Open mike 23/06/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, June 23rd, 2015 - 251 comments
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251 comments on “Open mike 23/06/2015 ”

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  1. The Lone Haranguer 1
    23 June 2015 at 7:08 am

    So Colin Craig is on the ropes and the Conservatives are, (according to the NZ Herald at least), dead meat without him.

    Be careful what you hope for. His primary agitator is Conservative Party Board member John Stringer, a former National party candidate for Chch Central. And from memory he also boasts of an earlier job in the UK Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher

    So if the CP dissolve from infighting and lack of visible leadership, where will their 3.75% or so constituency return to? Primarily to the Nats of course.

    Labour is way better served with the Conservative Party under the threshold, and getting gifted 25-35% of their vote via MMP.

    • Sabine 1.1
      23 June 2015 at 7:38 am

      and if the conservatives stay they will form a coalition with National. so it does not matter essentially, as the voters of the conservatives would not vote for Labour anyways.

      I don’t see the issue really, other then that the National Party might not want the out and proud conservative force on their team. Might be better hiding them in a third party that one does business with because it serves a Purpose?

      • weka 1.1.1
        23 June 2015 at 8:24 am

        How can the CP form a coalition with National with 3.75% and no electorate seat?

      • The Lone Haranguer 1.1.2
        23 June 2015 at 4:47 pm

        Sabine, you assume that they will somehow, miraculously, cross the 5% threshold.

        Im with the Herald – they are deadmeat and if they survive (doubtful in my view) any votes they get will go into the pool to be split out amongst the parties in Parliament

    • Puckish Rogue 1.2
      23 June 2015 at 8:20 am

      While I would like to agree with you, being a National voter and all, I see most of the vote going towards NZFirst being that most of Colin craigs supporters will be nutters

      • Sabine 1.2.1
        23 June 2015 at 9:45 am

        the same could be said about the current National Voters.
        Really, one good thing National did in the last seven years that went to the profit of the country and not just themselves. And would you think that the national party of past would be happy with the current lot.?

        Nutters, define Nutters. As Winston is making more and more sense lately if one is wanting a government that does not sell the Country by bits and pieces to overseas interests.

        • Puckish Rogue 1.2.1.1
          23 June 2015 at 10:00 am

          Well his conspicracy theories for one thing

          • Sabine 1.2.1.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 10:25 am

            what has National done that was to the benefit of all of New Zealand.
            You voted for them as per your comment above. Why?

            And no, Labour does it too does not count.

            A proper selfish reason as to why you thought National was better for you, the country then any of the other parties?

    • Lanthanide 1.3
      23 June 2015 at 9:44 am

      Christine Rankin was on RNZ this morning saying she was seriously considering leaving the party. She definitely would if Craig somehow stayed on as leader, and probably would even if he didn’t. IIRC she also said she didn’t want to be leader, and Craig had to plead with her over several weeks before she finally agreed.

      Of course, that could just be a coded message to the board, telling them to make her leader or she walks.

    • millsy 1.4
      23 June 2015 at 10:15 am

      The left should keep an eye on the Conservatives. The country had a lucky ecape in 2011 and 2014, but 2017 maybe different. Garth McVicar and Rankin may yet change their minds and decide to stand. Then we will have nowhere to hide.

      • Puckish Rogue 1.4.1
        23 June 2015 at 11:36 am

        In 2008 National gained power with the Conservatives, in 2011 they kept power without the Conservatives and in 2014 they again kept power without the Conservatives

        National didn’t need the conservatives then and certainly don’t need them now and won’t need them in the future when they keep power in the 2017 election

  2. Save NZ 2
    23 June 2015 at 8:09 am

    Hopefully Winston can pick up the Conservatives votes rather than National. The Northland result shows with collaboration and a strategic approach, the Nats can be beaten.

    Nat voters clearly are not happy with the Nats either, and with each new scandal more room grows for them to be defeated.

    Of course there has to be an acceptable alternative vision to vote for….. and the non Nat parties not splitting in each other’s faces or a truce of some sorts….

    • Puckish Rogue 2.1
      23 June 2015 at 8:23 am

      The stronger NZFirsts postion becomes the weaker the Greens barginning position becomes

      • weka 2.1.1
        23 June 2015 at 8:25 am

        🙄

      • Save NZ 2.1.2
        23 June 2015 at 8:32 am

        Not if NZ First are taking votes from the Nats.

        The party who needs to change the most is Labour. To win Labour needs to change, if they can’t change at least stand down not to split votes.

        Labour are the Nats in sheep clothing and half their supporters know it.

        It’s on the ethics Labour are failing and big issues like clear views on trade and foreign policy. They had Brian Gould do their review, but did they take any thing away from it.

