Auckland: the sow with multiplying nipples for gorging piglets.
Before selling the port I think we should be sitting lots of people down and asking them…
"Do you think the value you bring to Aucklanders would attract a $200k salary in the private sector?"
When in financial strife the first thing a shallow imagination turns to is 'What can we sell?'
This Covid thing will linger. If we can stay free in NZ and testing improves… Older people feel the Covid threat more than most, older people Cruise and the Covid stigma around Sea Cruises will linger. NZ Pure.
All of the Cruise line companies are desperate to set their floating assets free.
Auckland Central retail needs a shot in the arm. Cruise liners queuing up could be just the trick.
Ironclad, foolproof double-checked testing would need to be a rite of passage. Customers would be delighted to be subjected to such a comprehensive test regime. The 60+ crew are real keen to avoid the Wuhan Wheeze.
Tourists tying up in downtown Auck would grease the path for directing sea bound freight to Whangarei and a fast rail link to those blossoming suburbs in outer West Auck, Kumeu etc. Give those new suburbians a job that starts next door.
Events at the Canterbury DHB are very worrying. Between the lines, looks like a case of the board running the place like a business (and a hopelessly struggling business due to chronic underfunding) while the executive try to maintain patient services.
The solution is to just properly fund the thing and to reject the "austerity" model of public health that NZ has embraced.
Costs way more in the long run than just providing good health care. I have direct personal experience with several cases where the cost to both the individual and society has been massively increased by rationing of healthcare. Has caused long periods of disability and eventually much more costly interventions – and certainly zero actual savings. And it seems everyone you talk to has similar stories.
Are there any examples in NZ where adopting a business model to 'run' a public service has been at least a moderate success in the medium-to-long term? Such an approach in the NZ tertiary education sector has certaintly compromised the quality, if not the quantity of university 'product'.
It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses – we get what we pay for.
On a related manner, for my sins I listened to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman talking to Karen Haye on Radio NZ last night. Firstly I didn't think much of Karen's interviewing style. Questions with a negative assumption, that supported Gorman theory that our Covid response has been "egregious". Gorman wants to take the covid response out of the Govts hand and apparently the problem with the Govt and the Mof H has not been the strategies (which I assume will remain as contract tracing and quarantine) but the problem has been governance. He must have used this word 5 times in 5 minutes………he thinks our contract tracing services has performed extremely poorly. And his example went something like this "Karen if you and I had a car factory and we produced cars and the brakes didn't work and we were in a court of law it wouldn't be enough if we said, well we thought that the brakes were being made properly"……………….Hay didn't pull him up on this and any of his bullshit and it was bullshit.
I say hand the covid response over to gorman and his mate Horne now! Its great to know when the next case slips through the border that Gorman will say "I am accountable! This is what good governance looks like". NZers will so appreciate that.
I thought Gorman came across as an pompous arrogant arse
Was it only 5 minutes? it seemed like 10, but it was painful, yes he repeated the word governance every 30 seconds. I think he had a mini light-bulb moment towards the end, when he conceded that politicians were only good at …. governing! (I paraphrase) but it sounded like he almost destroyed his complete argument right there.
Again in Stuff (no link sorry) there is and interesting graphic showing breakdown of the current MIQ hierarchy of management. It does look complicated but anyone with half a brain can see that it would be very difficult with any restructuring, not to still have the need for the myriad of parts at the bottom requiring a number of people working collectively near the top. To use his own car analogy, the wheels of the car don't go round without fuel (and fuel systems) electricity (and electrical systems) oil (and oil systems) coolant (and cooling systems) pistons, valves, bearings, gears, shock absorbers, etc etc etc
And behind all this is Murray Horn whose ideological bent is ACT
Aj the interview was from memory 17 minutes, but 5 was all I could bare! Thanks for filling me in on how it panned out and yes I think it was about every 30 seconds he used the word governance!! Hilarious that he conceded in the end politicians are good at governing! What a dick………..and Horn is ACT eh? Well it all makes a lot of sense. Surprized old Gorman didn't start talking about Air bnbs Returnees isolating in air bnb scattered through out the land! What could possibly go wrong. I wonder if Act is trying to pick up the air bnb vote!
Uncooked S
I noticed a piece from an ex Treasury guy, Tony Burton, on the right hand feed last night and commented on it which I have pasted below.
I think it refers to your comment at 2.1.1 pasted here:
But I think it has a lot more to do with evidence-free ideology – the proponents just think it must be the best or only way, because. 2.1.1
Yesterday I pasted this at 35 on OM 21/8 in my comment:
...When I was part of the government machine I was struck by how little understanding even those receiving the eye-watering fees to teach “Masters in Public Policy” have of the way government operates. (If you want an example, look up “policy cycle” in a textbook on government where you will find a hamster wheel schematic and text describing how, apparently, government is run by hamster bureaucrats scuttling round it.)…
This is a one-eyed interpretation:- At its most extreme, a former Chief Executive of MSD commanded “no problems without solutions” so only problems that had already been solved could be presented to senior managers…
…Ministers very rarely talk to people at the front line. Their decisions are largely informed by meetings with people at the upper end of the hierarchy who are equally ignorant of what is happening where services are delivered.
DTB was thinking along similar lines at 15.3 OM 21/8 when he put:
"Climate change is proof that our economic system is uneconomic and, for the majority of people, that will be hard to swallow. For the economists and politicians its even harder as they've based their entire careers and life on it.
As the saying goes: Its difficult to get a person to understand something when their job depends upon them not understanding it."
Outsourcing firms miss 46% of Covid contacts in England's worst-hit areas
Serco and Sitel paid £200m to test and trace, but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts in some regions
….Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the system was not “world-beating”, as the prime minister had said. “The biggest mistake was making it a commercially run thing. That was never going to work,”
It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses
There's no must in there.
The whole reasoning for the shift from public service management is because of the myth that business runs things better than the public service model. Research is coming out now that shows that there's much of a muchness between the two (still just humans after all) but for public services, such as hospitals, the public service model is better in that its more efficient and produces better outcomes.
A lot of the time, it's not so much that it's easier as that they have a conceptual block. I've seen a number of nonprofit clusterfucks in Dunedin over the years, and the fault is either enthusiasts who dream big but can't run a pissup in a brewery, or managers who think their job is to say "we can't afford it, wind up" rather than working out, well in advance, how we can afford it.
Company directors who started it from the ground up because they love widgets, know everything about widgets, and have no interest in making anything other than widgets are the exception – their objective is to make widgets, the money is a bonus. They would be making widgets in their shed upon retirement.
Generally, though, in business the company directors don't really care what the company produces, as long as it makes money. They might dominate an industry, but if that industry dies they'll just as happily move on to something else. Nintendo used to make playing cards, Western Union used to send telegrams (until surprisingly recently), and so on.
So they cut underperforming units without realising what the units add to the body as a whole. They reward managers who waste resources by spending their time making petty savings on inventory – paperclips, towels, patient wifi. They ignore "friends of" groups that could raise tens of thousands of dollars if only someone told them about the financial difficulties before the winding-up meeting – or even told them about the winding-up meeting, at least. They don't ask the staff which managers are essential and which ones seem to have gained themselves a sinecure with no clear role. They hire consultants without bothering to ask the people they literally pay to know about that stuff.
You get a corporate exec who cares about the organisation's role, they bring the skills and the will and they can be fucking brilliant. They'll restructure finances to cut costs (e.g. rather than friendly businesses charging a cut rate, the non-profit can pay full rate and the friendly business makes a tax-deductible donation, so it actually costs them less to essentially give stuff for free), leverage their knowledge of the local wealthies to reach into their pockets, make damned sure everyone's legally compliant so there's no GST or liability surprise, and so on. But many don't get the point that they're there to help the organisation do its thing, not get in the way.
The solution is to just properly fund the thing and to reject the "austerity" model of public health that NZ has embraced.
And get rid of the board.
Being voted onto a health board doesn't magically give people the necessary expertise to be in such a position and, really, its just more bureaucracy for no apparent gain.
Costs way more in the long run than just providing good health care.
Yep. Another example where cutting immediate running costs ends up costing far more due to the job not being done well enough in the first place.
NZ does cheap and nasty (which it seemingly inherited from Britain) and then wonders why everything costs more.
Local boards are a way of helping services meet the needs of the local population, rather than Wellington. But they can also become handy scapegoats for problems (like underfunding) that are caused by Wellington.
Boards also need to have significant representation from people who work in the organisation. If all the board members are accountants or lawyers with spare time, they run it like a business and harm the system. Their decisions might be right and proper, but they have an impulse to err on the side of winding services up, and have little knowledge or experience of maintaining connections with stakeholders within the community.
There is a belief that governance is fundamentally interchangable – that a board of company directors can run an opera company or a rescue helicopter trust. They cannot. But a frew out-of-sector directors can add strength through diversity.
I'm tending towards a rule of thirds: 1/3 industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 1/3 community stakeholders, 1/3 unrelated professionals.
I'm tending towards a rule of thirds: 1/3 industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 1/3 community stakeholders, 1/3 unrelated professionals.
I think I'd prefer sevenths: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 2/7 community stakeholders, 2/7 unrelated professionals.
Just to give that little extra weighting to the industry practitioners.
It may be worth going for: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 3/7 community stakeholders, 1/7 unrelated professionals.
Especially considering that some of the community stakeholders could also be part of the group of unrelated professionals.
Basically, if we look at a health board I'd expect "a chunk" to be doctors or other people who work directly for that board, another "chunk" being stakeholders like patient advocacy groups or primary healthcare. The remaining "chunk" can be lawyers and accountants, because they'll be better placed to see if the CEO is hoodwinking with the accounts – not fraud, just polishing the occasional turd.
A small theatre might conflate stakeholders and employees, but the result still needs to be that a hefty chunk of people on the board have practical experience in that industry (including the fact it tends to run from grant to grant and one bad or good show can dramatically change outlook).
A couple of token staff reps in a board of twelve is largely ineffectual. Having nobody who can read a set of accounts, knows the difference between operating expenditure and capital expenditure, and knows basic business law (especially conflicts of interest) is likewise asking for trouble.
