RNZ National still censoring revelations that IOF soldiers killed hostages on Oct. 7th
Tuesday 23 January 2024, 6:15 a.m.
Coming up is "our correspondent Sarah Coates in Jerusalem." Corin Dann chirpily asserts that she is "right across developments."
It turns out Sarah Coates is an Australian, and her "report" is of a group of hostages' families disrupting a finance committee meeting at the Knesset. Coates says the protest was "dramatic" with lots of shouting, and "people had to be restrained."
She did not mention the revelations of hostages that Israeli Occupation Force soldiers were ordered to fire on and bomb houses and vehicles which contained hostages, and that the soldiers carried out that order. That is a clearly verboten topic at Radio New Zealand. So much for "correspondent Sarah Coates" being "right across developments."
Radio New Zealand is still running cover for Israel.
[This nothing but another one of your broadside attacks on a media organisation and/or journalist/reporter/interviewee. This time it is one of your pet targets, RNZ, but you have so many. However, you failed to substantiate it with a link. So, again, we have to read your raving ranting ramblings to be then directed into a rabbit hole of your choosing that is premium content.
If only you were a useless little pawn in propaganda wars. However, you are a useful idiot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot) who’s stuck in the past, like so many other useful idiots who consider themselves popular pundits and/or media influencers.
RNZ probably concerned NZ could miss-understand the euphamism of "using a procedure" on Israel's civilians and just how "endangering" this may be to "potential hostages".
The RNZ board's only concern is to stay onside with the government. The government of this country's only concern is to stay onside with the United States.
The concerns of listeners and the general public do not count in the slightest.
Without yr efforts I wouldn't have known about the IDF murdering and incinerating Israeli civilians.
And folk wonder why faith in once trusted outfits is plummeting.
Stuff is much the same. In fact this article can lead you to believe that anything that strays from the official narrative is a, wait for it,… conspiracy!
The Washington Post article was right to note the anti-semitic nature of the fake narratives being created. However it could have linked to the Hannibal directive actuality to put that part of it into better context – except it has not published anything on that topic that I can find on-line.
Haaretz published the story in December about the Hannibal Directive being applied on October. The Gray Zone did so as well.
Apparently from mid-day October 7 some hours after the attack began.
In January 2024, an investigation by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth concluded that the IDF had in practice applied the Hannibal Directive from noon of October 7, ordering all combat units to stop “at all costs” any attempt by Hamas militants to return to Gaza with hostages,
The Israeli military implemented the “Hannibal Directive” during Hamas’ attack on 7 October, killing some of its own civilians and soldiers to prevent Hamas from taking them as captives back to Gaza, according to an investigation by Israel’s leading newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, which will be published in full on 12 January.
The Hebrew edition of the paper wrote on 11 January that “one of the revelations revealed in the investigation is that at noon on October 7, the IDF [Israeli army] ordered all of its combat units in practice to use the ‘Hannibal Procedure’ although without clearly mentioning this explicitly by name.”
The order was to stop “at all costs any attempt by Hamas terrorists to return to Gaza, that is, despite the fear that some of them have abductees,” the paper wrote.
The Times of Israel described how the Hannibal procedure, or directive, "allows soldiers to use potentially massive amounts of force to prevent a soldier from falling into the hands of the enemy. This includes the possibility of endangering the life of the soldier in question in order to prevent his capture.”
A previous Haaretz investigation of the directive concluded that “from the point of view of the army, a dead soldier is better than a captive soldier who himself suffers and forces the state to release thousands of captives in order to obtain his release.”
Without yr efforts I wouldn't have known about the IDF murdering and incinerating Israeli civilians.
I recommend you read The Grayzone, Mondoweiss, and Electronic Intifada. All independent, unimpeachably honest and rigorous sites. They're all online.
And folk wonder why faith in once trusted outfits is plummeting.
No one with any sense or morality trusts a thing they read in The Grauniad, the Herald, or the failing New York Times.
Stuff is much the same. In fact this article can lead you to believe that anything that strays from the official narrative is a, wait for it,… conspiracy!
Yes. Thanks for raising these issues Morrisey. An excellent round up of all the IDF killing frenzy from the Electronic Intifada that includes an English translation of the original Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth article at the end.
Narrated is surviving hostage testimony of the hail of indiscriminate IDF live fire including tank shelling of Israeli village houses where Hamas fighters were holding hostages. It says a lot for the beliefs of the personnel involved that this kind of death for their own compatriots is necessary.
Also, the burnt remains of 70 cars is far beyond the damage Hamas would have been able to inflict with any of the weaponry they brought with them from Gaza. Testimony by pilots of US supplied attack helicopters shows that the IDF were also responsible for this.
Initially, the total of 1400 dead Israeli civilians was the horror headline used against Hamas. As well as decapitated babies which has well and truly been debunked. Now Israel says 'over 1000'. But of these at least 300 are known to be IDF and like it or not legitimate targets for Hamas against an illegal occupying power.
And now we know for sure that many if not most of the remainder were taken out by the IDF applying the Hannibal directive in everything but name.
Cars that are being destroyed by attack helicopters usually have people in them. In this case, probably a mixture of Hamas and Israeli hostages. How many in each car? 1?2?3?4? Its a lot of burnt black human wreckage however you look at it. Perhaps the odd wrongly targeted car? Maybe a blackened and charred baby or two? And all this in a civilian setting. The odd charred Israeli bystander perhaps.
The cars were a polite way to put the carnage but if all you can do is focus on them then I guess one has to be a bit more graphic.
Heres Israeli Government spokesman Mark Regev on why the count for dead Israelis went from 1400 down to 1200;
There were actually bodies that were so badly burnt we thought they were ours, in the end apparently they were Hamas terrorists.
So…70 charred remains of cars and about 200 charred remains of human beings…hmmm…could these two events on the same day be related? I think thats pretty close to 3 people per vehicle on average. Still room for some hostages as well
You can't tell me Seymour didn't know what he was doing using the phrase "Jai Shri Ram"and praising Modi in this clip. He is deliberately courting BJP supporters in New Zealand.
The guy is a wannabe authoritarian and is moving his party towards outright Fascism.
When will the media start taking him seriously instead of treating him as a likeable rogue good for a soundbite?
The guy is a wannabe authoritarian and is moving his party towards outright Fascism.
Yes.
It's been a while since I looked at the markers of rising fascism (US GE in 2016 and so on), but the other thing that is happening is the number of nominal left people equivocating on this stuff and saying it's not so bad or it's not really happening. That's exactly how fascism takes hold. People ignoring what is happening and then by the time they're taking notice it's too late.
Rightwing swing is a reality. Trumpism and the internet have swayed many. To grow their patch they have to have a group to "other" and make the distraction and excuse.
Many of these right wing people have infiltrated all aspects of governance, with the connivance and assistance of the National Party. i.e. Epsom "cup of tea".
I agree Weka. Seymore is divisive and collecting his like. Who would have ever believed he could be Deputy Prime Minister? Again with the connivance of National.
Many I know are actually saying this Government has already gone too far. People who voted National, and are not happy with the polygamous marriage. This is not what they expected.
Citizens have through King Te Huetia, began a call and it has shown the strength of feeling and push back. This is what we have to support, as what has been done is wrong, and what is proposed is dangerous.imo
We need to physically support local Treaty signing ceremonies, by being there, as a strong message to Act and Atlas their money arm, plus put the ball in PM Luxon’s court.
This goes back to Advantages post the other day. I was amazed that Robert Fico became leader of Slovakia – Slovakia has a broad anti-Russian consensus, yet here was a Putin fan boi from the far right running the place. So how come?
Well, it turns out Fico opposed damaging neoliberal "reforms" of the Slovak economy proposed by the World Bank, IMF and OECD and only cautiously adopting the Euro. He passed significant domestic labour law reforms in favour of workers and truckers.
In other words, he gave a two finger salute to the liberal capitalist establishment and people took his neo-Fascism as the trade off for better labour laws & more protection for the economy.
The left in NZ and the rest of the Anglosphere has to stop being perceived as defending the ever more extreme "centre" and being apologists for the establishment/status quo.
Seymour hopes to exploit the undoubted wedge between the elite & Iwi consensus on the role of the treaty and wider Pakeha & immigrant disquiet on that by deliberately stirring up race war rhetoric. On the left, we have to make sure we don't just end up trying to stand on the authority of that elite consensus to squash good faith debate. Otherwise, the day Seymour abandons his plutocratic economic program in favour of something more populist is the day he'll sweep to power as a bigger party than National.
"Many I know are actually saying this Government has already gone too far. People who voted National, and are not happy with the polygamous marriage. This is not what they expected."
Then they were incredibly naieve, or they are simply telling you what they think you want to hear.
The polls closest to the election clearly reflected the likelihood of a coalition of National, ACT and NZ First. The policies of all three parties were well publicised pre-election, and what we're seeing unfolding is simply what was signalled in advance, filtered through the coalition negotiations.
Interestingly, post-election polls have reflected increasing support for the coalition. Overall % support has risen from 52.81% at the election to 54.4% in the latest Curia poll, and the right/wrong direction has improved from negative 20 to negative 9.5. (Opinion polling for the next New Zealand general election – Wikipedia).
David, They have abolished "Smoke Free" I did not see that in their lists before the negotiations. Many thought they would consider the impacts…. but they have not. The treasury report on removing the EV rebate showed it would cost twice as much to remove the rebate, as to leave it.
We are supposed to be hard up with National and friends scrabbling to find 7.5 billion for their tax cuts. Guess what, they wasted the planning for new ferries, Lake Onslow, and Light Rail.
They then spent many dollars removing Maori from signs and letter heads. Some of their moves against 3 Waters have smacked of water control for future PPPs and will cause huge rate rises as Councils can not raise enough funds to cope with infrastructure repairs, and as for removing Maori from Boards. Small minded and racist in my book.
Now Maori are joining together with other interested parties to query this and especially the attack on the Treaty. The leaked report saw the actions as dangerous and divisive. Mandate my elbow!! Even National’s Potaka has come out against the moves on the Treaty.
The smoke free legislation was, to the best of my knowledge, the only example you give of policy not signalled prior to the election. You might be surprised to know that ASH support the government on that.
"Many have claimed this repeal would jeopardise the Smokefree 2025 goal. However, this is simply not the case. Predictive modelling, which contributed to the scientific underpinning of the legislation, indicated that it would take until 2040 to get smoking rates down to 8 per cent without the law. The reality is that we have already exceeded this expectation. And a closer look reveals that the three headline measures in the act were unlikely to have any impact before 2025."
You don’t like losing points, do you, so why don’t stop scoring in your own goal?
When the National Party first proposed 6.5 percent cuts to agency spending during the election campaign, it was for 21 specific departments. The Office of the Clerk was not on that list.
