-is-facing-20-years-in-jail/
and dad then throws the Jr. under the bus too, cause why not – its not as if he has any value to dear dad.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/trump-says-hes-sad-about-steve-bannons-indictment-but-never-liked-the-project-his-son-endorsed/
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/trump-directed-homeland-security-to-give-400-million-to-firm-tied-to-bannons-we-build-the-wall-scheme-report/
could not add this to the comment above, but yeah, a shit is a shit is a shit, no matter how much gold dust was added to make it sparkly.
The trump family, their enablers, their voters, and all those that still believe that the other option was worse are nothing more then gold dusted shit.
https://www.rotarynewmarket.org.nz/Stories/professor-des-gorman
Des Gorman Posted on May 18, 2020
So you can see why he is a regular on Hosking Speak Radio.
The right wing black swan event coup programme now supposedly has top academics calling for an independent group to take over governments pandemic response.
It appears he is acting in concert with Murray Horn – former Treasury Secretary, former head of Business Roundtable, and Chair of a Chinese Bank's New Zealand subsidiary.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12357866
If you want to know what Murray Horn's politics are
He believes that for a government to realise anything in the long term, they need to make it institutional in such a way a future government cannot undo. He was in Treasury in the 1984-90 period and was Sec 1993-1998.
Hood, C. (1998). Book Review: Murray Horn, The Political Economy of Public Administration: Institutional Choice in the Public Sector (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. ix, 263,
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/003231879804900216?journalCode=pnzb
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12357866
Not much of a vote of confidence in Murray Horn then – who had a lot of involement in National's Health performance.
The Health System Funding Review was led by Dr Murray Horn 2015
https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/what-we-do/new-zealand-health-strategy-update/funding-review
Ministerial Review Group (MRG), chaired by Mr. Murray. Horn 2009
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-nhb-board-chair-appointed
Spectacular own goal.
there is Des Gorman's own role in the crippled health system.
He worked with Horn (2009-2014) on the National Health Board.
Executive Chairman of Health Workforce New Zealand (2009-2019)
He's still involved with the Ministry of Health’s Capital Investment Committee.
As for their role in the crisis down in Canterbury
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/417225/board-chair-says-dhb-was-forced-to-choose-cheaper-building-option
Being right wing means that you never have to say sorry (or admit your hand in any failure of the past).
Nice one. Saw the clickbait in granny and immediately wondered which nactiods are behind the latest distraction.
Thanks for that.
Yeah nah fuck off, the current team is world class & prove that everyday.
Very interesting SPC – 11. It helps to lift the mask and peer under to see who is that under there, and where his past experience has been that seemed right to get him/her to their present prominence.
Transparency International always said we were honest and I thought good, but then I found out that they just asked people in the business and professional classes what they thought and if bribes were used. We have our own unique ways that only a place with a separation of three? can knit together! It is just a carousel and when you get on it, you can retreat from one place and pop up further along. It takes an eagle eye and a strong arm to pull the bigwig off the beltway.
FFS we have one of the best Covid responses in the world and Gorman and co want to change it?????? In the middle of the bloody pandemic?
I am pretty certain that every health professional (or nearly every health professional) in NZ will think this letter in the NZ Medical Journal is utter shite. They will know that very few colleagues have contracted Covid and none have died from it, unlike the majority of countries in the world. They will know that mostly their colleagues don't go to work terrified of what they will face, even if they are not working in the front line.
I hope health professionals find the time to respond to this disgraceful letter and show it the utter contempt it deserves. I really hope NZders can still see the incredibly great position we are in with the virus. Even if the border testing had of been rolled out the situation would not have been too much, if any different than what we have already. I.e nurse contracts covid at the border, one week shes tested and its picked up. It is already likely to have made it into the community…………..The latest cases were picked up extremely early. You can always tell whether its out there by hospital numbers. Approx one in 5 will need hospital treatment.
I am sick to death of the hysterical commentary around the border testing…..it was being implemented. These are very complex systems that are being implemented on the fly as the situation is happening now.