The great Steven Joyce has a column in the Herald. Don't bother reading it. It is full of dodgy assumptions and dodgy lies. Scraping the barrel he is and offers no credible insight. Another failed old MP. (I can read Premium thanks to my son's workplace connection.)
Thanks for sparring us Ianmac. And thanks whoever gave the headsup yesterday that a link posted contained an article from Peter Dunne. Sometimes there is only so much crap you can read or listen to. Speaking of which I have just posted about listening to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman last night. So that is my contribution to filtering to save others from having to listen.
I can't help but wonder/hope that with Covid NZders start to get a little more critical and see through the bullshit. So whenever the media or whoever talk about the shambles that is our Covid response people can think well hold on a minute….UK has just borrowed something like 3 trillion pounds. 200+ cases in Victoria and everyday a tragic number of deaths………are we really that bad??????? this is why I think Trumps statements actually help us.
yes, trump spewing nonsense about NZ can only help the current gov . nats are associated with trump, and are trying to flick him off, but like snot on glass, he still leaves a trail.
I don’t usually bother but I read Armstrong’s column on TVNZ online. He spent the whole column describing the ways that Judith is a train bearing down on a hapless Jacinda only to say in his summation that Jacinda’s current stratospheric polling means she’ll do fine on Election Day and the real casualties will be ACT, NZFirst and the Greens. It was a total crock of shit.
That is almost always true for those who put forward their beliefs and desires as fact which, unfortunately, seems to include nearly every reporter in the country.
An in-depth article on Stuff (no link sorry) about the Covid Card which is being trialled. A weakness that is not talked about, is that it won't help in cases of picking up the virus from surfaces. A person could touch a surface and leave virus on it and then move on. Minutes later half a dozen people could touch the same surface but their cards, or the original person's card, will never register with each other.
I'm still a fan of this card, but this article does reveal some of the concerns associated with it. For example it appears all the cards need to be around the same height above the ground to register with each other??
Consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith of Cambridge University and The Naked Scientists returns to digest emerging Covid-related science and research. This week, a new study suggests that children are an important vector for the virus, what sounds like some encouraging news about post-infection immunity, and could herd immunity really work when just 20 percent of a population test positive?
Skin cells could be a vector for the virus, possibly floating like aerosols. Russian announcement that their immunity producing vaccines will last for two years. Dr Chris Smith says that cannot be stated as a fact, as the virus has only been worked on for 8+ months. Proper trials need to be carried out over two years to verify the situation.
Agreed, in fact the article suggested they need to be outside clothing. If it won't work from your pocket/wallet I can't see it being a goer. The article did discuss social acceptance.
Just in case you have missed it..the DNC has quite literally told ( I am talking in political optics here ) the growing progressive wing of that party to fuck off! we are not your party and you have no place within it.
So sure Biden is marginally better than the walking talking disaster that is Trump, but let's just be honest with ourselves here…he is nothing more than a talking head for the same old US hegemonic exceptionalist neocon's along with wall st and US corporate interests that POTUS always represent at the expense of the rest of the world…and their own citizens….Yep Biden and the DNC is just as happy to let the planet burn as Trump and the RNC are and make no mistake about that…
DNC’s Flip-Flop on Fossil Fuel Subsidies Follows Deep Ties the Industry
"The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions."
Not really much point in us debating, if you can't see that the Biden administration will be just another Republican lite corporate/wall st/military and prison industrial complex circle jerk just like that shill Obama's was, despite all the actual evidence staring you in the fucking face then whats the point?…none.
I wouldn't hold it against anyone who voted Biden in the US, but to actually think he and the DNC will be progressive is just plain delusion..he and the DNC are nothing more than pro choice republicans, that is just a fact, and will probably prove to be even more hawkish in foreign policy than Trump.
Trump…Obama's legacy..who knows what Biden's will be?
The day after Biden is elected he and the DNC will be in meetings with Goldman Sachs and the rest of their corporate owners…but I guess you already know that.
Since when have you starting listening to Bernie?…since he scrubbed out his lines in the sand and became a toothless, trained dog who stopped barking and biting at the enemy at the gates…not surprising.
He was my second choice in the primaries behind Warren, so personal politics wise, we have a fair amount in common.
I do find it saddening how ultra, only lefty in the village types who once clung to his every word, now insult him as "a toothless, trained dog". That, to me, speaks volumes. Someone working on the inside to get policy wins, despite being roundly rejected at the polls, clearly plays the long game for the greater good, rather than just grandstanding wishes and reckons from the edge of the rim on the very outside of us politics.
Good to know you're not a Bernie bro, now. I guess you're looking for the next most un electable candidate to throw your support behind. Good luck.
I’d agree that they are often unfunny. But they specialise more in dark satire than simple humour. More Jonathon Swift satirising the pompous dimwits of his day than a Benny Hill play things for laughs.
I realise that distinction, that is perfectly obvious to me, may escape you. I tend to view your thinking as tending toward very straight line direct thinking than nuanced. But if you observe what they do closely, they tend towards using barbed similes – designed more to elicit a feeling of horror than those to elicit laughs.
Personally I find actual comedians rather boring and predictable. However I do like these two.
Trevor Noah is a deep and thoughtful commentator? When did that remarkable transformation occur?
By “dark satire”, do you mean Noah’s and Colbert’s three and a half years of grim but nutty fantasy about those dastardly Russian masterminds who have seized control of America?
It has been pretty damn obvious to anyone who is technically competent on the net. They have a tendency to be rather blatant about it. Approximately a fifth of the volume or hack attempts on this site come from Russian networks – some of which have very interesting network patterns. While US networks are our largest load of hack attempts. Most of them come from a relatively small group of dodgy server farms that anyone can rent for a dime or pretty obvious botnet captured machines.
It has been interesting over the years watching what some of the offshore hacks do after they fall into one of my honey traps (I set them up for Slater and co about 2013). About 8-10% aren’t commercial patterns (ie not spammers or obvious botnets) which I suspect is a lot higher than most non-political sites. Anyway if I want to drop the server loads, I usually just turn off access to bingbots, then I turn off access to the whole of easter Europe, and then exclude about 50 US server farms
However in this case Colbert and Noah were just repeating the reports of every security company or intelligence agency who looked the the raw data. The most recent was the bipartisan Senate report looking at pervasive Russian intelligence contacts with the Trump campaign – that look deliberate on both sides.
But basically I’d have to say that you’re a raving naive fool to think that there wasn’t a strong intelligence inspired influencer campaign in the 2016 election to get exactly the chaotic administration that Trump provides. It was less crude reprise of what has been happening in Russian border states for decades now.
I’m not particularly worried about it. The online tactic only really works for a short time. There was a limited real affect – probably actually less electoral effect than the daft electoral college system provided. And it warned every other state that they have to watch for it again (it was a very common pattern back in the 20th as well). The network system operators are now aware of it as well. They tend to being somewhat more abrupt about dealing with it.
Which is the long form of saying that I think, with what I consider is good reason, that you’re often rather deluded. However that is a personal opinion and doesn’t get fed into the moderator lprent role – who is more concerned with online behaviour.
BTW:
Trevor Noah is a deep and thoughtful commentator?
I couldn’t possibly agree with that – apart from anything else because I didn’t say it. I said that they were satirists.
Bad idea to try to put words into my mouth or anyone else. That is bad behaviour to lie about what someone else said.
It has been pretty damn obvious to anyone who is technically competent on the net. They have a tendency to be rather blatant about it. Approximately a fifth of the volume or hack attempts on this site come from Russian networks
Interestingly the small site I have also has a good number of "visitors" from Russia, including Leningrad.
The recently released Bi-Partisan Senate Intelligence Report into Russian interference in the 2016 election is highly damning (all 996 pages of it). It goes much further than the Mueller Report.
Manafort hired and worked closely with Russian national Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the committee definitively calls a "Russian intelligence officer" that served as a liaison between him and Deripaska.
On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to pass sensitive internal polling data and campaign strategy to Kilimnik. The committee was unable to determine why or what Kilimnik did with that information, in part due to the pair's use of encrypted messaging apps.
The committee did, however, obtain "some information" suggesting Kilimnik "may have been connected" to Russia's hacking and leaking of Democratic emails. The section detailing these findings is largely redacted.
They weren’t restricted to a criminal proprietorial standard – so they were able to say what their balance of probability said what actually happened.
Fortunately on this site, I’m not restricted to even that standard. I operate on any possible threat rather than probable. The constraining factor is resources (especially my time).
Thanks for asking, well I can't vote Labour here because they have given us the twin insults in the John Key loving Anna Lorke in Tukituki and if I registered in Napier, Stuart Nash who is probably ruing that he didn't drift to what is obviously his natural home in the National Party, because he would probably be leader of that party now.
So maybe Green/Green for what it's worth, which is fuck all…pity they didn't have the balls to elect Sue Bradford when they had the chance, someone who has the strength of character to really fight (and I mean really fight) for the working classes and disenfranchised of this country. and not just talk about it like everyone else in NZ politics today.
Sue Bradford used a lot of her capital getting the no-smacking bill through which does not appear to have reduced violence one iota. If she was a practical woman she would have been getting anti-bullying workshops for kids into schools, showing how kids can feel strong and good about themselves, and maybe turn bullys away with a quip and a raised eyebrow.
Yes she is good, but like many left progressives, goes for hoping people will turn to the good side, just because they should. We all need to change, and it takes a mental effort and someone demonstrating and upskilling us, not just feelgood preachiness.
I have meet her and can tell you she is a practical woman and she knows what drives the human condition better than most, she has actually lived a real life outside politics unlike nearly every single high ranking politician in NZ on both sides.
"Sue Bradford used a lot of her capital getting the no-smacking bill through which does not appear to have reduced violence one iota."
Maybe Bradford was playing a longer, aspirational game with a generational payoff – if fewer children are thrashed by their parents, then when those children (in the fullness of time) become parents maybe they will be a little less likely (on average) to thrash their own children. We can but hope.
