It's the prolate spheroid used in American football—which, bizarrely, is hardly ever kicked—that is (colloquially) called "the pigskin." Nobody ever calls the footballs kicked—not "gripped"— by Folau and his confreres a "pigskin."
Thank you for the lesson, however I couldn’t give a "flying football" about the technical terms of the game. I obviously picked up the term from too much time in the States and you knew immediately what the reference was to, so all’s good.
That'd be an interesting concept when a good many of Israel''s contemporaries judge 'gayness' on the basis of whether or not they're a "top' or a 'bottom'.
It's also a good enough explanation as to how one or two from Destiny's Church that once marched along Lambton Quay in black T-shirts could justify their hypocrisy.
I think there are plenty more people who deserve a ' GoFuckYou page' rather than Folau.
The guy is obviously a screw up, indoctrinated from birth by a fucked up guilt driven religion, obviously completely under the thumb of his ( 'You'll go to hell, son' ) Dad who is some kind of crazy fundamentalist Minister and has effectively destroyed his son's ticket to financial security…I feel sorry for him, what a disaster.
Maybe you should punch up, there are plenty of people far more worth your energy than just giving this guy more oxygen, which he and we don't need.
'Intervention by Israel's Folau's father prevented peace deal with Rugby Australia'
"I think there are plenty more people who deserve a ' GoFuckYou page' rather than Folau."
True enough @ Adrian.
Personally I regard 'the Falou' as a patheticism. An adherent to the ' what plays in Vegas STAYS in Vegas ' loif stoil. Of the 'Oim exceptional' and YOU of the 'other'
Make of it what you will. Full of Shite? I think there's a high probability
So 'Adrian' is not you Adrian Thornton. I thought you'd gone minimalist.
Could 'Adrian' please put something else beside that moniker to give more definition please? What about Adrian2 or AdrianZ etc. Adrian the Aardvark would be fun if you like Monty Python!
@greywarshark, "I thought you'd gone minimalist." no has ever accused me of that before…with good reason….stuff seems to be drawn to me by pure osmosis, luckily most of ir is interesting stuff.
Police called to loud altercation at Boris Johnson's home
Police were called to the home of Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, in the early hours of Friday morning after neighbours heard a loud altercation involving screaming, shouting and banging.
The argument could be heard outside the property where the potential future prime minister is living with Symonds, a former Conservative party head of press.
A neighbour told the Guardian they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging”. At one point Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.
Symonds is heard saying Johnson had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
You have voted a first class Eccentric – Boris Johnson – into the Prime Ministership.
He has dumped all of Europe and insulted all of them. He has dumped all the Citizens of England – except the mad Tories.
He is incredibly dumb. He seems also to have upset at rowdy midnight, one of his girl friends.
He is the perfect Tory Englishman.
The Poor of Britain should gather whatever bits of bread and butter they can. For the bastard Tories will set about turning the middle class and poor into blood and poxy bone – for decades.
Thank you Marco, that hilarious news was just what I needed, first good laugh of the day, fucking brilliant stuff…" they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging”. At one point Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”
The Thick of it couldn't have done a better job..in fact it has just occurred to me that having Boris as PM will be like that show, but in real time..and with Trump across the Atlantic, man, you couldn't make this shit up.
We all should know leopards never change their spots.
She was clearly raped by Trump and never reported it. Same old story still being repeated day after day everywhere. Women instinctively know they are on a hiding to nothing if they come forward and that is why they stay silent.
President Trump has directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct a mass roundup of migrant families that have received deportation orders, an operation that is likely to begin with predawn raids in major U.S. cities on Sunday, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.
The “family op,” as it is referred to at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, is slated to target up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders in as many as 10 U.S. cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and other major immigration destinations, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the law enforcement operation.
Bleeding all over the carpet for illegal migrants is stupid. It's idiotic to expend political capital on people who commit crimes.
What do you imagine would happen if you tried to enter the USA illegally? At LAX or the Canadian border? Do you expect to be treated nicely, given a warm welcome and told 'don't worry about those stupid immigration laws you can stay as long as you like'?
This is the dark side of empathy; making excuses for people who break the law and then whining when it turns out badly for them.
thanks for that christian view – jesus also said fuck them so well done to you not.
Your view is inhumane imo especially as a well heeling immigrant to aussie yourself – that is you though – just a mess of privilege and insecurities wrapped up in dogma. Luckily your fundamentalism is not that common with thinking christians I know and care about – they oppose your attitudes as much as I do and youknowwho would.
I'm the one here who consistently speaks to the need for a universal and principled system of globalisation that embraces justice and collective security for all the diverse peoples of the world.
Note carefully how marty still doesn't tell us exactly what his problem is with my argument. Either because he doesn't know, or he doesn't want to say.
And it's still just a personal attack on my integrity. He only gets away with it because as an 'oppressed minority' around here he's implicitly held to a much lower standard of behaviour.
lol you are such a victim – I love how you try with your ineffectual bluster to get me to do something – hey guess what knobhead – no! I will not act, behave or be the way that you want. Your arguments are bullshit based upon white supremacy and men's rights idiot lines. I think you are dumb dumb and you know it. But still you put your bogus line "why can't the world be like I want it" – I love it – keep wailing it. I respect LEFT thinkers not you.
You never own your argument marty, most of the time its personal attacks and lies. Now you are reduced to directly accusing me of being a white supremacist and a mens rights something or other.
No-one 'gets their own way' here. This is a place for debate and discussion; there are no 'winners or losers'. You are free to make your case just as anyone else is; it's just that you seem to prefer to bully and shame people into submission if you don't agree with them.
Why that is only you can know; I don't pretend to understand your motives. But I do know that it's tedious and predictable; it's like trying to talk with a golem.
lol just cos I won't dance to your tune – hey mr privilege you have been shown to be the utter dickhead you are today – I've really enjoyed it thanks for that lol 🙂
thats nice of you ta – you have displayed some nasty qualities today – a bit like your snide comment about me and my family in your last comment. This is what you and your types do. You can't actually debate because you are too full of anger and self loathing. I get it – you and your types have fucked this world and you feel guilty so you project against others including little children being detained. That is your level – low, very low.
making comments like "What do you imagine would happen if you tried to enter the USA illegally? At LAX or the Canadian border? Do you expect to be treated nicely, given a warm welcome and told 'don't worry about those stupid immigration laws you can stay as long as you like'?" isas inflammatory and frankly stupid as if I said "All undocumented arrivals should shot on the spot" It happens every day at LAX, undocumented people arrive they are treated firmly but fairly until they are either deported or let in. I don't think anyone here is suggesting what you are saying.
I've written to that many times. Most people are deeply attached to the places they grow up in. It's home, it's where they belong, it's where they have connections. They typically only move in large numbers if their home becomes an oppressive shit hole with little hope for their children.
And yes big nation hegemonies, warmongers and economic pillaging all play a part. They always have, it's nothing new and certainly the Western 'neo-cons' are only one of many threads to this story.
My argument is simple and consistent; globalisation has become an unstoppable human project and the logical coherent path forward is to implement it properly. Bring the age of empires to an end.
In the absence of a formal, federated world governance … then yes by default it will be the Rothschilds and their ilk. It is precisely the lack of democratically accountable, principled authority that enables these ravening wolves to feed on the carcass of humanity.
I copied this from an article I red yesterday, seems to sum it up.
I will leave you with these eloquent words by Brendan Woodhouse:
“You show me a fighting aged male and I will show you a man who can work. Show me the man that you’re frightened of and I will show you a gentle soul who is scared. You show me an economic migrant, an invader or a crook, and I will show you a mirror. For we are all the sons and daughters of migrants. We, as people, have always moved. And we have all benefited from their misery.
In order for you to be rich, to buy cheap clothes and to talk on your phone, someone will slave for you. It is our ease of living that has made them poor. It is our exploitation that makes them run. Not just the West, but the rich all over. We are the creators of migration, the benefactors and the blind. We turn our eyes to their suffering yet expect them to take all that comes. We buy brands that exploit, and expect everything for cheap, cheap, cheap.
But when a boy, or a man can not see how they can survive, we expect them to drown silently in their poverty, whilst we book our holidays in the sun. And we will use our passports to fly to almost any destination on this earth. We, the rich can seek employment wherever we like, and we can just pop to Paris for a weekend away. But when the man who suffers for our opulence wants to do the same, we say no, don’t come, you should stay.
We, the creators of their misery, define ourselves as the victims of their pain. We cry and complain that someone steals the job that we’re too lazy to do. We take their oil, their minerals, their produce and their lives, yet it is ‘we’ who call ‘them’ the crooks. And it is we that call ourselves the victims of their pain. You say that they come for our welfare state, yet I’ve met thousands of people crossing this sea, and every single one of them wanted to work. Can you say that about the people back home? I certainly can’t!
You talk of losing our culture but when we can turn our backs to the poor, then I think it’s a culture that we can lose. You say that we should help our homeless first, yet when we see the man on the streets, we walk by. We each live in a blanket of self righteousness, myself included, stating that others should do something to change. Be it for the homeless, the lonely or the displaced, we form our opinions from the warmth and comfort of our homes.
But unless you have walked one mile in their shoes, then don’t tell them where they should go. For we are their reflection. We were all made the same. It is by chance that we were born with opportunity, as it is by chance that they were born in the dust. And it could be by chance that our choices are taken away. Their struggle is our struggle, for if it was not them, it would be us.
You think that leaving all that you have known is easy? You think that crossing that sea is a choice? Then you don’t know how many are lost to this journey. You don’t know the pain that they take. And if you want to talk about choices, then you should acknowledge that it is only us who can choose!
We have one life. Let’s not waste it on hate. Only love!
No not every, but do share my house with others who would struggle to find stable accomodation in the free market because I am privilaged enough to be able.
"Does 'love' mean 'open borders'? Do you invite every homeless person you see into your home?"
Do you make false equivalence? Still using the only brought up by you open borders nonsense?
I got some spare money recently. I took the money and gave it out to the homeless. What a fool I know as it's a bottomless ocean and we must build walls against the rising tide of brownies displaced by western extremity and extravagance.
But there's no such thing as spare money aye, the Rothschild's don't have enough yet so obviously we don't either. Who wants to cater for basic human needs when there's superyachts to be had.
We can't all sit at the top of the pyramid now, can we?
I could'a got 20 bricks and some mortar with that money, to wall off my heart.
More power to you Bruce. Question though, is your generosity unlimited and unconstrained? Do you maintain some control over who you invite into your home and how they behave?
Or do you just let anyone who turns up stay as long as they like?
A reason, if not the only one.. 'The left' needs to say clearly that states have the right to secure borders and to set their own immigration policies. In fact these things are essential to creating viable socialist/social democratic societies that will work for everyone. We certainly need an international framework that discourages discrimination (race, religion etc.) in immigration policy, enforces humane treatment and includes an obligation to take a certain number of refugees. It would be desirable to have a mechanism whereby countries that create refugee crises by waging wars or imposing economic sanctions, pay reparations for their crimes. Problematic to implement though.
Most importantly concerted global effort on climate change to minimise the expected refugee crisis. Fast forward 60 years – with 3 degrees of warming and boatloads of thousands of dying people washing ashore on Ninety Mile Beach. Our ability and inclination to be welcoming will be tested.
Good. That is the groundwork for something useful.
Borders are important. Neither totally open nor totally closed borders work. Like the cells of all living creatures they have to be selectively porous, allowing what is desired and necessary in, and repelling all else.
Just like everyone operates their own home … family, friends and guests are welcome, everyone else either negotiates or keeps out.
At the scale of the nation state these are not easy conversations; but tainting them with hand wringing, grandstanding and virtue signalling only makes them harder.
You are pathetic RL. Presenting yourself as a man of practicality, rolling up your sleeves to sort problems out. The world has been waiting for your pragmatic decisions. As if no-one understands the problems. If solving the difficulties was easy it would have been done already.
I suggest that you stop being a keyboard warrior and do some work assisting. Get to where you can do something physical and help solve the border problems and the unwished for immigration. You will find it is beyond your puny strength to do much, but every little helps the individuals presently being treated like a swarm of locusts.
You refer to a formal, federated world government. (At
10 am) Goodness gracious, the USA could be doing that with all the powers at their command. Does it occur to them to act in an intelligent and humane way as needed? We see it does not. And it never will do.
I have put up a comment and some info into what makes the Mexicans run. Such long standing embedded troubles can’t be lectured or wished away.
Goodness gracious, the USA could be doing that with all the powers at their command. Does it occur to them to act in an intelligent and humane way as needed? We see it does not. And it never will do.
Yet at the end of WW2 they were instrumental in the formation of the United Nations. There are moments in history when unsuspected change is not only possible, but inevitable.
No-one imagined the fall of the Berlin Wall until it happened; yet now in hindsight most people understand the largely hidden forces that compelled it to happen.
As for your 'keyboard warrior' accusation; that is not the reason I am here. I'm not here to fight anyone or convince anyone of anything. I gave that conceit away years ago. Nor for that matter has anyone the faintest clue what I also do when I'm not typing here. While I've been more open about my own real time life here than most people, I've never explained how I usually multitask and that it's a bad assumption to imagine this is all I do. (It isn't necessarily a smart thing on my part, there have been more than a few occasions when I've mis-read something or gotten the sequence of a conversation wrong.)
It is also a bad assumption to think my ideas around global unity spring from nowhere, and that I lack sound evidence for them working at scale.
Massive poorly controlled immigration is the only reason the left is dying across the entire world.
Ad
You wish.
We will not allow millions upon millions to die because of our actions.
India: 50.6C degrees shows that we need to organize climate immigration to countries with cold weather.
……Countries such as Germany and New Zealand have already stated what measures will be taken (without any guarantee) untill 2050. But they are decisions based on the interests of companies and not the world population. Statements aimed at appeasing the impetus of children and young students who take to the streets of these countries in sad and desperate demonstrations and strikes, which should never happen if our civilization were intelligent and rational.
But the children, the elderly, the peasants and the workers of India now live above the acceptable human limit. How to prove? A challenge is enough: which of the readers would be able to leave their mother or their young child in a fanless or without air conditioned room with a temperature ranging from 40C to 51C as it does in India? No conscious person would live in a similar situation of their own free will if he had another choice….
……The struggle to open borders for the people of India and climate immigration from now on must be part of the struggle of all the climate activists who today organize protests in a large number of countries around the globe. Particularly, I hope that from our small great leader, Greta Thunberg, and all the activists from Sweden, who gave rise to Fridays For Future.
RL thinks it's all about choices. Living in a bubble. Are the unaccompanied children seeking sanctuary to blame? Do you think they deserve a concrete floor in a cage, no toiletries, no bed, vilification, beatings, rape…
'He walked 150 miles north, making sure to skirt La Arrocera, a broad swath of scrubland known for migrant kidnappings and assaults. He slept on the doorstep of a church after finding the migrant shelter burned to the ground.'
Many of the Merkins are an evil pack of pricks. And highly unlawful.
Yet you are of the opinion the immigrants are merely 'people who have committed crimes'. A self-important, unfortunately typical right wing, and largely inhumane position.
That which you condone speaks very clearly of who you are.
Many of these people, a large number of whom are unaccompanied minors, are running for their lives.
But what is a brown life worth to an American if they don’t come with their own garden tools, aye.
Go on answer the question rather than venting at me.
The law is how we do humanity on a collective scale. That's the point of it. If we don't like it or we think it's not working, then it should be changed.
Breaking it however usually only leads to more inhumanity. Like what the parents of these children have done to them. As I said above, if I tried to enter the USA illegally and got my children involved there would be zero sympathy. As one of those awful white guys everyone hates, it would of course be all my fault.
So rather than just telling me what a terrible person I must be, how about outlining exactly what changes you would make to fix this problem.
" Like what the parents of these children have done to them."
You mean when they were killed and shit, totally unacceptable! But I'm sure you have examples of bad brown parents to back this farcical crap.
and this
"The law is how we do humanity on a collective scale."
The law is built by rich men for rich men. It protects wealth, not humanity. The humanitarian parts of it were hard fought for, not by rich men, but humanity. The rich try to remove the humanity from law at every opportunity.
"hiding behind the terrible plight of these children."
Really. You think their plight might be better if they were treated with humanity, you know, that thing you think the law stands for yet it also is used by you specifically, to dismiss the plight of these children.
You reveal yourself RL as steeped in certainties you have devised and then there is no need to range around looking at other factors.
The Mexican border situation has no doubt been examined and written about in documents that would fill a room, on discs that would line a cupboard. If there is someone who visits this blog who can give us a rundown of 200 words even I invite them to do so as comment as a blog member.
If that person would like to do a post giving the Mexican view, then please suggest it to the Standard. I think there is interest in guest posts.
Mexico has been dominated by the USA and warped by it finding a ready market for illegal drugs there. The country has been decimated by corruption because of that. If the USA changed its drug laws to medicalise the problem, and to allow home-grown and organised cannabis growing, the high prices would go down and the Mexican trade would gradually plateau and stabilise.
Edit:
Here is some background on Mexicans' difficulties.
Manufacturing in Mexico grew rapidly in the late 1960s with the end of the US farm labor agreement known as the bracero program. This sent many unskilled farm laborers back into the Northern border region with no source of income. As a result, the US and Mexican governments agreed to The Border Industrialization Program, which permitted US companies to assemble product in Mexico using raw materials and components from the US with reduced duties. The Border Industrialization Program became known popularly as The Maquiladora Program or shortened to The Maquila Program. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_Mexico
Background from Huffington Post.
Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, rules 80% of the landline telephone services in Mexico and 70% of the mobile ones, according to Moody’s, the economy ratings researcher. Moreover, Emilio Azcárraga, the owner of Televisa, captures 80% of the media. At the same time, Germán Larrea and Alberto Bailleres (the latter recently awarded with the Belisario Domínguez medal) are the owners of all the mining sector with Grupo Minera México and Industrias Peñoles. And the same thing happens with construction markets, banking, food service and even with drugs, when in 2011, Forbes included the impoverished drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera “El Chapo” in the list of the wealthiest people in the country with a fortune of 1 billion dollars. One position above the owner of Banamex, Alfredo Harp Helú. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/corruption-and-poverty-in_b_11742602
I think I mentioned this before; in my last job I had a Mexican colleague whom I got reasonably close to. His life story would make your ears bleed. On another occasion I worked three weeks in Central Mexico and while it was a very short visit and I only saw a narrow slice of a relatively safe part of the country, the security and paranoia of everyday life was palpable.
So don't lecture me about the difficulties Mexico faces. All I want is someone to make the honest and open argument that the solution to all these problems is for the USA to open it's border with Mexico.
Because interestingly enough this is exactly what my Mexican friend argued for; he sincerely wanted the Mexican states closest to the USA border to become part of the USA, effectively moving the international border south. And he made a good logical case for it.
So don't lecture me about the difficulties Mexico faces.
Yeah, 'cause you went there for three weeks and worked with a Mexican. 🙄
I don't believe anyone is arguing for open borders, so to keep requesting they say it as a foil to your position is a bit stupid. I assume what most people are wanting is the immigrants, once there, to be treated humanely, ie, not having children put in cages.
So your hung up about the legality aspect of really poor, under threat of pain, death or oppression, not going through official channels in order to get safety for them or their families and the chance of a better life.
Well that makes putting kids in cages all right then.
No I'm not saying it's a good thing to separate children from their parents. That's a perverse strawman; no-one wants that.
But arguing that refugees should be able to turn up at any international border and cross to safety with no consequence is practically indistinguishable from an open border.
So with a natural disaster, war or famine, you're saying people shouldn't make for a safe haven, but stay put because there are consequences of having closed borders. Fuck me, you're gonna be shitting it when all the climate change refugees come a knocking.
The thing with illegal is that it's subjective, despite even the letter of the law. We all know stealing is wrong, but I'd never condemn someone for pinching a loaf of bread to feed their kids. In the current climate fostered by the us government, where the president calls out caravans of rapists and murderers, I wouldn't bother with a checkpoint either.