Reducing funding for the Office of the Clerk is hardly headline news. The changes being proposed by this government were clearly signalled across the various coalition partners prior to the last election. It may be unusual, but there it is.
Not headline news, is it? Is “unusual” a euphemism for totally inappropriate and utterly unexpected aka not signalled during the election campaign? Those sound like weasel words from a sly apologist.
"Is “unusual” a euphemism for totally inappropriate and utterly unexpected aka not signalled during the election campaign? "
No, unusual refers to the idea that politicians in NZ may actually set about implementing policies they signalled in advance.
The Office of the Clerk is being required to find savings in the same way many other government departments and agencies are. As Nick Tuffley pointed out, this was well known going in to the election:
National is talking to both ACT and New Zealand First to get the numbers to form a government. "All three want to rein in government spending, return to surplus, and reduce taxes. All three want to restore the tax deductibility of interest expenses for residential property investment, which is likely to immediately perk up investor interest in residential property," said ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley in a note.
Your wilful ignorance is on display. The Office of the Clerk is not part of the Executive Branch. You may want to educate yourself first before you waste anymore of our time and listen to the interview with professor Andrew Geddis and read Marc Daalder’s piece in Newsroom. You may learn the meaning of “unusual” in the relevant context.
It appears that the coalition government is so desperate to find the money to fund the over-hyped tax cuts that they are rushing things and making mistakes. Already some of their actions were not signalled during the election campaign, deliberately or otherwise.
What the coalition government inherited was an increase in government spending as a % of GDP from 17.92% in 2017 to 20.82% in 2022. https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/New-Zealand/Government_size/. That places NZ as the 28th highest out of 142 nations for government spending to GDP. The average across the 142 nations was 16.27%.
In that context, your concern over the office of the Clerk just seems a little underwhelming.
[You keep moving the goal posts aka diverting and this is the typical behavioural pattern of a troll.
There are two points that you keep ignoring and/or downplaying. Policy changes and cuts that haven’t been signalled in the election campaign. And the Office of the Clerk is part of the Executive Branch and therefore shouldn’t be treated “in the same way many other government departments and agencies”, as you asserted.
It shows Seymour has no problem with indigenous supremacy, where it is a majority.
The BJP is like a Christian Democrat party/Tory/GOP/National – the Indian National Congress party is a Social Democrat party, like Labour in Israel it is a declining opposition.
India has a secular constitution, as per the USA (which has a Christian majority).
Seymour's ACT has a range of authoritarian tendencies, probably because it plays the populist majoritarian card to gain favour for its small government agenda. Given a small government means less provision to the many, it resorts to a mobilisation against minorities. Here Seymour's goal Indians in India against Moslem other, Indians in New Zealand as part of the majority against indigenous minority Maori.
With Chinese, ACT policy is very pro Taiwan (adopting the policy of the retired United Party). The deputy Brooke van Velden takes the lead on this.
Seymour is endlessly ambitious, and it is clear his playbook is influenced by the whole right wing Atlas network project. As you say so succinctly it is the Brexit play of using a "…populist majoritarian card to gain favour for its small government agenda…" – Brexit was always about removing the UK from the EU's regulatory environment in favour of a return to Dickensian trade liberalism.
The NZ media is utterly dominated by the need for "engagement" to juke their online stats for advertising revenue. It is ferociously parochial, provincial and simply refuses to show any curiosity in the intellectual underpinning of the modern far right, and in particular the influence & tactics of far right think tanks that make up the Atlas network simply because such investigations are expensive and produce far less clicks than simply recycling press releases from ACT/TPU.
But on top of all that, I am convinced Seymour has looked around the world and noticed the rise of right wing strongmen like Orban, Fico, Erdogan, Trump etc and the network of right wing propaganda funded by Russia and China and sees an opportunity to replace National as the party of the right. He fancies himself as a hopefully more successful Oswald Mosley, riding an anti-democratic wave of neo-Fascist authoritarianism all the way to the ninth floor of the Beehive.
My two cents worth on this would be that we have two 'populist' leaders, Winston and David. They detest each other and will do what they can to destroy the other. Of the two, only Winston understands at any level what Nationalism means but he has always been more interested in the baubles.
Putin, Orban, Fico all understand what Nationalism is. They realise that it requires a serious curtailing of global neo conservatism in their neck of the woods. They don't oppose wealth accumulation as such but require that those who make money don't make the rules and they know how to enforce it.
They also understand that money needs to be put to work making stuff and ensuring as much as possible that sufficient energy and infrastructure exist and are accessible. Immigration needs to be tightly controlled as do money flows.
National interest is a completely foreign concept to David. He is beholden to those with money and as their servant will never be able to assert the control that you envisage.
Someone who has no idea about the deep state capability to assert an authoritarian regime to support neo-liberal capital libertarianism.
But the more visible forms are known, more in prison via three strike targeted policing, enhanced state surveillance, prosperity religion and faith based providers in welfare, community health and private contractor security.
The nationalists oppose international “neo-liberalism”, they pose as social conservative economic nationalists.
"India has a secular constitution, as per the USA (which has a Christian majority)."
For now.
"The constitution still calls India a secular republic. But the facts on the ground suggest otherwise. Mr Modi’s supporters treat the idea of secularism as a foreign imposition on a grand civilisation, and as camouflage for the mistreatment and suppression of Hindus. In reality it is their aggressive chauvinism that has cost Indian society dearly, and it is Muslims who are treated as second-class citizens. Human Rights Watch warned last year of the government’s “systematic discrimination and stigmatisation of religious and other minorities, particularly Muslims” and of increasing violence by BJP supporters against targeted groups."
and
"Many believe that the prime minister will rewrite the constitution if he gains a sufficient majority, though he has dismissed such speculation. Monday may mark another fateful step towards that moment. It may also indicate that he does not need to change the words on paper when he has reshaped his country so effectively already."
Another thing Seymour is trying to do is dilute culture and identity, specifically that of Te Ao Maori.
He heavily relies on the insistence that NZ should be a 'diverse multicultural' nation saying that Maori history, culture and identity are no different than those of new arrivals, despite Te Ao Maori contributing significantly to the nation's identity. Seymour wants that to end so that NZ is homogenised and just a collection of cultures rather than a unique, distinguishable country with its own identity.
The insistence is that Maori identity must be diminished and diluted before a 'diverse multicultural' nation can exist. It's nonsense.
If the great strides over the last 40 years to uphold the importance of Maori and its taonga, and to reconcile injustices hadn't been made, a diminished, diluted and homogenised national identity is exactly what we would have now. This is what he wants…
Yup, the Atlas Network upholding the global capitalist order works to diminish the
*size of government
*separate nation state identity (TOW, Waitangi Tribunal)
*international common cause of the people (environment/GW action/labour standards/Declaration of Universal Human Rights – government guarantee of education, health, housing adequate income – HRC, UNDRIP).
Restricted or scrutinised access to the resources with which farmers and miners make maximum profit regardless of the cost can't be tolerated. Three Waters threatened that (along with delivering huge generational benefits to all) and so was subject to a well funded and sustained campaign against.
Maori identity is intrinsically linked to the living, breathing environment and Maori involvement in the supervision of that environment, even consultation with Maori on that environment is something which Seymour and National and their backers simply must destroy.
The best way to do that in the wider (thick/white/immigrant) community is to demonise Maori which is what Chris Trotter did on Bryce Edwards' VUW endorsed website. And to frame low income Maori as receiving benefits low income non-Maori do not. They are the enemy:
Nazi propaganda often portrayed Jews as engaged in a conspiracy to provoke war.
Yet the obvious fit between the ideology of small government/unregulated markets and the denial of minority indigenous rights (particularly in natural resources) goes unnoticed and unremarked on in most of our media. And it's more than a mere "fit" really – it's an essential conjunction. Astonishing.
Rimmer and the Hindutva mob were celebrating this.
On Monday, January 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside at a “sacred” religious ceremony to inaugurate the massive Hindu temple that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has had erected in Ayodhya on the site of the razed Babri Masjid (mosque)—fulfilling a longstanding goal of the Hindu supremacist right.
The Masjid, an historic Muslim shrine dating from the 16th century, was demolished on Dec. 6, 1992, by Hindu fundamentalist activists mobilized by the BJP and its allies in the fascistic RSS and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Council of Hindus). In defiance of the orders of India’s Supreme Court and under the watchful eyes of top BJP leaders and thousands of security personnel who supposedly had been deployed to protect the Masjid, specially trained Hindu activists razed it to the ground in a matter of hours using axes, hammers and grappling hooks.
The razing of the Masjid provoked India’s worst communal violence since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into an expressly Muslim Pakistan and a predominantly Hindu India. In riots and other communal outrages that unfolded across much of north and west India well into 1993, thousands of people, most of them poor Muslims, were killed.
There is evidence that there was a significant Hindu temple on this site that the Muslim invaders of India demolished and then built their Mosque in it's place.
Also do you object to the Turks turning the Hagia Sophia into a Mosque?
Someone pointed out before it is incredible the way Seymour and ACT candidates are happy to applaud nationalism and traditionalism in certain forms and in certain hands, but not others.
Seymour will embrace Hindutva Indians, whose spokespeople in mysteriously well funded astroturf "community" groups will become the default "voice of the Indian community" for our lazy media. Six Hindutva "dairy owners" will get free reign in the press to claim to speak for all Indians and paint their opponents as racists.
Thus emboldened by the endorsement of the next deputy PM, they'll start launching ethnic violence against Moslem Indians, Tamils and Sikhs and it'll spill over into a reaction against all Indians.
Tewi Seymour (as I've chosen to rechristen him, to acknowledge the recent sudden prominence of his Maori heritage) will give the appearance of embracing anyone if there's a vote or two to be had out of it.
Confirmed: Ukraine war ends with partition
Kit Klarenberg
Zelensky no doubt wishes that referendum had gone ahead, therefore likely averting the special military operation. He also surely regrets believing Boris Johnson’s promises of the blankest of blank cheques in return for keeping up the fight.
Over recent weeks, there has been a flurry of extraordinary mainstream media reports admitting the hitherto unthinkable and unsayable. The war in Ukraine is over, Moscow has won, and Kiev has lost. Badly. Very, very badly indeed.
Perhaps the most stunning example was provided by a January 6th op-ed in The Spectator, authored by the outlet’s resident “Russia expert” Owen Matthews. A longstanding Maidan acolyte, in June 2023 he published Overreach, a pseudo-psychological account of why the February 2022 special military operation came to pass. Attributing the world-changing action to Kremlin delusions of spawning an illegitimate modern day hybrid of the Tsarist Empire and Soviet Union, his conclusions were stark, forecasting imminent, utter catastrophe for Vladimir Putin:
“Not only [will] Putin leave no lasting ideological legacy but any legacy of prosperity and stability that he may have created [was] destroyed by his own decision to make war on Ukraine. The price of his illusions was not only thousands of lost lives but also a lost future for Russia.”