I was pleased when the bill was passed (in 2007), and that it withstood various protests, petitions and even a referendumb ["Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"] to get it overturned. Whatever its faults, the message of the legislation is clear, and good IMHO.
I'm relieved you might be able to vote for grouping that can make enough internal compromises to attract a coalition of somewhere around 6% of the vote. I wasn't sure anyone electable would be able to live up to your standards.
I often think there is a bit of a disconnect between what the smug, holier-than-though pragmatic centre-left thinks of many vocally more radical lefties, and what the latter are actually like. I think there are quite a few people who argue passionately for more left-leaning philosophies and policies, pronouncing the centrist options to be confused, insincere and weak, but still quietly vote for them as the lesser evil when the choice comes around. On the other hand, many centre-left pragmatists profess theoretical support for more left-leaning ideas, while waxing eloquent about the qualities of 'electable' centrists, and smugly lecturing radicals about the nature of politics in a broad democratic electorate, as though everybody didn't know already. The fact, though, as far as I'm concerned, is that if the radical left were to quieten its rhetoric down to that brand of 'sensible' strategic thinking, the centre would end up considerably to the right very quickly.
So it's forgivable to vote for electable candidates, and even express respect for them at times, so long as you don't gush about it as though it were some kind of virtue.
As did I, Ad. Metiria and Sue both presented themselves very well, though at that stage, Sue appeared to be resigned to the likely outcome. She's a very strong and big-hearted woman and achieved a great deal for us all. Speaking one to one with Sue was a real eye-opener for me; she's a very "human" human, as distinct from her portrayal by the media of the time. Metiria, I liked very much also. She was as feisty as Sue but somehow suited the Party's needs more at the time. I found her various television interviews, especially those done by MaoriTV, to be remarkable vehicles for her wit and intelligence. Her downfall, or rather take-down, was awful, unpleasant and must have shaken her to the core. Both women deserve our highest respect, imo.
I am glad that she didn't get it. While i respect her achievements and incredible drive her mind is very much closed. I don't think she would have been able to bring the party along with her as a cohesive group.
I'm interested in outcomes, not just whether the politician involved is a sterling character. Hopefully waiting for possibly results in the next generation is what got us into the mess we in NZ are at present. Kindness coupled with practicality finds the most effective way to deal with the problem before it festers any further. We are all now dealing with neolib NZ that has ignored problems, not even cared, preferring to dismiss those with them as losers. Not satisfactory from our various governments.
The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions.
The dark side of the Dems. US voters must decide which shit tastes best. Will they lap up that shovelled by the Dems? Looks like that from the Reps is more unpalatable.
There is a Rep/Dem boundary to discussing voting in the US elections. I've just had a wee look at Wiki, there are heaps of choices. Unless you can only vote for the 'winning' team.
Adrian – you can set as many litmus tests as you like, but nobody is interested in dipping the test paper in the 'solution'. And they will just get angry at you for asking that they do.
Brianna Joy Gray writes in the article I have linked to: "if we accept the binary that your vote is either unconditional or pledged to Trump, it removes our ability to affirm the values which will remain important long after the election is over."
There are bottom line standards that if someone goes below them, it should be disqualifying. For instance, personal criminal corruption or credible rape accusations. The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden. At the time of Bill Clinton's elections, Broaddrick's accusations weren't public and indeed her public stance was she didn't have anything to accuse Clinton of doing. And neither Biden nor Clinton have had any credible accusations of criminal personal corruption.
Then there are litmus tests where multiple tests are set at extremely high levels, and the slightest falling short of any one of them is considered disqualifying. Those prone to setting these kinds of litmus tests set many bars at levels that are impractically high, such that any candidate that might clear all of them to the satisfaction of the test setter becomes unelectable to the majority of the electorate that don't share the exact same extreme views on the exact same set of priorities.
"The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden."
So you apply the litmus test to trump and accept the result but the result of the same test when applied to Biden is false?
Because Tara Reade has been convincingly demonstrated to be a serial fabulist. To the point where her fraudulent expert testimony claiming qualifications she didn't have may well have harmful repercussions on actual victims of sexual assault.
There has been zero corroboration of Reade's claims from people she worked with, and a key aspect of her claim was about being forced into a semi-private area on a specific route in the Senate building. No such semi-private area exists.
Her claims appear to be carefully presented in a way that precludes Biden from being able to prove his innocence. They are not specific about date and time etc etc.
Whereas there are a huge number of complaints against the stygian homunculus by women that don't have questions against their credibility, speaking to a pattern of behaviour. A pattern of behaviour that he is even on record as boasting about.
Checking facts and doing background research. You should try it sometime. It gives one a better grip on reality than existing solely within one's own initial prejudices.
Yes, your thorough and carefully selective research has conveniently led to your repeating exactly the concerted attacks on the character of that woman. Your "grip on reality" matches precisely the "grip on reality" of the party machine that has foisted Gropin' Joe, along with Gropin' Don, on the unfortunate voters of that benighted Republic.
You, on the other hand, can offer nothing to support your baseless contentions. And before you link to doctored video clips from right wing muck rackers, you need to know that we have seen those vile slanderous clips, and understand them for what they are.
The arguments in Current Affairs were all hashed out in the Democratic Primaries. They aren't relevant now. Unless you are part of the anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, or Outsider marginals.
There is absolutely nothing for the far left in the Biden-Harris ticket.
Biden = MidLeft Dem Corporate. Also one of the least wealthy in the Senate. He's in the middle of the Democratic party for left-leaning.
Harris = Authoritarian Dem Corporate. Fractionally more left leaning on voting record.
They have zero to offer the anti-authoritarian left at all.
They have zero to offer the anti-corporate left at all.
They have zero to offer the Outsider left at all.
Those groups vote Green or or Socialist or not at all.
The US is not a socialist country. Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go. Though obviously there is 10% of the electorate who would go further left. But 90% who don’t.
In that sense there are parallels with NZ. Only 5 to 10% of the country want to go left as the Greens, maybe a few percent more. It is indicative of the NZ mid point that the PM says she would not support a CGT while she is PM. I imagine she will have a 36% top tax rate for this election for incomes over $100 or 120k. Middle NZ will be fine with that.
You either have no knowledge of the long and honorable history of U.S. unionism and civil rights struggle, or you are a former National Party cabinet minister habituated to writing dishonest and misleading messages.
Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go.
???? You are deliberately, I think, misrepresenting the thoroughly discredited DNC as reflecting the wishes and policy preferences of American voters.
As acknowledged by most New Zealanders, in particular the hundreds of thousands who are abandoning your party right now, Jacinda Ardern is an extremely competent centrist politician.
I was personally very worried to learn she had worked for that arch criminal Tony Blair AFTER he had been one of the main conspirators in the destruction of Iraq, and I have been extremely disappointed that she allowed the Army and your political cronies to thwart Afghan victims of the N.Z. Army from appearing in our court during the Burnham inquiry. But in spite of those very grave reservations, I think she's done a fine job of holding this country together; the contrast with the treacherous behaviour of your colleagues is instructive.
The extreme left have done their job already. By supporting Sanders, and in turn by Sanders and team working on policy formation with Biden, the extreme left have pushed the policy platform as far as it's going to go.
I don't think they'll stay at home rather than vote.
In fact it's more likely that some of the Republicans will stay home and not vote.
Christ Wayne, you need to get out more beyond the cocktail set.
Levels of public ownership in the USA is very extensive, having been built up over more than a century, add to that, the level of direct consumer and worker ownership as well.
Such a welter of meaningless categories ('far left' , 'mid-left', 'authoritarian left'…) it is impossible to construct a response to it – other than note the overall inclination towards control and exclusion.
Barring accidents Biden will win -lets hope for a landslide and control of both houses as well. Some good things will follow and in time a lot of disappointment too. Pain and suffering will continue, and great wealth will continue to accumulate – both of these in the accustomed places.
Look like one of the rights attack vectors of speculation that the Government putting people into lock-down increased suicide rates is just another one of their may unscrupulous lies trying to win by hitting below the belt while the ref is not looking.
Suicide commentary unhelpful to Queenstown, mental health experts say. By Tim Brown
Speculation about the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the suicide rate is causing more harm than good, those in the mental health sector say.
The link between Covid-19 and higher suicide numbers first reared its head during the nationwide level 4 lockdown earlier this year.
Provisional figures from the Chief Coroner, released yesterday, show the opposite is in fact true with year-on-year suicide numbers down as well as a marked drop during the months of the lockdown.
However, the link has been drawn again since Auckland re-entered level 3 and the country moved to level 2.
ACT Party leader David Seymour for instance is quoted in the article as defending himself about what he said in Parliament with the words "You have to go by facts and not speculation," while it turns out from what the figures show that what he was saying was only speculation, and could possibly be harmful to.
Something I noticed by its absence was no mention of the actual figure of how many suicides there were in Queenstown for the year being talked about. There is still an element of keeping the unattractive fact out of the public gaze. This might alert others to what difficulties Queenstown has been causing for working people in finding affordable housing.
How is it an abuse of parliamentary privilege? The statements/speech raised legitimate questions about the cause of suicide. The media have a number of rules about how to discuss suicide and Seymour stayed within those guidelines.
It is not legitimate to shut down the debate of a very real and deep problem in the way those critical of Seymour were trying to do.
For instance when the farming sector has a finance or drought streak, farmer suicides increase. The farming community is very much aware of that and tries to provide more empathetic support than was historically was the case.
It seems a bit odd, certainly no rumours around my part of town that people are suiciding left, right and centre.
And adult suicide is more a peak of the cycle thing here, usually from people working too much, chefs and business owners working 100+ hours a week and it all going to shit.
Insurance jobs are more the bottom of the cycle thing.
A couple of our local actoids tried starting a suicide meme during the April lockdown but got shut down pretty quickly for spinning shit.
Would be interesting to see how many people committed suicide after your lot had ACC throw them off their long term claim rolls and onto the benefit system, loosing between $200 and $300 a week, and their houses as a concequence. All so "line goes up".