I guess you can wank off and clutch your pears about open borders and the law, take pot shots at the lefties with a conscience, but at the end of the day, if enough people come, there isn't a wall high enough or enough like you to stop them.
but at the end of the day, if enough people come, there isn't a wall high enough or enough like you to stop them.
OK that sounds absolutely the same as an open border. If not tell me the difference.
In that case why demand the just USA has open borders. Why not say Mexico, or China, or Saudi Arabia … hell there are over 200 countries in the world. Most of them are safe enough. Just let people wander wherever they want.
It's not an unreasonable argument, I just want you to make the case for it openly and honestly.
We all know stealing is wrong, but I’d never condemn someone for pinching a loaf of bread to feed their kids.
Fine with a few loaves of bread. What about a whole vanload? Is there some minimum threshold of criminality that’s justified here?
Irrelevant what you call it, what point you think you're making and to who, or how much resolution you achieve from it… I'm not your sticky sock. Why should I care?
These people are refugees and deserve to be treated humanely while the undesirables are sifted out.
Cause up until now seeking refuge at a legal port of entry is still legal in the US.
But then surely you would have no issues taking baby jesus from mary and joseph and admonish them for running away from King Herodes and his henchman who killed all the baby boys to prevent the king of israel to come of age.
King Herodes and his henchman who killed all the baby boys to prevent the king of israel to come of age.
Last I looked Trump isn't ordering the murder of all immigrant's first born. Although it would surprise me if some of the more rabid left will try this on.
Otherwise the links you provide all helpfully (yes I read them) outline the general process of claiming asylum in the USA. As with almost all other countries, it is not granted automatically. There is a process, and one that the host country gets to determine. Trump's administration has tightened up on it substantially as claiming asylum is an obvious ploy to bypass normal immigration procedures. Again the USA does not have this problem on it's own.
Originally asylum was a relatively uncommon process that only a relative handful of people applied for in what were usually clearcut circumstances. Over time it's range of applicability has extended greatly and the numbers of people are no longer insignificant.
Increasingly the distinction between a legitimate asylum seeker and an economic migrant attempting to bypass normal process has become less obvious. It's even more difficult to assess when the person claiming it has traveled through other 'safe' countries, but with far less desirable economic prospects to settle in. This naturally tests the willingness of desirable host nations to uphold their end of the deal without limit.
For obvious enforcement reasons, the USA is generally unwilling to allow entry to people without documentation, and without their status being clarified first. It's a large country and it's far too easy to disappear in. Ultimately undocumented arrivals are going to be detained for a period. And if charged they will be imprisoned for another period before being deported.
The question simply is, should their children be imprisoned alongside the adults or should they be looked after separately. There are merits to both arrangements, and obvious downsides as well.
But one of the options is not "oh dear you have children with you, we'll just have to give you a free pass".
Yup, we know the numbers of people arriving at the border has increased substantially and the demand on these facilities has probably increased beyond what was planned for. It's completely unsurprising that they aren't being managed as well as they could be.
That's one of the worst aspects of Trump's regime, he's weakened the leadership and lines of accountability in the Federal govt so that this sort of thing is more likely to happen. Still the people running these facilities are likely not monsters, they're doing their best to handle a very shitty job with the resources they have.
But if parents drag their children into this mess, we do not get to complain about them being 'separated'. As pointed out elsewhere this has been standard US practice for a very long time, well before Trump.
The root causes of this mess are complex and way deeper than just Trump; it irks me to see it exploited just to vent.
"But if parents drag their children into this mess"
You are so dishonest. A reasoning facade for utterly vile sentiments. Adopt a story to fit your narrative (which you've not supplied yet, as it's strategic not to openly bash the brownies, just make broad statements about their parenting instead).
Already stated they're often running for their lives, but lives mean nothing to THE LAW. Pfft.
The money available suggests there are plenty of options and opportunities to raise standards.
But not if an accountant is in charge. Contracters will buy sports cars from this, for the economy!
That's about all the bullshit I can stomach for one day. Good luck convincing people we're calling for open borders due to giving a shit.
Already stated they're often running for their lives
What all the way through three or four Central American states?
The dishonesty here is people saying these people should be able to illegally cross the border as 'migrants' and face no consequence. That is directly equivalent to an open border, just without anyone saying so.
Almost none of the children that we interviewed had come across the border themselves alone.
Essentially, they came across the border with family. And they are trying to be reunited with family who are living in the United States. Almost every child that I interviewed had family, parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, siblings here in the United States who are waiting for them and are ready to care for them.
Warren Binford:
You know, the goal for all of these children is eventually to place them with their family.
The facilities that you’re saying they’re supposed to be transferred to, those are not required by law. That’s just the way that the administration is doing it. These children can be placed with their families immediately, if we wanted to do that.
And so, basically, what we’re doing is, we’re taking children away from their family at the border. We’re putting them in inhumane conditions in Border Patrol facilities, where they shouldn’t be at all, not even for a few hours. And that 72 hours, that’s the maximum that someone is supposed to be kept there.
And the children are supposed to be moved through these facilities as expeditiously as possible.
Well that's a relief. Send them off to their families already legally in the USA and problem sorted.
Can you imagine any unintended consequences from this however?
The USA, like most other developed Western nations, has an ongoing problem with illegal immigration. And as Europe has discovered, the difference between refugees and economic migrants isn't always obvious. And the demand is essentially endless.
Dealing with this humanely is a terrible challenge; it goes well beyond Trump.
Carlos Slim has no relevance to an immigration debate for the US.
What matters is any policy that's different from Trump's approach.
The most developed one is that advanced by previous President Obama.
The first of those was the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.
To be eligible, applicants had to have arrived in the US before age 16 and have lived there since June 15, 2007. They could not have been older than 30 when the Department of Homeland Security enacted the policy in 2012. It was a deferral of action rather than a pathway to citizenship.
But the killing of Merrick Garland’s shot at the Supreme Court meant there wouldn't have been a majority in the Supreme Court to defend it, and then Trump actively killed it.
Democrats have this year passed the Dream and Promise Act that would provide a full pathway to citizenship for about one million undocumented migrants within the US. Most of them are Mexicans.
It was killed off by Republicans in majority in the Senate.
It most certainly would have been vetoed by Trump if it had got any further.
Major immigration reform that is more generous to central America would require, for a start:
– a hard liberal tilt to the Supreme Court (probably 3 retirements)
– a Democrat majority in both the House of Congress and the Senate
– a Democratic President
– top to bottom reform of ICE (which would take most of a term)
Not going to happen any time soon, in short.
And nor will the US allow strong UN scrutiny, to get amplified through the global media. They may be mean but they're not dumb.
If there's a Democrat strengthening in either Congress or Senate you might get some softening of enforcement. But otherwise liberal immigration policy is a knife through any campaign other than in the state of California.
But otherwise liberal immigration policy is a knife through any campaign other than in the state of California.
Exactly. You have to understand what you're up against before you stand a chance of fixing it. And the reason why this is, that the American working class, and increasingly their shrinking middle class, are not in the mood to be generous. People feeling under pressure, threat and insecurity themselves are much less likely to be open to more immigration.
Trump understood this perfectly, he understood the depth of betrayal felt towards the liberal elites and Democrats in particular. He exploited it mercilessly.
This is why it pisses me off when lefties sneer at Trump and underestimate how efficiently ruthless he has been. Hell we wasn't supposed to get past the first primaries, then he won them, then he won through to President, then he survived more the first year, then he wasn't going to survive Russiagate … and on and on. And still we whine about how unfair it all is.
Ad is on the money. Stop insulting the people who voted Trump, stop treating them as ignorant, racist rednecks, stop sneering at the 'flyover states' and win back their trust to the extent possible. Interestingly candidates like Andrew Yang are doing just this, going directly to the working class vote and talking to them intelligently.
In this day of precise tracking you would think there would have been a precise location for the downed drone. Within a few centimetres. Of course the USA would claim International waters but, but…
But, but.. dodgy as situation. Apparently the drone had been flying around for 4 hours sending back intel in real time before being taken out.
Apparently there was a second aircraft… but USA doesn't want to talk about it…
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Friday that a second manned US aircraft was flying close to the Navy RQ-4 Global Hawk that was downed, but said Iranian forces chose not to attack the plane as it carried about 35 crew. There has been no comment by the US about a second manned aircraft.
So Trump declines a military attack that would have killed scores of people over an unmanned drone and this blog cannot give him any credit for showing restraint. He clearly articulates proportionality and reason and the ostensibly anti-war left is silent on this display of discretion. Typical. You people need your Hitler and will not acknowledge any examples of behaviour that contradicts your Drumph is worse than Satan illusions.
Bleep, you are making shit up as you go along. And I think the people who were not killed would be pretty happy about it, no matter the stage of deployment.
well i am not sure when Trump was the last time 'cocked and loaded', someone should ask the Missus No 3 what she thinks about that, but that is what he said.
President Shartcannon said Friday morning that the United States military had been “cocked and loaded” for a strike against Iran on Thursday night, but that he called it off with 10 minutes to spare when a general told him that 150 people would probably die in the attack.
but then there are those that say the orange shart cannon does what Tucker says. Who knows?
then there are those that say that the orange shart cannon is a hostage taker and this is how he conducts business. He breaks a treaty cause Obama, then he complain about the non existent treaty, then he waves his papmache sabre and he commits other peoples children aka cannonfodder to fight , then i he pretend to be manly while announcing strikes, then he plays with his balls, and then he realises that he shat his pants and needs a diaper change. And now please world pay up and bend yer knee peasants cause he just saved the world from a war he is keen as fuck to start.
Yeah, lets all rain down yellow mellow accolades on the orange dipshit running the US. Cause we are all hostages now. right?
Note the trick being played here; the reader is assumed to be a nice good person, one of the "Us", while the bad people are othered as "Trump Supporters".
It's a transparent ploy and the use of it by Clinton (deplorables) is one of the reasons Trump won in the first place.
The reason why Trump won was the polarisation and uber-partisanship of the US electorate. Trump is an incompetent, narcissistic con-man; and many of the people who voted for him knew this to some degree. At least the handful I've spoken to first hand have said as much.
Yet they preferred to vote for him than Clinton, often against their obvious class interests.
Some of it will be an innate conservatism, some parts of the USA are not ready for a woman President, some of it will be racist, although at least some of the same people voted Obama.
It's my view the core reason is because the Democrats and Clinton had alienated them in their own homeland. The 'deplorables' comment was only the tip of a very deep iceberg of contempt and disrespect the coastal elites had dumped on them for several decades. The gutting of their economic life, the sneering condescension labeling their concerns and social conservatism as racist and misogynist, the constant exclusion and othering was the reason why Clinton lost the unlosable election.
Trump really is as blatant and manipulative as your link shows, he truly demonstrates that once a people lose respect for the truth, and lies become the common currency … then trust is destroyed. Without trust a nation fast descends into dysfunction.
So you didn't have time to watch the video. But you are smugly deflecting from it. Here's a quote from right near the end, as it is in relation to your video too:
"You can't have a great civilisation, without the men who built it."
LOLZ.
Hope they enjoy their beloved leader's environmental rollbacks. America will be a total shithole before they're grown. And that's without the climate change results of their 'great civilisation.'
Humans are cancer?
I've heard some of them are very fine people indeed.
When it comes to engineering and tech, I place high value on your input. Here, well, you are not a people person are you, unless the tie is right.
At one stage you say its the refugees (let's use the right term here) should take responsibility for the lack of human rights they receive. Because THE LAW.
Then, you say it's the left's fault for helping Trump into office.
??????????????
Then it clicked. AH! – this is the personal responsibility the right wing always go on and on about (if you say it often enough, it must be so).
Trump gets in, the left must take responsibility. Children get caged, the parents must take responsibility.
Not the people caging kids, nor the people voting Trump…
They get a free pass as being right wing they are obviously already very fine people indeed.
Here, well, you are not a people person are you, unless the tie is right.
I'm definitely not given to telling people what they want to hear; but then neither are you when it comes to it. You feel perfectly entitled to offend me and I've not objected to that.
At one stage you say its the refugees (let's use the right term here)
Anyone can claim to be a refugee, but it is up to the nation they are trying to enter to determine whether their claim to asylum is legitimate or not. (Or the UNHCR may be involved.) If you can think of an alternative arrangement I'm all ears.
Trump gets in, the left must take responsibility.
Giving Trump sole responsibility for winning however gives him way too much credit.
Children get caged, the parents must take responsibility.
So far the left has remained utterly silent on this point, as if it didn't exist at all. The obvious truth is that if these people had not involved their children, then none of them would be in this awful detention. General US policy is to avoid imprisoning children alongside their parents, as it has been successfully argued elsewhere this amounts to punishing them for crimes they are innocent of. Again this is not necessarily something Trump dreamed up just to be a nasty man.
But in wider terms yes, I've frequently argued that rights and responsibilities both complement and balance each other. Your rights almost by definition, entail my responsibility in some form. This is a very old line of thought common to all the major religions. No need to invoke some fleeting fad to explain it.
Link to anywhere I have said that I openly support Trump.
My argument is that the left, being so possessed of it's intellectual and moral superiority (which is virtually indistinguishable from racial superiority), totally underestimated Trump right from the outset. Right when he declared as a candidate he was treated as a joke; yet here we are four years later living with the consequences of this terrible mistake.
Trump is an awful President, he's utterly unfit for the office and arguably the worst they've ever had. The only thing worse is a regressive left utterly unwilling to acknowledge the role they played in putting him into power.
Isn't calling the US democrats "left" a bit of a stretch.
Trump, or almost anything but BAU, seemed a better alternative because the Democrats have abandoned the "left" and embraced the kleptocracy, just like the GOP.
I'd actually agree with that; and especially after the GFC it drove a deep cynicism through the entire US electorate toward the political establishment as a whole. Although it could not have been the sole cause, because if it was then as you say the GOP would have been equally if not more repugnant.
2016 was always going to be an outsider's election, wide open to a candidate who could connect directly with the electorate, bypassing the BAU Party messaging. It was either going to be someone principled like Sanders (who I supported strongly) or a populist like Trump.
oh dear. are you upset that your supporting of the inhumane treatment of children as little as 4 month old in trumps refugee concentration camps might makes other people think that you might be a closeted Trumpster?
For a start they are not Trump's concentration camps. They predate him by a long way.
For a second they are not concentration camps; comparing these detention centres with Nazi death camps is weak at best.
For a third nowhere do I support the children being in these places; they shouldn't be there.
The problem arises because the USA is now enforcing long standing law, detaining the parents of these children, and charging them for first time offenses. Just like you or I might be if we tried to enter the USA illegally. But because their children are not charged with a crime they are not permitted to be jailed together.
Unless you think the children should be returned to the border and set loose with no protection at all, or alternatively imprisoned with other adults and punished along with their parents, then inevitably the US authorities will have to house them somewhere until something can be sorted out for them.
It's a highly undesirable situation and everyone agrees on this.
but you could state that he is for once trhifty in re-purposing or re-opening the old concentration camps for japanese americans during the second world war.
: a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard —used especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners
: a concentration camp in which large numbers of prisoners are systematically killed
and generally speaking all the death camps that existed on this planet be they german or other all started as a concentration camp.
and i leave you with this – something smarter people then i said so well.
for evil to exist good man must do nothing
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny
and me thinks you doth protest much.
and last but least, it is legal in the US to come to a legal port of entry and claim asylum. Non of these people have broken the law by showing up at a border post claiming asylum. No matter how much you want to pretend and lie about them breaking the law.
and last but least, it is legal in the US to come to a legal port of entry and claim asylum.
True, but then again it is up to the host nation to decide how to then process you. Just claiming asylum is not an automatic free entry, totally bypassing normal immigration processes. If not then everyone could simply enter any nation by smiling broadly, say "Aslym" loudly and walk on past everyone else who have to produce legal things like passports and visas.
The USA has long had the policy of detaining anyone entering the country undocumented, whether they claim asylum or not, for very practical enforcement reasons. If they are not deemed to be legitimate asylum seekers then they are imprisoned for illegal immigration offenses. None of this is new, except that the Trump administration tightened up by charging first time offenders, thereby increasing the numbers substantially.
This is no defense of Trump. The story on the Mexican border has always been ugly, but like Russiagate, it's the wrong thing to attack him on.
you claim this is ‘not’ a defense of the shartcannon – yet you have done nothing but defended him and his children concentration camps and the abuses therein committed by the children concentration camp jailers.
This is no defense of Trump. The story on the Mexican border has always been ugly, but like Russiagate, it's the wrong thing to attack him .
No it is not wrong to attack him on what is the consequence of his government, the doing of his government, the consequence of his 'rhetoric' 'aka all Mexicans are rapists and murderers' (golden elevator and all), it is the consequence of the work his employees do, his acting Secretery of this and that, hiss underlings and his signature on any piece of toilet paper that he waves. (nothing he signs has any value what so ever, he will change his mind, think he did not get enough of a deal etc and will just wipe his arse with what ever he agreed too). It is correct to attack him as the buck stops with him. If in your prison 5 people would have died since December 2018 we would argue that a. you don't do your job and are responsible, or b. you do your job and it is your employer who is responsible, c. you do your job, see nothing wrong with the illegal orders and support and defend your employer – you choose, after all its your prison and your job. And in the US at least 5 kids have died in Trumps concentration camps for kids (two in december and three since)
as for the russian crap, never commented on it, never will. but yeah, nice try of deflection.
I still think you do protest much, and you are promoting human rights abuses on children as little as 4 month old cause 'law and order' and other assorted bullshit – even tho they have a legal right to do what they do, and you are flat out lying about their rights.. Go check your morality and above all go ask yourself whom would Jesus – the son of refugee seeking people, who left their country to protect their toddler son from the baby boy murdering hordes of King Herodes lock up in a camp without beds, 900 in a room fit for 125 and so on. Or maybe even better, go have a discussion with your priest/chaplain/preacher. Cause you seem to have lost something somewhere and that would be common decency.
Cause you seem to have lost something somewhere and that would be common decency.
It's a common mistake on the left to confuse loud virtue signalling with decency. It's also very common when you have no argument to make the attack personal. Every time we do that, we just broadcast our weakness and lack of effective solutions.
The question of undocumented migrants turning up at the Mexican border long predates Trump. Hell I've seen it for myself back in the 90's. For many years the numbers were not so large and the politicians ignored it for the most part. But as the years went by the cumulative impact became more apparent, and their rate of arrival grew. Along with serious drug and crime problems, it became an issue ripe for a populist like Trump to exploit. For him it was a low-hanging fruit waiting to fall.
Logically there are the following broad options for responding to this.
1. Total compassion. Everyone who turns up at the border claiming to be a refugee is granted automatic citizenship, free entry and as many ponies as they like. Very humane, very decent. Left wing purity compass screwed on tight.
2. Other extreme, build a wall and repel all boarders. Not very pretty but it does have the great merit of no children being held in custody. Although quite a few might die in the desert.
3. Middle path, detain them as they arrive and determine what to do with them. Some will be bona fide refugees and can be granted asylum, but it's not reasonable to think everyone who turns up will be.
In the meantime if the parents are held in custody for either processing or have been charged, then either you hold the children in the same prison with adults (which has it's own obvious risks) or you need to keep them relatively safe somewhere else until you can determine what to do with them on a case by case basis.
Obviously neither case is ideal, but my challenge to everyone here who thinks this is so very obvious… would YOU walk YOUR children over the USA/Mexican border undocumented, knowing all this will very likely happen to them?
You can argue unconstrained sympathy for their often desperate plight if you want, but that really amounts to reverting to Option 1, open border for anyone who claims asylum. It's not a bad choice, but then you have to convince the American people it's a good idea. They get to vote on it after all.
Logically there are the following broad options for responding to this.