        • Puckish Rogue 2.1.2.1
          23 June 2015 at 8:38 am

          That may be but if Labour has the option of
          A. Labour/NZFirst/Greens or
          B.Labour/NZFirst

          then they’d go B everytime

          • Save NZ 2.1.2.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 8:46 am

            So what, the Greens have never been in power anyway.

            With all the dirty politics they all have to collaborate to defeat National.

            Labour has lost so much support. They probably will need 2 partners to govern.

            If NZ First, Labour and Greens need to hedge their bets by an alliance between the 3.

            Greens and NZ First should have a private meeting to see what they can agree on.

            TPP for one and more controls on housing and immigration could be another.

            • Puckish Rogue 2.1.2.1.1.1
              23 June 2015 at 8:55 am

              I think the only thing WinstonFirst will agree to is that the Greens stay out of power

              • weka …
                23 June 2015 at 9:03 am

                you think that because it suits your trole agenda here.

                But most observers of Peters know that the only thing you can say about him is that he is unreliable and unpredictable. None of us know what he will do.

                • Puckish Rogue …
                  23 June 2015 at 9:46 am

                  If you look at past history you’ll see Winny is not particuly keen on the Greens being in power, that Labour have shafted the Greens in favour of NZFirst and that Winston has shafted Labour in favour of National (arise Sir Winston anyone..?)

                  But yes he is unpredictable

                  • weka …
                    23 June 2015 at 10:54 am

                    Peters is quite capable of supporting the GP being in power if it suits his agenda eg he gets the baubles he wants.

                    • Save NZ …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:06 am

                      These days NZ First is more Green than Labour.

                      Unless it is just Labour messaging, or lack of it…

                      Saying that had a look on the Labour Facebook and it is looking better than it used to. They have got the hang of petitions, they just need to have a look at their overall policies…..

                      Change from Lite Blue to Lite Red.

                      Get some spine and actually start taking people to court to Send that message.

                      Collins and her Kauri and Milk interests.

                      Key and his constant lies.

                      There must be some sort of consequence to take Key and Collins to task on corruption and deceit other than a debate in paliament?

                    • weka …
                      23 June 2015 at 12:52 pm

                      NZ First would be a great party if it weren’t for Peters 😉

                  • b waghorn …
                    23 June 2015 at 11:12 am

                    Winston has always said he would negotiate with the party with the most votes so unless he retires or the labour/green block can get near 50% he’ll go with the nats .
                    The full page he had in a farming mag two weeks ago left me in know doubt he can’t work with the greens and national really is his natural home.

                    • Lanthanide …
                      23 June 2015 at 12:18 pm

                      He’d negotiate *first* with the party with the most votes.

                      Which is actually a meaningless statement, because if you don’t actually negotiate with all of your potential suitors, then you haven’t negotiated at all.

                    • Save NZ …
                      23 June 2015 at 1:50 pm

                      I don’t mind Peters. He is his own person at least, not just led by blind ideology. I think NZ First is better with him.

                      Greens do need to lighten up against farming.

                      There are lot’s of Green and responsible farmers out there. Don’t brand a few bad ones (possibly Government owned Landcorp conversions) with the same brush.

                      The Nats prob only converting forests to farms it to sell it off the conversions to the Chinese and overseas buyers anyway.

                      If you come from a rural background you don’t mind farming and farming is a lot harder than city people realise with constant droughts, floods exchange rates and fluctuating prices.

                      Farmers are actually caught out by climate change more than most.

                      In addition responsible farming is a lot better for the environment than residential developments sprawling out or industrial wastelands.

                      Back to common interests between Greens and NZ First, NZ first complaining about how our raw logs are exported and we are not converting them to higher value goods (similar to Greens complaints) and NZ First against all our farm sell offs (similar to Greens).

                    • b waghorn …
                      23 June 2015 at 3:31 pm

                      Yes lanthanide “talk “would of been the better word to use.
                      Save nz now that I’ve been looking I don’t think the greens are anti farming but they need to work day n night to combat what looks to me like a concerted effort by some in the rural sector to frame them as farming haters.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 3:52 pm

                      Plenty of farmers have a green-ish outlook. A minority to be sure, but not a tiny minority.

                    • weka …
                      23 June 2015 at 4:50 pm

                      The Greens aren’t anti-farming at all. Read their policies.

                      “There are lot’s of Green and responsible farmers out there. Don’t brand a few bad ones (possibly Government owned Landcorp conversions) with the same brush.”

                      I agree that are lots of good farmers out there (I don’t know many dairy farmers though 😉 ).

                      But I also think that farmers need to take responsibility within their industry esp the fact that they let Federated Farmers be seen to represent them. FF are irresponsible environmentally. I don’t think we can say that there are a few bad farmers when industrial dairying has caused and continues to cause such widespread long term damage.

          • maui 2.1.2.1.2
            23 June 2015 at 10:22 am

            Labour would need 40+% of the vote to go for option B, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. They have to work with the Greens if they want to be in power.