Or the young mother of 6 who killed herself in about 2016 or 17 after WINZ told her they werent going to pay for any more motel accomodation, leaving her parents to bring up the kids, who ended up having to stay in motel rooms, after being evicted from their state house on trumped up meth charges.
But I dont see you, your lot, or your supporters giving a shit about that, as long as your retirement nest eggs dont get taxed.
Not just any test, an Immigration NZ approved test:
Those coming from more far-flung parts of the world will have to find labs Immigration NZ has vetted and approved, or their test results might not be accepted.
The bribes will flow and water the poor, benighted, rich bludgers who have lost so much income due to the closing of the border.
Yeah, just another plan by National to get their funders hands into the publics till because you can guarantee that it will all be contracted out to the private sector. Another great recipe to increase corruption by National.
Gordon McDowell (who has spent over a decade documenting the next generation nuclear renaissance) has new clip of an Alberta panel discussion on nuclear energy and it's role in climate change from a completely non-technical perspective.
The CDHB Board is stacked with National Party stooges including a current candidate and the Gough family member.I see this as being political mischief. As an employee I have nothing but admiration for David Meates who has been very willing to be involved in solving some of the problems of the Mental Health sector. For Sue Nightingale to decribe the Board / Executive relationship as toxic and adverserial is interesting, she is a Psychiatrist with all the interpersonal skills required and thats her diagnosis.
A commissioner to oversee a manager for the board and a manager for the executive need to be appointed and answerable to the health minister through the commissioner because of the implosion. Matters should not have got to the stage they have got to.
What do Israelis and Jews everywhere have to say about this? Is the answer to be more what-about-ism and you-did-it-first and look-what-you-did we are just doing the same? And we must protect ourselves by showing us as ready to attack as vicious hornets do? Are they allowed to smite everyone by their religion? Did the Holocaust mean that they will be for ever cursed by that happening and the revenge response that they apparently have bred in their young people and embedded in compulsory army duty where they are taught hostility and can use violence and deadly force when they can make some excuse?
In the early hours of 7 August, Israeli Occupation force, in a night raid and home invasions in Jenin, shot and killed Dalia Samudi in her Jabariyat neighbourhood home. She received several bullet wounds in the chest while trying to close a window againstIsraeli Army tear gas; thesoldierseven opened fire on the ambulance that arrived to take her to hospital. Dalia was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at hospital and the 23-year-old woman’s new-born child is now motherless. The local Red Crescent Director, Mahmoud al-Sa’adi, confirmed to the Wafa News Agency that the ambulance, scarred with bullets, had been fired on by Israeli soldiers as it arrived to evacuate her.
Even when the daily update is given it is a guessing game. There is no precision with Covid. Were the number even zero in the community I would still be looking over my shoulder at times.
Something I just stumbled on, evedently in Australia, you can't leave the country, you are required to apply for an Exemption, the exemtions are listed here
Essential worker migrants are allowed in with an exemption. It's about having enough quarantine facilities here and flight availability from their country of departure. It's sad their countries of citizenship aren't taking care of said migrants workers while NZ borders are closed.
Thanks for link Cinny. I have signed. I think it is sad that NZ thinks it can turn the tap on for low-paid people when it wants, and then off again while they are still being processed or getting transport.
Accommodation is a problem, time is passing and they should be fixing this, the government excuse is wearing thin.
Petition is open till 14 September for those who give a damn.
She raised him and his siblings in the USA, away from the grieving. He became a believer in the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale.
"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are."
Another well written and researched opinion piece by Mr Glen Johnson via Al Jazeera.
Coronavirus and conspiratorial dog-whistles return to New Zealand
Amid a new outbreak, New Zealand's opposition is once again trying to leverage misinformation for political gain.
on Tuesday, Brownlee reiterated his claims, again engaging in scaremongering and conspiracy-baiting in the hope of drawing a tiny number of fringe voters to his party.
There is something deeply unappealing about a grasping politician who puts the personal pursuit of power above public wellbeing.
"A worker at the company’s Auckland parcel processing centre in Highbrook tested positive in mid-August and a second was diagnosed on Wednesday……Seventy people who work the day shift at the centre have been stood down on full pay, NZ Post chief operating officer Mark Stewart said…..“Following advice from health officials late last night our 70 people on the processing day shift are now in self-isolation until Saturday 29 August,” Stewart said.
But self isolation is for 14 days, 'late last night' must mean 15th August? unless their stand-down is only 7 days?
So.. written today, and 'last Tuesday ' was the 18th Aug. But the 102 day streak was broken a week earlier than that.
This is could be just sloppy writing and no editorial oversight, but is confusing and possibly misleading to the time-line of events it is reporting on. Why am I never surprised…
The conspirators need to be countered with the facts
[deleted]
[lprent: Perhaps you should understand that commenters need to get themselves educated about quoting and linking. Deleted what looked to be a dump of a whole CNN page complete with all of the side links. Assuming this is a person rather than dumb arse bot, I have removed it. Short quotes and a link please. We’re not disinterested in idiots violating copyrights. Maintaining auto moderation until we see a comment that doesn’t reek of stupid behaviour.]
Here's one man for Hosking to interview on ' How one literally creates a new f#k up at the border.'
"A business owner in managed isolation says he stopped eating for eight days to see if authorities would notice."
Peeved at not been given exceptional privilege he decides to try an experiment and concludes, ” I was right, no one has noticed.”
Despite the daily health care given Tony Everitt is a man on a mission to prove he has….?
Siouxie Wiles, the biochemist who has contributed a lot of easy to understand material throughout the pandemic so far, has written another useful and cogent article in the Spinoff on how to improve the Covid response, including an analysis of National's proposals. Worth a read.
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist in Avarua, Rarotonga China has confirmed details of its meeting with Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown for the first time, saying Beijing “stands ready to have an in-depth exchange” with the island nation. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters during his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ 2023 strategic foreign policy assessment, “Navigating a shifting world”, accurately foresaw a more uncertain and complex time ahead for New Zealand. But already it feels out of date. The ...
Our parliamentary throuple may be the longest running in the country, but cracks are showing. Gabi Lardies wonders if differing attachment styles may be to blame. Though no one ever anticipated happiness or roses in the three-way coalition, the relationship has wobbled on for over a year without breaking up. ...
As Mike White’s dark satire returns for a third season, we look back on some of The White Lotus’s most memorable characters. The White Lotus looks like a dream holiday, but this resort is anything but paradise. Set in an exclusive five star hotel resort, HBO’s award-winning series is a ...
Analysis: Would the last scientist to leave the building please turn out the lights? Because the confirmation of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US Secretary of Health suggests we’re heading back to the dark ages.It’s a sad irony that President John F Kennedy propelled America into the space age; now his nephew ...
The crux of my message today is that New Zealand needs to bend two curves. One is the long-term economic growth trajectory, which needs to bend upwards to expand our productive capacity and national real incomes. The second is our net public debt ...
Away from the tense scenes on the paepae, under a closely guarded canvas tent, te iwi Māori do the real work of Waitangi: talking. We were invited inside to listen. ...
The Jono & Ben star is self-aware and surrounded by extraordinary women in Three’s latest local comedy series. The first episode of Vince, written by and starring Jono Pryor, opens with intrigue, a loincloth and a man in the middle of some kind of breakdown. As the titular character, a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Barclay, ARC Future Fellow and Professor, Macquarie University Wikimedia “1,000 Letters and 15,000 Kisses” screamed the headline in an 1898 edition of the English newspaper, the Halifax Evening Courier. Harriet Ann McLean, a 32-year-old laundry maid, was suing Francis ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lena Wang, Associate Professor in Management, RMIT University Supplied/AppleTV+ The highly anticipated season two of Severance, released in weekly instalments, has continued to draw interest among viewers around the world. A gripping psychological thriller, this TV series provides an extreme ...
Has Chris Darby actually lost his mind?
He wrote to the government proposing that they buy 50% of Ports of Auckland off them, to help with the Council's dire financial straits.
He didn't tell the Mayor.
He appears to have had a few conversations with a few Councillors.
There appears to have been no Council report, or recommendation, or other advice from Council about it.
Councillor Darby, please explain.
Does he want a finder's fee?
His senior colleagues are already disowning him for it.
Auckland: the sow with multiplying nipples for gorging piglets.
Before selling the port I think we should be sitting lots of people down and asking them…
"Do you think the value you bring to Aucklanders would attract a $200k salary in the private sector?"
When in financial strife the first thing a shallow imagination turns to is 'What can we sell?'
This Covid thing will linger. If we can stay free in NZ and testing improves… Older people feel the Covid threat more than most, older people Cruise and the Covid stigma around Sea Cruises will linger. NZ Pure.
All of the Cruise line companies are desperate to set their floating assets free.
Auckland Central retail needs a shot in the arm. Cruise liners queuing up could be just the trick.
Ironclad, foolproof double-checked testing would need to be a rite of passage. Customers would be delighted to be subjected to such a comprehensive test regime. The 60+ crew are real keen to avoid the Wuhan Wheeze.
Tourists tying up in downtown Auck would grease the path for directing sea bound freight to Whangarei and a fast rail link to those blossoming suburbs in outer West Auck, Kumeu etc. Give those new suburbians a job that starts next door.
Events at the Canterbury DHB are very worrying. Between the lines, looks like a case of the board running the place like a business (and a hopelessly struggling business due to chronic underfunding) while the executive try to maintain patient services.
The solution is to just properly fund the thing and to reject the "austerity" model of public health that NZ has embraced.
Costs way more in the long run than just providing good health care. I have direct personal experience with several cases where the cost to both the individual and society has been massively increased by rationing of healthcare. Has caused long periods of disability and eventually much more costly interventions – and certainly zero actual savings. And it seems everyone you talk to has similar stories.
Are there any examples in NZ where adopting a business model to 'run' a public service has been at least a moderate success in the medium-to-long term? Such an approach in the NZ tertiary education sector has certaintly compromised the quality, if not the quantity of university 'product'.
It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses – we get what we pay for.
" It must be easier for CEOs/boards, and cheaper for governments, to run public services as businesses "
Maybe – although harder for the public and more expensive for society I believe.