Fast forward to today, and Matthews has a rather different take on things. He observes how there is “one brutal truth at the core of Putin’s maneuverings.” Namely, “the partition of Ukraine has, to a significant extent, already happened,” and “the key challenge facing US policymakers this year will be how to handle that reality”:
“The past year of fruitless fighting has shown that reconquering Ukraine’s lost territories in their entirety will require many times more blood and treasure than has already been spent – money that the US is increasingly unwilling to provide.”
The biggest barrier to the Empire simply admitting defeat, is “no one in Washington” wants “to spell it out” to Western audiences. ,,,,
A war without a just conclusion is merely a pause. If Ukraine is forced into a fait accompli, they'll restart the war once they've rearmed. Expect a wider alliance including Poland to confront Russia in the next war. If Putin is not defeated it will simply signal a wider war in 2026-28. Restore the 1991 borders, admit a reformed Ukraine into the EU and NATO, and getting rid of Putin is the only formula for a lasting peace.
How long do you think an independent, democratic Ukraine would last after such a peace deal? You'd have to be a complete muppet to imagine it would longer than a year or so.
It's like being punched repeatedly by a bully while being constantly asked why you're fighting back.
Russia-propaganda aligned piece from a former journalist for Russia Today and Sputnik – both state funded russian propaganda outlets. Russia is desperate to promote the idea that Ukraine's defeat is inevitable.
“The past year of fruitless fighting has shown that reconquering Ukraine’s lost territories in their entirety will require many times more blood and treasure than has already been spent – money that the US is increasingly unwilling to provide.”
The issue with this take is it acknowledges Ukraine has expended blood and treasure – but in fact russia has also lost vast quantities of both, so not necessarily fruitless for Ukraine. Who will lose military capacity first (and it is true – russia started with much more initially)? Ukraine has little choice but to continue, if they want to avoid subjugation and slaughter.
Kit Karenberg is an independent journalist, working in London. Where his work appears is not really important, surely. Is Glenn Greenwald any less of an authority because he used to work for that discredited MI5 conduit and traducer of political dissenters, the Grauniad, and has appeared on such ridiculous, partisan television outlets as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and British state television?
The sources Klarenberg uses for this article are Owen Matthews, of the rabidly anti-Russian Spectator, and President Zelensky's chief adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Far from being "Russia aligned", they are staunchly anti-Russian, but they have the integrity to tell the truth.
You need to read the article instead of calling people names.
To suggest that propaganda piece remotely represents Podolyak's position is nonsense – and the fact that Klarenberg quotes a Spectator article that includes a quote from Podolyak – hardly means Podolyak is a "source"! Plus Podolyak's comments in that Spectator piece are far removed from the suggestion to abandon occupied territories to russia. Here is what he said in the article that Karenberg misrepresents:
To Zelensky’s close adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, the only possible course is for the West to provide enough weaponry for Ukraine to inflict a decisive defeat on Putin. The US needs to ‘understand clearly what is at stake in this conflict… we are at a historical moment when [the West] needs to choose for yourselves a future path for the next ten, 20 years,’ Podolyak told me in Kyiv last month. ‘If we do not defeat Russia now they will invest money in global destabilisation, then [the West] will have to spend much more money in an attempt to defend itself from this growing chaos.’
Anyone can have a look at Podolyak's twitter feed to get an idea of his actual views – nothing at all in line with Klarenberg – but does give a genuine Ukrainian perspective.
There is an American missile that can reach all of Russian occupied Ukraine, and supply of that and more field artillery and ammunition is all it would take to end Russia's ability to make any offensive moves.
One block is the GOP is nominating Trump who wants Russia to win and to leave NATO. And thus see no point in funding anything.
Another is the limited supply and pre-existing orders.
Some say limited numbers and restriction to the purpose of taking out Russian air-defence systems would make the other missiles Ukraine has more effective.
Given GOP control of funding blocks even that, the USA has to look at increasing production capacity to NATO partners and have them supply some of their stocks to Ukraine.
That beaches are used like a road is nothing short of astounding. It goes well with the philosophy of exploiting the environment until nothing is left to salvage.
But naturally (sarc), all those SUVs and four wheel drivers need an outlet to let it rip! I doubt that any of them think about the ecosystem is being ruined.
On most beaches bylaws request permissions for access if it is for fishing or boat access – its not a free for all – and road rules do still apply.
And if I am not mistaken, just yesterday the Maori King asked for the same – NZ Herald, 22 Jan, 2024 08:03 AM .
He is not alone as this was an article last year:
Off-road vehicles destroying taonga across motu – iwi ranger – Thursday, October 26, 2023
Hooves damage shellfish beds and plover nests. Horse manure is a foreign material on sand. Galloping horses frighten small children plashing in the shallows.
Whose gonna tell Māori from the far north?
What activity undertaken by humans isn't wrapped in complexity and overseen by multiple points of view?
"On most beaches bylaws request permissions for access if it is for fishing or boat access – its not a free for all – and road rules do still apply"
Perhaps, more accurately, you mean some rather than most.
I am at the beach 3 days a month. There are often lots of vehicles there but "all those SUVs and four wheel drivers need an outlet to let it rip!" is very rare.
Silly me, of course what applies on Muriwai applies to all beaches throughout the motu./sarc.
My point stands, silly people will do silly things, regardless of by-laws, statutes and regulations. Policy banning all, because a few from the shallow end of the gene pool can't help themselves is not the answer.
Funniest line of the day goes to Nick Rockel for his skewering of Shane Jones here:
"Meanwhile they showed an earlier interview with NZ First heir apparent, Shane Jones. Who has described the Hui as a “monumental moan-session”, which sounds like a review of one of the movies he used to rent on the taxpayer’s coin."
Home ownership could dependent on the area one lives. Or an increase of terrace apartment housing and reduced migration to balance out supply and demand.
What research has been done as per living costs and money available for mortgage payments is an unknown – rates and or water bills are going to rise a bit. Power bills will rise to the extent migration and electric cars push up demand (mitigated by more energy efficient housing).
Labour's plan was to encourage the investor class to new builds (on which mortgage payment was allowed as a cost) – National's appears to be change rules to enable greater supply of small builds/mobile homes (factory built) as granny flats and the like. Otherwise abandoning support for Labour's intensification RMA, means developers continue to focus on areas around transport spines – they just need a government that creates more of these, and then extend this to areas with parks (or golf courses that …).
Want to pledge your support for this poor, misunderstood Government? Believe they are being picked on by Māoris and Lefties? Here's a letter you can sign and send to Mr Luxon, Mr Peters and Mr Seymour, to show them you've got their collective backs!
(Sample fragment)
"It has been concerning to see how you and your government have been attacked for policies that the majority of the country voted for. The rhetoric has been aggressive and misplaced.
That is why I am writing to you today. Please stay the course and remain committed to defending our freedoms and democracy. It is a key reason why I and many others voted for you. This is so very important to the future well-being of our country.
Please remember you have a mandate to make these positive changes to protect democracy.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely"
A lot of money and effort to popularise a right wing narrative.
A "majority" whose "democratic" mandate to defend their "freedom" is under some threat.
Chris Trotter has already made the case that those pro Maori should be seen as the left were and spied on by the state. He was once of the left, but I dismissed from that category when he opposed a CGT, because people of his demographic opposed it (privilege of being born in an era where property ownership was the expectation).
Trotter is on the council of that astroturf creation of the TPU – the self-styled "Free Speech Union" alongside such dubious characters as Stephen Franks, Ani O’Brien and Jordan Williams.
As such he is now an acolyte of the Atlas Network. He has gone completely down the far right rabbit hole. I would say that as he fearfully twitches the curtains of his villa he sees his political rejection and social exorcism by anyone to the left of David Farrar for his right wing race and culture war rhetoric as simply part of a circular argument for how unreasonable the left has become.
It could be termed having a security state servant mind set.
There are a number of types of old age insecurity, physical frailty and mental decline and a fear of loss of nativism (society going in a direction away from what it was in their youth because of "other" – Brexit to England pre EEC, 50's-60's assimilation policy here and America birth sex identity, pre critical race theory and feminism in the USA – note the importance of the birther movement as per the non white POTUS).
Robert, "droll" comes to mind regarding the letter. They are asking for mockery with this plea surely? It shows they know they are not getting accolades.
Attacks on shipping between Europe and Asia has no impact on Israel's Gaza policy or the USA.
It does has an impact on shipping costs.
The Houthi are based in Yemen, but are no more the government there than Hezbollah are government of Lebanon, Hamas government of Palestine or Shia militias loyal to Iran are the government of Iraq.
They do have a military dominance of the old North Yemen area, sufficient to be well known for human rights abuses of the locals – think Taleban.
Was military action against Islamic State, a war on Iraq or Syria, both or neither?
Yes the Houthis are the government of North Yemen- they control most of the populated area, 60% of the countrys 31 mill people
The Zaydi kingdom ( Houthis are military arm of the Zaydi) ruled the area from end of WW1 to around 1969 and are well established in the armed forces and civil government. Northern Yemen is mostly urban
South Yemen was the former British Colony, most are Sunni Muslim instead of the Northern Shia sect
The former government fled to Saudi Arabia. 'Internationally recognised' is just US b.s. It just means a puppet government in Riyadh
Even the South isnt controlled by Saudi puppet government- the former governors have that
The effect is to ramp up the costs for the West in supporting Israels genocide. Exactly as you state. Shipping costs will increase. And then you can also wonder why the Israeli blockade on Gaza does not materialise UK and US carrier groups promoting free maritime passage to Gazan ports and also remember the horrific famine inducing invasion of Yemen that was, prior to Gaza the most severe humanitarian disaster. All weaponry, targeting and naval blockades supplied by the usual beacons of light, the US and UK
It makes no difference to Amazon logistics across the Atlantic. If it is Asian produced it can go across the Pacific to the USA and restock there if USA sends reserves across the Atlantic in the short term. It is only a matter of weeks going around Africa anyhow.
No one ordering Amazon will notice any difference (Amazon costs up profits down or pass on costs maybe).
OK so we are according to Prime Minister Luxon sending a team of 6 to assist with security in the Red Sea strait.
It worse than that Ad.
For starter the link to the messed up presso is long – so my point is at around the 17 minute mark. The NZ government has approved NZ defence forces personal to enter into a another countries territory and engage in espionage.
The 6 will be based at an operational headquarters in the wider Middle East and not go into Yemen. Sounds like satellite (AWACS and drone) surveillance to screen ops identifying targets before, during and after.
What espionage are they going to be engaged in? That is something you asserted without any evidence.