  3. Michael W 3
    23 June 2015 at 8:10 am

    I know the TPP has been already done to death but… Per the following video the TPP locks in the privatisation of the provision of welfare services. It also goes on to discuss bank bailouts and so forth.

    https://youtu.be/GbFvFzn8REo

    It is food for thought

    • Save NZ 3.1
      23 June 2015 at 8:26 am

      Considering even the right wing Herald is polling huge support AGAINST TPP by the public, why the F are the politicians trying to PUSH it through. There is nothing for NZ and they know it. There is nothing for the US public either which is why at least they are suggesting support for all the jobs lost (hello they know jobs are going to be lost but still forcing it through), all I can think of, is with the whip up of ‘fear’ against everyone Muslim or Chinese and possibly even an uprising of the poor with the growing world inequality, they feel some sort of one world economy supported by one world military will safeguard interests… I mean it is out there stuff…. but what the F is the reason they are trying to force through a dead duck that has so many problems in secret and why are not more opposing politicians 100% opposed?

      Look at Labour – at least do a conscience vote to see how many MP’s support TPP and then come out and publicly say Labour is AGAINST TPP. We don’t need Bin Larden to destroy Democracy, the dumbo bureaucrats a doing a great job by themselves with big business (all the bad ones like Oil and tobacco) lobbyists and corrupt politicians.

      • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1
        23 June 2015 at 9:48 am

        Considering even the right wing Herald is polling huge support AGAINST TPP by the public, why the F are the politicians trying to PUSH it through.

        Because it’s what their owners, the US corporations, want.

        There is nothing for NZ and they know it.

        QFT

        Labour and the rest of the Left parties, including NZFirst, need to come out and say that they won’t be signing up to the TPPA.

        IMO, we actually need to be dropping from all FTAs that we’re presently signed up to including the WTO. We replace that with a set of standards that other countries need to meet to be allowed to trade with us.

        It’s an interesting point but the whole market idea is about freedom to trade and that means being able to chose if we trade or not. All these FTAs are actually about forcing trade upon us whether we like it or not. That forcing is, without doubt, actually causing damage to NZ and other countries.

    • Save NZ 3.2
      23 June 2015 at 8:47 am

      Thanks Michael thats a good link. Hope someone sends it to Grosser.

      • Potato 3.2.1
        23 June 2015 at 11:59 am

        On a slightly lighter note (but still TPPA) , how about we make this our temporary national anthem ?
        Cut the Crap – the Gasworks Community Service Band

  4. Gosman 4
    23 June 2015 at 8:34 am

    As predicted by myself the Syriza led Greek government is coming to terms with the fact they have to follow sensible economic policies.

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/22/hopes-greece-bailout-deal-rise-sharply

    • vto 4.1
      23 June 2015 at 8:46 am

      Like using pie-in-the-sky debt machines which churn euros out like printed confetti eh gosman…so sensible… so sensible it has created this very mess

      • Gosman 4.1.1
        23 June 2015 at 8:50 am

        Seems like Syriza wants to still be part of the game though vto. Must be something to it if a political party elected on a mandate to do away with Austerity has basically conceded much of what it stated it was against just 6 months ago.

        • vto 4.1.1.1
          23 June 2015 at 8:53 am

          the world of debt is finite gosman, surely you realise this… it is simple mathematics that sees it failing…. it is called a Ponzi scheme by others…..

          yet you support it

          • Gosman 4.1.1.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 9:00 am

            Whether I support it or not is not really relevant. My views on economics are a world away from most people here. That is a given. What is interesting is why a political grouping that should share views expressed by many on here (including yourself I believe) has suddenly changed tack and have agreed to adopt policies that I generally support as opposed to the ones they previously promoted. Why do you think they didn’t just stick to their guns?

            • vto 4.1.1.1.1.1
              23 June 2015 at 9:08 am

              It is entirely relevant as it highlights the thinking behind your views. Supporting a system which results in debt-slavery and is completely and utterly unsustainable is just nuts …. and makes all your other points on the matter worthless

              • Gosman …
                23 June 2015 at 9:09 am

                Why do you think Syriza is bowing to pressure and agreeing to continue to be part of this system promoting “Debt slavery”?

                • vto …
                  23 June 2015 at 9:23 am

                  Why do you think Greece should rush back to the system which has destroyed it and is completely and utterly unsustainable?

                  • Gosman …
                    23 June 2015 at 10:04 am

                    Personally I don’t think Greece should be in the Eurozone because the Government is incapable of pursuing fiscally sensible policies however the fact remains that they are attempting to remain and by essentially agreeing to the Austerity imposed on them by the rest of the Eurozone members as I predicted would likely happen. You seem very reluctant to address the reason they are doing so despite the Greek people voting for a party that apparently was against these sorts of policies.