But I think it has a lot more to do with evidence-free ideology – the proponents just think it must be the best or only way, because.
On a related manner, for my sins I listened to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman talking to Karen Haye on Radio NZ last night. Firstly I didn't think much of Karen's interviewing style. Questions with a negative assumption, that supported Gorman theory that our Covid response has been "egregious". Gorman wants to take the covid response out of the Govts hand and apparently the problem with the Govt and the Mof H has not been the strategies (which I assume will remain as contract tracing and quarantine) but the problem has been governance. He must have used this word 5 times in 5 minutes………he thinks our contract tracing services has performed extremely poorly. And his example went something like this "Karen if you and I had a car factory and we produced cars and the brakes didn't work and we were in a court of law it wouldn't be enough if we said, well we thought that the brakes were being made properly"……………….Hay didn't pull him up on this and any of his bullshit and it was bullshit.
I say hand the covid response over to gorman and his mate Horne now! Its great to know when the next case slips through the border that Gorman will say "I am accountable! This is what good governance looks like". NZers will so appreciate that.
I thought Gorman came across as an pompous arrogant arse
Was it only 5 minutes? it seemed like 10, but it was painful, yes he repeated the word governance every 30 seconds. I think he had a mini light-bulb moment towards the end, when he conceded that politicians were only good at …. governing! (I paraphrase) but it sounded like he almost destroyed his complete argument right there.
Again in Stuff (no link sorry) there is and interesting graphic showing breakdown of the current MIQ hierarchy of management. It does look complicated but anyone with half a brain can see that it would be very difficult with any restructuring, not to still have the need for the myriad of parts at the bottom requiring a number of people working collectively near the top. To use his own car analogy, the wheels of the car don't go round without fuel (and fuel systems) electricity (and electrical systems) oil (and oil systems) coolant (and cooling systems) pistons, valves, bearings, gears, shock absorbers, etc etc etc
And behind all this is Murray Horn whose ideological bent is ACT
Aj the interview was from memory 17 minutes, but 5 was all I could bare! Thanks for filling me in on how it panned out and yes I think it was about every 30 seconds he used the word governance!! Hilarious that he conceded in the end politicians are good at governing! What a dick………..and Horn is ACT eh? Well it all makes a lot of sense. Surprized old Gorman didn't start talking about Air bnbs Returnees isolating in air bnb scattered through out the land! What could possibly go wrong. I wonder if Act is trying to pick up the air bnb vote!
Uncooked S
I noticed a piece from an ex Treasury guy, Tony Burton, on the right hand feed last night and commented on it which I have pasted below.
I think it refers to your comment at 2.1.1 pasted here:
Yesterday I pasted this at 35 on OM 21/8 in my comment:
...When I was part of the government machine I was struck by how little understanding even those receiving the eye-watering fees to teach “Masters in Public Policy” have of the way government operates. (If you want an example, look up “policy cycle” in a textbook on government where you will find a hamster wheel schematic and text describing how, apparently, government is run by hamster bureaucrats scuttling round it.)…
This is a one-eyed interpretation:- At its most extreme, a former Chief Executive of MSD commanded “no problems without solutions” so only problems that had already been solved could be presented to senior managers…
…Ministers very rarely talk to people at the front line. Their decisions are largely informed by meetings with people at the upper end of the hierarchy who are equally ignorant of what is happening where services are delivered.
https://democracyproject.nz/2020/08/21/tony-burton-govt-depts-debacle/
This article can be republished under a Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Attributions should include a link to the Democracy Project. With Bryce Edwards involvement.
.
DTB was thinking along similar lines at 15.3 OM 21/8 when he put:
"Climate change is proof that our economic system is uneconomic and, for the majority of people, that will be hard to swallow. For the economists and politicians its even harder as they've based their entire careers and life on it.
As the saying goes: Its difficult to get a person to understand something when their job depends upon them not understanding it."
Meanwhile the UK's outsourced contact-tracing is expensive and a disaster:
There's no must in there.
The whole reasoning for the shift from public service management is because of the myth that business runs things better than the public service model. Research is coming out now that shows that there's much of a muchness between the two (still just humans after all) but for public services, such as hospitals, the public service model is better in that its more efficient and produces better outcomes.
There is more money in it for the management class.
A lot of the time, it's not so much that it's easier as that they have a conceptual block. I've seen a number of nonprofit clusterfucks in Dunedin over the years, and the fault is either enthusiasts who dream big but can't run a pissup in a brewery, or managers who think their job is to say "we can't afford it, wind up" rather than working out, well in advance, how we can afford it.
Company directors who started it from the ground up because they love widgets, know everything about widgets, and have no interest in making anything other than widgets are the exception – their objective is to make widgets, the money is a bonus. They would be making widgets in their shed upon retirement.
Generally, though, in business the company directors don't really care what the company produces, as long as it makes money. They might dominate an industry, but if that industry dies they'll just as happily move on to something else. Nintendo used to make playing cards, Western Union used to send telegrams (until surprisingly recently), and so on.
So they cut underperforming units without realising what the units add to the body as a whole. They reward managers who waste resources by spending their time making petty savings on inventory – paperclips, towels, patient wifi. They ignore "friends of" groups that could raise tens of thousands of dollars if only someone told them about the financial difficulties before the winding-up meeting – or even told them about the winding-up meeting, at least. They don't ask the staff which managers are essential and which ones seem to have gained themselves a sinecure with no clear role. They hire consultants without bothering to ask the people they literally pay to know about that stuff.
You get a corporate exec who cares about the organisation's role, they bring the skills and the will and they can be fucking brilliant. They'll restructure finances to cut costs (e.g. rather than friendly businesses charging a cut rate, the non-profit can pay full rate and the friendly business makes a tax-deductible donation, so it actually costs them less to essentially give stuff for free), leverage their knowledge of the local wealthies to reach into their pockets, make damned sure everyone's legally compliant so there's no GST or liability surprise, and so on. But many don't get the point that they're there to help the organisation do its thing, not get in the way.
And get rid of the board.
Being voted onto a health board doesn't magically give people the necessary expertise to be in such a position and, really, its just more bureaucracy for no apparent gain.
Yep. Another example where cutting immediate running costs ends up costing far more due to the job not being done well enough in the first place.
NZ does cheap and nasty (which it seemingly inherited from Britain) and then wonders why everything costs more.
Local boards are a way of helping services meet the needs of the local population, rather than Wellington. But they can also become handy scapegoats for problems (like underfunding) that are caused by Wellington.
Boards also need to have significant representation from people who work in the organisation. If all the board members are accountants or lawyers with spare time, they run it like a business and harm the system. Their decisions might be right and proper, but they have an impulse to err on the side of winding services up, and have little knowledge or experience of maintaining connections with stakeholders within the community.
There is a belief that governance is fundamentally interchangable – that a board of company directors can run an opera company or a rescue helicopter trust. They cannot. But a frew out-of-sector directors can add strength through diversity.
I'm tending towards a rule of thirds: 1/3 industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 1/3 community stakeholders, 1/3 unrelated professionals.
Sounds good balance Mcflock.
I think I'd prefer sevenths: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 2/7 community stakeholders, 2/7 unrelated professionals.
Just to give that little extra weighting to the industry practitioners.
It may be worth going for: 3/7 for industry practitioners (or employees for large organisations), 3/7 community stakeholders, 1/7 unrelated professionals.
Especially considering that some of the community stakeholders could also be part of the group of unrelated professionals.
I wasn't really parsing the exact fractions.
Basically, if we look at a health board I'd expect "a chunk" to be doctors or other people who work directly for that board, another "chunk" being stakeholders like patient advocacy groups or primary healthcare. The remaining "chunk" can be lawyers and accountants, because they'll be better placed to see if the CEO is hoodwinking with the accounts – not fraud, just polishing the occasional turd.
A small theatre might conflate stakeholders and employees, but the result still needs to be that a hefty chunk of people on the board have practical experience in that industry (including the fact it tends to run from grant to grant and one bad or good show can dramatically change outlook).
A couple of token staff reps in a board of twelve is largely ineffectual. Having nobody who can read a set of accounts, knows the difference between operating expenditure and capital expenditure, and knows basic business law (especially conflicts of interest) is likewise asking for trouble.
“Biden Barn Burner”
Even the Drudge Report thought he did OK
I saw a clip of him on our news last night & got an emotional lift! He'd not only awoken, he seemed both serious & staunch.
He was great, I didn't expect to be so emotionally stirred by Joe Biden's speech.
It's worth watching, he offers hope and his words find common ground, good work Joe and co. Looking forward to the debates.
Full speech – 24.27
I think you're giving him too much credit. Just reading off a teleprompter is easy, any idiot can do it.
(it’s worth clicking through to watch on youtube so you get to read the comments)
Cheers Andre, will check it out.
Edit… LMFAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He really is a decent guy.
Well worth the 2 min watch. And a brave 13 year old.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1296640406046867456
Wow
beautiful.
And now stutter truthing is a thing. Assholes gonna asshole.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/21/1971201/-Oh-look-a-stutter-truther-Must-be-a-big-Trump-supporter
The great Steven Joyce has a column in the Herald. Don't bother reading it. It is full of dodgy assumptions and dodgy lies. Scraping the barrel he is and offers no credible insight. Another failed old MP. (I can read Premium thanks to my son's workplace connection.)
Thanks for sparring us Ianmac. And thanks whoever gave the headsup yesterday that a link posted contained an article from Peter Dunne. Sometimes there is only so much crap you can read or listen to. Speaking of which I have just posted about listening to 5 minutes of Prof Gorman last night. So that is my contribution to filtering to save others from having to listen.
I can't help but wonder/hope that with Covid NZders start to get a little more critical and see through the bullshit. So whenever the media or whoever talk about the shambles that is our Covid response people can think well hold on a minute….UK has just borrowed something like 3 trillion pounds. 200+ cases in Victoria and everyday a tragic number of deaths………are we really that bad??????? this is why I think Trumps statements actually help us.
yes, trump spewing nonsense about NZ can only help the current gov . nats are associated with trump, and are trying to flick him off, but like snot on glass, he still leaves a trail.