We are in extremely good hands with Labour, Bloomfield and many if not all of the nameless staff who everyday go to work in risky situations to keep us safe………
And lastly if Gorman et al and other complainers don't like the response here, piss off to somewhere else please.
You can't expect Gormless not to make a play for all that lovely money the government is borrowing now can you.
edit
This from the Guardian April 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/06/nhs-doctors-lacking-ppe-bullied-into-treating-covid-19-patients
This from nz stuff Aug.19/20
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/122492980/coronavirus-frontline-health-works-treated-like-cannon-fodder-gp-says
White had also bought his own personal protection equipment from a hardware store after receiving an email on Tuesday from WellSouth, the region’s primary health organisation. The email said he would have to source his own, rather than ordering through the district health board (DHB) stockpile.
The email reads: “The current advice is that while we are in level 2, practices need to exhaust their commercial avenues of supply before accessing the DHB’s pandemic supplies”.
In April, White had made his own improvised face shield from laminating pouches and cable ties because adequate PPE was unavailable.
I don't like the sound of this. If anyone is out there with some agency can they improve on this toot sweet.
I wonder if this matter is under the control of this experienced medical man. /sarc
Practice Network Director: Paul Rowe leads our organisation’s practice support team and is responsible for managing our day to day relationship with general practices. This includes improving our performance against health targets and implementing projects such as Health Care Homes, National Enrollment Service, Patient Experience Survey and Foundation Standards.
Paul was appointed Practice Network Director in August 2016 and has been at WellSouth in a variety of roles since 2013. Prior to working at WellSouth Paul worked at consultants Ernst & Young in Auckland and at Jones Lang LaSalle and Deutsche Bank in London.
Paul holds a Bachelor of Business Studies in economics from Massey University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies and Maori Studies from the University of Auckland.
https://wellsouth.nz/community/about-us/senior-management-team/</i>
That is a mighty weight of people meeting and sucking up finances, their is presumably meeting costs, transport etc even if not fees or salary. Yet this large entity with so much input from all points of the compass can't look after the GPs and others on the front line as a Primary Concern in the Primary Healthcare
IndustryRoundabout.No wonder there isn't enough money to adequately treat citizens. Now is the time for change and some sharp changes to a few permanent employees under direct control of the Finance Director at the DHB perhaps. I don't know but something needs to be done. Let private enterprise at government services and you get as topheavy with people as before, only being paid more probably, with better-designed offices that are fully ergonomic and fung shei'd perhaps?
Yep. They're not making a profit from it so it obviously needs to be changed so that they can.
and to those that still want to peddle the mis'truth about kids not getting covid, or getting ill from it, or dying from it. Well i guess we could call it a blatant mis'truth to add some gusto to the term.
This little one was nine years old and according to the article it took her four month to die after her covid infection.
https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/butler-county/middletown/middletown-girl-9-diagnosed-with-coronavirus-has-died
I had someone tell me that the death rate is too small for them to care about Covid. I asked her what she thought about those that survived and chances are will live with severe health issues for the rest of their life. Personally i believe that that is actually the bigger issue of covid, not that it kills some of hte population quickly, but that one can be infected again and again and the illness will take a year or three to finish the job.
But yes, dear Virginia, kids get it, and they die of it.
For the parents to need to raise money to off set medical bills for the care of the 9 year old this needs to change. This article touched my heart.
Go Fund me, Health Care US stylez.
One of the more level-headed politicians we’ve had over the last while calls for a longer term perspective than just dealing with the virus.
Hopefully with the extra time before the election we start to see analysis on what the various parties are proposing, and have that publicly debated, instead of just short term thinking of 1 or 2 years ahead.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/election-delay-gives-us-time-to-talk-long-term-plans?utm_source=Friends+of+the+Newsroom&utm_campaign=0d31de6b20-Daily+Briefing+21.8.20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-0d31de6b20-97881763
It's Peter Dunne (Chess Player's post should have carried a warning and it's interesting to note that he/she didn't name that politician).
Ah, thank you. Saved me some time.
Me too
Ah, Mr Common Sense. Meh.