The Government said the six Defence Force personnel will be involved in collective self-defence of ships in the Middle East, from operational headquarters in the region and elsewhere.
They have no operational headquarters in Yemen.
If you are asserting they said something else at the presser – then identify the difference and provide the time of that.
As to operational HQ in the region – the US and UK have sea ports in Djibouti, access to SA airfields and such aboard ships. Whether they would be as far away as the the other side of the Arabian peninsular (Persian Gulf) maybe.
If the Chinese blockade Taiwan (stopping ships and bringing them back into Chinese ports or directing to leave the area), their intent would be to lure in American ships and then sink the fleet with fast missiles.
Our own policy should be to inform China we are a security ally of Oz, but would not be defending Taiwan in any military way.
Of course having a policy of protecting shipping from piracy or attacks on ships in peacetime (the Houthi are not a recognised government and have no right to be involved in war beyond their borders) is not the same as trying to lift a sea blockade in a war.
Some phrases and slogans are cultivated for use by team “mascots (prefer parrot?).
Short form of linking to the well argued rationalisation of the team narrative – as this has been done to death already and both sides already known the positions/moves of the other.
It is also an effort to paint those not in lockstep, as of the other team.
Chaotic post-Cab press conference today, as Luxon was asked repeatedly about the Treaty principles bill, and what happens after the first reading in Parliament.
He kept saying "no intention" to support it, and "no commitment" to support it. Somebody please buy him a dictionary, because those are 2 very different things.
Reporters pressed him to clarify, but he just Luxoned them ("what I would say to you is, look, it's very clear …") and clarified nothing.
"No commitment" means it's open. Decision not yet taken.
"No intention" means it's closed. Decision taken.
If anyone doubts that, try using the two phrases when your partner asks if you're free to help out with chores tomorrow. That will make the difference very clear!
(Of course, we all know that Luxon really means "no intention", but the farce is that he pretends it hasn't yet been decided, and we should pretend to believe him. The country now faces months of arguing pointlessly about something which is never going to happen).
NZF has clearly stated that they will not support it beyond first reading, so the bill is doomed even if National decide to support it.
“We’ll participate in the process to have the bill tabled in Parliament, debated in Parliament, referred to Select Committee, and after that we won’t be voting for it,” (Shane Jones)
It was noticeable in the post cabinet press conference how often he referred some questions directly to Collins or Peters and let them do the heavy lifting before adding a comment himself. Ardern and Hipkins almost always gave an initial opinion before passing the question on to their ministers.
The impression I had was that he doesn't have the confidence to give a detailed answer until after the ministers had essentially given him direction.
I agree with David Clark. This is dangerous territory and we may regret getting involved without a UN mandate. Helen Clark and the 2003 Iraq war comes to mind. She proved right to keep us out of that debacle.
Could not agree more Anne. The whole middle east is like a ticking time bomb, and we should engage in the space only with the consent of the many, not the few.
He could have said that first time, he chose to make lack of "UN mandate" his rationale for a differing position.
Was he forgetting what the UN Resolution said?
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution Wednesday demanding that Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis cease all attacks on ships flowing through the Red Sea.
S/RES/2722 (2024)
24-004372/2
2. Demands that the Houthis immediately cease all such attacks, which impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security, and further demands that the Houthis immediately release the Galaxy Leader and its crew;
3. Affirms the exercise of navigational rights and freedoms by merchant and commercial vessels, in accordance with international law, must be respected, and takes note of the right of Member States, in accordance with international law, to defend their vessels from attacks, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms;
4. Commends the efforts by Member States within the framework of the International Maritime Organization, to enhance the safety and secure transit of merchant and commercial vessels of all States through the Red Sea
Troops who train Ukrainian soldiers to use weapons and 6 personnel who are essentially engaged in a real time training exercise – possibly related to the AWACS (our air force new planes). Because the ops would occur without their presence.
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 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
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 global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
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: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
With The Stroke Of A Pen:Populism, especially right-wing populism, invests all the power of an electoral/parliamentary majority in a single political leader because it no longer trusts the bona fides of the sprawling political class among whom power is traditionally dispersed. Populism eschews traditional politics, because, among populists, traditional politics ...
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. ...
Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Climate denial is dead. Renewable energy denial is here. As “alternative facts” become the norm, it’s worth looking at what actual facts tell us about how renewable energy sources like solar and wind are lowering the price of electricity. As ...
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 move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
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 ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Officially, they’re called ‘memecoins,’ but Kōura Wealth founder Rupert Carlyon says the crypto world has another name for them: ‘shitcoins’.In digital finance, that phrase is used for tokens that have no true value – in essence, a money-grab.A few days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. Guy Williams has made a whole show off the joke that he is a “volunteer” journalist. So getting publicly owned by David Seymour while trying to act as a journalist is a good and timely reminder not to underestimate the nuance and ...
Many of Sāmoa’s beloved dishes are the result of cultural collaboration, writes Madeleine Chapman. All photos by Jin FelletIf you ever find yourself at a barbecue in a Sāmoan home, there’s 99% chance that sapasui (chop suey) will be on the table. For the past century, sapasui has ...
The funnyman takes us through his life in television, including Jono and Ben mayhem, live Telethon flubs, and funnelling all those experiences into his new comedy Vince. There’s an inciting incident in Three’s new comedy Vince where morning television presenter Vince Walters (Jono Pryor) is visiting sick kids in hospital ...
People often claim they just want Waitangi Day to be a celebration. At Waitangi, away from the headlined political acrimony and the marae ātea, celebrating is what most people are doing. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous ...
Is there anything more fashionable than a Māori get together? One of the best things about Northland is that nobody cares what they look like — probably because they’re all naturally more stylish than the rest of us, famously. Māori from the Far North, especially. In 27 degree heat, wearing ...
Books of Mana: 180 Māori-Authored Books of Significance, edited by Jacinta Ruru, Angela Wanhalla and Jeanette Wikaira has just been released by Otago University Press. In this essay, Books are Taonga, Jeanette Wikaira explores her personal relationship to books and their value.For me, books are taonga. The knowledge ...
I’ve been in love with him since last July, but it’s only now in this tepid hotel room that I find myself wondering why. The first thing he does when we arrive is smoke a cone in the bathroom – he emerges, hacking up a lung, fists thrust into his ...
MONDAY“Name,” barked a representative of the lower orders.I regarded him with a look of stern disapproval, and told him from up high, “May I remind you that I have name suppression. I shall also thank you to ask with more respect as befits a former president of the Act Party, ...
Get to know Tara, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Tara’s human for their support! Dog name: Tara Age: Two Breed: Mostly Border Collie and a little bit Catahoula Leopard dog If dog ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Gail Duncan, Chairperson of the St Peter’s on Willis Social Justice Group, one of the organisations invited to submit on the Bill, says the Government’s actions are unprecedented. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amani Kasherwa, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland In late January, a rebel group that has long caused mayhem in the sprawling African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo took control of Goma, a major city of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University An ad falsely depicting independent candidate Alex Dyson as a Greens member.ABC News/Supplied The highly pertinent case of a little-known independent candidate in the Victorian seat of Wannon has exposed a gaping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Nik/Unsplash You might have heard that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol levels, leading to poor health. Researchers have examined the science behind this myth again, and ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jens Blotevogel, Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Remediation Technologies, CSIRO Mino Surkala, Shutterstock Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University Netflix Netflix’s new limited series, Apple Cider Vinegar, tells the story of the elaborate cancer con orchestrated by Australian blogger Annabelle (Belle) Gibson. The first episode opens with Gibson’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dee Ninis, Earthquake Scientist, Monash University Greece’s government has just declared a state of emergency on the island of Santorini, as earthquakes shake the island multiple times a day and sometimes only minutes apart. The “earthquake swarm” is also affecting other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Western Australian state election will be held on March 8. A Newspoll, conducted January 29 to February 4 from a sample ...
She’s back behind the wheel, and this time, she wants to find out what it is that makes us tick. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. After a prolific career on stage and screen, 83-year-old Miriam Margolyes is on the road again. ...
A new poem by Jordan Hamel. Real Poet Every word earned its place and so did he, so should you. Real poet lives in the capital but writes himself into the Mackenzie country golden hour, man of the paper land, he neglects to mention his pollen ...
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 Understanding Te Tiriti by Roimata Smail (Wai Ako Press, $25) No better time to get ...
The committee has published this list to inform the public about its work, and to give clarity to submitters who have contacted the committee asking if they will be invited to make an oral submission. ...
Alex Casey and Gabi Lardies dissect their Laneway 2025 experience. Gabi Lardies: Hi Alex :))))))) Congratulations on not getting sunburnt. Everyone I talked to at Laneway yesterday was braving the sun for one thing. Charli XCX. How was your brat experience?Alex Casey: We will talk about the rest of ...
The US President's suggestion, which sparked enormous debate globally, has been labelled as a threat, not a proposal, by the Federation of Islamic Associations. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine McCarthy, Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Interior of Auckland South Men’s Prison.Getty Images Prisons are not colourful places. Typically, they are grey or some variation of a monochrome colour scheme. But increasingly, ...
FICTION1Tree of Nourishment (Kāwai 2) by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)Interesting to note that the author of the biggest-selling New Zealand novel in Waitangi Week is Māori (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai, and Ngāti Kahungunu).2 Kāwai: For Such a Time as This (Kāwai 1) by Monty Soutar (David ...
Remembering the renowned New Zealand writer, who died on February 5, 2025. The Stopover When the trout rise like compassion It is worth watching when the hinds come down from the hills with a new message it will be as well to listen. – Brian Turner Poet, environmentalist, sportsman, journalist, ...
Survivors can choose to have former High Court judge Paul Davison assess their individual claims to tailor payments to their personal circumstances. ...
Are we too modest when it comes to celebrating our putrid plant life?She’s beauty. She’s grace. She smells like a decaying corpse and lurks in the backrooms of Auckland Zoo, wallowing tragically in a bucket. In recent weeks an Australian corpse plant named Putricia has captured the noses and ...
Politicians from the coalition government received a frosty reception at Waitangi this year, but Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says the pōwhiri that received so much attention was just one part of many events throughout the week. ...
RNZ National still censoring revelations that IOF soldiers killed hostages on Oct. 7th
Tuesday 23 January 2024, 6:15 a.m.
Coming up is "our correspondent Sarah Coates in Jerusalem." Corin Dann chirpily asserts that she is "right across developments."
It turns out Sarah Coates is an Australian, and her "report" is of a group of hostages' families disrupting a finance committee meeting at the Knesset. Coates says the protest was "dramatic" with lots of shouting, and "people had to be restrained."