I don’t usually bother but I read Armstrong’s column on TVNZ online. He spent the whole column describing the ways that Judith is a train bearing down on a hapless Jacinda only to say in his summation that Jacinda’s current stratospheric polling means she’ll do fine on Election Day and the real casualties will be ACT, NZFirst and the Greens. It was a total crock of shit.
That is almost always true for those who put forward their beliefs and desires as fact which, unfortunately, seems to include nearly every reporter in the country.
Why would anything written by Joyce be characterized as "Premium"? No wonder the Gerald is going down the tubes.
Printed on three-ply.
An in-depth article on Stuff (no link sorry) about the Covid Card which is being trialled. A weakness that is not talked about, is that it won't help in cases of picking up the virus from surfaces. A person could touch a surface and leave virus on it and then move on. Minutes later half a dozen people could touch the same surface but their cards, or the original person's card, will never register with each other.
I'm still a fan of this card, but this article does reveal some of the concerns associated with it. For example it appears all the cards need to be around the same height above the ground to register with each other??
Interesting stuff on Radio nz from the UK based virologist.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018760655/virologist-dr-chris-smith-latest-covid-19-science
Consultant clinical virologist Dr Chris Smith of Cambridge University and The Naked Scientists returns to digest emerging Covid-related science and research. This week, a new study suggests that children are an important vector for the virus, what sounds like some encouraging news about post-infection immunity, and could herd immunity really work when just 20 percent of a population test positive?
Skin cells could be a vector for the virus, possibly floating like aerosols. Russian announcement that their immunity producing vaccines will last for two years. Dr Chris Smith says that cannot be stated as a fact, as the virus has only been worked on for 8+ months. Proper trials need to be carried out over two years to verify the situation.
Lanyards are annoying. People won't wear them.
Agreed, in fact the article suggested they need to be outside clothing. If it won't work from your pocket/wallet I can't see it being a goer. The article did discuss social acceptance.
Also a health and safety issue in a lot of occupations.
Just in case you have missed it..the DNC has quite literally told ( I am talking in political optics here ) the growing progressive wing of that party to fuck off! we are not your party and you have no place within it.
So sure Biden is marginally better than the walking talking disaster that is Trump, but let's just be honest with ourselves here…he is nothing more than a talking head for the same old US hegemonic exceptionalist neocon's along with wall st and US corporate interests that POTUS always represent at the expense of the rest of the world…and their own citizens….Yep Biden and the DNC is just as happy to let the planet burn as Trump and the RNC are and make no mistake about that…
DNC’s Flip-Flop on Fossil Fuel Subsidies Follows Deep Ties the Industry
"The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions."
https://readsludge.com/2020/08/18/dncs-flip-flop-on-fossil-fuel-subsidies-follows-deep-ties-the-industry/
Where a broken clock is still correct twice a day, a broken record is just cracked and pointless.
Oh, and…
Sen. Bernie Sanders Worked With Biden To Potentially Create The “Most Progressive Agenda Since FDR
Bernie Sanders – Mobilizing Progressives for Biden | The Daily Social Distancing Show
Not really much point in us debating, if you can't see that the Biden administration will be just another Republican lite corporate/wall st/military and prison industrial complex circle jerk just like that shill Obama's was, despite all the actual evidence staring you in the fucking face then whats the point?…none.
I wouldn't hold it against anyone who voted Biden in the US, but to actually think he and the DNC will be progressive is just plain delusion..he and the DNC are nothing more than pro choice republicans, that is just a fact, and will probably prove to be even more hawkish in foreign policy than Trump.
Trump…Obama's legacy..who knows what Biden's will be?
“We’re going to come together to defeat Trump,” Sanders told "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah on Friday. “And the day after Biden is elected, we’re going to have a serious debate about the future of this country, but it will be done within the framework of a democratic society.”
Good luck with that meeting, Bernie, if the sad left stay home or vote for Kanye or other loser candidate, and reelect Trump by default.
Interesting to see that now Sanders is working from the inside, the emergence of the ‘more Bernie than Bernie’ splinter faction.
The day after Biden is elected he and the DNC will be in meetings with Goldman Sachs and the rest of their corporate owners…but I guess you already know that.
Unlike you, I'm just listening to what Bernie said on TV.
Since when have you starting listening to Bernie?…since he scrubbed out his lines in the sand and became a toothless, trained dog who stopped barking and biting at the enemy at the gates…not surprising.
He was my second choice in the primaries behind Warren, so personal politics wise, we have a fair amount in common.
I do find it saddening how ultra, only lefty in the village types who once clung to his every word, now insult him as "a toothless, trained dog". That, to me, speaks volumes. Someone working on the inside to get policy wins, despite being roundly rejected at the polls, clearly plays the long game for the greater good, rather than just grandstanding wishes and reckons from the edge of the rim on the very outside of us politics.
Good to know you're not a Bernie bro, now. I guess you're looking for the next most un electable candidate to throw your support behind. Good luck.
Well done, in not stooping to snide, unhelpful name calling in reponding to Al1en.
Are there two comedians less funny than Colbert and Noah in the entire United States? Roseanne Barr, possibly.
I’d agree that they are often unfunny. But they specialise more in dark satire than simple humour. More Jonathon Swift satirising the pompous dimwits of his day than a Benny Hill play things for laughs.
I realise that distinction, that is perfectly obvious to me, may escape you. I tend to view your thinking as tending toward very straight line direct thinking than nuanced. But if you observe what they do closely, they tend towards using barbed similes – designed more to elicit a feeling of horror than those to elicit laughs.
Personally I find actual comedians rather boring and predictable. However I do like these two.
Trevor Noah is a deep and thoughtful commentator? When did that remarkable transformation occur?
By “dark satire”, do you mean Noah’s and Colbert’s three and a half years of grim but nutty fantasy about those dastardly Russian masterminds who have seized control of America?
I wouldn’t call Russian intelligence masterminds.
It has been pretty damn obvious to anyone who is technically competent on the net. They have a tendency to be rather blatant about it. Approximately a fifth of the volume or hack attempts on this site come from Russian networks – some of which have very interesting network patterns. While US networks are our largest load of hack attempts. Most of them come from a relatively small group of dodgy server farms that anyone can rent for a dime or pretty obvious botnet captured machines.
It has been interesting over the years watching what some of the offshore hacks do after they fall into one of my honey traps (I set them up for Slater and co about 2013). About 8-10% aren’t commercial patterns (ie not spammers or obvious botnets) which I suspect is a lot higher than most non-political sites. Anyway if I want to drop the server loads, I usually just turn off access to bingbots, then I turn off access to the whole of easter Europe, and then exclude about 50 US server farms
However in this case Colbert and Noah were just repeating the reports of every security company or intelligence agency who looked the the raw data. The most recent was the bipartisan Senate report looking at pervasive Russian intelligence contacts with the Trump campaign – that look deliberate on both sides.
But basically I’d have to say that you’re a raving naive fool to think that there wasn’t a strong intelligence inspired influencer campaign in the 2016 election to get exactly the chaotic administration that Trump provides. It was less crude reprise of what has been happening in Russian border states for decades now.
I’m not particularly worried about it. The online tactic only really works for a short time. There was a limited real affect – probably actually less electoral effect than the daft electoral college system provided. And it warned every other state that they have to watch for it again (it was a very common pattern back in the 20th as well). The network system operators are now aware of it as well. They tend to being somewhat more abrupt about dealing with it.
Which is the long form of saying that I think, with what I consider is good reason, that you’re often rather deluded. However that is a personal opinion and doesn’t get fed into the moderator lprent role – who is more concerned with online behaviour.
BTW:
I couldn’t possibly agree with that – apart from anything else because I didn’t say it. I said that they were satirists.
Bad idea to try to put words into my mouth or anyone else. That is bad behaviour to lie about what someone else said.
Interestingly the small site I have also has a good number of "visitors" from Russia, including Leningrad.
The recently released Bi-Partisan Senate Intelligence Report into Russian interference in the 2016 election is highly damning (all 996 pages of it). It goes much further than the Mueller Report.
They weren’t restricted to a criminal proprietorial standard – so they were able to say what their balance of probability said what actually happened.
Fortunately on this site, I’m not restricted to even that standard. I operate on any possible threat rather than probable. The constraining factor is resources (especially my time).
Accurate.
Adrian, off-topic but I'm genuinely curious: which party do you support for the election here 8 weeks from now?
Thanks for asking, well I can't vote Labour here because they have given us the twin insults in the John Key loving Anna Lorke in Tukituki and if I registered in Napier, Stuart Nash who is probably ruing that he didn't drift to what is obviously his natural home in the National Party, because he would probably be leader of that party now.
So maybe Green/Green for what it's worth, which is fuck all…pity they didn't have the balls to elect Sue Bradford when they had the chance, someone who has the strength of character to really fight (and I mean really fight) for the working classes and disenfranchised of this country. and not just talk about it like everyone else in NZ politics today.
Sue Bradford used a lot of her capital getting the no-smacking bill through which does not appear to have reduced violence one iota. If she was a practical woman she would have been getting anti-bullying workshops for kids into schools, showing how kids can feel strong and good about themselves, and maybe turn bullys away with a quip and a raised eyebrow.
Yes she is good, but like many left progressives, goes for hoping people will turn to the good side, just because they should. We all need to change, and it takes a mental effort and someone demonstrating and upskilling us, not just feelgood preachiness.
I have meet her and can tell you she is a practical woman and she knows what drives the human condition better than most, she has actually lived a real life outside politics unlike nearly every single high ranking politician in NZ on both sides.
Maybe Bradford was playing a longer, aspirational game with a generational payoff – if fewer children are thrashed by their parents, then when those children (in the fullness of time) become parents maybe they will be a little less likely (on average) to thrash their own children. We can but hope.
I was pleased when the bill was passed (in 2007), and that it withstood various protests, petitions and even a referendumb ["Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"] to get it overturned. Whatever its faults, the message of the legislation is clear, and good IMHO.
Thanks.