Dunne was never one for that in politics – having developed policy to advocate for would have got in the way of forming coalitions with National or Labour. Thus bland and middling muddled – bureaucrat speak cooomonsense jargon.
It was always left to those to the left and to the right to debate policy stuff.
Politician are held to account by the people who put them there every 3 yrs.
Govts who do a good job get longer but know they can't rest on their laurels!
FFS we have one of the best Covid responses in the world and Gorman and co want to change it?????? In the middle of the bloody pandemic?
I am pretty certain that every health professional (or nearly every health professional) in NZ will think this letter in the NZ Medical Journal is utter shite. They will know that very few colleagues have contracted Covid and none have died from it, unlike the majority of countries in the world. They will know that mostly their colleagues don't go to work terrified of what they will face, even if they are not working in the front line.
I hope health professionals find the time to respond to this disgraceful letter and show it the utter contempt it deserves. I really hope NZders can still see the incredibly great position we are in with the virus. Even if the border testing had of been rolled out the situation would not have been too much, if any different than what we have already. I.e nurse contracts covid at the border, one week shes tested and its picked up. It is already likely to have made it into the community…………..The latest cases were picked up extremely early. You can always tell whether its out there by hospital numbers. Approx one in 5 will need hospital treatment.
I am sick to death of the hysterical commentary around the border testing…..it was being implemented. These are very complex systems that are being implemented on the fly as the situation is happening now.
We are in extremely good hands with Labour, Bloomfield and many if not all of the nameless staff who everyday go to work in risky situations to keep us safe………
And lastly if Gorman et al and other complainers don't like the response here, piss off to somewhere else please.
This comment is in reference to AB’s article on suicide rates coming down….oh gosh that is encouraging……….I do hope it is a trend, not just a blip………..Some 30 lives or so not lost.
Bloody Seymour was scaremongering about suicides in Queenstown. The man is an arsehole
So deconstructing Collins border policy. Her stance is that operational health decisions in the face of a fast moving dynamic pandemic should be made at general elections.
What could possibly go wrong!
The Bulletin: National changes philosophy behind border policy
https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/21-08-2020/the-bulletin-national-changes-philosophy-behind-border-policy/
[Re-formatted with block-quotes – Incognito]
Looks like Collins is reaching out to Winston's supporters to stop bleeding votes.
Global warming update: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/20/greenland-ice-sheet-lost-a-record-1m-tonnes-of-ice-per-minute-in-2019
Hard to imagine, this reality in which every minute of last year, on average a million tonnes of ice from the Greenland ice-cap melted and headed for the ocean.
So hard to imagine, this reality, that Labour is campaigning on the basis of business as usual. Imagining a causal relation between the economy and climate change is too hard! Perhaps some kid like Greta Thunberg will have to explain it to them…
I thought it was National that intended to go back on some of the stuff Labour had done so far, and interests associated with that party that lobbied hard against radical change in the short term.
And some of the restraint on Labour came from requiring NZF to be in the coalition.
What I'm not seeing is open, direct & forthright acknowledgment from any party other the Greens that business as usual is untenable.
How many disasters have to hit the other-party dorks simultaneously to trigger it?? Many of us were exploring the progressive options onsite here last summer after the pandemic hit. I don't believe we're a different class of human – a class above politicians. I can't see why they feel unable to do likewise.
Nelson City Council was thinking of getting out of it's present large and apparently strong building, and go further along at the same level, on what was formerly swamp land, and on a tidal river fairly close to the sea and build an expensive building there. But a report from a firm that is pretty reliable suggested that it would be good for many decades. Yes, but, we are caught by unprecedented climate changes so some reckons must come in, mustn't they?
Well it seems that they did and the Council will stay where it is but be done up and gloomy prognostications abound as to that costing up to $32 million or something. I don't know all about it yet. To keep sane one has to not get too close to the maelstrom of ideas, warring countries and politicians, and bright young things seeing tech as the answer to all human and tech problems, provided you look at them with an old-fashioned Camera Obscura.
Climate change is proof that our economic system is uneconomic and, for the majority of people, that will be hard to swallow. For the economists and politicians its even harder as they've based their entire careers and life on it.