1. Total compassion. Everyone who turns up at the border claiming to be a refugee is granted automatic citizenship, free entry and as many ponies as they like. Very humane, very decent. Left wing purity compass screwed on tight.
bullshit : People arrive at the border claim asylum. boarder patrol takes names, photos, copies of passports and send to processing. Maximum held time allowed currently: 76 hours. After this time a few things already can be established, i.e. any relatives in the country, and address/sponsor etc, any issues from the country of origin (i.e. criminal back ground check), families can be held together – mother /child, men / boys, women/girls until the holding times runs out and people are either a. deported, b. send ot relatives until a hearing is convened, c. get send to refugees organisations. (as was done under the previous republican and democratic presidencies, in fact Obama was taken to court in regards to family detention – but that was Obama and that is a different standard).
But you can also hold them in pens without beds, with lights on 24 hours, without blanket and with people dying and becoming ill with transmittable diseases and MAGA!
2. Other extreme, build a wall and repel all boarders. Not very pretty but it does have the great merit of no children being held in custody. Although quite a few might die in the desert.
Bullshit; Wall already exists and has been doing so for quite a few years. Many have already died, hence why you have do gooders leave water/food/maps etc in the desert for people to survive. Something that you can now be charged with a felony and up to 20 years in Prison. MAGA!
3. Middle path, detain them as they arrive and determine what to do with them. Some will be bona fide refugees and can be granted asylum, but it's not reasonable to think everyone who turns up will be.
Bullshit: Cause currently ALL who arrive are detained, have their children taken from them irrespective of age, are being separated from their children sometimes even deported without them as the jailers can't even be asked to run a proper ledger of the children they kidnap. Thus thousands in the system with no names to them, their relatives, anything. Two year old toddlers are notoriously bad at memorising adresses.
Never mind, you have spend many many words today defending the abuse of children under the guise of law and to be honest its just yuck.
And you have just spent many bolded letters proving you haven't read a word I said.
The USA does not routinely permit undocumented people entry into the country without detention. It's far too easy to just disappear in a large country; already there are many millions of undocumented people living in the USA and quite reasonably they don't want this situation to expand without limit.
Fact-checkers say that the only thing that has changed is the Justice Department's decision to criminally prosecute parents for a first-time border crossing offence. Because their children are not charged with a crime, they are not permitted to be jailed together.
Under a 1997 court decision known as the Flores settlement, children who come to the US alone are required to be released to their parents, an adult relative, or other caretaker.
If those options are all exhausted, then the government must find the "least restrictive" setting for the child "without unnecessary delay".
The case initially applied to unaccompanied child arrivals, but a 2016 court decision expanded it to include children brought with their parents.
According to the New York Times, the government has three options under the Flores settlement – release whole families together, pass a law to allow for families to be detained together, or break up families.
The first option of releasing whole families together is not going to mean free entry to the USA, it will mean deportation back over the border. Where experience informs everyone that they will attempt to recross and hope to evade border controls as millions have done before them.
The second option of detaining families together is reasonable if you have the facilities to manage it properly. However putting children into adult prisons is a fraught exercise in it's own right, and is currently not legal.
The third option is what they have defaulted to out of sheer political gridlock. Given the increasing numbers involved, this was always going to be ugly, and the current regime has no political motivation to do a competent job of it. I'm certainly not defending the mess. No other nation separates families like this and it arises because the Federal govt has become incapable of making rational decisions. The hyper-partisanship of Washington breeds fuckups like this.
Such is the noise that it’s hard not to think that it’s more important to some liberal activists to use these children’s plight to bash Trump, than to achieve a humane outcome for them.
But as I keep pointing out, short of effectively opening the border to all comers and making the problem go away … the USA by itself has no good solutions to the problem of tens of thousands of people wanting to migrate to the better life it offers. This problem is way bigger than Trump and his incompetence.
Seeing as you are so close to the President of the United States, and seeing he is a wonderful wonderful person, could you ask the President to return the children he has separated from their parents?
I know it could only have been for the betterment of the President, but separating them from their parents forever is not what Nature intends.
Do You and Mrs fustercluck do the separations on behalf of the President? Take some of the work load off him ?
Could you give me the name of the most recent child that you separated from its parent? Or have you never given the separated kids a name?
There is abundant human trafficking, including children being sold for sex and child pornography happening all over the USA southern border. It is simple child welfare practice to take steps to protect kids and obtain evidence that those adults with whom they are apprehended committing a felony (unlawful crossing of an international border) are actually their parents or guardians and actually have their best interests at least somewhat in mind.
The entire "Trump is separating families" canard is bullshit. If you were on the USA southern border, facing drug cartels, human smugglers, a catastrophic level of rape, murder, etc., you would as a matter of first priority take all kids to a safe place and try to figure out what is going on with them and why they were being dragged across a border. To suggest otherwise is simply stupid. Or perhaps an endorsement of the pedophiles who seek to exploit at least some of these vulnerable kids.
If Obama did it too it makes it all worse, not better.
Both Favreau and Muñoz argued that the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border is different from the Obama administration’s handling of unaccompanied children.
“This policy is new, cruel, and unprecedented,” Favreau tweeted. “It was not an Obama policy. It was not a Bush policy. It was not a Clinton policy. That is a fact. And that is what all of us – Democrats and Republicans – should want changed as soon as humanly possible.”
Yes – I am aware that as you say lots of kids don't get far. They get blasted off the face of the planet.
America and Britain are good at killing women and children. They obviously are the kings of queens of death. They train very hard to be the best Killers.
But as you say, Every one does it, so why not Mr trump and Mrs Trump. It's a good thing to murder kids. After all Americans and English people are civilised. They have the right to do anything to anyone at any time.
I am glad the Asians are getting their act together so well. Trump knows he can't match them. And that will save a few lives.
I said that it is reasonable to separate kids from the adults they illegally cross an international border with, especially given the human trafficking, drug smuggling, rape and murder that are rampant along the USA southern border.
You go off on a tangent about blasting and killing kids.
I think we can all agree that killing kids is not good.
I think we can also agree that blindly leaving kids with cartels, smugglers and rapists is to be avoided too. Hence, law enforcement must separate the kids from the adults until facts are ascertained.
Do you disagree with doing this?
I suppose you support leaving kids with pedophiles, human traffickers, and the like?
Yeah! Much better to kidnap them, then take them to the camps where they can be sexually abused in peace.
WASHINGTON — Thousands of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment of migrant children in government-funded shelters were made over the past four years, including scores directed against adult staff members, according to federal data released Tuesday.
The cases include allegations of inappropriate touching, staff members allegedly watching minors while they bathed and showing pornographic videos to minors. Some of the allegations included inappropriate conduct by minors in shelters against other minors, as well as by staff members.
Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., released the Health and Human Services Department data during a hearing on the Trump administration’s policy of family separations at the border. The data span both the Obama and Trump administrations. The figures were first reported by Axios.
From October 2014 to July 2018, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a part of Health and Human Services, received 4,556 complaints. The Department of Justice received an additional 1,303 complaints, including 178 allegations of sexual abuse by adult staff.
trumps narrative on the surface appears like he is the good guy….. didn't attack because 150 people would have been killed. A lovely rhetoric in his election cycle.
However his apparent provocation towards war as per his current military movements in said zone speaks a different story. War kills more than 150 people and USA military movements appear to be encouraging war by baiting Iran.
His behaviour is of interest, but not praise worthy until more facts are revealed. This is due to his outstanding record of lies.
EDIT
So I just googled ‘trump lies’ and look what came up, article is 7 hours old and via Washington Post, link below…
Yes – Trump has done the right thing for now. And ideally someone can get in his ear and persuade him to sack Bolton and Pompeo who have cooked up this pack of lies. The problem with Trump though is that there is a sense that anything good he does is inadvertent – and will be followed by something terrible a day later.
I assume that he remembers what his base wants (no new wars) and that he promised them that in 2016. If Trump can spin himself as the guy who avoided war with Iran (after nearly provoking it the first place, though he won't mention that) then he is going to get a bump in support. And in fact – if that was his strategy all along, then he may actually be the 'stable genius' he claims to be.
There was similar lefty outrage over the raised Mexican tariffs, yet that has prompted Mexico to help with the migration issue and work towards solving the problem.
The so-called "new" initiatives had been agreed between The US and Mexico weeks previously. There was nothing new in it. That has been reported by numerous sources, and was evidenced by the piece of paper Trump held in his hand during an interview.
President Trump has claimed for two days that he secured a secret immigration deal with Mexico — beyond the one announced Friday. But the White House has declined to disclose any details, and Mexico has denied it. Confronted with understandable skepticism that such a deal exists, Trump produced a folded piece of paper from his breast pocket Tuesday.
And a particularly good photographer, The Washington Post’s Jabin Botsford, snapped an image that reveals some of the document’s contents. That image allows us to glean some clues. …
Essential the analysis is that this whole “Secret Agreement with Mexico” thing is just another giant helping of word salad from Trump.
So did Trump get the deal done or not? Sounds like he did.
As Mexico races to slash Central American migrant numbers by a July 22 deadline to satisfy demands by US president Donald Trump and stave off future tariff threats, Mr López Obrador, who is to meet his Salvadoran counterpart Nayib Bukele in Tapachula near the Mexico-Guatemalan border on Thursday, is facing a political backlash even from allies over his government’s handling of the crisis.
No he didn't get the deal done! It was already in existence before he threatened the tariffs. That's the whole point. It is just another example of how he perverts the truth. Like in the latest example of this air strike he called off. First he sets up the threat – then he backs off – but always the result was a foregone conclusion. He is simply playing to his base who, then think he is a marvel. Most Americans see through him now, and are growing tired of his antics.
Still it highlights the obvious fact that Mexico has been playing these refugees off against the USA. Most are fleeing violence and poverty in Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and staying, for many, could mean a death sentence.
Yet the obvious question arises, why is Mexico exempt from providing a safe haven for them? While it is a country with many problems of it's own, objectively it has a Human Development Index that's mid-range, and is capable of safely absorbing a considerable refugee influx. Yet for some reason most seem to want to make the arduous and dangerous trek with their children, the length of Mexico to the USA. If a simple fear for their lives was their primary motivation, this makes no sense.
The USA has every reason to think many refugees are primarily economic migrants, and that claiming asylum is simply a way to bypass normal legal migration.
Again I'm not diminishing the many complex and difficult stories that most refugees will have. Life in most developing countries, while improving generally, is still way harder than we are accustomed to in the developed world, and the very human motivation to move somewhere better is totally understandable.
Mass migration, like climate change, is a challenge no single nation is equipped to solve. Yes the Trump regime will make an ugly hash of it like it does pretty much everything else; what I object to is the left exploiting the misery of these people primarily to score points against Trump, rather than asking ourselves some hard questions about the issue in the whole.
Don't imagine for one minute that you speak on my behalf or understand my motivations. You show a distinct lack of understanding of any nuance that doesn't suit your globalist white is right fantasies.
"To score points against Trump." Yeah, cos that's all it is.
You also do not speak for the US, delusional to think you do:
"The USA has every reason to think many refugees are primarily economic migrants, and that claiming asylum is simply a way to bypass normal legal migration"
There will always be people trying to rort the system. Like you (and certain criminal administration) using economic migrants to hide behind.
So now the children have to deal with inhumane conditions, lack of rights, parental separation, assault, rape, deaths…
And you are OK with this but backtracked a bit now claiming you care – but the law, but the economic migrants, but the drug smugglers, what would you do, what's your plan… and on and on it goes.
Somehow, in your mind, they had it coming? You can't retract your poison it's printed here in black and white, screeds of it – 'reasonable' garbage:
"What did they expect if they illegally…"
Human rights, that's what I'd expect people to expect.
You show a distinct lack of understanding of any nuance that doesn't suit your globalist white is right fantasies.
Where did you get that particular piece of racist drivel from? Because I refuse to buy into the Universal White Guilt pogram the authoritarian collectivists insist is the only legitimate form of left wing expression allowed to white people.
Unsubstantiated allegations being the staple diet of authoritarians everywhere, why am I not surprised.
"What did they expect if they illegally…"
There is every reason to argue that a large fraction of the refugees arriving at the US/Mexican border are primarily economic. There is little reason to think they 'fled all the way through Mexico in fear of their lives'. (Or if they did, then exactly what the hell is wrong with Mexico and why are they not being held to account?)
Therefore entering into the USA undocumented is a choice they have made, and unlike you I still believe in the old fashioned idea that individuals are at least to some degree responsible for their actions.
My crime it appears is that I hold all cultures and ethnic groups equal; of equal dignity and value. While at the same time valuing individual differences and diversity as a strength.
By contrast the authoritarian collectivists teach a doctrine that erases the individual and recognises people merely as members of a group. In this case I'm allocated as white, male, privileged and oppressor. And then insists my only legitimate response is one of guilt and contrition. This is bullshit, I refuse to be nothing more than an avatar for my group interests.
And is precisely why I annoy some people here so much. I have my own voice, my own experience and my own truth that I will speak to without fear.
As for my 'unsubstantiated allegations' … I made a reasonable case as to why most refugees at the US/Mexican border are probably economic in nature. Unless you can show these people were chased the length of Mexico by gun toting criminals, they cannot be said to be 'fleeing for their lives'. They may well be fleeing chronic poverty, violence and dysfunctional government in the homeland, but once they got to Mexico what is their pressing motivation to try to enter the USA? It's economic.
You accuse me of a lack of nuance, why then is the left silent on this?
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are, by all accounts, countries ravaged by gang violence, drug trafficking and extreme poverty. It’s these elements that have driven wave after wave of illegal immigration to the U.S., drawing the ire of President Donald Trump.
And yet the bond market views the nations — especially the first two — as stable, almost safe, investments. In some cases, they can borrow at similar rates to regional powerhouses Brazil and Mexico.
It’s an odd thing, almost improbable sounding. And it reveals a surprising truth about these countries: They all have rock-solid fiscal accounts.
How’s that possible in such destitute places? Because, it turns out, they earmark precious little money to basic social programs. Not only does this save them cash, allowing them to hold down their budget deficits, but it has the effect of encouraging the poor — those who would benefit the most from greater outlays for healthcare or housing — to emigrate.
This in turn has an added advantage for these nations: The migrants send growing quantities of dollars to their families back home, generating a steady flow of hard currency that is a central pillar of their economies. (For some perspective, their value is roughly 30 times greater than the aid money that a frustrated Trump pulled from the countries this week.)
When all of these elements are stitched together and viewed holistically, it can appear as if the economic model these governments have adopted is one based on exporting people. That might be an over-simplification — and it may not be the governments’ intent — but it is the net effect of the policy mix, according to longtime observers of the region.
Do Brown people's titles not count? Why do you have one you sound mighty white.
Seems some self important Americans spinning shit as usual. Dare I now open it finding two counts of bias (prejudice?) in the excerpt…
Financial Times wants money for this drivel. I guess if you're a wank banker type you'd want some self reinforcement after a hard days trading and twerking.
This whole 'Trump the humanitarian' story is probably BS. It's more likely the drone was within Iranian airspace anyway and this is Trump's way out and get some brownie points. Yes, I know this interpretation is just as likely/unlikely as any other. The first casualty in war is truth.
House sold in 2011 for $7.55m sold 7 years later for $6.9m. A 8.6% decrease, whilst over the same time period houses increased by 100% 🤫
The wife of former ANZ New Zealand boss David Hisco bought the couple's Auckland family home from her husband's employer for substantially less than its capital valuation in 2017.
Deborah Walsh paid $6.9 million in July of that year for the lavish St Heliers property, less than the $7.55m ANZ paid when it bought the house in early 2011.
All attempts at education are still experiments to my mind.. But the whackiest and silliest experiment would be the voucher system as proposed by Silly Seymore of the ACT party.
Market forces are blind, and cause almighty crashes. We should not be crashing any schools ever. There are kids in those schools.
Even that rubbishy argument "one size does not fit all" that the Charter schools used is silly: this particular school shows that central control is needed to limit risk. Experimentation should be done within the state system, with safety nets.
It would be wonderful if our Ministry of Education evaluated carefully what works, researched the same thing overseas, and proposed worthwhile policies. Instead, the Ministry seems intent upon covering the backsides of whatever educationally illiterate Govt is pushing bloody stupid policies at the time.
Sensible Sentencing Policy – Before being sent to Parliament politicians prior to elections shall have done a one year entry course covering philosophy of democracy and how to problem solve and critical analysis, and a few other things. Then three terms and they are ejected out of the cannon into a nice safety net like all prisoners should have.
I have been looking for basic details on the NZIFF website and bring you the fruit of my peregrinations! This was list of dates and places late in 2018. My note: May be subject to changes so check, but for Auckland is right.)
NZIFF is run by a charitable trust and encourages lively interactions between films, filmmakers and New Zealand audiences in 13 towns and cities around the country. The dates confirmed for NZIFF 2019 are:
Auckland, Thursday 18 July – Sunday 4 August 2019
Wellington, Friday 26 July – Sunday 11 August 2019
Dunedin, Thursday 1 August 2019 – Sunday 18 August 2019
Nelson, Wednesday 7 August 2019 – Wednesday 28 August 2019
Christchurch, Thursday 8 August 2019 – Sunday 25 August 2019
Gore, Thursday 15 August 2019 – Sunday 25 August 2019
Timaru, Thursday 15 August 2019 – Sunday 25 August 2019
Hamilton, Wednesday 21 August 2019 – Wednesday 18 September 2019
Palmerston North, Thursday 22 August 2019 – Sunday 8 September 2019
Tauranga, Thursday 22 August 2019 – Sunday 15 September 2019
Masterton, Wednesday 28 August 2019 – Wednesday 11 September 2019
Hawke's Bay, Thursday 29 August 2019 – Sunday 15 September 2019
New Plymouth, Thursday 29 August 201 – Sunday 15 September 2019
NZIFF – International Film Festival
Wellington dates 26 July – 11 August
I can't find any further information about date and have run out of time.
Helen Kelly – Together.
Correction: the printed NZIFF 2019 programme indicates ‘Helly Kelly – Together’ as receiving its World Premiere in Auckland. Its World Premiere is in Wellington.
I want people just to be kind. It would make a hell of a difference.
Parliament Act 1911
The result was the Parliament Act 1911, which removed from the House of Lords the power to veto a Bill, except one to extend the lifetime of a Parliament. Instead, the Lords could delay a Bill by up to two years. The Act also reduced the maximum lifespan of a Parliament from seven years to five years.
then
Parliament Act 1949
The Parliament Act 1949 further reduced the Lords' delaying powers to one year.
This Bill was under the Parliament Act group: European Parliament Elections Act 1999
(so surely any EU matter would come under Parliament Act rules?)
This matter could be affected by the House of Commons Library briefings referred to at the end of the link page.
honestly why would the EU give them anymore time then they already did?
Why? Because England can't get its act together and do what they said they would / want to do? Exit.
I mean how much more meaningful discussion does the EU owe to England (leaving our Ireland and Scotland on purpose here) and the Tories as they are the ones that actually can't get their shit together?
Or is that a case of entitlement of 'i want all the benefits/privileges but non of the shared burden" ?
i should have been more precise, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland.
And i haven o idea what you are talking about re Corbyn. He is the leader of the labour party and is absolutely inconsequential and does not currently run the government. So yeah, not sure what you are on about.
It's still Northern Ireland. The republic isn't part of the UK. NI is.
And you wrote
the Tories as they are the ones that actually can't get their shit together?
Well, to be fair, labour have been all over the place on this too, and would, if in government, be equally as fractured over brexit as the tories are, perhaps more seeing most back benchers and party members are pro remain, despite some traditional areas voting to leave.
Anything else you need clarification on? Like using ‘then’ instead of ‘than’, for example?
i was leaving out Republic of Ireland – part of the EU and staying, and Scotland who is wondering about holding another referendum of independence so to be able to join the European Union. They are not the ones responsible for the current mess that is 'great britain' and the great embuggerance that is brexit and tory leadership.
"This great Brexit outsourcing calamity has turned us all into semi-informed pundits, required to have a clear view on issues that are complicated, mysterious and unknowable. It’s like being trapped at a three-year-long dinner party with guests you don’t know or particularly like. We’re all thoroughly fed up with it and want to go home. Except that our former home seems impossibly out of reach."