I'm relieved you might be able to vote for grouping that can make enough internal compromises to attract a coalition of somewhere around 6% of the vote. I wasn't sure anyone electable would be able to live up to your standards.
I often think there is a bit of a disconnect between what the smug, holier-than-though pragmatic centre-left thinks of many vocally more radical lefties, and what the latter are actually like. I think there are quite a few people who argue passionately for more left-leaning philosophies and policies, pronouncing the centrist options to be confused, insincere and weak, but still quietly vote for them as the lesser evil when the choice comes around. On the other hand, many centre-left pragmatists profess theoretical support for more left-leaning ideas, while waxing eloquent about the qualities of 'electable' centrists, and smugly lecturing radicals about the nature of politics in a broad democratic electorate, as though everybody didn't know already. The fact, though, as far as I'm concerned, is that if the radical left were to quieten its rhetoric down to that brand of 'sensible' strategic thinking, the centre would end up considerably to the right very quickly.
So it's forgivable to vote for electable candidates, and even express respect for them at times, so long as you don't gush about it as though it were some kind of virtue.
I went to a couple of those Green leadership contests.
Bradford was so easy to respect. I too wish she'd got it. But that's a fair time ago now.
As did I, Ad. Metiria and Sue both presented themselves very well, though at that stage, Sue appeared to be resigned to the likely outcome. She's a very strong and big-hearted woman and achieved a great deal for us all. Speaking one to one with Sue was a real eye-opener for me; she's a very "human" human, as distinct from her portrayal by the media of the time. Metiria, I liked very much also. She was as feisty as Sue but somehow suited the Party's needs more at the time. I found her various television interviews, especially those done by MaoriTV, to be remarkable vehicles for her wit and intelligence. Her downfall, or rather take-down, was awful, unpleasant and must have shaken her to the core. Both women deserve our highest respect, imo.
I am glad that she didn't get it. While i respect her achievements and incredible drive her mind is very much closed. I don't think she would have been able to bring the party along with her as a cohesive group.
I'm interested in outcomes, not just whether the politician involved is a sterling character. Hopefully waiting for possibly results in the next generation is what got us into the mess we in NZ are at present. Kindness coupled with practicality finds the most effective way to deal with the problem before it festers any further. We are all now dealing with neolib NZ that has ignored problems, not even cared, preferring to dismiss those with them as losers. Not satisfactory from our various governments.
The DNC quietly removed language from the party platform yesterday that endorsed an end to fossil fuel subsidies, after voting two years ago to allow itself to accept fossil fuel PAC contributions.
The dark side of the Dems. US voters must decide which shit tastes best. Will they lap up that shovelled by the Dems? Looks like that from the Reps is more unpalatable.
There is a Rep/Dem boundary to discussing voting in the US elections. I've just had a wee look at Wiki, there are heaps of choices. Unless you can only vote for the 'winning' team.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_party_and_independent_candidates_for_the_2020_United_States_presidential_election
Adrian – you can set as many litmus tests as you like, but nobody is interested in dipping the test paper in the 'solution'. And they will just get angry at you for asking that they do.
Brianna Joy Gray writes in the article I have linked to: "if we accept the binary that your vote is either unconditional or pledged to Trump, it removes our ability to affirm the values which will remain important long after the election is over."
Thanks, yes I have read that one, maybe a few commenters on this site would benefit from reading it as well…
There's different kinds of litmus tests.
There are bottom line standards that if someone goes below them, it should be disqualifying. For instance, personal criminal corruption or credible rape accusations. The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden. At the time of Bill Clinton's elections, Broaddrick's accusations weren't public and indeed her public stance was she didn't have anything to accuse Clinton of doing. And neither Biden nor Clinton have had any credible accusations of criminal personal corruption.
Then there are litmus tests where multiple tests are set at extremely high levels, and the slightest falling short of any one of them is considered disqualifying. Those prone to setting these kinds of litmus tests set many bars at levels that are impractically high, such that any candidate that might clear all of them to the satisfaction of the test setter becomes unelectable to the majority of the electorate that don't share the exact same extreme views on the exact same set of priorities.
"The Grab'em'fuhrer has multiple accusations open against him. If Tara Reade had a backstory that suggested she was credible rather than a proven serial fabulist, I would have real trouble with Biden."
So you apply the litmus test to trump and accept the result but the result of the same test when applied to Biden is false?
How so?
Because Tara Reade has been convincingly demonstrated to be a serial fabulist. To the point where her fraudulent expert testimony claiming qualifications she didn't have may well have harmful repercussions on actual victims of sexual assault.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/21/tara-reade-biden-expert-testimony-274460
There has been zero corroboration of Reade's claims from people she worked with, and a key aspect of her claim was about being forced into a semi-private area on a specific route in the Senate building. No such semi-private area exists.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-74-former-biden-staffers-think-about-tara-reades-allegations
Her claims appear to be carefully presented in a way that precludes Biden from being able to prove his innocence. They are not specific about date and time etc etc.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/29/joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegation-tara-reade-column/3046962001/
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/tara-reade-joe-biden-democrats/
Reade has left of long trail of people that feel deceived by her.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/15/tara-reade-left-trail-of-aggrieved-acquaintances-260771
Whereas there are a huge number of complaints against the stygian homunculus by women that don't have questions against their credibility, speaking to a pattern of behaviour. A pattern of behaviour that he is even on record as boasting about.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/women-accused-trump-sexual-misconduct-list-2017-12?r=US&IR=T
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations
….convincingly demonstrated to be a serial fabulist. …well have harmful repercussions on actual victims of sexual assault.
DNC character assassination and talking points bitten off and swallowed, hook, line, and sinker.
Checking facts and doing background research. You should try it sometime. It gives one a better grip on reality than existing solely within one's own initial prejudices.
Yes, your thorough and carefully selective research has conveniently led to your repeating exactly the concerted attacks on the character of that woman. Your "grip on reality" matches precisely the "grip on reality" of the party machine that has foisted Gropin' Joe, along with Gropin' Don, on the unfortunate voters of that benighted Republic.
You, on the other hand, can offer nothing to support your baseless contentions. And before you link to doctored video clips from right wing muck rackers, you need to know that we have seen those vile slanderous clips, and understand them for what they are.
… doctored video clips from right wing muck rackers [sic] you need to know that we have seen those vile slanderous clips,
We have?
and understand them for what they are.
What on earth are you raving about?
The arguments in Current Affairs were all hashed out in the Democratic Primaries. They aren't relevant now. Unless you are part of the anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, or Outsider marginals.
There is absolutely nothing for the far left in the Biden-Harris ticket.
Biden = MidLeft Dem Corporate. Also one of the least wealthy in the Senate. He's in the middle of the Democratic party for left-leaning.
Harris = Authoritarian Dem Corporate. Fractionally more left leaning on voting record.
They have zero to offer the anti-authoritarian left at all.
They have zero to offer the anti-corporate left at all.
They have zero to offer the Outsider left at all.
Those groups vote Green or or Socialist or not at all.
But they have everything to offer against Trump.
The US is not a socialist country. Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go. Though obviously there is 10% of the electorate who would go further left. But 90% who don’t.
In that sense there are parallels with NZ. Only 5 to 10% of the country want to go left as the Greens, maybe a few percent more. It is indicative of the NZ mid point that the PM says she would not support a CGT while she is PM. I imagine she will have a 36% top tax rate for this election for incomes over $100 or 120k. Middle NZ will be fine with that.
The US is not a socialist country.
???????!!!???
You either have no knowledge of the long and honorable history of U.S. unionism and civil rights struggle, or you are a former National Party cabinet minister habituated to writing dishonest and misleading messages.
Moderate Democrats, in the mould of FDR is about as left as the US wants to go.
???? You are deliberately, I think, misrepresenting the thoroughly discredited DNC as reflecting the wishes and policy preferences of American voters.
What is your view about where the PM fits on the political spectrum, which, after all, is of immediate relevance to us New Zealanders?
I have given my assessment about where she fits. What is yours?
As acknowledged by most New Zealanders, in particular the hundreds of thousands who are abandoning your party right now, Jacinda Ardern is an extremely competent centrist politician.
I was personally very worried to learn she had worked for that arch criminal Tony Blair AFTER he had been one of the main conspirators in the destruction of Iraq, and I have been extremely disappointed that she allowed the Army and your political cronies to thwart Afghan victims of the N.Z. Army from appearing in our court during the Burnham inquiry. But in spite of those very grave reservations, I think she's done a fine job of holding this country together; the contrast with the treacherous behaviour of your colleagues is instructive.
What is your assessment of Judith Collins Wayne? Where does she fit on your spectrum?
The extreme left have done their job already. By supporting Sanders, and in turn by Sanders and team working on policy formation with Biden, the extreme left have pushed the policy platform as far as it's going to go.
I don't think they'll stay at home rather than vote.
In fact it's more likely that some of the Republicans will stay home and not vote.
Christ Wayne, you need to get out more beyond the cocktail set.
Levels of public ownership in the USA is very extensive, having been built up over more than a century, add to that, the level of direct consumer and worker ownership as well.
Let's start with the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-owned_enterprises_of_the_United_States
And of course, the TVA, the greatest SOE of them all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority
Even socialist nations like Egypt under Nasser copied and pasted the TVA for their public works projects.
The US Army Corps of Engineers, owns 30% of the hydro dams in the USA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Corps_of_Engineers
Etc.
Such a welter of meaningless categories ('far left' , 'mid-left', 'authoritarian left'…) it is impossible to construct a response to it – other than note the overall inclination towards control and exclusion.
Barring accidents Biden will win -lets hope for a landslide and control of both houses as well. Some good things will follow and in time a lot of disappointment too. Pain and suffering will continue, and great wealth will continue to accumulate – both of these in the accustomed places.
Do a little search of "Joe Biden Political Compass"
The taxonomies stabilise after the first 30 or so.
AOC has made a fatal mistake in not selling out to at least one corrupt corporation. Her corrupt 'peers' will have nothing to do with her.
AOC is fully integrated into Democratic politics and into the Presidential campaign.
AOC is being groomed and guided upwards very well. All in the timing.