As the saying goes: Its difficult to get a person to understand something when their job depends upon them not understanding it.
A drunk 16 year old, an Eilat hotel, 30 men and the pretty legal defence.
One positive, coalition partners Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz agree on something – charge them all.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53851825
The issue of sexual consent and not while and with those who are drunk
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/maimonides
I think it was Peter Sellers that had the answer to coping with sexual interplay of the young – separate them with a crowbar.
sexual interplay?
intoxicated 16 year old on whom 30 men run a train?
you have a funny idea about 'sexual interplay'.
edit
I was being ironic. I hadn't read the whole thing. But it isn't new, far too common. And I have just read Mr Pip. So am feeling a bit drained. That one builds up some ennui isn't surprising unless it's you Sabine and others, always with extra outrage for the latest disaster. It would bring me out in psoriasis or at least exczema? – I don't know how you keep so sharp.
Suicide drops to a three-year low though it's not a particularly large drop and there's no evidence that it can be attributed to any particular single cause. So just some cautious observations.
It appears that the predictions we heard back in March and April about the adverse mental health effects of lockdowns were not accurate and were deliberately exaggerated for political and economic purposes (i.e. an attempt to limit the severity of lockdowns).
There are certain characteristics of the pandemic world that may have some positive effect on mental health:
It could be that our habit of tinkering with the structure of mental health service delivery is much less effective than changing deeper ideological and economic factors.
AB Working from home produces mental stresses and further isolates 'screenies' – ie those whose eyes are fixed to devices. Separate them with a crowbar?
More than likely. Of course, then the right-wing will come out with the belittling term of social engineering. Which, of course, would be exactly what it would be but they would also be ignoring all their own social engineering that they do when in power. All the beneficiary bashing and their sale of state assets to the wealthy to make them wealthier increasing inequality and other socially disastrous policies.
Their preference for opening the borders during a pandemic would also be social engineering as it would cause massive social displacement as the number of dead ramped up.
TRUMP again
yesterday nz recorded a MASSIVE outbreak of 6
we only had 46000 cases
if we had the massive outbreak like nz we would have 360 new cases
see how well we are doing
To be fair to Dementia Donnie, the US only had 1260 deaths yesterday, which is only around four per million. He might not be very clear on why that's not better than having 6 cases in a population of 5 million.
to be fair they only counted 1260 death then they stopped.
Someone else must have been counting. Tangerine Tantrump can't count past 1.
the hospitals are no longer reporting the death to the CDC but directly to some person at the white house. So no one has any idea what really happens and what not, other then there are a lot of refrigerated trucks stationed outside hospitals in Texas, Florida, Missoury, Georgia etc.
So like russia and china i would take the information with a lot of salt thrown over the shoulder.
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/white-house-hospitals-bypass-cdc-report-covid-19-data-directly-hhs
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/trump-cdc-coronavirus.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/07/15/891351706/white-house-strips-cdc-of-data-collection-role-for-covid-19-hospitalizations
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/coronavirus-deaths/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8518593/Florida-coronavirus-infections-eight-countries.html
it depends on who counts not on who votes or fills out the forms. I think Stalin said something to this extend.
They were trying to juke the stats from long before they got as blatant as cutting the CDC out of the reporting chain.
In the end, the best and most useful estimate is going to come from excess deaths data, because it will also include otherwise-preventable deaths that occurred due to the health system being overwhelmed. That's going to somewhat harder to spin.
The excess deaths were 200,000 when the total was 160,000.
Our deaths were lower than for the year before.
Including fewer suicides than usual. Which is what the RWNJ Nostradumbasses were saying were going to skyrocket in lockdown.
No that is something that i have said as well, not just right wing nuts, unless i know qualify as rightwing nut.
Depression is on the rise, goes hand in hand with job loss, loss of income, no sense of stability and the dawning realisation that we have no longer any control of our live until we have a. gotten rid of the virus, b. have a working vaccine for all the strains currently running rampant and any of the future ones.
We are now 5 month in in what can and probably will a pandemic for another 15 month at the very least (globally). I am not the only one that says that either. So i really would not consider today as the hallmark of the future.