The EU might feel like kicking UK but its a destabilising thing to have them leaving. What the EU could do is look at what to do to make it more relevant to the various countries and reduce Greeces austerity etc and keep the EU strong – it is as near to sanity as any large bloc of countries and we need some sanity.
and you do remeber that the EU is not a single person/country but a group of people and countries of which England voted to not be part anymore.
so frankly, it is time for England to carry the consequences of its action, as a reminder that voting has indeed consequences.
so frankly the only ones i pity are those under 40 …..but the rest? Will have to learn to live with Tory England and all its english grown, invented, made into law austerity that over the last few years has killed so many.
joe90 posted a link further down that is very informative. If you click through and explore the map showing all the ties it is a very illuminating depiction of the fossil fuel industry supported by Trump admin and various other players (PR, media, nationalist parties…) interference pushing for Brexit on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.
And then – a big carve up on whatever public utilities they can get hold of: a typical disaster capitalist MO.
Honouring the unheralded bravery of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in the ‘Battle of Long Tan’, one of the most savage and decisive engagements in ANZAC history, director Kriv Stenders’ film is a war story of uncommon emotional intensity. Daunting combat scenes recall the against-the-odds bravado of Lone Survivor and Black Hawk Down, but it is the internal fight of the men outnumbered – and how they chose to define heroism in the moment – that resonates loudest of all.
“On 18 August 1966, for three and a half hours in a rubber plantation called Long Tan, Major Harry Smith and his inexperienced company, of mainly conscripts, fought for their lives against 2,500 seasoned Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. With their ammunition running out, casualties mounting, and the enemy massing for a final assault, each man searches for the strength to go forward with honour, decency and courage. A tremendous cast… bring the battle and each soldiers’ heroism vividly to life. Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan is the important story of men caught up in a politically unpopular war, whose courage has long been under-acknowledged.” — Sydney Film Festival
Cheers for the link Grey, I got an email from my local RSL saying its hitting the screen here in Darwin. I hope to see this one on the big screen as I missed seeing 6 Days on the big screen.
I see the ockers keep referring to the OC of D Coy 6RAR, old Harry Smith as the hero of Long Tan. But if you ever read the books on the of Long Tan or watch a few interviews, Harry would say it was the 3 Kiwi's (Willie Walker RNZAC, Murray Broomhall and Capt Maurice Stanley both RNZA that made up his FO party at Coy HQ and his CSM Jack Kirby that made his job a lot more easy to do. Capt Stanley use to a speaking tour once a yr around the major NZ Army bases until he passed away a few yrs ago and talking about what happen on that day. There are a lot of unsung hero's that not only in D Co, but also those back a Nui Dat which had only been est a few mths early after their from Bien Hoa Airbase on the other side of Saigon.
The BC, Major Harry Horner for 161Bty pretty much ran the whole Fire Support for D Coy out of 161 Bty HQ even his aussie CO move in to oversee the him and pretty much left him to get on with the job of running 18 guns plus the Yank 155mm Bty of 4 or 6 guns and Air Support and he making sure the gunners didn't run out of ammo which they almost did at one time. In which yanks started to fly it in by the truck load as it got very despite to a point, I believe yanks even offer B52 bombers which was politely turned down as the troops were like 50-100m apart which the yanks couldn't believe at the time.
Those not involve were running crates (2per crate) of 105mm rounds to the gunline either from the shell dump and later from the LZ's dotted around the Dat. Heck even two very NZ officials one a civvie and the other was the senior NZ officer in South Vietnam (both old Gunners from WW2) tour around 161's lines at the time muck in to move the rounds.
Little Pattie was having her rock concert at the time and she was and she about 1 as the first rds went down range and the first 18 gun fire mission went down range, she remembered seeing people getting very calmly garb their gear buggering off and the fourth or sixth 18 gun fire mission she had stuff all punters left. By that time someone decide to get her and I think Col Joy out of the Dat and to Vung Tau. She recalls looking out of the Huey seeing the whole of the Dat in a flash of red as all the guns were firing by that stage non stop and think am I ever going to see the boys again as she thought that Nui Dat was under attack at that time. Only to realise sometime later that the guns were supporting D Coy who were in a lot of trouble at the time.
The Battle of Long Tan pretty much broke the back of VC/NVA forces Phuoc Tuy and with skills that the Australians and Kiwis learnt from their time in Malaya and Borneo almost of all Phuoc Tuy (about 90-95%) was a not go area with very much reduce operations until the ANZAC's left in 71-72 as they realise these guys weren't like the yanks nor fought like them either.
On my last trip to Phuoc Tuy, I managed to a chat to a few ex VC/ NVA vets when their minders weren't present as the Government doesn't like talking about ANZAC's activities in Phuoc Tuy because of Long Tan. The local vets have a lot of time for the Aussies and Kiwi's soldiers and I also manage to get some range time as well shooting a few rifles and MG's with me knocking all the tgts over including their version of a Jungle lane with them acting as Range safety. Turning around to them they had a nod and smile, but I didn't also I realise had a peanut galley following as well watch me shoot etc apparently they were giving the young lads and ladies a lesson on how to move and shot in the Jungle. As these westerners from Australia and New Zealand know how to live and fight in the jungle and you want them on your side not the other way. As one of youngers ask why is the frang shooting etc.
The Battle of Long Tan by Lex McAulay is a good read along with Harry Smith's Book is another good read and there is one other which I don't have on the Battle of Long Tan.
Maire Leadbeater is an indefatigable campaigner in solidarity with the struggle for freedom by oppressed peoples in the Pacific.
Her new book, 'See No Evil', is on the struggle in West Papua and really should be read by anyone/everyone in this country concerned with human rights and freedom.
Thanks for the post the Phillip, as I had a read of it last night when I couldn't sleep (bloody nightmares from Peacekeeping) and I wouldn't mind buying the book as I last yr spent my sick leave prior to my medical discharge at the chief library in the NT Government buildings reading about West Papua, East Timor and ANZUK Forces in SEA.
But until the various left wing unions, organisations, political parties and individuals from Australia and NZ that give active and moral support to President Sukarno, and to his Communist Party apologise in supporting President Sukarno and his actions in West Papua after the Dutch were booted out in some rather dodgy events by the UN and by the Yanks.
From the evidence I've seen the yanks pretty much forced Brits, Dutch and Australians hands over West Papua which in turn meant that NZ really had no choice in the matter but full in as they couldn't do SFA about it from a diplomatic or military POV. Just like ET in 1975 when old Bill Rowling had to after he had put the NZ Armed Forces in Standby and then cancel the Standby alert ass the Brits and Australia did SFA about it and no doubt the Yanks had a hand in it as well.
I have always consider Marie to a be the smartest one from her family unlike her idiot brother Keith who couldn't make a Peacekeepers asshole no matter how hard he tried to be one, or both of her parents after what happen in Blackball in the 30's and the fact that she had that crazy pom (just read his RN service records aka FAA and Dolphins he is mad as a cut snake) as a partner in crime but a top bloke as well. But it was her comments during and after INTERFET that she realise the need to have well trained and well equipment combat forces for Peacekeeping/ Peace Enforcement missions such INTERFET was in the end a Chapter 6 1/2 mission on NZ's door step. I finally thought had that they would now fully understand the need for such people like me, my cousin in the NZ Army at the time with NZBATT1, all my mates in the NZDF at time of ET and Lenny's death in ET wasn't in vain after all.
More Shock and Horror from the maniacal world of Trumpland.
Trump Administration Plans to Reclassify High-Level Radioactive Waste as Low-Risk
The Trump administration is planning to reclassify high-level radioactive waste as low-risk, in a bid to cut as much as $40 billion from cleanup costs at nuclear weapons production sites around the U.S. A top Energy Department official called the proposal a “responsible, results-driven solution” to the problem of nuclear waste disposal. The move was condemned by environmentalists and scientists who say the waste needs to be contained in facilities deep underground. In a statement, the Natural Resources Defense Council said, “The Trump administration is moving to fundamentally alter more than 50 years of national consensus on how the most toxic and radioactive waste in the world is managed and ultimately disposed of.”
“If there’s a new regulation, they have to knock out two. But it goes far beyond that, we’re cutting regulations massively for small business and for large business,” Trump said during the signing of the order, while surrounded by small-business leaders.
and caring about the environment is for suckers and besides humans are not either a profit centre (kids in cages is good business) or a cost centre (army veterans that need medical care or housing).
Yeah the mayhem that f**king vandal is causing is just simply tragic. The EPA – which was actually established under Nixon's presidency (which I always find hugely ironic). Now under Trump's two grievous Secretary appointments (Pruitt and now Wheeler) the EPA has been reduced to a shell, and rubber stamps anything and everything industry wants. All references to climate change have been removed from their website and experienced researchers have been dispersed to the winds.
Just the other day the EPA approved the release (and application) of a pesticide that is highly toxic to bees.
Reading about the sleazy invaders from the UK who trailed trash everywhere they went, spoiled their food when they had eaten most of it and then declared it contaminated and refused to pay, stole anything they wanted, and created mayhem – (now we know how Maori felt prior to signing the Treaty) – there is a feeling of foreboding and horrified fascination reading about the further misadventures of the Dorans now they are back 'home'.
This link is about the Dorans: Irish travellers who have invaded a once quiet hamlet in the area of Wychavon District Council, Worcestershire, England.
Last line of article: 'Have we really reached the stage where one family can hold a village to ransom for £600,000 and still have the law on their side?'
I don't know about the priorities of UK Councils. I read a while ago about the banning of a design on a headstone for a dedicated snooker? player having his hobby pictured on his gravestone at the public cemetery. Whether they can handle out-of-society family gangs is unclear.
New evidence reveals how a tightly concentrated global network of politicians and corporations with close ties to the Trump administration is working on behalf of powerful US fossil fuel interests in Britain and Europe.
Several candidates who were in the running to become the next British Prime Minister — Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, and Steve Baker — are part of this pro-Trump network.
The evidence comes thanks to a network map produced by independent investigative media outlet DeSmog UK, exposing for the first time the astonishing array of connections between President Donald Trump, right-wing lobbies in the US, and far-right parties in the UK and Europe.
Published after a leaked recording showed US secretary of state Mike Pompeo threatening to interfere in British democracy to block opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, the map unveils the extent to which US corporate lobbies with a direct line to senior Trump officials are backing both mainstream British politicians and European far-right extremists.
That behind the scenes network seems to connect to a comment put up yesterday alleging widespread corruption in high places in the UK and presenting information to prove – I can't find it in TS now so will put up the link again.
Republican law makers awol and heading to the hills:
Oregon Republicans are on the lam to avoid voting on a major climate change bill
“Send bachelors and come heavily armed,” one Republican state senator warned police.
Twelve Oregon Republican lawmakers are on the run from the law, having fled the state Senate in Salem on Thursday to deny quorum for a vote on a major climate change bill. The legislation would establish a statewide cap-and-trade scheme for carbon dioxide.
Democratic Gov. Kate Brown authorized state police to find the lawmakers and bring them back. They are each being fined $500 for every day there aren’t enough senators for a vote. (So far, it’s been two days.) Oregon State Police said they are also coordinating with law enforcement agencies in nearby states to find the Republicans.
Brown lamented the stunt to avoid passing the bill. “It would have been historic for Oregon, historic for the country, and frankly historic for the world,” she said during a press conference Thursday. “Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have failed to show up and failed to do their jobs.”
I've just spent most of the past hour on what is best described as a conference call with somewhere in Californ I Aye – customers taking advantage of a 7-11.
How far removed in terms of a daily life from Trump's America.
What did become evident however is that lil 'ole NuZull remains ( just as it always has ) as the pimple on the arse end of the Whurl if and whenever the shit hits the fan.
I don't think there is a spiritual hell – it is with us now and when we die we shall be free. It is not ISIS that is at fault, it is the male accession to violence and desire to in control and be powerful. And it is a mark of weakness and desperation and hollowness that kills.
I was hoping to search my comments but I got 'nothing'.
So I thought that didn't work, I'll try it in reverse, so I entered 'nothing' but didn't get any of me, just about 50 nothings. So there are some spare if someone needs some nothing.
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – The Trump administration argued in front of a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells, despite a settlement agreement that requires detainees be kept in “safe and sanitary” facilities.
All three judges appeared incredulous during the hearing in San Francisco, in which the Trump administration challenged previous legal findings that it is violating a landmark class action settlement by mistreating undocumented immigrant children at U.S. detention facilities.
“You’re really going to stand up and tell us that being able to sleep isn’t a question of safe and sanitary conditions?'” U.S. Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon asked the Justice Department’s Sarah Fabian Tuesday.
Multiple times a month, U.S. Border Patrol arrives at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson with “noticeably pregnant women,” according to an OB-GYN resident who works there. The hospital’s obstetric triage department is essentially an emergency room for pregnant people, and officers with the federal immigration agency regularly bring in newly apprehended pregnant migrants for medical evaluations. Once the hospital visit nears its end, multiple health-care providers have said Border Patrol “pressures” them to provide a “cleared for detention letter.”
[…]
The health-care providers confirmed that the obstetric triage department is not the only unit receiving Border Patrol’s request for letters clearing migrants for detention. Staff working in the trauma department and the hospital’s emergency room have also received these requests to “clear” migrants for detention who were experiencing health emergencies like renal failure.
“At least once a week a doctor is writing one of these letters,” Varner said. “People come to us in such bad shape, like 45-year-old men in [immigration] custody who are dying from the flu, but Border Patrol is still at the hospital asking for a letter clearing them for detention.”
Of course these kids have no one to blame but themselves for breaking the law, eh^^.
/
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1142210733020712960 A chaotic scene of sickness and filth is unfolding in an overcrowded border station in Clint, Tex., where hundreds of young people who have recently crossed the border are being held, according to lawyers who visited the facility this week. Some of the children have been there for nearly a month.
Children as young as 7 and 8, many of them wearing clothes caked with snot and tears, are caring for infants they’ve just met, the lawyers said. Toddlers without diapers are relieving themselves in their pants. Teenage mothers are wearing clothes stained with breast milk.
Most of the young detainees have not been able to shower or wash their clothes since they arrived at the facility, those who visited said. They have no access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or soap.
“There is a stench,” said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, one of the lawyers who visited the facility. “The overwhelming majority of children have not bathed since they crossed the border.”
Hisco successfully managed the merger [with National Bank] with barely a blip in customer service and market share. He also quietly presided over a reduction in ANZ's exposure to dangerous dairy loans, flicking on some of the weakest lenders to other banks. For example, ANZ let Allan Crafar move his more than $200 million of loans to Westpac before the poorly managed farming group collapsed under a welter of animal mistreatment allegations and effluent treatment fines. Westpac suffered heavy losses in the subsequent receivership and sale of Crafar Farms….
A much less intrusive and public inquiry into bank conduct and culture here by the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank found the big four in New Zealand had better cultures than Australia, despite some breaches, but it failed to name and shame any culprits. Effectively, the banks here got off light.
However, the veil was beginning to slip in recent months, particularly around ANZ. The Reserve Bank announced in mid-May it had discovered ANZ had not been using the correct model for calculating its own capital for five years, apparently due to an internal oversight. This came at the same time as the Reserve Bank was proposing banks effectively double their capital reserves at a cost of more than $20 billion. The Reserve Bank immediately ordered ANZ to increase its capital by $285 million to $760 million….
Hisco has always appeared a gregarious and robust character when I've interviewed him. He was popular inside the bank and widely recognised as the head of New Zealand's banking scene, rivaled only perhaps by the Reserve Bank Governor. ANZ is also enormous, relative to the size of the New Zealand economy. Its loans and capital are worth $163 billion, or just over half of New Zealand's GDP. ANZ produces almost $2 billion of profit each year, making it New Zealand's most profitable entity and its biggest private company…
Key said yesterday a relatively junior staffer was responsible for the model failure. Quite rightly, the Reserve Bank would question why the chief executive and the chairman did not know.
Key's removal of Hisco was the least he could do to protect the bank, to show leadership for the big four banks' reputations here, and to protect his own position, especially in the eyes of the ANZ group board, which he is a member of.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
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Won't someone please start a GoFuckYou page for Israel Folau.
Agreed 100%, the whiney little Neanderthal should have stuck to gripping the pig-skin and left the thinking and talking to the adults.
It's the prolate spheroid used in American football—which, bizarrely, is hardly ever kicked—that is (colloquially) called "the pigskin." Nobody ever calls the footballs kicked—not "gripped"— by Folau and his confreres a "pigskin."
Thank you for the lesson, however I couldn’t give a "flying football" about the technical terms of the game. I obviously picked up the term from too much time in the States and you knew immediately what the reference was to, so all’s good.
Good on you, RBO! Have a good Saturday. (I share your sentiments about Folau and his bigoted friends by the way.)
Cheers Morrissey, the gastronomical delights of the Kaitaia Market await. The happiest of days to you too.
It's Pigskin's Lament.
That'd be an interesting concept when a good many of Israel''s contemporaries judge 'gayness' on the basis of whether or not they're a "top' or a 'bottom'.
It's also a good enough explanation as to how one or two from Destiny's Church that once marched along Lambton Quay in black T-shirts could justify their hypocrisy.
Fuckers .v. Fuckees
I think there are plenty more people who deserve a ' GoFuckYou page' rather than Folau.
The guy is obviously a screw up, indoctrinated from birth by a fucked up guilt driven religion, obviously completely under the thumb of his ( 'You'll go to hell, son' ) Dad who is some kind of crazy fundamentalist Minister and has effectively destroyed his son's ticket to financial security…I feel sorry for him, what a disaster.
Maybe you should punch up, there are plenty of people far more worth your energy than just giving this guy more oxygen, which he and we don't need.
'Intervention by Israel's Folau's father prevented peace deal with Rugby Australia'
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2019/06/intervention-by-israel-s-folau-s-father-prevented-peace-deal-with-rugby-australia.html
"I think there are plenty more people who deserve a ' GoFuckYou page' rather than Folau."
True enough @ Adrian.
Personally I regard 'the Falou' as a patheticism. An adherent to the ' what plays in Vegas STAYS in Vegas ' loif stoil. Of the 'Oim exceptional' and YOU of the 'other'
Make of it what you will. Full of Shite? I think there's a high probability
So 'Adrian' is not you Adrian Thornton. I thought you'd gone minimalist.
Could ' Adrian' please put something else beside that moniker to give more definition please? What about Adrian2 or AdrianZ etc. Adrian the Aardvark would be fun if you like Monty Python!
@greywarshark, "I thought you'd gone minimalist." no has ever accused me of that before…with good reason….stuff seems to be drawn to me by pure osmosis, luckily most of ir is interesting stuff.
I like it![laugh laugh](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/teeth_smile.png)
Does he need funding for removal of his sinful ungodly tatts? Izzy needs to bone up on his leviticus.
Meanwhile UK's leading candidate for next PM…
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/21/police-called-to-loud-altercation-at-boris-johnsons-home
Symonds is heard saying Johnson had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
LOLS. And this is how far the Tories have sunk?
God Defend Britain!
Well Done Crazy Britain !
You have voted a first class Eccentric – Boris Johnson – into the Prime Ministership.
He has dumped all of Europe and insulted all of them. He has dumped all the Citizens of England – except the mad Tories.
He is incredibly dumb. He seems also to have upset at rowdy midnight, one of his girl friends.
He is the perfect Tory Englishman.
The Poor of Britain should gather whatever bits of bread and butter they can. For the bastard Tories will set about turning the middle class and poor into blood and poxy bone – for decades.
But then – the Brits only ever seek Eccentricity.
Thank you Marco, that hilarious news was just what I needed, first good laugh of the day, fucking brilliant stuff…" they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging”. At one point Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”
The Thick of it couldn't have done a better job..in fact it has just occurred to me that having Boris as PM will be like that show, but in real time..and with Trump across the Atlantic, man, you couldn't make this shit up.
And at the same time there is this story from across the Atlantic:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/21/donald-trump-sexual-assault-allegation-e-jean-carroll-new-york-latest-accusation
We all should know leopards never change their spots.