If the NZ Greens can both groom her for power and protect her from over-exposure, Chloe Swarbrick could be our equivalent of AOC.
"Literally"? I don't think that word means what you think it means .
Look like one of the rights attack vectors of speculation that the Government putting people into lock-down increased suicide rates is just another one of their may unscrupulous lies trying to win by hitting below the belt while the ref is not looking.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/suicide-commentary-unhelpful-to-queenstown-mental-health-experts-say/ar-BB18eSJV?li=BBqdg4K
ACT Party leader David Seymour for instance is quoted in the article as defending himself about what he said in Parliament with the words "You have to go by facts and not speculation," while it turns out from what the figures show that what he was saying was only speculation, and could possibly be harmful to.
Implication seem to be that while the overall numbers are down, Queenstown may not be. 'Unhelpful' isn't 'untrue'.
Something I noticed by its absence was no mention of the actual figure of how many suicides there were in Queenstown for the year being talked about. There is still an element of keeping the unattractive fact out of the public gaze. This might alert others to what difficulties Queenstown has been causing for working people in finding affordable housing.
That has to be an abuse of parliamentary privilege.
How is it an abuse of parliamentary privilege? The statements/speech raised legitimate questions about the cause of suicide. The media have a number of rules about how to discuss suicide and Seymour stayed within those guidelines.
It is not legitimate to shut down the debate of a very real and deep problem in the way those critical of Seymour were trying to do.
For instance when the farming sector has a finance or drought streak, farmer suicides increase. The farming community is very much aware of that and tries to provide more empathetic support than was historically was the case.
is there any evidence that there were seven suicides in Queenstown in that fortnight?
It seems a bit odd, certainly no rumours around my part of town that people are suiciding left, right and centre.
And adult suicide is more a peak of the cycle thing here, usually from people working too much, chefs and business owners working 100+ hours a week and it all going to shit.
Insurance jobs are more the bottom of the cycle thing.
A couple of our local actoids tried starting a suicide meme during the April lockdown but got shut down pretty quickly for spinning shit.
Would be interesting to see how many people committed suicide after your lot had ACC throw them off their long term claim rolls and onto the benefit system, loosing between $200 and $300 a week, and their houses as a concequence. All so "line goes up".
Or the young mother of 6 who killed herself in about 2016 or 17 after WINZ told her they werent going to pay for any more motel accomodation, leaving her parents to bring up the kids, who ended up having to stay in motel rooms, after being evicted from their state house on trumped up meth charges.
But I dont see you, your lot, or your supporters giving a shit about that, as long as your retirement nest eggs dont get taxed.
Thank you millsy!!! But clearly those suicides don’t matter to Seymour, Wayne et al … the deserving suicides vs the underserving suicides?
Seymour was politicing with the suicide stats that weren't actual stats.
Not just any test, an Immigration NZ approved test:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/coronavirus-national-wants-kiwis-overseas-to-find-immigration-nz-approved-testing-labs-before-coming-home.html
National’s National Border Force is going to be busy.
Now would it be more profitable to go overseas to inspect and approve, or to auction off approvals?
Oh the latter, I'd put my money on that. What are the odds?
The bribes will flow and water the poor, benighted, rich bludgers who have lost so much income due to the closing of the border.
Yeah, just another plan by National to get their funders hands into the publics till because you can guarantee that it will all be contracted out to the private sector. Another great recipe to increase corruption by National.
Gordon McDowell (who has spent over a decade documenting the next generation nuclear renaissance) has new clip of an Alberta panel discussion on nuclear energy and it's role in climate change from a completely non-technical perspective.
The CDHB Board is stacked with National Party stooges including a current candidate and the Gough family member.I see this as being political mischief. As an employee I have nothing but admiration for David Meates who has been very willing to be involved in solving some of the problems of the Mental Health sector. For Sue Nightingale to decribe the Board / Executive relationship as toxic and adverserial is interesting, she is a Psychiatrist with all the interpersonal skills required and thats her diagnosis.
A commissioner to oversee a manager for the board and a manager for the executive need to be appointed and answerable to the health minister through the commissioner because of the implosion. Matters should not have got to the stage they have got to.
What do Israelis and Jews everywhere have to say about this? Is the answer to be more what-about-ism and you-did-it-first and look-what-you-did we are just doing the same? And we must protect ourselves by showing us as ready to attack as vicious hornets do? Are they allowed to smite everyone by their religion? Did the Holocaust mean that they will be for ever cursed by that happening and the revenge response that they apparently have bred in their young people and embedded in compulsory army duty where they are taught hostility and can use violence and deadly force when they can make some excuse?
In the early hours of 7 August, Israeli Occupation force, in a night raid and home invasions in Jenin, shot and killed Dalia Samudi in her Jabariyat neighbourhood home. She received several bullet wounds in the chest while trying to close a window against Israeli Army tear gas; the soldiers even opened fire on the ambulance that arrived to take her to hospital. Dalia was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at hospital and the 23-year-old woman’s new-born child is now motherless. The local Red Crescent Director, Mahmoud al-Sa’adi, confirmed to the Wafa News Agency that the ambulance, scarred with bullets, had been fired on by Israeli soldiers as it arrived to evacuate her.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/08/22/shameful-deathly-silence/
The only failure I can see in the New Zealand Covid repsonse is that the 1pm update is never punctual. 1:09 and waiting.
Edit: I apologise. “regular written updates at approximately 1 pm daily”
Even when the daily update is given it is a guessing game. There is no precision with Covid. Were the number even zero in the community I would still be looking over my shoulder at times.
weekend.
Something I just stumbled on, evedently in Australia, you can't leave the country, you are required to apply for an Exemption, the exemtions are listed here
https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia
#NZHellhole could well be the funniest trend I've ever read on twitter. Kudos NZ and suck on that trump !!!
https://twitter.com/search?q=NZHellhole&f=live
I hope someone can help the plaintive immigrants and visa problems etc. Or is everyone too content.
There's a petition for it, only one signature. Migrant visa holders have already been given a visa extension. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/petitions/document/PET_101158/petition-of-jimmy-singh-migrants-stuck-offshore-should
Essential worker migrants are allowed in with an exemption. It's about having enough quarantine facilities here and flight availability from their country of departure. It's sad their countries of citizenship aren't taking care of said migrants workers while NZ borders are closed.
In any case #NZHellhole is an excellent thread.
# hell hole NZ. lol lol lol!
Lmao !!
https://twitter.com/mikebuckham/status/1296972401553469440
Thanks for link Cinny. I have signed. I think it is sad that NZ thinks it can turn the tap on for low-paid people when it wants, and then off again while they are still being processed or getting transport.
Accommodation is a problem, time is passing and they should be fixing this, the government excuse is wearing thin.
Petition is open till 14 September for those who give a damn.
National party rebranding as the
" Chicken Little" party when a little mistake of a conspiracy turns NZ into a hellhole.
https://youtu.be/NO04VXBIS0M
Six cases and four in the cluster,
Ashley is the bestest buster.
Two more cases without a link,
I think, I think, I think, that is stink.
By tomorrow we will find,
If these are tied or we are in a bind.
Donald Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod was six years old and old enough to remember the Iolaire Disaster.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-46522918
She raised him and his siblings in the USA, away from the grieving. He became a believer in the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale.
"Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are."
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/norman-vincent-peale-quotes
'Murica
https://twitter.com/TalbertSwan/status/1296611012674818048
Well I'll certainly not be purchasing my next automobile from this fellow.
Another well written and researched opinion piece by Mr Glen Johnson via Al Jazeera.
Coronavirus and conspiratorial dog-whistles return to New Zealand
Amid a new outbreak, New Zealand's opposition is once again trying to leverage misinformation for political gain.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/coronavirus-conspiratorial-dog-whistles-return-zealand-200820113656292.html
Uncertain reporting
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/03/coronavirus-how-new-zealand-s-self-isolation-rules-compare-to-other-countries.html
This story written today 22nd Aug…
But self isolation is for 14 days, 'late last night' must mean 15th August? unless their stand-down is only 7 days?
Towards the end of the article..
So.. written today, and 'last Tuesday ' was the 18th Aug. But the 102 day streak was broken a week earlier than that.
This is could be just sloppy writing and no editorial oversight, but is confusing and possibly misleading to the time-line of events it is reporting on. Why am I never surprised…
The conspirators need to be countered with the facts
[deleted]
[lprent: Perhaps you should understand that commenters need to get themselves educated about quoting and linking. Deleted what looked to be a dump of a whole CNN page complete with all of the side links. Assuming this is a person rather than dumb arse bot, I have removed it. Short quotes and a link please. We’re not disinterested in idiots violating copyrights. Maintaining auto moderation until we see a comment that doesn’t reek of stupid behaviour.]
@ aj at 16. Reply button on posts not responding.
Now Natz and media cannot go to bed
Up all night making shit theories instead
Malpass censoring until the truth is dead
Hosking talking with the voices in his head
GB scratches nut cos he can't get the thread.
While Eyebrows and Reti are rewriting the BIOMED
We'll say its Blomfield that did this new spread
"Let us bang that up their snotholes," Seymour said.
"Yeah let's do it, 'cos Chucky doll's got the cred! "
And we'll all have a group hug before this BS# is fed
Hello, hello is that, Heather, Hooten or rnz ?
" Evidence?" " F#k that says GB, don't need a shred !"
Pretty much sums it up…
Here's one man for Hosking to interview on ' How one literally creates a new f#k up at the border.'
"A business owner in managed isolation says he stopped eating for eight days to see if authorities would notice."
Peeved at not been given exceptional privilege he decides to try an experiment and concludes, ” I was right, no one has noticed.”
Despite the daily health care given Tony Everitt is a man on a mission to prove he has….?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12358727
… shit for brains?
Siouxie Wiles, the biochemist who has contributed a lot of easy to understand material throughout the pandemic so far, has written another useful and cogent article in the Spinoff on how to improve the Covid response, including an analysis of National's proposals. Worth a read.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/23-08-2020/siouxsie-wiles-what-does-a-robust-covid-response-look-like-for-new-zealand/