The worst of this covid mess is yet to come, and i am neither a negative person, nor a pessimist, but i don't subscribe to hope that shit will get better soon as a future prediction. Reality and a proper risk assessment suits me better.
with our death rate falling, and 3000 kiwis per week coming home, it will be interesting to see the population figures. all of those returnees need a house and a car. maybe thats one of the reasons that the economy HASNT hit the skids like many experts predicted-hoped. anecdotal evidence , new and second hand car sales very strong, house sales and prices have continued to rise, and builders in my provincial area still very busy.
We still have more outgoers than incomers. Even if they were on limited visa's they likely rented accommodation so the total number of people we are accommodating will be falling slowly
but yes incomers may be buying more than renting. ditto cars.
disagree redbaron. more people flying into the country than flying out.many of the P.I. seasonal fruit pickers in nelson area have chosen to stay and send a few dollars back to their islands ,rather than go home to ?
With this being the third rant by Trump about our situation in as many days, does he know something or expect something to happen here that we are unaware of. Surely he wouldn't know the source of the currently unidentifiable strain!
He doesn't know anything. He truly is a literal know-nothing.
He's just consumed by the idea that the only reason we might have had to achieve elimination was to make him look bad. So now we don't currently have elimination status, he's trying to puff it up so he doesn't look bad anymore, and to rub it in to us for making him look bad.
He's going to be pissed when we achieve elimination again, which he thinks we're only trying to do to make him look bad again, of course. The idea of doing it for the well-being of our citizens simply doesn't enter his universe.
Is Trump rubbishing NZ because both the US and NZ are having an election?
If so Trump might be saying no one can eliminate Covid so vote for me and he does not feel so insecure.
He says what he says because it's what makes him feel better in the moment.
In this case, he's trying to slam a put-down on something (our covid response) that has been widely cited as something that's been done much better than what he's done. He's trying to belittle us to feel better about himself. Any effect that might have on his re-election prospects is a secondary consideration, if it even enters his impulse of the moment at all.
I doubt he knows we've got an election coming up, and I'm very certain he doesn't care.
To be fair to Dementia Donnie, the US only had 1260 deaths yesterday…
For those like me who struggle with comparing US figures to NZ, that's the equivalent of 19 people of dying of Covid-19 in NZ yesterday.
Left wing fascism is a thing too (apparently).
I can't help but wonder if Trumps ridiculous references to NZ aren't helping Labour's chances right now. What he is saying is absurd in the extreme, but sometimes that helps people get perspective. Also helps feel a bit patriotic re NZs efforts. against the virus compared to US. BTW I regularly check the worldometer for covid stats and NZ case numbers continue to drop down c/p to others. I think currently was are 138.
The worldometer is good for keeping up.
He literally makes my head hurt
Simon Bridges "man in the wilderness" wants chocolate fish for noticing lockdown was pretty unlawful.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/coronavirus-simon-bridges-had-a-chuckle-after-learning-he-was-right-to-challenge-lockdown-s-legality.html
Why did Bridges get rolled in the first place looks like his days numbered.
Theirs and old saying about Tory MP's being the left overs incompetants who can't do well in the real world they become MP's become mouth piece's in parliament.
When looking at the present line up including Silly Seymour most don't have a clue.
This (link below) is a damning evaluation of the effect of private enterprise on the Covid-19 response in Australia. It focuses on Victoria but could apply to many other places where neoliberalism has taken hold. Perhaps someone should point this article to David Seymour and his bonkers idea of using AirBnBs for quarantine.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/20/the-spread-of-coronavirus-is-not-the-fault-of-individuals-but-a-result-of-neoliberalism
Sir Brian Roche takes Hosking to task.
https://www.facebook.com/gerard.otto/videos/10159015068982033/UzpfSTY2MTA0MjAzMjoxMDE1OTAxNTA2OTkwNzAzMw/
I wouldn't have said Sir Brian Roche took Hosking to task.
Hosking: "Is there too much politics in this?"
Next question: Hosking: "As a New Zealander, just step back from you job for a minute, as a voter what have you observed this week?"