She was clearly raped by Trump and never reported it. Same old story still being repeated day after day everywhere. Women instinctively know they are on a hiding to nothing if they come forward and that is why they stay silent.
Didn’t Amber Rudd say Boris Johnson was not the man she would like to drive her home at the end of the evening?
Boris will definitely win the Tory leadership now, no doubt about it
terrible times getting worse
Clinton started this abuse of migrant families, and Bush II and Obomber continued the abuse. Trump is merely carrying on a well established practice.
Bleeding all over the carpet for illegal migrants is stupid. It's idiotic to expend political capital on people who commit crimes.
What do you imagine would happen if you tried to enter the USA illegally? At LAX or the Canadian border? Do you expect to be treated nicely, given a warm welcome and told 'don't worry about those stupid immigration laws you can stay as long as you like'?
This is the dark side of empathy; making excuses for people who break the law and then whining when it turns out badly for them.
????
Seeking asylum is not breaking the law.
Asylum is not a mass loophole for millions of people to evade legal migration processes.
Wanting to gtfo of South American shitholes isn't loopholing rodlog.
thanks for that christian view – jesus also said fuck them so well done to you not.
Your view is inhumane imo especially as a well heeling immigrant to aussie yourself – that is you though – just a mess of privilege and insecurities wrapped up in dogma. Luckily your fundamentalism is not that common with thinking christians I know and care about – they oppose your attitudes as much as I do and youknowwho would.
Straight to the personal attacks as usual. I guess that's what works in your world.
yeah in your world you seem to just 'forget' great swathes of people as if they never existed
I'm the one here who consistently speaks to the need for a universal and principled system of globalisation that embraces justice and collective security for all the diverse peoples of the world.
Yet when I do, you sneer at it.
it is just a white wash
I live in the hope that one day you might say something not quite so predictable.
A slight adjustment gives you "white wish".
I'm good with that.
lol yes robert good for you that you are good with that meanwhile…
Note carefully how marty still doesn't tell us exactly what his problem is with my argument. Either because he doesn't know, or he doesn't want to say.
And it's still just a personal attack on my integrity. He only gets away with it because as an 'oppressed minority' around here he's implicitly held to a much lower standard of behaviour.
lol you are such a victim – I love how you try with your ineffectual bluster to get me to do something – hey guess what knobhead – no! I will not act, behave or be the way that you want. Your arguments are bullshit based upon white supremacy and men's rights idiot lines. I think you are dumb dumb and you know it. But still you put your bogus line "why can't the world be like I want it" – I love it – keep wailing it. I respect LEFT thinkers not you.
You never own your argument marty, most of the time its personal attacks and lies. Now you are reduced to directly accusing me of being a white supremacist and a mens rights something or other.
Is there anything else bad I'm supposed to be?
more sobbing cos you're not getting your own way – lol – what next i wonder – try shaming again that's always a funny one from you…
No-one 'gets their own way' here. This is a place for debate and discussion; there are no 'winners or losers'. You are free to make your case just as anyone else is; it's just that you seem to prefer to bully and shame people into submission if you don't agree with them.
Why that is only you can know; I don't pretend to understand your motives. But I do know that it's tedious and predictable; it's like trying to talk with a golem.
"Golem is an animated anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud)"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
bully and shame time eh – the funny thing is you are so ignorant that you don't realise you gave me a compliment – thanks dumbarse lol
But not a mind of it's own.
lol just cos I won't dance to your tune – hey mr privilege you have been shown to be the utter dickhead you are today – I've really enjoyed it thanks for that lol 🙂
Whatever amuses you marty. Personally I think it's better you take it out on me here than the people who have to live with you.
Still anytime you want to engage in good faith I'll be here.
thats nice of you ta – you have displayed some nasty qualities today – a bit like your snide comment about me and my family in your last comment. This is what you and your types do. You can't actually debate because you are too full of anger and self loathing. I get it – you and your types have fucked this world and you feel guilty so you project against others including little children being detained. That is your level – low, very low.
I know you're a very sad, inadequate man.
In the meantime I'll keep wanting the best for you. Sleep well.
lol – get over your bigotry and become someone decent and then I'll give a fuck
making comments like "What do you imagine would happen if you tried to enter the USA illegally? At LAX or the Canadian border? Do you expect to be treated nicely, given a warm welcome and told 'don't worry about those stupid immigration laws you can stay as long as you like'?" is as inflammatory and frankly stupid as if I said "All undocumented arrivals should shot on the spot" It happens every day at LAX, undocumented people arrive they are treated firmly but fairly until they are either deported or let in. I don't think anyone here is suggesting what you are saying.
It happens every day at LAX, undocumented people arrive they are treated firmly but fairly until they are either deported or let in.
That is precisely what I'm saying. Either satisfy their immigration process legally or accept that you are going to be deported.
Massive poorly controlled immigration is the only reason the left is dying across the entire world.
Thank you. Illegal migration was one of maybe two or three issues that enabled Trump. Why anyone thinks more of it will help is beyond me.
And of course when children are tangled up into it, the potential for tragedy becomes unlimited.
Who is causing this massive movement of people?
Could it be right wing neo-con warmongering has some responsibility?
As in cause (War) and effect (Running for your life).
It is ironic how the scum who breed unrest then get to cash in politically by spinning it as if they themselves are under attack.
Cunts.
Who is causing this massive movement of people?
I've written to that many times. Most people are deeply attached to the places they grow up in. It's home, it's where they belong, it's where they have connections. They typically only move in large numbers if their home becomes an oppressive shit hole with little hope for their children.
And yes big nation hegemonies, warmongers and economic pillaging all play a part. They always have, it's nothing new and certainly the Western 'neo-cons' are only one of many threads to this story.
My argument is simple and consistent; globalisation has become an unstoppable human project and the logical coherent path forward is to implement it properly. Bring the age of empires to an end.
It's plain as day cause and effect. Who is to run this global goodwill?
Rothschilds?
In the absence of a formal, federated world governance … then yes by default it will be the Rothschilds and their ilk. It is precisely the lack of democratically accountable, principled authority that enables these ravening wolves to feed on the carcass of humanity.
That's the way they want it.
Globalisation's bullshit rodlog.
You're soaking in it globby.
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/06/21/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-mass-migration/
Don't like refugees, stop fucking up their homes.
I copied this from an article I red yesterday, seems to sum it up.
I will leave you with these eloquent words by Brendan Woodhouse:
“You show me a fighting aged male and I will show you a man who can work. Show me the man that you’re frightened of and I will show you a gentle soul who is scared. You show me an economic migrant, an invader or a crook, and I will show you a mirror. For we are all the sons and daughters of migrants. We, as people, have always moved. And we have all benefited from their misery.
In order for you to be rich, to buy cheap clothes and to talk on your phone, someone will slave for you. It is our ease of living that has made them poor. It is our exploitation that makes them run. Not just the West, but the rich all over. We are the creators of migration, the benefactors and the blind. We turn our eyes to their suffering yet expect them to take all that comes. We buy brands that exploit, and expect everything for cheap, cheap, cheap.
But when a boy, or a man can not see how they can survive, we expect them to drown silently in their poverty, whilst we book our holidays in the sun. And we will use our passports to fly to almost any destination on this earth. We, the rich can seek employment wherever we like, and we can just pop to Paris for a weekend away. But when the man who suffers for our opulence wants to do the same, we say no, don’t come, you should stay.
We, the creators of their misery, define ourselves as the victims of their pain. We cry and complain that someone steals the job that we’re too lazy to do. We take their oil, their minerals, their produce and their lives, yet it is ‘we’ who call ‘them’ the crooks. And it is we that call ourselves the victims of their pain. You say that they come for our welfare state, yet I’ve met thousands of people crossing this sea, and every single one of them wanted to work. Can you say that about the people back home? I certainly can’t!
You talk of losing our culture but when we can turn our backs to the poor, then I think it’s a culture that we can lose. You say that we should help our homeless first, yet when we see the man on the streets, we walk by. We each live in a blanket of self righteousness, myself included, stating that others should do something to change. Be it for the homeless, the lonely or the displaced, we form our opinions from the warmth and comfort of our homes.
But unless you have walked one mile in their shoes, then don’t tell them where they should go. For we are their reflection. We were all made the same. It is by chance that we were born with opportunity, as it is by chance that they were born in the dust. And it could be by chance that our choices are taken away. Their struggle is our struggle, for if it was not them, it would be us.
You think that leaving all that you have known is easy? You think that crossing that sea is a choice? Then you don’t know how many are lost to this journey. You don’t know the pain that they take. And if you want to talk about choices, then you should acknowledge that it is only us who can choose!
We have one life. Let’s not waste it on hate. Only love!
http://www.gordonbowden.co.uk/finchley-road-fraud/?fbclid=IwAR3o0mDUbbdB7RthKToalhbkgKQll5_NcEAL4Y5Z0OVO3zeq61jWBX4WFaI
OK those are fine sentiments. Now in practice how does this translate into immigration policy?
Does 'love' mean 'open borders'? Do you invite every homeless person you see into your home?
No not every, but do share my house with others who would struggle to find stable accomodation in the free market because I am privilaged enough to be able.
"Does 'love' mean 'open borders'? Do you invite every homeless person you see into your home?"
Do you make false equivalence? Still using the only brought up by you open borders nonsense?
I got some spare money recently. I took the money and gave it out to the homeless. What a fool I know as it's a bottomless ocean and we must build walls against the rising tide of brownies displaced by western extremity and extravagance.
But there's no such thing as spare money aye, the Rothschild's don't have enough yet so obviously we don't either. Who wants to cater for basic human needs when there's superyachts to be had.
We can't all sit at the top of the pyramid now, can we?
I could'a got 20 bricks and some mortar with that money, to wall off my heart.
More power to you Bruce. Question though, is your generosity unlimited and unconstrained? Do you maintain some control over who you invite into your home and how they behave?
Or do you just let anyone who turns up stay as long as they like?
Let's go and fix their countries so they don't want to leave brooce. Prolly cheaper in the long run.
A reason, if not the only one.. 'The left' needs to say clearly that states have the right to secure borders and to set their own immigration policies. In fact these things are essential to creating viable socialist/social democratic societies that will work for everyone. We certainly need an international framework that discourages discrimination (race, religion etc.) in immigration policy, enforces humane treatment and includes an obligation to take a certain number of refugees. It would be desirable to have a mechanism whereby countries that create refugee crises by waging wars or imposing economic sanctions, pay reparations for their crimes. Problematic to implement though.
Most importantly concerted global effort on climate change to minimise the expected refugee crisis. Fast forward 60 years – with 3 degrees of warming and boatloads of thousands of dying people washing ashore on Ninety Mile Beach. Our ability and inclination to be welcoming will be tested.
Good. That is the groundwork for something useful.
Borders are important. Neither totally open nor totally closed borders work. Like the cells of all living creatures they have to be selectively porous, allowing what is desired and necessary in, and repelling all else.
Just like everyone operates their own home … family, friends and guests are welcome, everyone else either negotiates or keeps out.
At the scale of the nation state these are not easy conversations; but tainting them with hand wringing, grandstanding and virtue signalling only makes them harder.
"hand wringing, grandstanding and virtue signalling only makes them harder."
More! What about wailing and gnashing of teeth?
You could always rent some sackcloth for variety.
You are pathetic RL. Presenting yourself as a man of practicality, rolling up your sleeves to sort problems out. The world has been waiting for your pragmatic decisions. As if no-one understands the problems. If solving the difficulties was easy it would have been done already.
I suggest that you stop being a keyboard warrior and do some work assisting. Get to where you can do something physical and help solve the border problems and the unwished for immigration. You will find it is beyond your puny strength to do much, but every little helps the individuals presently being treated like a swarm of locusts.
You refer to a formal, federated world government. (At
10 am) Goodness gracious, the USA could be doing that with all the powers at their command. Does it occur to them to act in an intelligent and humane way as needed? We see it does not. And it never will do.
I have put up a comment and some info into what makes the Mexicans run. Such long standing embedded troubles can’t be lectured or wished away.
Goodness gracious, the USA could be doing that with all the powers at their command. Does it occur to them to act in an intelligent and humane way as needed? We see it does not. And it never will do.
Yet at the end of WW2 they were instrumental in the formation of the United Nations. There are moments in history when unsuspected change is not only possible, but inevitable.
No-one imagined the fall of the Berlin Wall until it happened; yet now in hindsight most people understand the largely hidden forces that compelled it to happen.
As for your 'keyboard warrior' accusation; that is not the reason I am here. I'm not here to fight anyone or convince anyone of anything. I gave that conceit away years ago. Nor for that matter has anyone the faintest clue what I also do when I'm not typing here. While I've been more open about my own real time life here than most people, I've never explained how I usually multitask and that it's a bad assumption to imagine this is all I do. (It isn't necessarily a smart thing on my part, there have been more than a few occasions when I've mis-read something or gotten the sequence of a conversation wrong.)
It is also a bad assumption to think my ideas around global unity spring from nowhere, and that I lack sound evidence for them working at scale.
Cheers.
Massive poorly controlled immigration is the only reason the left is dying across the entire world.
Ad
You wish.
We will not allow millions upon millions to die because of our actions.
https://climateemergency.press/2019/06/05/india-50-6c-degrees-shows-that-we-need-to-organize-climate-immigration-to-countries-with-cold-weather/?fbclid=IwAR2KmmL6lQiX3DlWRKBzqF4jUzbOP_znGzeXQgNOfwiR52o-rjuNC2MT94M
Predawn raids, eh. Takes me back to Auckland in the 70s 🙁
RL thinks it's all about choices. Living in a bubble. Are the unaccompanied children seeking sanctuary to blame? Do you think they deserve a concrete floor in a cage, no toiletries, no bed, vilification, beatings, rape…
'He walked 150 miles north, making sure to skirt La Arrocera, a broad swath of scrubland known for migrant kidnappings and assaults. He slept on the doorstep of a church after finding the migrant shelter burned to the ground.'
Many of the Merkins are an evil pack of pricks. And highly unlawful.
Yet you are of the opinion the immigrants are merely 'people who have committed crimes'. A self-important, unfortunately typical right wing, and largely inhumane position.
That which you condone speaks very clearly of who you are.
Many of these people, a large number of whom are unaccompanied minors, are running for their lives.
But what is a brown life worth to an American if they don’t come with their own garden tools, aye.
Are you arguing that the USA/Mexican border should be open to anyone who decides to cross it because 'sanctuary'?
If so then make the case honestly, instead of hiding behind the terrible plight of these children.
I aint hiding nothing. I aint being dishonest and fuck you for the accusation. You are the one who thinks the law trumps humanity.
Fear over feelings, greed over gumption. The right wing way.
Go on answer the question rather than venting at me.
The law is how we do humanity on a collective scale. That's the point of it. If we don't like it or we think it's not working, then it should be changed.
Breaking it however usually only leads to more inhumanity. Like what the parents of these children have done to them. As I said above, if I tried to enter the USA illegally and got my children involved there would be zero sympathy. As one of those awful white guys everyone hates, it would of course be all my fault.
So rather than just telling me what a terrible person I must be, how about outlining exactly what changes you would make to fix this problem.
What a ridiculous statement
" Like what the parents of these children have done to them."
You mean when they were killed and shit, totally unacceptable! But I'm sure you have examples of bad brown parents to back this farcical crap.
and this
"The law is how we do humanity on a collective scale."
The law is built by rich men for rich men. It protects wealth, not humanity. The humanitarian parts of it were hard fought for, not by rich men, but humanity. The rich try to remove the humanity from law at every opportunity.
"hiding behind the terrible plight of these children."
Really. You think their plight might be better if they were treated with humanity, you know, that thing you think the law stands for yet it also is used by you specifically, to dismiss the plight of these children.
You're not worth my time.
Everyone agrees that having these children in this situation is a recipe for tragedy … abusing me for it is completely misdirected anger.
As is all the useless hand wringing in the absence of any actual solutions.
You feel abused by me saying your statements are farcical crap, or saying you're not worth my time?
Where did the bad man touch you?
So still not willing to commit to an actual solution. What would YOU do to help this situation.
It would be a good start if NZ Labour stuck to their election promises from only 2 years ago and brought immigration down by tens of thousands.
If they completed that promise, they would not need New Zealand First to prop them up because they would suck NZFirst into a husk.
More seasonal workers from poor Pacific Islands is great. But not more than that.
If they stuck to their policy,we would not need 10000 extra houses per year,and it would constrain the growth of cars by around 20000.
https://www.labour.org.nz/immigration
whew ad thank god no one listens to you and your ideas
“More seasonal workers from poor Pacific Islands is great. But not more than that.”
Ad
If people are good enough to work here then they are good enough to live here.
Why does it not surprise me that you support this form of legalised bonded labour, which has led to so much injustice and exploitation.
You reveal yourself RL as steeped in certainties you have devised and then there is no need to range around looking at other factors.
The Mexican border situation has no doubt been examined and written about in documents that would fill a room, on discs that would line a cupboard. If there is someone who visits this blog who can give us a rundown of 200 words even I invite them to do so as comment as a blog member.
If that person would like to do a post giving the Mexican view, then please suggest it to the Standard. I think there is interest in guest posts.
Mexico has been dominated by the USA and warped by it finding a ready market for illegal drugs there. The country has been decimated by corruption because of that. If the USA changed its drug laws to medicalise the problem, and to allow home-grown and organised cannabis growing, the high prices would go down and the Mexican trade would gradually plateau and stabilise.
Edit:
Here is some background on Mexicans' difficulties.
Manufacturing in Mexico grew rapidly in the late 1960s with the end of the US farm labor agreement known as the bracero program. This sent many unskilled farm laborers back into the Northern border region with no source of income. As a result, the US and Mexican governments agreed to The Border Industrialization Program, which permitted US companies to assemble product in Mexico using raw materials and components from the US with reduced duties. The Border Industrialization Program became known popularly as The Maquiladora Program or shortened to The Maquila Program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_Mexico
Background from Huffington Post.
Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, rules 80% of the landline telephone services in Mexico and 70% of the mobile ones, according to Moody’s, the economy ratings researcher. Moreover, Emilio Azcárraga, the owner of Televisa, captures 80% of the media. At the same time, Germán Larrea and Alberto Bailleres (the latter recently awarded with the Belisario Domínguez medal) are the owners of all the mining sector with Grupo Minera México and Industrias Peñoles. And the same thing happens with construction markets, banking, food service and even with drugs, when in 2011, Forbes included the impoverished drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera “El Chapo” in the list of the wealthiest people in the country with a fortune of 1 billion dollars. One position above the owner of Banamex, Alfredo Harp Helú.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/corruption-and-poverty-in_b_11742602
Assessing how Mexican men and women consider the good and bad of aid to help them if in poverty,
https://theconversation.com/mexican-anti-poverty-program-targeting-poor-women-may-help-men-most-study-finds-97917
I think I mentioned this before; in my last job I had a Mexican colleague whom I got reasonably close to. His life story would make your ears bleed. On another occasion I worked three weeks in Central Mexico and while it was a very short visit and I only saw a narrow slice of a relatively safe part of the country, the security and paranoia of everyday life was palpable.
So don't lecture me about the difficulties Mexico faces. All I want is someone to make the honest and open argument that the solution to all these problems is for the USA to open it's border with Mexico.
Because interestingly enough this is exactly what my Mexican friend argued for; he sincerely wanted the Mexican states closest to the USA border to become part of the USA, effectively moving the international border south. And he made a good logical case for it.
Yeah, 'cause you went there for three weeks and worked with a Mexican. 🙄
I don't believe anyone is arguing for open borders, so to keep requesting they say it as a foil to your position is a bit stupid. I assume what most people are wanting is the immigrants, once there, to be treated humanely, ie, not having children put in cages.
Legal immigrants don't get their children separated from them.
So your hung up about the legality aspect of really poor, under threat of pain, death or oppression, not going through official channels in order to get safety for them or their families and the chance of a better life.
Well that makes putting kids in cages all right then.
No I'm not saying it's a good thing to separate children from their parents. That's a perverse strawman; no-one wants that.