She did not mention the revelations of hostages that Israeli Occupation Force soldiers were ordered to fire on and bomb houses and vehicles which contained hostages, and that the soldiers carried out that order. That is a clearly verboten topic at Radio New Zealand. So much for "correspondent Sarah Coates" being "right across developments."
Radio New Zealand is still running cover for Israel.
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/if-israel-used-a-procedure-against-its-citizens-we-need-to-talk-about-it-now/0000018c-6383-de43-affd-f783212e0000
[This nothing but another one of your broadside attacks on a media organisation and/or journalist/reporter/interviewee. This time it is one of your pet targets, RNZ, but you have so many. However, you failed to substantiate it with a link. So, again, we have to read your raving ranting ramblings to be then directed into a rabbit hole of your choosing that is premium content.
If only you were a useless little pawn in propaganda wars. However, you are a useful idiot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot) who’s stuck in the past, like so many other useful idiots who consider themselves popular pundits and/or media influencers.
Lift your game – Incognito]
RNZ probably concerned NZ could miss-understand the euphamism of "using a procedure" on Israel's civilians and just how "endangering" this may be to "potential hostages".
The RNZ board's only concern is to stay onside with the government. The government of this country's only concern is to stay onside with the United States.
The concerns of listeners and the general public do not count in the slightest.
Morrissey is on the money here!
Mod note
What if RNZ has already mentioned this and you missed it?
You would have to write to them about that to know. Why not do that and inform us of their reply?
Keep up the good work Morrissey.
Without yr efforts I wouldn't have known about the IDF murdering and incinerating Israeli civilians.
And folk wonder why faith in once trusted outfits is plummeting.
Stuff is much the same. In fact this article can lead you to believe that anything that strays from the official narrative is a, wait for it,… conspiracy!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350153635/how-internet-erasing-october-7-hamas-massacre
Cool, I missed that one.
The Finklestein quoted was of the Miller Centre staff.
https://millercenter.rutgers.edu/staff/joel-finkelstein/was
The Washington Post article was right to note the anti-semitic nature of the fake narratives being created. However it could have linked to the Hannibal directive actuality to put that part of it into better context – except it has not published anything on that topic that I can find on-line.
Haaretz published the story in December about the Hannibal Directive being applied on October. The Gray Zone did so as well.
Apparently from mid-day October 7 some hours after the attack began.
In January 2024, an investigation by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth concluded that the IDF had in practice applied the Hannibal Directive from noon of October 7, ordering all combat units to stop “at all costs” any attempt by Hamas militants to return to Gaza with hostages,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire_during_the_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war
Backgrounders
https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/18512
November 2023
Was the Hannibal directive abandoned in 2016 (and if so was it’s application a new initiative?)
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/whats-the-hannibal-directive-a-former-israeli-soldier-tells-all
Keep up the good work Morrissey.
Thanks for your kind words, my friend.
Without yr efforts I wouldn't have known about the IDF murdering and incinerating Israeli civilians.
I recommend you read The Grayzone, Mondoweiss, and Electronic Intifada. All independent, unimpeachably honest and rigorous sites. They're all online.
And folk wonder why faith in once trusted outfits is plummeting.
No one with any sense or morality trusts a thing they read in The Grauniad, the Herald, or the failing New York Times.
Stuff is much the same. In fact this article can lead you to believe that anything that strays from the official narrative is a, wait for it,… conspiracy!
Stuff is as sad and untrustworthy as RNZ.
Yes. Thanks for raising these issues Morrisey. An excellent round up of all the IDF killing frenzy from the Electronic Intifada that includes an English translation of the original Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth article at the end.
Narrated is surviving hostage testimony of the hail of indiscriminate IDF live fire including tank shelling of Israeli village houses where Hamas fighters were holding hostages. It says a lot for the beliefs of the personnel involved that this kind of death for their own compatriots is necessary.
Also, the burnt remains of 70 cars is far beyond the damage Hamas would have been able to inflict with any of the weaponry they brought with them from Gaza. Testimony by pilots of US supplied attack helicopters shows that the IDF were also responsible for this.
Initially, the total of 1400 dead Israeli civilians was the horror headline used against Hamas. As well as decapitated babies which has well and truly been debunked. Now Israel says 'over 1000'. But of these at least 300 are known to be IDF and like it or not legitimate targets for Hamas against an illegal occupying power.
And now we know for sure that many if not most of the remainder were taken out by the IDF applying the Hannibal directive in everything but name.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-hq-ordered-troops-shoot-israeli-captives-7-october
The total Israeli dead was c1200 – 200 were found to be Palestinians out of Gaza. About 100 of them at the music festival site of a total c360.
It seems the attack helicopters were destroying cars that could be used to take hostages away.
Some of the Israeli police and IDF personnel killed by IDF action were at locations the Palestinians had over-run (and had been taken hostage).
https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/13111
Cars that are being destroyed by attack helicopters usually have people in them. In this case, probably a mixture of Hamas and Israeli hostages. How many in each car? 1?2?3?4? Its a lot of burnt black human wreckage however you look at it. Perhaps the odd wrongly targeted car? Maybe a blackened and charred baby or two? And all this in a civilian setting. The odd charred Israeli bystander perhaps.
The cars were a polite way to put the carnage but if all you can do is focus on them then I guess one has to be a bit more graphic.
Yeah na. The photo shows what it does. The only place there would be a group of burnt out cars would be at a carpark used by the music festival goers.
Obviously a strike to prevent them being used.
Others on the road. One at a time. Or the settlement area buildings at Beeri etc.
Gee. Thats pretty flash parking! I mean a stack 5 high! Wish I could park like that
It’s pretty silly to lie about a photo on a linked page.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/13111
Oh. Diversion again. The article and photo are here
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-hq-ordered-troops-shoot-israeli-captives-7-october
And also found the Israeli colonel that admitted to using tanks to blow up Israeli homes
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/we-blew-israeli-houses-7-october-says-israeli-colonel
Heres Israeli Government spokesman Mark Regev on why the count for dead Israelis went from 1400 down to 1200;
So…70 charred remains of cars and about 200 charred remains of human beings…hmmm…could these two events on the same day be related? I think thats pretty close to 3 people per vehicle on average. Still room for some hostages as well
You can't tell me Seymour didn't know what he was doing using the phrase "Jai Shri Ram" and praising Modi in this clip. He is deliberately courting BJP supporters in New Zealand.
The guy is a wannabe authoritarian and is moving his party towards outright Fascism.
When will the media start taking him seriously instead of treating him as a likeable rogue good for a soundbite?
Yes.
It's been a while since I looked at the markers of rising fascism (US GE in 2016 and so on), but the other thing that is happening is the number of nominal left people equivocating on this stuff and saying it's not so bad or it's not really happening. That's exactly how fascism takes hold. People ignoring what is happening and then by the time they're taking notice it's too late.
Brooke van Velden has the same glint in her eye.
to weka at 2.1 : I have had like concerns for some time, his commending of Modi exposes the fact.
Rightwing swing is a reality. Trumpism and the internet have swayed many. To grow their patch they have to have a group to "other" and make the distraction and excuse.
Many of these right wing people have infiltrated all aspects of governance, with the connivance and assistance of the National Party. i.e. Epsom "cup of tea".
I agree Weka. Seymore is divisive and collecting his like. Who would have ever believed he could be Deputy Prime Minister? Again with the connivance of National.
Many I know are actually saying this Government has already gone too far. People who voted National, and are not happy with the polygamous marriage. This is not what they expected.
Citizens have through King Te Huetia, began a call and it has shown the strength of feeling and push back. This is what we have to support, as what has been done is wrong, and what is proposed is dangerous.imo
We need to physically support local Treaty signing ceremonies, by being there, as a strong message to Act and Atlas their money arm, plus put the ball in PM Luxon’s court.
"…Rightwing swing is a reality…"
This goes back to Advantages post the other day. I was amazed that Robert Fico became leader of Slovakia – Slovakia has a broad anti-Russian consensus, yet here was a Putin fan boi from the far right running the place. So how come?
Well, it turns out Fico opposed damaging neoliberal "reforms" of the Slovak economy proposed by the World Bank, IMF and OECD and only cautiously adopting the Euro. He passed significant domestic labour law reforms in favour of workers and truckers.
In other words, he gave a two finger salute to the liberal capitalist establishment and people took his neo-Fascism as the trade off for better labour laws & more protection for the economy.
The left in NZ and the rest of the Anglosphere has to stop being perceived as defending the ever more extreme "centre" and being apologists for the establishment/status quo.
Seymour hopes to exploit the undoubted wedge between the elite & Iwi consensus on the role of the treaty and wider Pakeha & immigrant disquiet on that by deliberately stirring up race war rhetoric. On the left, we have to make sure we don't just end up trying to stand on the authority of that elite consensus to squash good faith debate. Otherwise, the day Seymour abandons his plutocratic economic program in favour of something more populist is the day he'll sweep to power as a bigger party than National.
"Many I know are actually saying this Government has already gone too far. People who voted National, and are not happy with the polygamous marriage. This is not what they expected."
Then they were incredibly naieve, or they are simply telling you what they think you want to hear.
The polls closest to the election clearly reflected the likelihood of a coalition of National, ACT and NZ First. The policies of all three parties were well publicised pre-election, and what we're seeing unfolding is simply what was signalled in advance, filtered through the coalition negotiations.
Interestingly, post-election polls have reflected increasing support for the coalition. Overall % support has risen from 52.81% at the election to 54.4% in the latest Curia poll, and the right/wrong direction has improved from negative 20 to negative 9.5. (Opinion polling for the next New Zealand general election – Wikipedia).
David, They have abolished "Smoke Free" I did not see that in their lists before the negotiations. Many thought they would consider the impacts…. but they have not. The treasury report on removing the EV rebate showed it would cost twice as much to remove the rebate, as to leave it.
We are supposed to be hard up with National and friends scrabbling to find 7.5 billion for their tax cuts. Guess what, they wasted the planning for new ferries, Lake Onslow, and Light Rail.
They then spent many dollars removing Maori from signs and letter heads. Some of their moves against 3 Waters have smacked of water control for future PPPs and will cause huge rate rises as Councils can not raise enough funds to cope with infrastructure repairs, and as for removing Maori from Boards. Small minded and racist in my book.
Now Maori are joining together with other interested parties to query this and especially the attack on the Treaty. The leaked report saw the actions as dangerous and divisive. Mandate my elbow!! Even National’s Potaka has come out against the moves on the Treaty.
Polls are an indication not a vindication.
The smoke free legislation was, to the best of my knowledge, the only example you give of policy not signalled prior to the election. You might be surprised to know that ASH support the government on that.
"Many have claimed this repeal would jeopardise the Smokefree 2025 goal. However, this is simply not the case. Predictive modelling, which contributed to the scientific underpinning of the legislation, indicated that it would take until 2040 to get smoking rates down to 8 per cent without the law. The reality is that we have already exceeded this expectation. And a closer look reveals that the three headline measures in the act were unlikely to have any impact before 2025."