That's just an example of Hosking being unable to seperate politics from anything he wants to be political and he wants to use to political advantage. It's not Roche taking Hosking to task but Hosking taking on the task of making himself out to be pillock. And succeeding.
This one goes out to everyone who still has to travel in each day … where commuting is the only moment you have for daydreaming and processing, which is our vestigal time of utopian meanderings, the reconciliation of the pressure of home and relationships with the history that got you right there at that time …
…Richter is good at meditative pacing that evokes reflective thinking…
Good for slowing down when you're hyped.
I finally went and read the Nact policy document for the border.
Basically it's a damp squib – they intend to set up an agency
"to provide professional coordination and comprehensive management of the potential entry of COVID-19"
so looks like everyone working there is going to get all tooled up and rush into an office to order other government agencies to comply with the policies it sets. "compliance focused". It's also a weird mix of high level policy and basic operational stuff about testing their workers weekly. Indeed it really doesn't specify how they will enforce compliance with their policy for the implementers.
But there is also this – a money grab
"The Agency will be responsible for managing co-payment for the costs of managed isolation"
Now I may be too suspicious but once people are out of the airport I see nothing in the policy that would prevent the letting of privately managed isolation contracts.
Has Judith actually denied that theywill use private contracts for isolation or is this something that is just being generally assumed by the media? Even if she does deny this should we believe the denial? The potential is certainly there to ramp that up.
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nationalparty/pages/14711/attachments/original/1597878401/Securing_Our_Border_-_policy_document.pdf?1597878401
They've got some managerial hangers on they want to give jobs to.
or privatisation preparation
Jacinda's response to questions about the trial in Christchurch were elegant and reflective of her real self.
Have the cops investigated running a covid convoy from Northland through Auckland to the south? Line them up every hour, photos of the licence plates and all passengers/ drivers and then with a cop car fore and aft , Lights and a run down the motorway.
Sounds sensible for those needing to move, especially trucks, business. There would be a charge I think, as it is a special deal and the police need to boost their funds for car chasing at night.
Bunker Boy goes birther on Biden!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-birther-conspiracy-joe-biden-pennsylvania_n_5f3f0e27c5b6305f32555891
Is tRump Dawood Ibrahim Khan and was he born in North Waziristan?
Prob'ly makes more sense than my pet theory he was smuggled out the chocolate factory as the product of miscegenation between an oompa-loompa and Mrs Gloop.
Seeing we are all going tech! And gaming is so big – why don't we make our dear leaders fight their battles out on computers like some high tech chess game. After a battle is over and the horrific outcomes fade into world memories though not of those involved you think was it worth it? For what was achieved.
My fish and chips suppliers are Vietnamese, small brown people with big smiles. I asked them if they were Thai and they replied, No Vietnamese. I said oh, that explains the hard cover book about the Vietnam War over with the magazines. They said Yes, we thought people might look at it and get to know about it. (It doesn't get mentioned much in NZ but sometimes here when one of the vets writes in, and tells how it seems forgotten.)
So let's go high tech and let the aggressives make their moves, after explaining their reasons quite clearly. I've just partially read Mr Pip about a Bougainville violation and found it chilling and yet hopeful. A tale with a twist.
Yeah, and if they don't agree, we should send the military in to make them.
Transmission Gully update.
OMG another reason to remove the layer of MoT from enabling direct Ministerial scrutiny of major projects.
The opening of Transmission Gully will be delayed until September 2021 after settlement negotiations concluded to the tune of $208.5 million.
Don't forget NZTA have already got a $1b loan facility from government to make up for an income deficit from Covid 19. So there's 20% of that gone already.
The 27-kilometre road was meant to be open by April 2020, then it was pushed back to before Christmas this year, and now it's another year away.
It's currently about 85 per cent complete.
NZTA announced the settlement money and new completion date this afternoon, which is solely related to the Covid-19 lockdown period.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12358387
And of course: does not improve public transport, has no cycle lane or footpath, is not tolled, and pushes a great fat jam of congestion into the Hutt Valley.