But arguing that refugees should be able to turn up at any international border and cross to safety with no consequence is practically indistinguishable from an open border.
So with a natural disaster, war or famine, you're saying people shouldn't make for a safe haven, but stay put because there are consequences of having closed borders. Fuck me, you're gonna be shitting it when all the climate change refugees come a knocking.
The thing with illegal is that it's subjective, despite even the letter of the law. We all know stealing is wrong, but I'd never condemn someone for pinching a loaf of bread to feed their kids. In the current climate fostered by the us government, where the president calls out caravans of rapists and murderers, I wouldn't bother with a checkpoint either.
I guess you can wank off and clutch your pears about open borders and the law, take pot shots at the lefties with a conscience, but at the end of the day, if enough people come, there isn't a wall high enough or enough like you to stop them.
but at the end of the day, if enough people come, there isn't a wall high enough or enough like you to stop them.
OK that sounds absolutely the same as an open border. If not tell me the difference.
In that case why demand the just USA has open borders. Why not say Mexico, or China, or Saudi Arabia … hell there are over 200 countries in the world. Most of them are safe enough. Just let people wander wherever they want.
It's not an unreasonable argument, I just want you to make the case for it openly and honestly.
We all know stealing is wrong, but I’d never condemn someone for pinching a loaf of bread to feed their kids.
Fine with a few loaves of bread. What about a whole vanload? Is there some minimum threshold of criminality that’s justified here?
Irrelevant what you call it, what point you think you're making and to who, or how much resolution you achieve from it… I'm not your sticky sock. Why should I care?
These people are refugees and deserve to be treated humanely while the undesirables are sifted out.
"clutch your pears"
Lovin' it!
There should be spell check apple for that sort of thing lol
actually yes they do.
Cause up until now seeking refuge at a legal port of entry is still legal in the US.
But then surely you would have no issues taking baby jesus from mary and joseph and admonish them for running away from King Herodes and his henchman who killed all the baby boys to prevent the king of israel to come of age.
Right?
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/28/18089048/border-asylum-trump-metering-legally-ports
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/us-mexico-border-migrants-claim-asylum-difficulties
https://www.rescue.org/article/it-legal-cross-us-border-seek-asylum
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Claiming-Asylum-at-and-between-Ports-of-Entry.pdf
https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/can-you-request-asylum-border.html
King Herodes and his henchman who killed all the baby boys to prevent the king of israel to come of age.
Last I looked Trump isn't ordering the murder of all immigrant's first born. Although it would surprise me if some of the more rabid left will try this on.
Otherwise the links you provide all helpfully (yes I read them) outline the general process of claiming asylum in the USA. As with almost all other countries, it is not granted automatically. There is a process, and one that the host country gets to determine. Trump's administration has tightened up on it substantially as claiming asylum is an obvious ploy to bypass normal immigration procedures. Again the USA does not have this problem on it's own.
Originally asylum was a relatively uncommon process that only a relative handful of people applied for in what were usually clearcut circumstances. Over time it's range of applicability has extended greatly and the numbers of people are no longer insignificant.
Increasingly the distinction between a legitimate asylum seeker and an economic migrant attempting to bypass normal process has become less obvious. It's even more difficult to assess when the person claiming it has traveled through other 'safe' countries, but with far less desirable economic prospects to settle in. This naturally tests the willingness of desirable host nations to uphold their end of the deal without limit.
For obvious enforcement reasons, the USA is generally unwilling to allow entry to people without documentation, and without their status being clarified first. It's a large country and it's far too easy to disappear in. Ultimately undocumented arrivals are going to be detained for a period. And if charged they will be imprisoned for another period before being deported.
The question simply is, should their children be imprisoned alongside the adults or should they be looked after separately. There are merits to both arrangements, and obvious downsides as well.
But one of the options is not "oh dear you have children with you, we'll just have to give you a free pass".
Nobody has said to open the border up. This is you making shit up, putting words in mouths that aren't saying any such thing.
"But as of April, children have been separated from their parents with much higher frequency, which has led to the creation of “tent cities” to hold thousands of separated children. Those beds cost $775 per person per night, HHS told NBC News."
For that price you could have them in 5 star accommodation with room service.
Very poorly managed. Atrocious some might say. But there’s a buck to be made, aye.
Yup, we know the numbers of people arriving at the border has increased substantially and the demand on these facilities has probably increased beyond what was planned for. It's completely unsurprising that they aren't being managed as well as they could be.
That's one of the worst aspects of Trump's regime, he's weakened the leadership and lines of accountability in the Federal govt so that this sort of thing is more likely to happen. Still the people running these facilities are likely not monsters, they're doing their best to handle a very shitty job with the resources they have.
But if parents drag their children into this mess, we do not get to complain about them being 'separated'. As pointed out elsewhere this has been standard US practice for a very long time, well before Trump.
The root causes of this mess are complex and way deeper than just Trump; it irks me to see it exploited just to vent.
"But if parents drag their children into this mess"
You are so dishonest. A reasoning facade for utterly vile sentiments. Adopt a story to fit your narrative (which you've not supplied yet, as it's strategic not to openly bash the brownies, just make broad statements about their parenting instead).
Already stated they're often running for their lives, but lives mean nothing to THE LAW. Pfft.
The money available suggests there are plenty of options and opportunities to raise standards.
But not if an accountant is in charge. Contracters will buy sports cars from this, for the economy!
That's about all the bullshit I can stomach for one day. Good luck convincing people we're calling for open borders due to giving a shit.
Already stated they're often running for their lives
What all the way through three or four Central American states?
The dishonesty here is people saying these people should be able to illegally cross the border as 'migrants' and face no consequence. That is directly equivalent to an open border, just without anyone saying so.
Well that's a relief. Send them off to their families already legally in the USA and problem sorted.
Can you imagine any unintended consequences from this however?
The USA, like most other developed Western nations, has an ongoing problem with illegal immigration. And as Europe has discovered, the difference between refugees and economic migrants isn't always obvious. And the demand is essentially endless.
Dealing with this humanely is a terrible challenge; it goes well beyond Trump.
Carlos Slim has no relevance to an immigration debate for the US.
What matters is any policy that's different from Trump's approach.
The most developed one is that advanced by previous President Obama.
The first of those was the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.
To be eligible, applicants had to have arrived in the US before age 16 and have lived there since June 15, 2007. They could not have been older than 30 when the Department of Homeland Security enacted the policy in 2012. It was a deferral of action rather than a pathway to citizenship.
But the killing of Merrick Garland’s shot at the Supreme Court meant there wouldn't have been a majority in the Supreme Court to defend it, and then Trump actively killed it.
Democrats have this year passed the Dream and Promise Act that would provide a full pathway to citizenship for about one million undocumented migrants within the US. Most of them are Mexicans.
It was killed off by Republicans in majority in the Senate.
It most certainly would have been vetoed by Trump if it had got any further.
Major immigration reform that is more generous to central America would require, for a start:
– a hard liberal tilt to the Supreme Court (probably 3 retirements)
– a Democrat majority in both the House of Congress and the Senate
– a Democratic President
– top to bottom reform of ICE (which would take most of a term)
Not going to happen any time soon, in short.
And nor will the US allow strong UN scrutiny, to get amplified through the global media. They may be mean but they're not dumb.
If there's a Democrat strengthening in either Congress or Senate you might get some softening of enforcement. But otherwise liberal immigration policy is a knife through any campaign other than in the state of California.
But otherwise liberal immigration policy is a knife through any campaign other than in the state of California.
Exactly. You have to understand what you're up against before you stand a chance of fixing it. And the reason why this is, that the American working class, and increasingly their shrinking middle class, are not in the mood to be generous. People feeling under pressure, threat and insecurity themselves are much less likely to be open to more immigration.
Trump understood this perfectly, he understood the depth of betrayal felt towards the liberal elites and Democrats in particular. He exploited it mercilessly.
This is why it pisses me off when lefties sneer at Trump and underestimate how efficiently ruthless he has been. Hell we wasn't supposed to get past the first primaries, then he won them, then he won through to President, then he survived more the first year, then he wasn't going to survive Russiagate … and on and on. And still we whine about how unfair it all is.
Ad is on the money. Stop insulting the people who voted Trump, stop treating them as ignorant, racist rednecks, stop sneering at the 'flyover states' and win back their trust to the extent possible. Interestingly candidates like Andrew Yang are doing just this, going directly to the working class vote and talking to them intelligently.
Now you see them, now you don't….
"The Bill does not introduce any policies to actually cut emissions: New Zealand has very few policies to implement this bill," it said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/113673075/climate-change-action-how-nzs-insufficient-targets-stack-up-against-other-countries
And wont for some time to come…..time, something we cant produce.
In this day of precise tracking you would think there would have been a precise location for the downed drone. Within a few centimetres. Of course the USA would claim International waters but, but…
But, but.. dodgy as situation. Apparently the drone had been flying around for 4 hours sending back intel in real time before being taken out.
Apparently there was a second aircraft… but USA doesn't want to talk about it…
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/close-iran-war-190621053107153.html
Well you can't paint them as evil and irrational nuke toting lunatics hellbent on the destruction of the west when they display humanity now, can you.
The propaganda must be upheld.
Bet the US is ruing the day they ever let the pesky internet out of the bag.
Thy'll have bits of the drone no doubt, to prove it wasn't splashed in international waters like.
So Trump declines a military attack that would have killed scores of people over an unmanned drone and this blog cannot give him any credit for showing restraint. He clearly articulates proportionality and reason and the ostensibly anti-war left is silent on this display of discretion. Typical. You people need your Hitler and will not acknowledge any examples of behaviour that contradicts your Drumph is worse than Satan illusions.
You mean the strike he recalled after calling it? Very big of him.
Bleep, you are making shit up as you go along. And I think the people who were not killed would be pretty happy about it, no matter the stage of deployment.
Yeah you got me, I go to news sources and then ignore it all. Science papers – meh! My sole aim is to clusterfuck fustercluck.
What shit did I make up, come on, evidence to the contrary or STFU.
Trump interview with Chuck Todd saying no planes were in the air.
https://youtu.be/ziUZv6VOph0
LOL, let's believe Trump cos he's only ever told the truth.
https://www.nrdc.org/trump-lies
https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/10/president-trump-has-made-false-or-misleading-claims-over-days/?utm_term=.891753be997c
10 796 false or misleading claims in 869 days.
Your source is one of the most prolific liars the world has ever seen. You'll need to do better than parade the pish of this piece of shit.
More incoherent babbling by the self-aggrandising POS.
No plan would be put forward for consideration without an estimation of casualties.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/us/politics/trump-iran-attack.html
well i am not sure when Trump was the last time 'cocked and loaded', someone should ask the Missus No 3 what she thinks about that, but that is what he said.
https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-hannity-carlson-react-trump-iran-1445132
but then there are those who say that the orange shart cannon does what Hannity says? Who knows.
https://www.inquisitr.com/5493307/fox-news-tucker-carlson-trump-iran-attack-privately-advised/
but then there are those that say the orange shart cannon does what Tucker says. Who knows?
then there are those that say that the orange shart cannon is a hostage taker and this is how he conducts business. He breaks a treaty cause Obama, then he complain about the non existent treaty, then he waves his papmache sabre and he commits other peoples children aka cannonfodder to fight , then i he pretend to be manly while announcing strikes, then he plays with his balls, and then he realises that he shat his pants and needs a diaper change. And now please world pay up and bend yer knee peasants cause he just saved the world from a war he is keen as fuck to start.
Yeah, lets all rain down yellow mellow accolades on the orange dipshit running the US. Cause we are all hostages now. right?
Note the trick being played here; the reader is assumed to be a nice good person, one of the "Us", while the bad people are othered as "Trump Supporters".
It's a transparent ploy and the use of it by Clinton (deplorables) is one of the reasons Trump won in the first place.
🙄
The reason why Trump won was the polarisation and uber-partisanship of the US electorate. Trump is an incompetent, narcissistic con-man; and many of the people who voted for him knew this to some degree. At least the handful I've spoken to first hand have said as much.
Yet they preferred to vote for him than Clinton, often against their obvious class interests.
Some of it will be an innate conservatism, some parts of the USA are not ready for a woman President, some of it will be racist, although at least some of the same people voted Obama.
It's my view the core reason is because the Democrats and Clinton had alienated them in their own homeland. The 'deplorables' comment was only the tip of a very deep iceberg of contempt and disrespect the coastal elites had dumped on them for several decades. The gutting of their economic life, the sneering condescension labeling their concerns and social conservatism as racist and misogynist, the constant exclusion and othering was the reason why Clinton lost the unlosable election.
Trump really is as blatant and manipulative as your link shows, he truly demonstrates that once a people lose respect for the truth, and lies become the common currency … then trust is destroyed. Without trust a nation fast descends into dysfunction.
The reason why Trump won is the electoral college.
Spin spin spin.
Then how did Obama get to be President?
2008
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home stateIllinois Arizona
Running mateJoe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote365 173
States carried28 + DC + NE-02 22
Popular vote 69,498,516 59,948,323
Percentage 52.9% 45.7%
2012
NomineeBarack Obama Mitt Romney
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Massachusetts
Running mateJoe Biden Paul Ryan
Electoral vote 332 206
States carried26 + DC 24
Popular vote65,915,795 60,933,504
Percentage 51.1% 47.2%
2016
NomineeDonald Trump Hillary Clinton
PartyRepublican Democratic
Home state New York New York
Running mateMike Pence Tim Kaine
Electoral vote304[a] 227[a]
States carried30 + ME-02 20 + DC
Popular vote62,984,828 65,853,514
Percentage 46.1% 48.2%
"I'm here in Texas, to try understand why alpha males need a support group. [accent mine]
"We've recognised that there is a role for men"
Masturbatory celibates Bwahaaa! They control their impulses – except for sexism and racism and violence and being fucking tards.
"There is a war on masculinity going on in the west"
Trump supporters, gotta love em. Misunderstood and all that.
So you didn't have time to watch the video. But you are smugly deflecting from it. Here's a quote from right near the end, as it is in relation to your video too:
"You can't have a great civilisation, without the men who built it."
LOLZ.
Hope they enjoy their beloved leader's environmental rollbacks. America will be a total shithole before they're grown. And that's without the climate change results of their 'great civilisation.'
Humans are cancer?
I've heard some of them are very fine people indeed.
Did you imagine I couldn't couldn't build a bigger, battier strawman than you if I needed to?
Proud boys are not straw men, they're noodles.
When it comes to engineering and tech, I place high value on your input. Here, well, you are not a people person are you, unless the tie is right.
At one stage you say its the refugees (let's use the right term here) should take responsibility for the lack of human rights they receive. Because THE LAW.
Then, you say it's the left's fault for helping Trump into office.
??????????????
Then it clicked. AH! – this is the personal responsibility the right wing always go on and on about (if you say it often enough, it must be so).
Trump gets in, the left must take responsibility. Children get caged, the parents must take responsibility.
Not the people caging kids, nor the people voting Trump…
They get a free pass as being right wing they are obviously already very fine people indeed.
Proud boy proud.
Here, well, you are not a people person are you, unless the tie is right.
I'm definitely not given to telling people what they want to hear; but then neither are you when it comes to it. You feel perfectly entitled to offend me and I've not objected to that.
At one stage you say its the refugees (let's use the right term here)
Anyone can claim to be a refugee, but it is up to the nation they are trying to enter to determine whether their claim to asylum is legitimate or not. (Or the UNHCR may be involved.) If you can think of an alternative arrangement I'm all ears.
Trump gets in, the left must take responsibility.
Giving Trump sole responsibility for winning however gives him way too much credit.
Children get caged, the parents must take responsibility.
So far the left has remained utterly silent on this point, as if it didn't exist at all. The obvious truth is that if these people had not involved their children, then none of them would be in this awful detention. General US policy is to avoid imprisoning children alongside their parents, as it has been successfully argued elsewhere this amounts to punishing them for crimes they are innocent of. Again this is not necessarily something Trump dreamed up just to be a nasty man.
But in wider terms yes, I've frequently argued that rights and responsibilities both complement and balance each other. Your rights almost by definition, entail my responsibility in some form. This is a very old line of thought common to all the major religions. No need to invoke some fleeting fad to explain it.
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
Edward Abbey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey
Rubbish. The reader is anyone. It's you, the Trump guy, who takes offence.
Link to anywhere I have said that I openly support Trump.
My argument is that the left, being so possessed of it's intellectual and moral superiority (which is virtually indistinguishable from racial superiority), totally underestimated Trump right from the outset. Right when he declared as a candidate he was treated as a joke; yet here we are four years later living with the consequences of this terrible mistake.
Trump is an awful President, he's utterly unfit for the office and arguably the worst they've ever had. The only thing worse is a regressive left utterly unwilling to acknowledge the role they played in putting him into power.
Isn't calling the US democrats "left" a bit of a stretch.
Trump, or almost anything but BAU, seemed a better alternative because the Democrats have abandoned the "left" and embraced the kleptocracy, just like the GOP.
I'd actually agree with that; and especially after the GFC it drove a deep cynicism through the entire US electorate toward the political establishment as a whole. Although it could not have been the sole cause, because if it was then as you say the GOP would have been equally if not more repugnant.
2016 was always going to be an outsider's election, wide open to a candidate who could connect directly with the electorate, bypassing the BAU Party messaging. It was either going to be someone principled like Sanders (who I supported strongly) or a populist like Trump.
oh dear. are you upset that your supporting of the inhumane treatment of children as little as 4 month old in trumps refugee concentration camps might makes other people think that you might be a closeted Trumpster?
oh ….sad!
For a start they are not Trump's concentration camps. They predate him by a long way.
For a second they are not concentration camps; comparing these detention centres with Nazi death camps is weak at best.
For a third nowhere do I support the children being in these places; they shouldn't be there.
The problem arises because the USA is now enforcing long standing law, detaining the parents of these children, and charging them for first time offenses. Just like you or I might be if we tried to enter the USA illegally. But because their children are not charged with a crime they are not permitted to be jailed together.
Unless you think the children should be returned to the border and set loose with no protection at all, or alternatively imprisoned with other adults and punished along with their parents, then inevitably the US authorities will have to house them somewhere until something can be sorted out for them.
It's a highly undesirable situation and everyone agrees on this.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44503514
These are Trumps concentration camps especially these new ones.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90363152/migrant-children-held-fort-sill-japanese-american-internment-camp
but you could state that he is for once trhifty in re-purposing or re-opening the old concentration camps for japanese americans during the second world war.
2. concentration camps definition (Merriam Webster)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concentration%20camp
vs Death Camps ( as in use in Nazi Germany)
(Merriam Webster)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/death%20camp
and generally speaking all the death camps that existed on this planet be they german or other all started as a concentration camp.
and i leave you with this – something smarter people then i said so well.
for evil to exist good man must do nothing
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny
and me thinks you doth protest much.
and last but least, it is legal in the US to come to a legal port of entry and claim asylum. Non of these people have broken the law by showing up at a border post claiming asylum. No matter how much you want to pretend and lie about them breaking the law.
and last but least, it is legal in the US to come to a legal port of entry and claim asylum.
True, but then again it is up to the host nation to decide how to then process you. Just claiming asylum is not an automatic free entry, totally bypassing normal immigration processes. If not then everyone could simply enter any nation by smiling broadly, say "Aslym" loudly and walk on past everyone else who have to produce legal things like passports and visas.
The USA has long had the policy of detaining anyone entering the country undocumented, whether they claim asylum or not, for very practical enforcement reasons. If they are not deemed to be legitimate asylum seekers then they are imprisoned for illegal immigration offenses. None of this is new, except that the Trump administration tightened up by charging first time offenders, thereby increasing the numbers substantially.
This is no defense of Trump. The story on the Mexican border has always been ugly, but like Russiagate, it's the wrong thing to attack him on.
you claim this is ‘not’ a defense of the shartcannon – yet you have done nothing but defended him and his children concentration camps and the abuses therein committed by the children concentration camp jailers.