Smokefree laws: New Zealand well on track to be smokefree next year – ASH NZ
You don’t like losing points, do you, so why don’t stop scoring in your own goal?
‘Constitutionally concerning’: Govt accused of ‘defunding’ Parliament
Reducing funding for the Office of the Clerk is hardly headline news. The changes being proposed by this government were clearly signalled across the various coalition partners prior to the last election. It may be unusual, but there it is.
Edited
Not headline news, is it? Is “unusual” a euphemism for totally inappropriate and utterly unexpected aka not signalled during the election campaign? Those sound like weasel words from a sly apologist.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018923011/labour-queries-decision-to-cut-funding-for-office-of-the-clerk [interviewee shadow leader of the House Duncan Webb]
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018923017/public-law-expert-on-cutting-funds-for-office-of-the-clerk [interviewee professor Andrew Geddis]
The Office of the Clerk is not even part of the Executive Branch.
Yes thank you Incognito. More evidence of perfidy on every level.
On their way to “smaller government and greater corporations.”
"Is “unusual” a euphemism for totally inappropriate and utterly unexpected aka not signalled during the election campaign? "
No, unusual refers to the idea that politicians in NZ may actually set about implementing policies they signalled in advance.
The Office of the Clerk is being required to find savings in the same way many other government departments and agencies are. As Nick Tuffley pointed out, this was well known going in to the election:
National is talking to both ACT and New Zealand First to get the numbers to form a government. "All three want to rein in government spending, return to surplus, and reduce taxes. All three want to restore the tax deductibility of interest expenses for residential property investment, which is likely to immediately perk up investor interest in residential property," said ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley in a note.
Explainer: What a National-led government will mean for New Zealand's economy | Reuters
Your wilful ignorance is on display. The Office of the Clerk is not part of the Executive Branch. You may want to educate yourself first before you waste anymore of our time and listen to the interview with professor Andrew Geddis and read Marc Daalder’s piece in Newsroom. You may learn the meaning of “unusual” in the relevant context.
It appears that the coalition government is so desperate to find the money to fund the over-hyped tax cuts that they are rushing things and making mistakes. Already some of their actions were not signalled during the election campaign, deliberately or otherwise.
What the coalition government inherited was an increase in government spending as a % of GDP from 17.92% in 2017 to 20.82% in 2022. https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/New-Zealand/Government_size/. That places NZ as the 28th highest out of 142 nations for government spending to GDP. The average across the 142 nations was 16.27%.
What the coalition government inherited was an auditor general's report that in the past two years (Auditor-General calls for wide-reaching review of failing public accountability (newsroom.co.nz, Auditor-General seeks greater scrutiny of public sector integrity (newsroom.co.nz)) outlined serious problems with accountability and transparency for public spending, specifically around three waters reforms, the covid recovery fund, the provincial growth fund, Māori health and education.
In that context, your concern over the office of the Clerk just seems a little underwhelming.
[You keep moving the goal posts aka diverting and this is the typical behavioural pattern of a troll.
There are two points that you keep ignoring and/or downplaying. Policy changes and cuts that haven’t been signalled in the election campaign. And the Office of the Clerk is part of the Executive Branch and therefore shouldn’t be treated “in the same way many other government departments and agencies”, as you asserted.
Your troll days are numbered now – Incognito]
Mod note
It shows Seymour has no problem with indigenous supremacy, where it is a majority.
The BJP is like a Christian Democrat party/Tory/GOP/National – the Indian National Congress party is a Social Democrat party, like Labour in Israel it is a declining opposition.
India has a secular constitution, as per the USA (which has a Christian majority).
Seymour's ACT has a range of authoritarian tendencies, probably because it plays the populist majoritarian card to gain favour for its small government agenda. Given a small government means less provision to the many, it resorts to a mobilisation against minorities. Here Seymour's goal Indians in India against Moslem other, Indians in New Zealand as part of the majority against indigenous minority Maori.
With Chinese, ACT policy is very pro Taiwan (adopting the policy of the retired United Party). The deputy Brooke van Velden takes the lead on this.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68003095
Seymour is endlessly ambitious, and it is clear his playbook is influenced by the whole right wing Atlas network project. As you say so succinctly it is the Brexit play of using a "…populist majoritarian card to gain favour for its small government agenda…" – Brexit was always about removing the UK from the EU's regulatory environment in favour of a return to Dickensian trade liberalism.
The NZ media is utterly dominated by the need for "engagement" to juke their online stats for advertising revenue. It is ferociously parochial, provincial and simply refuses to show any curiosity in the intellectual underpinning of the modern far right, and in particular the influence & tactics of far right think tanks that make up the Atlas network simply because such investigations are expensive and produce far less clicks than simply recycling press releases from ACT/TPU.
But on top of all that, I am convinced Seymour has looked around the world and noticed the rise of right wing strongmen like Orban, Fico, Erdogan, Trump etc and the network of right wing propaganda funded by Russia and China and sees an opportunity to replace National as the party of the right. He fancies himself as a hopefully more successful Oswald Mosley, riding an anti-democratic wave of neo-Fascist authoritarianism all the way to the ninth floor of the Beehive.
More Edward than Thomas Seymour? Lord Protector for a King of the name. A century before Cromwell.
My two cents worth on this would be that we have two 'populist' leaders, Winston and David. They detest each other and will do what they can to destroy the other. Of the two, only Winston understands at any level what Nationalism means but he has always been more interested in the baubles.
Putin, Orban, Fico all understand what Nationalism is. They realise that it requires a serious curtailing of global neo conservatism in their neck of the woods. They don't oppose wealth accumulation as such but require that those who make money don't make the rules and they know how to enforce it.
They also understand that money needs to be put to work making stuff and ensuring as much as possible that sufficient energy and infrastructure exist and are accessible. Immigration needs to be tightly controlled as do money flows.
National interest is a completely foreign concept to David. He is beholden to those with money and as their servant will never be able to assert the control that you envisage.
Naked Capatilism did a good outline on Orban.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/01/orban-continues-to-outfox-the-eu-in-fight-over-who-controls-hungary.html
Someone who has no idea about the deep state capability to assert an authoritarian regime to support neo-liberal capital libertarianism.
But the more visible forms are known, more in prison via three strike targeted policing, enhanced state surveillance, prosperity religion and faith based providers in welfare, community health and private contractor security.
The nationalists oppose international “neo-liberalism”, they pose as social conservative economic nationalists.
"India has a secular constitution, as per the USA (which has a Christian majority)."
For now.
"The constitution still calls India a secular republic. But the facts on the ground suggest otherwise. Mr Modi’s supporters treat the idea of secularism as a foreign imposition on a grand civilisation, and as camouflage for the mistreatment and suppression of Hindus. In reality it is their aggressive chauvinism that has cost Indian society dearly, and it is Muslims who are treated as second-class citizens. Human Rights Watch warned last year of the government’s “systematic discrimination and stigmatisation of religious and other minorities, particularly Muslims” and of increasing violence by BJP supporters against targeted groups."
and
"Many believe that the prime minister will rewrite the constitution if he gains a sufficient majority, though he has dismissed such speculation. Monday may mark another fateful step towards that moment. It may also indicate that he does not need to change the words on paper when he has reshaped his country so effectively already."
The Guardian view on Modi in Ayodhya: an alarming new era for India | Editorial | The Guardian
Turkey's been taking a similar sort of path for some time now. Ataturk would hardly recognise the place.
Another thing Seymour is trying to do is dilute culture and identity, specifically that of Te Ao Maori.
He heavily relies on the insistence that NZ should be a 'diverse multicultural' nation saying that Maori history, culture and identity are no different than those of new arrivals, despite Te Ao Maori contributing significantly to the nation's identity. Seymour wants that to end so that NZ is homogenised and just a collection of cultures rather than a unique, distinguishable country with its own identity.
The insistence is that Maori identity must be diminished and diluted before a 'diverse multicultural' nation can exist. It's nonsense.
If the great strides over the last 40 years to uphold the importance of Maori and its taonga, and to reconcile injustices hadn't been made, a diminished, diluted and homogenised national identity is exactly what we would have now. This is what he wants…
Yup, the Atlas Network upholding the global capitalist order works to diminish the
*size of government
*separate nation state identity (TOW, Waitangi Tribunal)
*international common cause of the people (environment/GW action/labour standards/Declaration of Universal Human Rights – government guarantee of education, health, housing adequate income – HRC, UNDRIP).
Restricted or scrutinised access to the resources with which farmers and miners make maximum profit regardless of the cost can't be tolerated. Three Waters threatened that (along with delivering huge generational benefits to all) and so was subject to a well funded and sustained campaign against.
Maori identity is intrinsically linked to the living, breathing environment and Maori involvement in the supervision of that environment, even consultation with Maori on that environment is something which Seymour and National and their backers simply must destroy.
The best way to do that in the wider (thick/white/immigrant) community is to demonise Maori which is what Chris Trotter did on Bryce Edwards' VUW endorsed website. And to frame low income Maori as receiving benefits low income non-Maori do not. They are the enemy:
Yet the obvious fit between the ideology of small government/unregulated markets and the denial of minority indigenous rights (particularly in natural resources) goes unnoticed and unremarked on in most of our media. And it's more than a mere "fit" really – it's an essential conjunction. Astonishing.
Well described, Muttonbird.
Rimmer and the Hindutva mob were celebrating this.
On Monday, January 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside at a “sacred” religious ceremony to inaugurate the massive Hindu temple that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has had erected in Ayodhya on the site of the razed Babri Masjid (mosque)—fulfilling a longstanding goal of the Hindu supremacist right.
The Masjid, an historic Muslim shrine dating from the 16th century, was demolished on Dec. 6, 1992, by Hindu fundamentalist activists mobilized by the BJP and its allies in the fascistic RSS and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Council of Hindus). In defiance of the orders of India’s Supreme Court and under the watchful eyes of top BJP leaders and thousands of security personnel who supposedly had been deployed to protect the Masjid, specially trained Hindu activists razed it to the ground in a matter of hours using axes, hammers and grappling hooks.
The razing of the Masjid provoked India’s worst communal violence since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into an expressly Muslim Pakistan and a predominantly Hindu India. In riots and other communal outrages that unfolded across much of north and west India well into 1993, thousands of people, most of them poor Muslims, were killed.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/01/22/zmxv-j22.html
https://indiannewslink.co.nz/ayodhya-in-eden-park-set-to-become-a-historic-event-on-sunday/
There is evidence that there was a significant Hindu temple on this site that the Muslim invaders of India demolished and then built their Mosque in it's place.
Also do you object to the Turks turning the Hagia Sophia into a Mosque?