I don't get what you mean about cycle lanes and footpaths, particularly footpaths, being associated with this project. It's 30km motorway. Who the fuck is walking that and why?
Also not sure what you mean about congestion in the Hutt Valley. If TG has a bearing on Hutt Valley traffic then that is just another issue which needs to be solved regarding the complicated entry points into Wellington.
Transmission Gully was necessary, if not entirely for the benefit of the country as a whole, at least for the region. This concept does not apply to an Otaki to Levin extension which is ridiculous right now.
There will however be a lot of pain before it is operating as imagined with all the flaws fixed.
NZTA should not be building any road highway without cycleways or public transport capacity. SH16 up Auckland's northwestern, and SH20 tunnel in the southwest, shows it can be done. The era of transport assets solely for the privilege of combustion engine use is well due for consigning to the dustbin of history. NZTA is the one remaining direct instrument this government has to direct us away from fossil fuel use, and motorway design is a massive part of what they do.
All it takes is future-proofed multi-modal design – which is not that hard once you direct NZTA's Board, policy specification team, Capital Delivery, and Procurement staff the right way. Especially their Board.
So put it in later if everyone is e-biking from Paekakariki to Parliament twice a day. Somehow I doubt it.
SH16 devices a huge and fast growing population in Auckland’s North-West. Lots of potential bike commuters.
There is literally zero potential for bike traffic along TG.
People thought the same about SH16, 20 years ago. No-one argues for later patch-ups now, not even the AA. The same old resisters within NZTA said the same thing as well.
In 2010 similar people occupied Kiwirail, referring to commuters as 'self-loading freight'. Since then, Auckland rail use has surpassed that of Wellington. And Kiwirail and and NZTA are right now building cycleways along their corridor right into Wellington central. 30 years late, but it's happening.
In Transmission Gully all NZTA have is a mess, and no certainty that even combustion vehicles will use it at an appropriate volume for what we are all now paying for it.
No. The first section of cycle way from Te Atatu to Pt Chevalier was opened on December 6th 1992, nearly 30 years ago and 40 years after the completion of the causeway.
Cycling commuters drove this. There were actual people living in the region, unlike TG.
Proves my point even moreso. Cycling use peaked in the 1970s, then in the 1990s the fightback started such as Sir Bob and Mayor Mills opened up a disconnected mile or so, so cycle use troughed, then built up again along SH16 once we completed the SH16 cycle network in the last decade. You can pop over to Matt at GreaterAuckland and check that.
The same regret will occur over Transmission Gully, as it has over the Wellington network.
A few Wellingtonians have been fighting against cycle lanes over the last five years. They killed off the last Wellington Mayor. Who would have thought Aucklanders would get out of their cars and onto bikes? Same in Wellington. The latest demand is huge.
Thankfully the Government have announced they are putting much stronger oversight over this whole debacle.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/transmission-gully-double-opening-for-125b-road
It doesn't prove your point at all. You are comparing two completely different pieces of road.
Nope. History is proving you wrong already. Thankfully.
Cycleways are under development on Wellington's coastline now …
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/te-ara-tupua/
… connects to the Hutt City network right across the waterfront and into town…
http://www.huttcity.govt.nz/Your-Council/Projects/cycleways-and-shared-paths/beltway-cycleway/
… and over the other side of the ranges, NZTA is well on the way with the cycle network on the other side…
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/walking-cycling-and-public-transport/cycling/investing-in-cycling/urban-cycleways-programme/wellington-urban-cycleways-programme/kapiti-urban-cycleways-project/
…all the way up to Foxton and beyond.
https://www.horowhenua.govt.nz/Places-Events/Cycle-Tracks-Walking-Trails
Wellington used to be the public transport capital of New Zealand. Now, Auckland, oddly, is getting more cycle connected. But the Wellington region has big transport projects and plenty of good cycle projects. But cyclists in Wellington are getting all lies and resistance and grief.
The justification NZTA gives this is, back in the day, waaaay back in 2008, there was no policy framework for cycling. Nothing to defend or promote it….