No it is not wrong to attack him on what is the consequence of his government, the doing of his government, the consequence of his 'rhetoric' 'aka all Mexicans are rapists and murderers' (golden elevator and all), it is the consequence of the work his employees do, his acting Secretery of this and that, hiss underlings and his signature on any piece of toilet paper that he waves. (nothing he signs has any value what so ever, he will change his mind, think he did not get enough of a deal etc and will just wipe his arse with what ever he agreed too). It is correct to attack him as the buck stops with him. If in your prison 5 people would have died since December 2018 we would argue that a. you don't do your job and are responsible, or b. you do your job and it is your employer who is responsible, c. you do your job, see nothing wrong with the illegal orders and support and defend your employer – you choose, after all its your prison and your job. And in the US at least 5 kids have died in Trumps concentration camps for kids (two in december and three since)
as for the russian crap, never commented on it, never will. but yeah, nice try of deflection.
I still think you do protest much, and you are promoting human rights abuses on children as little as 4 month old cause 'law and order' and other assorted bullshit – even tho they have a legal right to do what they do, and you are flat out lying about their rights.. Go check your morality and above all go ask yourself whom would Jesus – the son of refugee seeking people, who left their country to protect their toddler son from the baby boy murdering hordes of King Herodes lock up in a camp without beds, 900 in a room fit for 125 and so on. Or maybe even better, go have a discussion with your priest/chaplain/preacher. Cause you seem to have lost something somewhere and that would be common decency.
Cause you seem to have lost something somewhere and that would be common decency.
It's a common mistake on the left to confuse loud virtue signalling with decency. It's also very common when you have no argument to make the attack personal. Every time we do that, we just broadcast our weakness and lack of effective solutions.
The question of undocumented migrants turning up at the Mexican border long predates Trump. Hell I've seen it for myself back in the 90's. For many years the numbers were not so large and the politicians ignored it for the most part. But as the years went by the cumulative impact became more apparent, and their rate of arrival grew. Along with serious drug and crime problems, it became an issue ripe for a populist like Trump to exploit. For him it was a low-hanging fruit waiting to fall.
Logically there are the following broad options for responding to this.
1. Total compassion. Everyone who turns up at the border claiming to be a refugee is granted automatic citizenship, free entry and as many ponies as they like. Very humane, very decent. Left wing purity compass screwed on tight.
2. Other extreme, build a wall and repel all boarders. Not very pretty but it does have the great merit of no children being held in custody. Although quite a few might die in the desert.
3. Middle path, detain them as they arrive and determine what to do with them. Some will be bona fide refugees and can be granted asylum, but it's not reasonable to think everyone who turns up will be.
In the meantime if the parents are held in custody for either processing or have been charged, then either you hold the children in the same prison with adults (which has it's own obvious risks) or you need to keep them relatively safe somewhere else until you can determine what to do with them on a case by case basis.
Obviously neither case is ideal, but my challenge to everyone here who thinks this is so very obvious… would YOU walk YOUR children over the USA/Mexican border undocumented, knowing all this will very likely happen to them?
You can argue unconstrained sympathy for their often desperate plight if you want, but that really amounts to reverting to Option 1, open border for anyone who claims asylum. It's not a bad choice, but then you have to convince the American people it's a good idea. They get to vote on it after all.
Never mind, you have spend many many words today defending the abuse of children under the guise of law and to be honest its just yuck.
And you have just spent many bolded letters proving you haven't read a word I said.
The USA does not routinely permit undocumented people entry into the country without detention. It's far too easy to just disappear in a large country; already there are many millions of undocumented people living in the USA and quite reasonably they don't want this situation to expand without limit.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44503514
The first option of releasing whole families together is not going to mean free entry to the USA, it will mean deportation back over the border. Where experience informs everyone that they will attempt to recross and hope to evade border controls as millions have done before them.
The second option of detaining families together is reasonable if you have the facilities to manage it properly. However putting children into adult prisons is a fraught exercise in it's own right, and is currently not legal.
The third option is what they have defaulted to out of sheer political gridlock. Given the increasing numbers involved, this was always going to be ugly, and the current regime has no political motivation to do a competent job of it. I'm certainly not defending the mess. No other nation separates families like this and it arises because the Federal govt has become incapable of making rational decisions. The hyper-partisanship of Washington breeds fuckups like this.
Such is the noise that it’s hard not to think that it’s more important to some liberal activists to use these children’s plight to bash Trump, than to achieve a humane outcome for them.
But as I keep pointing out, short of effectively opening the border to all comers and making the problem go away … the USA by itself has no good solutions to the problem of tens of thousands of people wanting to migrate to the better life it offers. This problem is way bigger than Trump and his incompetence.
Yes that's obviously a great argument if you're five years old.
"We did it?"
Yes, and no supper!
Ridiculous.
Brilliant thanks Macro.
Jeepers bleepers, better than not recalling it.
Hello Mrs and Mr fustercluck
Seeing as you are so close to the President of the United States, and seeing he is a wonderful wonderful person, could you ask the President to return the children he has separated from their parents?
I know it could only have been for the betterment of the President, but separating them from their parents forever is not what Nature intends.
Do You and Mrs fustercluck do the separations on behalf of the President? Take some of the work load off him ?
Could you give me the name of the most recent child that you separated from its parent? Or have you never given the separated kids a name?
Many Thanks
The separation of children from parents who break the law is pretty ordinary worldwide. Putting kids in "cages" was extant in Obama's time and leftists gave it a pass (see: https://qz.com/1291470/photos-immigrant-children-detained-at-the-placement-center-in-2014/).
There is abundant human trafficking, including children being sold for sex and child pornography happening all over the USA southern border. It is simple child welfare practice to take steps to protect kids and obtain evidence that those adults with whom they are apprehended committing a felony (unlawful crossing of an international border) are actually their parents or guardians and actually have their best interests at least somewhat in mind.
The entire "Trump is separating families" canard is bullshit. If you were on the USA southern border, facing drug cartels, human smugglers, a catastrophic level of rape, murder, etc., you would as a matter of first priority take all kids to a safe place and try to figure out what is going on with them and why they were being dragged across a border. To suggest otherwise is simply stupid. Or perhaps an endorsement of the pedophiles who seek to exploit at least some of these vulnerable kids.
If Obama did it too it makes it all worse, not better.
Both Favreau and Muñoz argued that the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border is different from the Obama administration’s handling of unaccompanied children.
“This policy is new, cruel, and unprecedented,” Favreau tweeted. “It was not an Obama policy. It was not a Bush policy. It was not a Clinton policy. That is a fact. And that is what all of us – Democrats and Republicans – should want changed as soon as humanly possible.”
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/migrant-children-in-cages-2014-photos-explained-2018-5#2r5K6ZxuoJyzyEaC.99
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a27813648/concentration-camps-southern-border-migrant-detention-facilities-trump/
There's an expert on concentration camps, try reading something longer that a Trump tweet.
Concentration camps, you know, that term you've tried call TS members liars over.
Hi Clusterfuck
Yes – I am aware that as you say lots of kids don't get far. They get blasted off the face of the planet.
America and Britain are good at killing women and children. They obviously are the kings of queens of death. They train very hard to be the best Killers.
But as you say, Every one does it, so why not Mr trump and Mrs Trump. It's a good thing to murder kids. After all Americans and English people are civilised. They have the right to do anything to anyone at any time.
I am glad the Asians are getting their act together so well. Trump knows he can't match them. And that will save a few lives.
Regards
I am sick and tired of straw man arguments.
I said that it is reasonable to separate kids from the adults they illegally cross an international border with, especially given the human trafficking, drug smuggling, rape and murder that are rampant along the USA southern border.
You go off on a tangent about blasting and killing kids.
I think we can all agree that killing kids is not good.
I think we can also agree that blindly leaving kids with cartels, smugglers and rapists is to be avoided too. Hence, law enforcement must separate the kids from the adults until facts are ascertained.
Do you disagree with doing this?
I suppose you support leaving kids with pedophiles, human traffickers, and the like?
Yeah! Much better to kidnap them, then take them to the camps where they can be sexually abused in peace.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/nearly-6000-complaints-of-abuse-at-migrant-children-shelters-made-over-four-years
trumps narrative on the surface appears like he is the good guy….. didn't attack because 150 people would have been killed. A lovely rhetoric in his election cycle.
However his apparent provocation towards war as per his current military movements in said zone speaks a different story. War kills more than 150 people and USA military movements appear to be encouraging war by baiting Iran.
His behaviour is of interest, but not praise worthy until more facts are revealed. This is due to his outstanding record of lies.
EDIT
So I just googled ‘trump lies’ and look what came up, article is 7 hours old and via Washington Post, link below…
Trump’s Iran reversal exposes one of his most dangerous lies
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/21/trumps-iran-reversal-exposes-one-his-most-dangerous-lies/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1c39a31fa890
Jeff Bezos' WaPo is hardly a reliable source.
No but Trump is aye. LOL!
More so than Chump cluckaduck.
Perhaps Trump recalled the state sponsored murder by the US of 290 passengers on Iran Air flight 655, and decided he couldn't go there again.
Yes – Trump has done the right thing for now. And ideally someone can get in his ear and persuade him to sack Bolton and Pompeo who have cooked up this pack of lies. The problem with Trump though is that there is a sense that anything good he does is inadvertent – and will be followed by something terrible a day later.
I assume that he remembers what his base wants (no new wars) and that he promised them that in 2016. If Trump can spin himself as the guy who avoided war with Iran (after nearly provoking it the first place, though he won't mention that) then he is going to get a bump in support. And in fact – if that was his strategy all along, then he may actually be the 'stable genius' he claims to be.
Trump is merely toying with the left yet again.
There was similar lefty outrage over the raised Mexican tariffs, yet that has prompted Mexico to help with the migration issue and work towards solving the problem.
🙄
The so-called "new" initiatives had been agreed between The US and Mexico weeks previously. There was nothing new in it. That has been reported by numerous sources, and was evidenced by the piece of paper Trump held in his hand during an interview.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/10/politics/trump-secret-deal-mexico/index.html
And from the Washington Post:
Essential the analysis is that this whole “Secret Agreement with Mexico” thing is just another giant helping of word salad from Trump.
So did Trump get the deal done or not? Sounds like he did.
https://www.ft.com/content/5d596ed2-9253-11e9-aea1-2b1d33ac3271
No he didn't get the deal done! It was already in existence before he threatened the tariffs. That's the whole point. It is just another example of how he perverts the truth. Like in the latest example of this air strike he called off. First he sets up the threat – then he backs off – but always the result was a foregone conclusion. He is simply playing to his base who, then think he is a marvel. Most Americans see through him now, and are growing tired of his antics.
Oh well, back to Twitter for a new talking point!![cheeky cheeky](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/tongue_smile.png)
Still it highlights the obvious fact that Mexico has been playing these refugees off against the USA. Most are fleeing violence and poverty in Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and staying, for many, could mean a death sentence.
Yet the obvious question arises, why is Mexico exempt from providing a safe haven for them? While it is a country with many problems of it's own, objectively it has a Human Development Index that's mid-range, and is capable of safely absorbing a considerable refugee influx. Yet for some reason most seem to want to make the arduous and dangerous trek with their children, the length of Mexico to the USA. If a simple fear for their lives was their primary motivation, this makes no sense.
The USA has every reason to think many refugees are primarily economic migrants, and that claiming asylum is simply a way to bypass normal legal migration.
Again I'm not diminishing the many complex and difficult stories that most refugees will have. Life in most developing countries, while improving generally, is still way harder than we are accustomed to in the developed world, and the very human motivation to move somewhere better is totally understandable.
Mass migration, like climate change, is a challenge no single nation is equipped to solve. Yes the Trump regime will make an ugly hash of it like it does pretty much everything else; what I object to is the left exploiting the misery of these people primarily to score points against Trump, rather than asking ourselves some hard questions about the issue in the whole.
Don't imagine for one minute that you speak on my behalf or understand my motivations. You show a distinct lack of understanding of any nuance that doesn't suit your globalist white is right fantasies.
"To score points against Trump." Yeah, cos that's all it is.
You also do not speak for the US, delusional to think you do:
"The USA has every reason to think many refugees are primarily economic migrants, and that claiming asylum is simply a way to bypass normal legal migration"
There will always be people trying to rort the system. Like you (and certain criminal administration) using economic migrants to hide behind.
So now the children have to deal with inhumane conditions, lack of rights, parental separation, assault, rape, deaths…
And you are OK with this but backtracked a bit now claiming you care – but the law, but the economic migrants, but the drug smugglers, what would you do, what's your plan… and on and on it goes.
Somehow, in your mind, they had it coming? You can't retract your poison it's printed here in black and white, screeds of it – 'reasonable' garbage:
"What did they expect if they illegally…"
Human rights, that's what I'd expect people to expect.
You show a distinct lack of understanding of any nuance that doesn't suit your globalist white is right fantasies.
Where did you get that particular piece of racist drivel from? Because I refuse to buy into the Universal White Guilt pogram the authoritarian collectivists insist is the only legitimate form of left wing expression allowed to white people.
Unsubstantiated allegations being the staple diet of authoritarians everywhere, why am I not surprised.
"What did they expect if they illegally…"
There is every reason to argue that a large fraction of the refugees arriving at the US/Mexican border are primarily economic. There is little reason to think they 'fled all the way through Mexico in fear of their lives'. (Or if they did, then exactly what the hell is wrong with Mexico and why are they not being held to account?)
Therefore entering into the USA undocumented is a choice they have made, and unlike you I still believe in the old fashioned idea that individuals are at least to some degree responsible for their actions.
Ah yes, the universal white pogrom. A term made by you for you to play victim. VICTIM. How TF you got there, well…
Apparently, a victim of racism. Same kind of line the Proud Boys trot out believing they are victims of feminism.
Real men are not afraid of others having rights.
"Unsubstantiated allegations being the staple diet of authoritarians everywhere"
then says
"There is every reason to argue that a large fraction of the refugees arriving at the US/Mexican border are primarily economic"
"I still believe in the old fashioned idea that individuals are at least to some degree responsible for their actions"
Yes, you are.
My crime it appears is that I hold all cultures and ethnic groups equal; of equal dignity and value. While at the same time valuing individual differences and diversity as a strength.
By contrast the authoritarian collectivists teach a doctrine that erases the individual and recognises people merely as members of a group. In this case I'm allocated as white, male, privileged and oppressor. And then insists my only legitimate response is one of guilt and contrition. This is bullshit, I refuse to be nothing more than an avatar for my group interests.
And is precisely why I annoy some people here so much. I have my own voice, my own experience and my own truth that I will speak to without fear.
As for my 'unsubstantiated allegations' … I made a reasonable case as to why most refugees at the US/Mexican border are probably economic in nature. Unless you can show these people were chased the length of Mexico by gun toting criminals, they cannot be said to be 'fleeing for their lives'. They may well be fleeing chronic poverty, violence and dysfunctional government in the homeland, but once they got to Mexico what is their pressing motivation to try to enter the USA? It's economic.
You accuse me of a lack of nuance, why then is the left silent on this?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-19/migrant-crisis-at-border-how-central-america-encourages-exodus?srnd=markets-vp
Maybe because it doesn't fit with the 'bash Trump at all costs' narrative?
Yeah nice speech. But you have shown your true colors.
You are an apologist. You took a similar 'reasoning' stance after the Christchurch attack.
"The white pogrom."
You sir, are pathetic. Much like Trump's admin trying to paint themselves as victims.
'What about the vets, whatabout the homeless' – yeah, they should fucking fix that shit too.
Instead, corporations siphon > $4000 pw per child. you could buy them a house with that.
History will remember every one of you trying to justify this shit. And so will I.
Done. Not worth reading or engaging with.
And in the end all you had was bluster and assertions of your moral superiority.
Doesn't even warrant opening Maui
US President Donald Trump: and
Mr Lopez Obrador: and
Nayib Bukele
I think he meant
Mexico's President Lopez Obrador and
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.
Do Brown people's titles not count? Why do you have one you sound mighty white.
Seems some self important Americans spinning shit as usual. Dare I now open it finding two counts of bias (prejudice?) in the excerpt…
Financial Times wants money for this drivel. I guess if you're a
wankbanker type you'd want some self reinforcement after a hard days trading and twerking.Total spin, try again. Or better yet, don't.
This whole 'Trump the humanitarian' story is probably BS. It's more likely the drone was within Iranian airspace anyway and this is Trump's way out and get some brownie points. Yes, I know this interpretation is just as likely/unlikely as any other. The first casualty in war is truth.
Would it be true to say that NZs don't know much but they know what they don't like – unfortunately any thinking stops there?
I never stop thinking, that'd be nice.
He has made America Great. oh yeah
He is the greatest President America has ever had. oh yeah
Is that the reason DonaldTrump is so disliked and ridiculed ? Also, America is no good at winning wars. North Korea was a terrible pathetic loss
But Vietnam, must go down as the greatest most useless war of all History. Americans, pure and simple are made for Golf and Baseball. That's all.
Nobody believes anything Mr and Mrs Trump prattle on about.
They couldn't take half of Vietnam, but love to bomb from their high ground.
If they start a war, will we be so stupid as to sign up. Why of course. White people in power are afraid of everything that is not a mirror.
Na cant see this government joining in . Another reason to be thankful the fucktard nats are out of power.
I hope our tax dept. is on to this.
House sold in 2011 for $7.55m sold 7 years later for $6.9m. A 8.6% decrease, whilst over the same time period houses increased by 100% 🤫
The wife of former ANZ New Zealand boss David Hisco bought the couple's Auckland family home from her husband's employer for substantially less than its capital valuation in 2017.
Deborah Walsh paid $6.9 million in July of that year for the lavish St Heliers property, less than the $7.55m ANZ paid when it bought the house in early 2011.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113661929/anz-bought-75m-beachside-auckland-property-for-david-hisco
There's a short discussion about this here if you are interested.
I'm sure the police will find insufficient evidence of that nice Mr Sirponyboy doing anything naughty.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/education/113205774/things-are-not-ok-students-at-experimental-school-speak-out
The education minister needs to go bang heads and sort this mess out . Dont experiment with kids futures.
All attempts at education are still experiments to my mind.. But the whackiest and silliest experiment would be the voucher system as proposed by Silly Seymore of the ACT party.
Market forces are blind, and cause almighty crashes. We should not be crashing any schools ever. There are kids in those schools.
Even that rubbishy argument "one size does not fit all" that the Charter schools used is silly: this particular school shows that central control is needed to limit risk. Experimentation should be done within the state system, with safety nets.
It would be wonderful if our Ministry of Education evaluated carefully what works, researched the same thing overseas, and proposed worthwhile policies. Instead, the Ministry seems intent upon covering the backsides of whatever educationally illiterate Govt is pushing bloody stupid policies at the time.
Sensible Sentencing Policy – Before being sent to Parliament politicians prior to elections shall have done a one year entry course covering philosophy of democracy and how to problem solve and critical analysis, and a few other things. Then three terms and they are ejected out of the cannon into a nice safety net like all prisoners should have.
coming to the nz film festival the documentary on Thomas Piketty’s book.
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/christchurch/capital-in-the-21st-century/
I have been looking for basic details on the NZIFF website and bring you the fruit of my peregrinations! This was list of dates and places late in 2018. My note: May be subject to changes so check, but for Auckland is right.)
NZIFF is run by a charitable trust and encourages lively interactions between films, filmmakers and New Zealand audiences in 13 towns and cities around the country. The dates confirmed for NZIFF 2019 are:
Last updated:
Friday, 5 October 2018
NZIFF – International Film Festival
Wellington dates 26 July – 11 August
I can't find any further information about date and have run out of time.
Helen Kelly – Together.
Correction: the printed NZIFF 2019 programme indicates ‘Helly Kelly – Together’ as receiving its World Premiere in Auckland. Its World Premiere is in Wellington.