Someone pointed out before it is incredible the way Seymour and ACT candidates are happy to applaud nationalism and traditionalism in certain forms and in certain hands, but not others.
Seymour will embrace Hindutva Indians, whose spokespeople in mysteriously well funded astroturf "community" groups will become the default "voice of the Indian community" for our lazy media. Six Hindutva "dairy owners" will get free reign in the press to claim to speak for all Indians and paint their opponents as racists.
Thus emboldened by the endorsement of the next deputy PM, they'll start launching ethnic violence against Moslem Indians, Tamils and Sikhs and it'll spill over into a reaction against all Indians.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131636537/kiwi-sikhs-fear-they-are-stuck-in-exile-as-rising-hindu-nationalism-grips-india
Tewi Seymour (as I've chosen to rechristen him, to acknowledge the recent sudden prominence of his Maori heritage) will give the appearance of embracing anyone if there's a vote or two to be had out of it.
Confirmed: Ukraine war ends with partition
Kit Klarenberg
Zelensky no doubt wishes that referendum had gone ahead, therefore likely averting the special military operation. He also surely regrets believing Boris Johnson’s promises of the blankest of blank cheques in return for keeping up the fight.
Over recent weeks, there has been a flurry of extraordinary mainstream media reports admitting the hitherto unthinkable and unsayable. The war in Ukraine is over, Moscow has won, and Kiev has lost. Badly. Very, very badly indeed.
Perhaps the most stunning example was provided by a January 6th op-ed in The Spectator, authored by the outlet’s resident “Russia expert” Owen Matthews. A longstanding Maidan acolyte, in June 2023 he published Overreach, a pseudo-psychological account of why the February 2022 special military operation came to pass. Attributing the world-changing action to Kremlin delusions of spawning an illegitimate modern day hybrid of the Tsarist Empire and Soviet Union, his conclusions were stark, forecasting imminent, utter catastrophe for Vladimir Putin:
Fast forward to today, and Matthews has a rather different take on things. He observes how there is “one brutal truth at the core of Putin’s maneuverings.” Namely, “the partition of Ukraine has, to a significant extent, already happened,” and “the key challenge facing US policymakers this year will be how to handle that reality”:
The biggest barrier to the Empire simply admitting defeat, is “no one in Washington” wants “to spell it out” to Western audiences. ,,,,
Read more…
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/confirmed–ukraine-war-ends-with-partition
https://twitter.com/KitKlarenberg/status/1744085587966001470
A war without a just conclusion is merely a pause. If Ukraine is forced into a fait accompli, they'll restart the war once they've rearmed. Expect a wider alliance including Poland to confront Russia in the next war. If Putin is not defeated it will simply signal a wider war in 2026-28. Restore the 1991 borders, admit a reformed Ukraine into the EU and NATO, and getting rid of Putin is the only formula for a lasting peace.
How long do you think an independent, democratic Ukraine would last after such a peace deal? You'd have to be a complete muppet to imagine it would longer than a year or so.
It's like being punched repeatedly by a bully while being constantly asked why you're fighting back.
Russia-propaganda aligned piece from a former journalist for Russia Today and Sputnik – both state funded russian propaganda outlets. Russia is desperate to promote the idea that Ukraine's defeat is inevitable.
“The past year of fruitless fighting has shown that reconquering Ukraine’s lost territories in their entirety will require many times more blood and treasure than has already been spent – money that the US is increasingly unwilling to provide.”
The issue with this take is it acknowledges Ukraine has expended blood and treasure – but in fact russia has also lost vast quantities of both, so not necessarily fruitless for Ukraine. Who will lose military capacity first (and it is true – russia started with much more initially)? Ukraine has little choice but to continue, if they want to avoid subjugation and slaughter.
Thanks for posting this, the OP is a shameless pro-Russian propaganda piece.
Kit Karenberg is an independent journalist, working in London. Where his work appears is not really important, surely. Is Glenn Greenwald any less of an authority because he used to work for that discredited MI5 conduit and traducer of political dissenters, the Grauniad, and has appeared on such ridiculous, partisan television outlets as CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and British state television?
The sources Klarenberg uses for this article are Owen Matthews, of the rabidly anti-Russian Spectator, and President Zelensky's chief adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. Far from being "Russia aligned", they are staunchly anti-Russian, but they have the integrity to tell the truth.
You need to read the article instead of calling people names.
To suggest that propaganda piece remotely represents Podolyak's position is nonsense – and the fact that Klarenberg quotes a Spectator article that includes a quote from Podolyak – hardly means Podolyak is a "source"! Plus Podolyak's comments in that Spectator piece are far removed from the suggestion to abandon occupied territories to russia. Here is what he said in the article that Karenberg misrepresents:
Anyone can have a look at Podolyak's twitter feed to get an idea of his actual views – nothing at all in line with Klarenberg – but does give a genuine Ukrainian perspective.
There is an American missile that can reach all of Russian occupied Ukraine, and supply of that and more field artillery and ammunition is all it would take to end Russia's ability to make any offensive moves.
One block is the GOP is nominating Trump who wants Russia to win and to leave NATO. And thus see no point in funding anything.
Another is the limited supply and pre-existing orders.
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4120821-as-putin-levels-odesa-biden-dithers-on-giving-ukraine-the-missiles-it-needs/
Some say limited numbers and restriction to the purpose of taking out Russian air-defence systems would make the other missiles Ukraine has more effective.
Given GOP control of funding blocks even that, the USA has to look at increasing production capacity to NATO partners and have them supply some of their stocks to Ukraine.
Driving on beaches is a complex issue, surprise, surprise.
Locals claim "heritage", mana whenua say cultural harvest sites can't be reached without vehicles etc.
Local councils must consult with the public before making changes and get strong resistance.
Beaches are classified as roads.
Not straight forward and many fights result.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I think you are right about a vehicle ban attracting a fight.
I heard the sad story about Muriwai in the weekend and no doubt there is unreported damage of nests etc.
We already have a large array of regulations, by-laws and rules.
What is lacking is enforcement. This cry of banning something is just a knee-jerk reaction.
Prohibition doesn't work.
Try banning cats! Getting cat-owners to agree on a strategy is like herding … hang on!
Nobody likes to be told that their way has to change.
If you do wanna talk about fauna being destroyed, it would be hard to go past cats as an apex predator.
There is very little defence for their activities apart from 'It's a bit inconvenient for me to have to manage their wanderings'.
My Mum's house is littered with the darlings droppings. (She doesn't keep one herself).
More than once I've thought of setting an opposum cage up then hosing down any occupants in the morning before releasing them.
Enforcement is bloody hard, gsays.
Wanna be a fisheries officer … anywhere in NZ?
That beaches are used like a road is nothing short of astounding. It goes well with the philosophy of exploiting the environment until nothing is left to salvage.
But naturally (sarc), all those SUVs and four wheel drivers need an outlet to let it rip! I doubt that any of them think about the ecosystem is being ruined.
On most beaches bylaws request permissions for access if it is for fishing or boat access – its not a free for all – and road rules do still apply.
And if I am not mistaken, just yesterday the Maori King asked for the same – NZ Herald, 22 Jan, 2024 08:03 AM .
He is not alone as this was an article last year:
Off-road vehicles destroying taonga across motu – iwi ranger – Thursday, October 26, 2023
Should horse-riding be allowed on beaches?
Hooves damage shellfish beds and plover nests. Horse manure is a foreign material on sand. Galloping horses frighten small children plashing in the shallows.
Whose gonna tell Māori from the far north?
What activity undertaken by humans isn't wrapped in complexity and overseen by multiple points of view?
🙂
Sadly, you’re indeed mistaken.
Where is your link and the link to that article from last year?
https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2023/10/26/off-road-vehicles-destroying-taonga-across-motu-iwi-ranger/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/maori-king-calls-for-hope-call-for-vehicle-ban-and-locals-need-to-be-cautious/3ZIGH7X5I563Q6HV5CKFHW3ZJM/
Thanks for the links and for confirming that the Māori king did not call for a vehicle ban on beaches.
"On most beaches bylaws request permissions for access if it is for fishing or boat access – its not a free for all – and road rules do still apply"
Perhaps, more accurately, you mean some rather than most.
I am at the beach 3 days a month. There are often lots of vehicles there but "all those SUVs and four wheel drivers need an outlet to let it rip!" is very rare.
https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/licences-regulations/driving-on-beaches/Pages/rules-driving-beaches.aspx#:~:text=Road%20rules%20on%20beaches,licensing%20of%20drivers
Silly me, of course what applies on Muriwai applies to all beaches throughout the motu./sarc.
My point stands, silly people will do silly things, regardless of by-laws, statutes and regulations. Policy banning all, because a few from the shallow end of the gene pool can't help themselves is not the answer.
If they need to get to "cultural" sites, then OK, but let that be by "cultural" methods of access.
That's pretty silly, but okay, what do you mean by "cultural methods"?
Does Māori culture not include adapted technologies?
Waiting…
Funniest line of the day goes to Nick Rockel for his skewering of Shane Jones here:
"Meanwhile they showed an earlier interview with NZ First heir apparent, Shane Jones. Who has described the Hui as a “monumental moan-session”, which sounds like a review of one of the movies he used to rent on the taxpayer’s coin."
https://nickrockel.substack.com/p/defending-the-indefensible
Self pleasuring is a well acknowledged human trait–but Mr Jones booking his stimulus up on us taxpayers is what rankled perhaps.
Yes Robert, Nick Rockel also called Shane Jones the "Great Kumera of the North"
I laughed at both … Kumera and the movies Always an enjoyable read and often right on point with his descriptors and metaphors.
Debt to income rules come.
It's 6 times income for homeowners. And 7 times for investors.
So $48,000 c MinW * 2 c$100,00 – $600,000 max + 20% deposit minimum.
$60,000+ MedW * 2 $130,000 – $780,000 max +20% deposit minimum.
Home ownership could dependent on the area one lives. Or an increase of terrace apartment housing and reduced migration to balance out supply and demand.
What research has been done as per living costs and money available for mortgage payments is an unknown – rates and or water bills are going to rise a bit. Power bills will rise to the extent migration and electric cars push up demand (mitigated by more energy efficient housing).
Labour's plan was to encourage the investor class to new builds (on which mortgage payment was allowed as a cost) – National's appears to be change rules to enable greater supply of small builds/mobile homes (factory built) as granny flats and the like. Otherwise abandoning support for Labour's intensification RMA, means developers continue to focus on areas around transport spines – they just need a government that creates more of these, and then extend this to areas with parks (or golf courses that …).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/reserve-bank-proposes-introducing-debt-to-income-dti-mortgage-restrictions/PCSYUOQE3NAERGRT5XTHNBJWZM/
Want to pledge your support for this poor, misunderstood Government? Believe they are being picked on by Māoris and Lefties? Here's a letter you can sign and send to Mr Luxon, Mr Peters and Mr Seymour, to show them you've got their collective backs!