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/urban-design/transmission-gully/docs/transmission-gully-technical-report-23-section-2.pdf
… And here we are over a decade later, climate change accelerating, the Transmisison Gully blown out by $800 million and growing, all they are going to deliver in another two years is no connection other than by combustion engine, no effort to connect by any other means.
We all deserved more.
TINA is leading to nightmares in the UK. Neolib isn't working for them any more and they can't find their dummy and their teddy.
Britain is about to be sucked into a catastrophic economic doom loop
Huge state spending is set to trap the UK in a vicious circle of higher taxes and permanently lower growth
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/19/britain-sucked-catastrophic-economic-doom-loop/
Testing seems to be back down to 15k a day. Have any of the briefings looked at some of the factors around this? I would have thought they'd be pushing to test as many people in the geographic area as possible.
Been almost ten days since we raised the levels, in the next few days we'll hopefully see a consistent decline in case numbers.
I'd imagine simple exhaustion among the lab staff might have a bit to do with it. They've been pulling in anyone that might have the skilz – vet lab, university etc – but there's still enough actual work in every test it would be difficult to keep the pace up.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/covid-19-exhausted-lab-workers-battling-to-keep-up-with-testing-demand.html
Fair call.
Why is Christchurch always on the wrong end of stuff like this?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122528271/university-of-canterbury-launches-investigation-into-lecturers-online-comments
It's been much the same for as long as I remember. I wondered if the earthquake might shake up their ultra conservative very insular pretensions but maybe not. Ti me to remove some one’s visa?
Caught a TV programme some years back where the primary school history lesson showed the provincial history as starting with 6 ships arriving from England. Takes a while to move that sort of stuff along
Plus it's always for some reason had the dodgiest of the sex crimes.
Unfortunately for the decent people of Christchurch, that city has had a terrible reputation for intolerance since its birth.
But it looks so orderly, nice, wide straight streets, trees everywhere. Any crime is probably a reaction to all that toffy-nosed pureness.
Fair call.
Hmm. Reply button doesn't seem to work in same window, but open link as new window goes ok.
Firefox 79 on windows.
Twitter, the enemy of debate and suppressor of democracy
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1296525232069578754
David Seymour should be all over this. Chavista's have the right to free speech too.
We should defeat the Maduro regime not with censorship, but with AirBnBs and Charter Schools alone!
I've brought this over from the right to the centre – that is from the feed on the right-hand of the page. Ex Treasury view on government doings re Covid-19. I feel that it is possible that any observations made about government being remote etc could also apply to The Treasury.
And on a quick reading with much being given the thumbs-down I wonder if these boffins divide the work they are responsible for, as much-criticised unions did eg jokes about 'I don't do the spanner work. That's for Fred from the Trade Tools and Waterwheels Union'. How come he can be employed at Treasury to supposedly make things efficient and effective and well-balanced and leave, still happily taking pot-shots at democracy and government in a patronising way. Sounds like a lot of narcissistic hoopla.
Tony Burton has also been Economic Advisor to the UK Dept of Health.
...When I was part of the government machine I was struck by how little understanding even those receiving the eye-watering fees to teach “Masters in Public Policy” have of the way government operates. (If you want an example, look up “policy cycle” in a textbook on government where you will find a hamster wheel schematic and text describing how, apparently, government is run by hamster bureaucrats scuttling round it.)…
This is a one-eyed interpretation:- At its most extreme, a former Chief Executive of MSD commanded “no problems without solutions” so only problems that had already been solved could be presented to senior managers…
…Ministers very rarely talk to people at the front line. Their decisions are largely informed by meetings with people at the upper end of the hierarchy who are equally ignorant of what is happening where services are delivered.
https://democracyproject.nz/2020/08/21/tony-burton-govt-depts-debacle/
This article can be republished under a Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Attributions should include a link to the Democracy Project. With Bryce Edwards involvement.
https://youtu.be/fKopy74weus
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Duncan Garner is a puppet spinning lies about my whanau
Yipee.
A small step in the right direction.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122520689/calls-heard-for-speed-reduction-at-fatal-intersection
Meanwhile here is a captivating solution for freight on Railway Road.
Restored film from 1902 in Gemany, a flying train.