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/wellington/helen-kelly-together/
Brexit could apparently be stopped in The House of Lords for
twoone year, if the EU would agree more time to allow more thoughtful discussion.https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/parliamentacts/
Parliament Act 1911
The result was the Parliament Act 1911, which removed from the House of Lords the power to veto a Bill, except one to extend the lifetime of a Parliament. Instead, the Lords could delay a Bill by up to two years. The Act also reduced the maximum lifespan of a Parliament from seven years to five years.
then
Parliament Act 1949
The Parliament Act 1949 further reduced the Lords' delaying powers to one year.
This Bill was under the Parliament Act group:
European Parliament Elections Act 1999
(so surely any EU matter would come under Parliament Act rules?)
This matter could be affected by the House of Commons Library briefings referred to at the end of the link page.
honestly why would the EU give them anymore time then they already did?
Why? Because England can't get its act together and do what they said they would / want to do? Exit.
I mean how much more meaningful discussion does the EU owe to England (leaving our Ireland and Scotland on purpose here) and the Tories as they are the ones that actually can't get their shit together?
Or is that a case of entitlement of 'i want all the benefits/privileges but non of the shared burden" ?
It's Northern Ireland, and labour, under Corbyn, have at no time looked like their shit is in one piece.
i should have been more precise, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland.
And i haven o idea what you are talking about re Corbyn. He is the leader of the labour party and is absolutely inconsequential and does not currently run the government. So yeah, not sure what you are on about.
It's still Northern Ireland. The republic isn't part of the UK. NI is.
And you wrote
Well, to be fair, labour have been all over the place on this too, and would, if in government, be equally as fractured over brexit as the tories are, perhaps more seeing most back benchers and party members are pro remain, despite some traditional areas voting to leave.
Anything else you need clarification on? Like using ‘then’ instead of ‘than’, for example?
i was leaving out Republic of Ireland – part of the EU and staying, and Scotland who is wondering about holding another referendum of independence so to be able to join the European Union. They are not the ones responsible for the current mess that is 'great britain' and the great embuggerance that is brexit and tory leadership.
"This great Brexit outsourcing calamity has turned us all into semi-informed pundits, required to have a clear view on issues that are complicated, mysterious and unknowable. It’s like being trapped at a three-year-long dinner party with guests you don’t know or particularly like. We’re all thoroughly fed up with it and want to go home. Except that our former home seems impossibly out of reach."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/21/climate-emergency-citizens-assemblies-public-politics
Pat I'm sure that expresses thoughts perfectly.
Sabine
The EU might feel like kicking UK but its a destabilising thing to have them leaving. What the EU could do is look at what to do to make it more relevant to the various countries and reduce Greeces austerity etc and keep the EU strong – it is as near to sanity as any large bloc of countries and we need some sanity.
you do remember that england voted to leave?
and you do remeber that the EU is not a single person/country but a group of people and countries of which England voted to not be part anymore.
so frankly, it is time for England to carry the consequences of its action, as a reminder that voting has indeed consequences.
so frankly the only ones i pity are those under 40 …..but the rest? Will have to learn to live with Tory England and all its english grown, invented, made into law austerity that over the last few years has killed so many.
joe90 posted a link further down that is very informative. If you click through and explore the map showing all the ties it is a very illuminating depiction of the fossil fuel industry supported by Trump admin and various other players (PR, media, nationalist parties…) interference pushing for Brexit on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.
And then – a big carve up on whatever public utilities they can get hold of: a typical disaster capitalist MO.
https://mondediplo.com/outsidein/brexit-climate-deniers
So yeah, the waters are muddy as all hell – I'm leaning towards deliberately muddied.
Poets muddy at their waters – to make them appear deep.
ExKiwi
Have you had a chance to see this (if you wanted to)?
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/christchurch/danger-close-the-battle-of-long-tan/
Honouring the unheralded bravery of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in the ‘Battle of Long Tan’, one of the most savage and decisive engagements in ANZAC history, director Kriv Stenders’ film is a war story of uncommon emotional intensity. Daunting combat scenes recall the against-the-odds bravado of Lone Survivor and Black Hawk Down, but it is the internal fight of the men outnumbered – and how they chose to define heroism in the moment – that resonates loudest of all.
“On 18 August 1966, for three and a half hours in a rubber plantation called Long Tan, Major Harry Smith and his inexperienced company, of mainly conscripts, fought for their lives against 2,500 seasoned Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. With their ammunition running out, casualties mounting, and the enemy massing for a final assault, each man searches for the strength to go forward with honour, decency and courage. A tremendous cast… bring the battle and each soldiers’ heroism vividly to life. Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan is the important story of men caught up in a politically unpopular war, whose courage has long been under-acknowledged.” — Sydney Film Festival
Cheers for the link Grey, I got an email from my local RSL saying its hitting the screen here in Darwin. I hope to see this one on the big screen as I missed seeing 6 Days on the big screen.
I see the ockers keep referring to the OC of D Coy 6RAR, old Harry Smith as the hero of Long Tan. But if you ever read the books on the of Long Tan or watch a few interviews, Harry would say it was the 3 Kiwi's (Willie Walker RNZAC, Murray Broomhall and Capt Maurice Stanley both RNZA that made up his FO party at Coy HQ and his CSM Jack Kirby that made his job a lot more easy to do. Capt Stanley use to a speaking tour once a yr around the major NZ Army bases until he passed away a few yrs ago and talking about what happen on that day. There are a lot of unsung hero's that not only in D Co, but also those back a Nui Dat which had only been est a few mths early after their from Bien Hoa Airbase on the other side of Saigon.
The BC, Major Harry Horner for 161Bty pretty much ran the whole Fire Support for D Coy out of 161 Bty HQ even his aussie CO move in to oversee the him and pretty much left him to get on with the job of running 18 guns plus the Yank 155mm Bty of 4 or 6 guns and Air Support and he making sure the gunners didn't run out of ammo which they almost did at one time. In which yanks started to fly it in by the truck load as it got very despite to a point, I believe yanks even offer B52 bombers which was politely turned down as the troops were like 50-100m apart which the yanks couldn't believe at the time.
Those not involve were running crates (2per crate) of 105mm rounds to the gunline either from the shell dump and later from the LZ's dotted around the Dat. Heck even two very NZ officials one a civvie and the other was the senior NZ officer in South Vietnam (both old Gunners from WW2) tour around 161's lines at the time muck in to move the rounds.
Little Pattie was having her rock concert at the time and she was and she about 1 as the first rds went down range and the first 18 gun fire mission went down range, she remembered seeing people getting very calmly garb their gear buggering off and the fourth or sixth 18 gun fire mission she had stuff all punters left. By that time someone decide to get her and I think Col Joy out of the Dat and to Vung Tau. She recalls looking out of the Huey seeing the whole of the Dat in a flash of red as all the guns were firing by that stage non stop and think am I ever going to see the boys again as she thought that Nui Dat was under attack at that time. Only to realise sometime later that the guns were supporting D Coy who were in a lot of trouble at the time.
The Battle of Long Tan pretty much broke the back of VC/NVA forces Phuoc Tuy and with skills that the Australians and Kiwis learnt from their time in Malaya and Borneo almost of all Phuoc Tuy (about 90-95%) was a not go area with very much reduce operations until the ANZAC's left in 71-72 as they realise these guys weren't like the yanks nor fought like them either.
On my last trip to Phuoc Tuy, I managed to a chat to a few ex VC/ NVA vets when their minders weren't present as the Government doesn't like talking about ANZAC's activities in Phuoc Tuy because of Long Tan. The local vets have a lot of time for the Aussies and Kiwi's soldiers and I also manage to get some range time as well shooting a few rifles and MG's with me knocking all the tgts over including their version of a Jungle lane with them acting as Range safety. Turning around to them they had a nod and smile, but I didn't also I realise had a peanut galley following as well watch me shoot etc apparently they were giving the young lads and ladies a lesson on how to move and shot in the Jungle. As these westerners from Australia and New Zealand know how to live and fight in the jungle and you want them on your side not the other way. As one of youngers ask why is the frang shooting etc.
The Battle of Long Tan by Lex McAulay is a good read along with Harry Smith's Book is another good read and there is one other which I don't have on the Battle of Long Tan.
Maire Leadbeater is an indefatigable campaigner in solidarity with the struggle for freedom by oppressed peoples in the Pacific.
Her new book, 'See No Evil', is on the struggle in West Papua and really should be read by anyone/everyone in this country concerned with human rights and freedom.
I recently interviewed her for Redline: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/06/21/the-freedom-struggle-in-west-papua-interview-with-solidarity-activist-author-maire-leadbeater/
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Thanks for the post the Phillip, as I had a read of it last night when I couldn't sleep (bloody nightmares from Peacekeeping) and I wouldn't mind buying the book as I last yr spent my sick leave prior to my medical discharge at the chief library in the NT Government buildings reading about West Papua, East Timor and ANZUK Forces in SEA.
But until the various left wing unions, organisations, political parties and individuals from Australia and NZ that give active and moral support to President Sukarno, and to his Communist Party apologise in supporting President Sukarno and his actions in West Papua after the Dutch were booted out in some rather dodgy events by the UN and by the Yanks.
From the evidence I've seen the yanks pretty much forced Brits, Dutch and Australians hands over West Papua which in turn meant that NZ really had no choice in the matter but full in as they couldn't do SFA about it from a diplomatic or military POV. Just like ET in 1975 when old Bill Rowling had to after he had put the NZ Armed Forces in Standby and then cancel the Standby alert ass the Brits and Australia did SFA about it and no doubt the Yanks had a hand in it as well.
I have always consider Marie to a be the smartest one from her family unlike her idiot brother Keith who couldn't make a Peacekeepers asshole no matter how hard he tried to be one, or both of her parents after what happen in Blackball in the 30's and the fact that she had that crazy pom (just read his RN service records aka FAA and Dolphins he is mad as a cut snake) as a partner in crime but a top bloke as well. But it was her comments during and after INTERFET that she realise the need to have well trained and well equipment combat forces for Peacekeeping/ Peace Enforcement missions such INTERFET was in the end a Chapter 6 1/2 mission on NZ's door step. I finally thought had that they would now fully understand the need for such people like me, my cousin in the NZ Army at the time with NZBATT1, all my mates in the NZDF at time of ET and Lenny's death in ET wasn't in vain after all.
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More Shock and Horror from the maniacal world of Trumpland.
I mean – you couldn't make this shit up!
😠
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/01/trumps-regulation-eo/515007/
and caring about the environment is for suckers and besides humans are not either a profit centre (kids in cages is good business) or a cost centre (army veterans that need medical care or housing).
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html
Yeah the mayhem that f**king vandal is causing is just simply tragic. The EPA – which was actually established under Nixon's presidency (which I always find hugely ironic). Now under Trump's two grievous Secretary appointments (Pruitt and now Wheeler) the EPA has been reduced to a shell, and rubber stamps anything and everything industry wants. All references to climate change have been removed from their website and experienced researchers have been dispersed to the winds.
Just the other day the EPA approved the release (and application) of a pesticide that is highly toxic to bees.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-epa-oks-emergency-use-bee-killing-pesticide-13-9-million-acres/5681109
End game genocide?
Allow air pollution, radiation, add to diversity loss and (subsequent) crop loss, and bring climate change denial to a town near you.
Could he possibly make it worse? Of course he can. Flint water for all!
But don't worry – when you get ill there won't be "ObamaCare" but there will always be that beautiful US health plan "TrumpDoesn'tCare".
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12242932 Despairs for justice: menacing encounter…22/6/2019
Reading about the sleazy invaders from the UK who trailed trash everywhere they went, spoiled their food when they had eaten most of it and then declared it contaminated and refused to pay, stole anything they wanted, and created mayhem – (now we know how Maori felt prior to signing the Treaty) – there is a feeling of foreboding and horrified fascination reading about the further misadventures of the Dorans now they are back 'home'.
This link is about the Dorans:
Irishtravellers who have invaded a once quiet hamlet in the area of Wychavon District Council, Worcestershire, England.Last line of article: 'Have we really reached the stage where one family can hold a village to ransom for £600,000 and still have the law on their side?'
I don't know about the priorities of UK Councils. I read a while ago about the banning of a design on a headstone for a dedicated snooker? player having his hobby pictured on his gravestone at the public cemetery. Whether they can handle out-of-society family gangs is unclear.
Masters of the fucking universe want it all.
New evidence reveals how a tightly concentrated global network of politicians and corporations with close ties to the Trump administration is working on behalf of powerful US fossil fuel interests in Britain and Europe.
Several candidates who were in the running to become the next British Prime Minister — Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Andrea Leadsom, and Steve Baker — are part of this pro-Trump network.
The evidence comes thanks to a network map produced by independent investigative media outlet DeSmog UK, exposing for the first time the astonishing array of connections between President Donald Trump, right-wing lobbies in the US, and far-right parties in the UK and Europe.
Published after a leaked recording showed US secretary of state Mike Pompeo threatening to interfere in British democracy to block opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, the map unveils the extent to which US corporate lobbies with a direct line to senior Trump officials are backing both mainstream British politicians and European far-right extremists.
https://mondediplo.com/outsidein/brexit-climate-deniers
"Masters of the fucking universe want it all"
They do @ Joe. The funny thing is that they're the first to scream for mummy if and when it all goes tits up – and eventually, it always does
That behind the scenes network seems to connect to a comment put up yesterday alleging widespread corruption in high places in the UK and presenting information to prove – I can't find it in TS now so will put up the link again.
http://www.gordonbowden.co.uk/finchley-road-fraud/?fbclid=IwAR3o0mDUbbdB7RthKToalhbkgKQll5_NcEAL4Y5Z0OVO3zeq61jWBX4WFaI
Mod – Any chance of cutting 14.1 down to size? If you have time.
[Done. You’re welcome]
Meanwhile Oregon….
Republican law makers awol and heading to the hills:
https://www.vox.com/2019/6/21/18700741/oregon-republican-walkout-climate-change-bill
FYI
I've just spent most of the past hour on what is best described as a conference call with somewhere in Californ I Aye – customers taking advantage of a 7-11.
How far removed in terms of a daily life from Trump's America.
What did become evident however is that lil 'ole NuZull remains ( just as it always has ) as the pimple on the arse end of the Whurl if and whenever the shit hits the fan.
Maybe there's a lesson in all of that eh possums?
A quiz – a little bit light-hearted for political junkies.
From Andrew Gunn 22/6 The Press – Stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/113656559/when-fiction-is-almost-more-believable-than-the-truth
I don't think there is a spiritual hell – it is with us now and when we die we shall be free. It is not ISIS that is at fault, it is the male accession to violence and desire to in control and be powerful. And it is a mark of weakness and desperation and hollowness that kills.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12242923 Murder in the Atlas Mountains: Two Scandinavian women brutally slain by IS supporters 22/6/2019
page does not exist
I think it's a Dec 2018 story. Herald fails again. Propoganda machine trying to gear up. doh, try again morons.
Do a google search on the title GWS gave – it shows there was a Herald story with new (2019) dates added. Same victims…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Louisa_Vesterager_Jespersen_and_Maren_Ueland
Perhaps the trial is happening now & they were attempting to cover that?
BBC has coverage.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48132880
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12242923
– I think this at the end of the link, if left in would be the flugelhorn in the woodpile.
I was hoping to search my comments but I got 'nothing'.
So I thought that didn't work, I'll try it in reverse, so I entered 'nothing' but didn't get any of me, just about 50 nothings. So there are some spare if someone needs some nothing.
Cars have knock for knock – what about cyclists/pedestrians.
Cyclist who knocked over woman on phone must pay up to £100,000.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/21/cyclist-crashed-into-woman-mobile-phone-pay-compensation-london
But not #ConcentrationCamps.
/
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – The Trump administration argued in front of a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells, despite a settlement agreement that requires detainees be kept in “safe and sanitary” facilities.
All three judges appeared incredulous during the hearing in San Francisco, in which the Trump administration challenged previous legal findings that it is violating a landmark class action settlement by mistreating undocumented immigrant children at U.S. detention facilities.
“You’re really going to stand up and tell us that being able to sleep isn’t a question of safe and sanitary conditions?'” U.S. Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon asked the Justice Department’s Sarah Fabian Tuesday.
https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-tell-9th-circuit-detained-kids-safe-and-sanitary-without-soap/
Multiple times a month, U.S. Border Patrol arrives at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson with “noticeably pregnant women,” according to an OB-GYN resident who works there. The hospital’s obstetric triage department is essentially an emergency room for pregnant people, and officers with the federal immigration agency regularly bring in newly apprehended pregnant migrants for medical evaluations. Once the hospital visit nears its end, multiple health-care providers have said Border Patrol “pressures” them to provide a “cleared for detention letter.”
[…]
The health-care providers confirmed that the obstetric triage department is not the only unit receiving Border Patrol’s request for letters clearing migrants for detention. Staff working in the trauma department and the hospital’s emergency room have also received these requests to “clear” migrants for detention who were experiencing health emergencies like renal failure.
“At least once a week a doctor is writing one of these letters,” Varner said. “People come to us in such bad shape, like 45-year-old men in [immigration] custody who are dying from the flu, but Border Patrol is still at the hospital asking for a letter clearing them for detention.”
https://rewire.news/article/2019/06/12/immigration-officials-health-care-providers/
Seems the reckoning is that if you're cruel enough to children all those brown people will simply stop coming and 'Murica will safe.
https://twitter.com/studentactivism/status/1142059826220081152
Of course these kids have no one to blame but themselves for breaking the law, eh^^.
/
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1142210733020712960
A chaotic scene of sickness and filth is unfolding in an overcrowded border station in Clint, Tex., where hundreds of young people who have recently crossed the border are being held, according to lawyers who visited the facility this week. Some of the children have been there for nearly a month.
Children as young as 7 and 8, many of them wearing clothes caked with snot and tears, are caring for infants they’ve just met, the lawyers said. Toddlers without diapers are relieving themselves in their pants. Teenage mothers are wearing clothes stained with breast milk.
Most of the young detainees have not been able to shower or wash their clothes since they arrived at the facility, those who visited said. They have no access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or soap.
“There is a stench,” said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, one of the lawyers who visited the facility. “The overwhelming majority of children have not bathed since they crossed the border.”
http://archive.li/UwcY0
About Hisco's prowess. Bernard Hickey writes:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/392358/bernard-hickey-the-smiling-assassin-returns-for-his-biggest-hit 18/6/2019
Hisco successfully managed the merger [with National Bank] with barely a blip in customer service and market share. He also quietly presided over a reduction in ANZ's exposure to dangerous dairy loans, flicking on some of the weakest lenders to other banks. For example, ANZ let Allan Crafar move his more than $200 million of loans to Westpac before the poorly managed farming group collapsed under a welter of animal mistreatment allegations and effluent treatment fines. Westpac suffered heavy losses in the subsequent receivership and sale of Crafar Farms….
A much less intrusive and public inquiry into bank conduct and culture here by the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank found the big four in New Zealand had better cultures than Australia, despite some breaches, but it failed to name and shame any culprits. Effectively, the banks here got off light.
However, the veil was beginning to slip in recent months, particularly around ANZ. The Reserve Bank announced in mid-May it had discovered ANZ had not been using the correct model for calculating its own capital for five years, apparently due to an internal oversight. This came at the same time as the Reserve Bank was proposing banks effectively double their capital reserves at a cost of more than $20 billion. The Reserve Bank immediately ordered ANZ to increase its capital by $285 million to $760 million….
Hisco has always appeared a gregarious and robust character when I've interviewed him. He was popular inside the bank and widely recognised as the head of New Zealand's banking scene, rivaled only perhaps by the Reserve Bank Governor. ANZ is also enormous, relative to the size of the New Zealand economy. Its loans and capital are worth $163 billion, or just over half of New Zealand's GDP. ANZ produces almost $2 billion of profit each year, making it New Zealand's most profitable entity and its biggest private company…
Key said yesterday a relatively junior staffer was responsible for the model failure. Quite rightly, the Reserve Bank would question why the chief executive and the chairman did not know.
Key's removal of Hisco was the least he could do to protect the bank, to show leadership for the big four banks' reputations here, and to protect his own position, especially in the eyes of the ANZ group board, which he is a member of.