(Sample fragment)
"It has been concerning to see how you and your government have been attacked for policies that the majority of the country voted for. The rhetoric has been aggressive and misplaced.
That is why I am writing to you today. Please stay the course and remain committed to defending our freedoms and democracy. It is a key reason why I and many others voted for you. This is so very important to the future well-being of our country.
Please remember you have a mandate to make these positive changes to protect democracy.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely"
https://www.westandwithyou.co.nz/
A lot of money and effort to popularise a right wing narrative.
A "majority" whose "democratic" mandate to defend their "freedom" is under some threat.
Chris Trotter has already made the case that those pro Maori should be seen as the left were and spied on by the state. He was once of the left, but I dismissed from that category when he opposed a CGT, because people of his demographic opposed it (privilege of being born in an era where property ownership was the expectation).
Trotter is on the council of that astroturf creation of the TPU – the self-styled "Free Speech Union" alongside such dubious characters as Stephen Franks, Ani O’Brien and Jordan Williams.
As such he is now an acolyte of the Atlas Network. He has gone completely down the far right rabbit hole. I would say that as he fearfully twitches the curtains of his villa he sees his political rejection and social exorcism by anyone to the left of David Farrar for his right wing race and culture war rhetoric as simply part of a circular argument for how unreasonable the left has become.
It could be termed having a security state servant mind set.
There are a number of types of old age insecurity, physical frailty and mental decline and a fear of loss of nativism (society going in a direction away from what it was in their youth because of "other" – Brexit to England pre EEC, 50's-60's assimilation policy here and America birth sex identity, pre critical race theory and feminism in the USA – note the importance of the birther movement as per the non white POTUS).
"society going in a direction away from what it was in their youth because of "other" "
That's genius, SPC.
Who is behind that?
Email address harvesting. Database then sold, or handed on to the Taxdodgers Union and Farrar, or The Platform, or 1ZB.
Makes sense Muttonbird.
Robert, "droll" comes to mind regarding the letter. They are asking for mockery with this plea surely? It shows they know they are not getting accolades.
The southern man is planing for a cool one.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/weather-cooler-temperatures-offer-relief-from-muggy-heat-briefly/7DRDEOHA4NHWDA26H7DXOGVRDQ/
OK so we are according to Prime Minister Luxon sending a team of 6 to assist with security in the Red Sea strait.
Seems a pretty minimal investment in NZDF staff for the degree of risk to Maersk.
So won’t this ghastly government do?
Next thing Luxon, Collins and Peters will be waving in nuclear ships.
Can someone please assure me that this is an embarrassingly sick joke created by a wag with an evil sense of humour
Does that mean NZ is now at war with the poorest country in the world at the request of USA/UK to further enable the ethnic cleansing of Gaza?
Attacks on shipping between Europe and Asia has no impact on Israel's Gaza policy or the USA.
It does has an impact on shipping costs.
The Houthi are based in Yemen, but are no more the government there than Hezbollah are government of Lebanon, Hamas government of Palestine or Shia militias loyal to Iran are the government of Iraq.
They do have a military dominance of the old North Yemen area, sufficient to be well known for human rights abuses of the locals – think Taleban.
Was military action against Islamic State, a war on Iraq or Syria, both or neither?
Yes the Houthis are the government of North Yemen- they control most of the populated area, 60% of the countrys 31 mill people
The Zaydi kingdom ( Houthis are military arm of the Zaydi) ruled the area from end of WW1 to around 1969 and are well established in the armed forces and civil government. Northern Yemen is mostly urban
South Yemen was the former British Colony, most are Sunni Muslim instead of the Northern Shia sect
The former government fled to Saudi Arabia. 'Internationally recognised' is just US b.s. It just means a puppet government in Riyadh
Even the South isnt controlled by Saudi puppet government- the former governors have that
The thing there is no such thing as a nation state of North Yemen since the merger with the South. Thus it does not have a recognised government.
Somaliland has been an autonomous part of Somalia for about 30 years, but it has no recognised government either.
The effect is to ramp up the costs for the West in supporting Israels genocide. Exactly as you state. Shipping costs will increase. And then you can also wonder why the Israeli blockade on Gaza does not materialise UK and US carrier groups promoting free maritime passage to Gazan ports and also remember the horrific famine inducing invasion of Yemen that was, prior to Gaza the most severe humanitarian disaster. All weaponry, targeting and naval blockades supplied by the usual beacons of light, the US and UK
https://twitter.com/Hamza_a96/status/1749573555098939518
“I’m sorry your Amazon packages are delayed, but you know, there’s a genocide…”
Shame shame shame Luxon.
Not in my name.
I know Amazon uses the word shipping a lot but does anyone get their goods shipped via the Suez.
They get their stuff from warehouses Amazon has in a lot of places.
And amazon gets it's goods to ship…
It makes no difference to Amazon logistics across the Atlantic. If it is Asian produced it can go across the Pacific to the USA and restock there if USA sends reserves across the Atlantic in the short term. It is only a matter of weeks going around Africa anyhow.
No one ordering Amazon will notice any difference (Amazon costs up profits down or pass on costs maybe).
Yes. A day of shame for NZ.
Maersk could always try not servicing Israeli ports.
It worse than that Ad.
For starter the link to the messed up presso is long – so my point is at around the 17 minute mark. The NZ government has approved NZ defence forces personal to enter into a another countries territory and engage in espionage.
Well we can't get upset if it happens to us.
The 6 will be based at an operational headquarters in the wider Middle East and not go into Yemen. Sounds like satellite (AWACS and drone) surveillance to screen ops identifying targets before, during and after.
A port in Djibouti, aboard ship, or SA.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2024/01/how-nz-defence-force-will-contribute-in-middle-east-amid-houthi-strikes.html
Not what they said at the presso.
So I'll take the newshub piece as propaganda after the fact
Still Espionage no matter what way you wrap it.
And once again, your link does not say what you imply – you make it up?
What espionage are they going to be engaged in? That is something you asserted without any evidence.
They have no operational headquarters in Yemen.
If you are asserting they said something else at the presser – then identify the difference and provide the time of that.
As to operational HQ in the region – the US and UK have sea ports in Djibouti, access to SA airfields and such aboard ships. Whether they would be as far away as the the other side of the Arabian peninsular (Persian Gulf) maybe.
In reply to Ad at 9.
Let’s hope we’re never asked to make a decision to support any action in the Straits of Taiwan.
If the Chinese blockade Taiwan (stopping ships and bringing them back into Chinese ports or directing to leave the area), their intent would be to lure in American ships and then sink the fleet with fast missiles.
Our own policy should be to inform China we are a security ally of Oz, but would not be defending Taiwan in any military way.
Of course having a policy of protecting shipping from piracy or attacks on ships in peacetime (the Houthi are not a recognised government and have no right to be involved in war beyond their borders) is not the same as trying to lift a sea blockade in a war.
No! thats right! only the US and UK are allowed to do that. Its called the rules based international system of order!
Some phrases and slogans are cultivated for use by team “mascots (prefer parrot?).
Short form of linking to the well argued rationalisation of the team narrative – as this has been done to death already and both sides already known the positions/moves of the other.
It is also an effort to paint those not in lockstep, as of the other team.
Chaotic post-Cab press conference today, as Luxon was asked repeatedly about the Treaty principles bill, and what happens after the first reading in Parliament.
He kept saying "no intention" to support it, and "no commitment" to support it. Somebody please buy him a dictionary, because those are 2 very different things.
Reporters pressed him to clarify, but he just Luxoned them ("what I would say to you is, look, it's very clear …") and clarified nothing.
Being "Luxoned" must be soul-destroying for those who love life.
Let it come down to a conscience vote?
Release the weasels!
They already have!
The words 'no commitment' are because its ACTs policy and getting to 1st reading stage only was 'a commitment' in their coalition agreement
https://www.act.org.nz/coalition_agreement_means_lower_cost_of_life_safer_streets_stronger_democracy
Its at 5th bullet point .
No Im not supporting this by putting up the facts
No intention is because Luxon said thats as far as it goes – many contentious bills die at that stage
Conscience vote ?
Wont even have that – let it die a well deserved death in 1st reading stage .
"No commitment" means it's open. Decision not yet taken.
"No intention" means it's closed. Decision taken.
If anyone doubts that, try using the two phrases when your partner asks if you're free to help out with chores tomorrow. That will make the difference very clear!
(Of course, we all know that Luxon really means "no intention", but the farce is that he pretends it hasn't yet been decided, and we should pretend to believe him. The country now faces months of arguing pointlessly about something which is never going to happen).
In fact, it's even worse than that!
NZF has clearly stated that they will not support it beyond first reading, so the bill is doomed even if National decide to support it.
“We’ll participate in the process to have the bill tabled in Parliament, debated in Parliament, referred to Select Committee, and after that we won’t be voting for it,” (Shane Jones)
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon not ruling out voting for Treaty Principles Bill at second reading | Newshub
It's a remarkable failure of leadership by Luxon. Creating long term division and distress just because he can't manage Seymour. So weak.
It was noticeable in the post cabinet press conference how often he referred some questions directly to Collins or Peters and let them do the heavy lifting before adding a comment himself. Ardern and Hipkins almost always gave an initial opinion before passing the question on to their ministers.
The impression I had was that he doesn't have the confidence to give a detailed answer until after the ministers had essentially given him direction.
Spot On . Its certain that he cant get his head around the idea of deeper questions to his soundbite answers
Labour is at last showing signs of life:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/labour-greens-warn-of-escalating-risks-as-government-deploys-military-to-red-sea/IJAVLADUZZA6RAHY7JECJE3FSM/
I agree with David Clark. This is dangerous territory and we may regret getting involved without a UN mandate. Helen Clark and the 2003 Iraq war comes to mind. She proved right to keep us out of that debacle.
Could not agree more Anne. The whole middle east is like a ticking time bomb, and we should engage in the space only with the consent of the many, not the few.
Agree Anne
When the media ask him to explain why Labour provided aid to Ukraine without a UN mandate – what will he say?
Big difference between sending aid, and sending troops in to engage in espionage.
He could have said that first time, he chose to make lack of "UN mandate" his rationale for a differing position.
Was he forgetting what the UN Resolution said?
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution Wednesday demanding that Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis cease all attacks on ships flowing through the Red Sea.
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N24/009/28/PDF/N2400928.pdf?OpenElement
As for your point of difference
Troops who train Ukrainian soldiers to use weapons and 6 personnel who are essentially engaged in a real time training exercise – possibly related to the AWACS (our air force new planes). Because the ops would occur without their presence.