                    • vto …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:10 am

                      Rome wasn’t built in a day was it ………

                      this Greece situation is just the beginning gosman, just the beginning….. the system which has unravelled them is steadily unravelling itself. Actually it isn’t the beginning, it is now part way through…

                      If you don’t accept this then how do you see the current financial model playing out over the next few decades? Just more of the same?

                    • thatguynz …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:11 am

                      Being a NZ “right winger” and not part of the 1% I would have thought you would be intimately acquainted with voting for a government that doesn’t act in your own best interests. Perhaps you could answer your own question Gos?

                    • Tracey …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:16 am

                      I wonder how further cuts in government spending under the austerity measures proposed works in light of this:

                      “The budget deficit is an outcome – of decisions made by both the private and public sectors to expand or contract activity; of the levels of both public and private employment; of the amount collected in tax revenues.

                      However while the Chancellor can’t “eliminate the deficit” he can cut government expenditure and investment. Or increase government expenditure and investment.

                      In other words, it is not possible to assess the stance of the Chancellor’s fiscal policy from estimates of the public sector deficit – the outcome. But an expansionary fiscal policy can lead to growth in activity and employment, so that, in a recession, public sector expenditure and investment creates employment, generates tax revenues, saves on benefits and welfare payments and thereby reduces the deficit.

                      A policy of fiscal consolidation or contraction, at a time when the private sector is in a slump, suffering from an overhang of debt, weak productivity, a lack of confidence and is hoarding cash and withholding investment, will cause the deficit to rise.

                      So the debate is not between those who would “slash the deficit” and those who would “postpone” the reduction in the deficit.

                      Instead the debate is between those who would cut expenditure and investment in a slump, as opposed to those who would stimulate public expenditure and investment at times of private sector weakness…”

                      http://renegadeinc.com/try-as-he-may-the-chancellor-cannot-eliminate-the-deficit-by-ann-pettifor/

                      As I understand it the Greek crisis is about repayment of debt. So, everyone outside Greece is focused on ways to get their money (Interest and principle) out fo Greece in the short and long term). That means the initial focus is not really from a starting point of how do we get Greece back on its feet to becoming a thriving nation able to employ its citizens but rather how do we ensure a money stream to satisify at least our interest payments is established. This, imo, has inherent problems.

                    • Gosman …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:19 am

                      Yep vto. There is no difference in the situation today with the multiple financial crises over the past 200 odd years. Countries and people will continue to muddle along the best they can. There is no viable alternative waiting in the wings to take over our current system as much as you and people like you on the left would like to make believe there is.

                    • vto …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:25 am

                      Thanks mr gosman, that’s what I thought….. you have an inability to see anything outside your current paradigm… all of 200 years – pheweee eh, such a long time. 200 years is about the length of time many empires and systems last before their inbuilt failings rise to the surface ready to be squeezed like a pus-filled sore…

                      Just like our current capitalist one….. which had its rough beginnings in many senses around 200 years ago….

                      And now has pus oozing out everywhere – like Greece…

                      you really should open your eyes

                    • Gosman …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:26 am

                      No Tracey, it is about ensuring Greece is fiscally sustainable long term. The only way they can do that is by raising taxes and cutting expenditure. Noone else is going to give them money to spend more.

                    • Olwyn …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:28 am

                      It is interesting, Gosman, that you are not pointing to any kind of ‘rising tide lifting all boats’ but are instead gloating about the difficulties the Greek government faces in trying to free their citizens from imposed austerity. I think that most people accept that the Greek government is acting in good faith, is unlikely to achieve everything that it wants to, and that Greece could even end up being forced out of the Euro-zone. However, none of this makes the forces they are up against good or right. And it seems that you no longer insist that your way of going about things is better for everyone, but now think that austerity must be imposed on some so that others can prosper.

                    • Gosman …
                      23 June 2015 at 10:56 am

                      I’ve never made out that Austerity will lead to better times for everyone. Quite obviously if you were one of the lucky Greek people who used to receive a generous pension at 55 your life is likely to be much harder now. Equally if you were one of the people employed in an inefficient and overstaffed publically owned company you are unlikely to get such a cushy job in future. But if the Greeks wanted to have such a lifestyle they should have tried to ensure that it was sustainable. It wasn’t hence the need for Austerity.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 5:25 pm

                      Utter fiction Gosman.

                      The true story is that the Troika knew Greece was indebted to its eyeballs, technically insolvent, was in massive danger of default – yet kept lending Greece billions of dollars. Debt which is now rightfully considered odious, and should never be repaid.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 7:12 pm

                      There is no viable alternative waiting in the wings to take over our current system as much as you and people like you on the left would like to make believe there is.

                      WTF are you on about Gosman.

                      1) Break up all TBTF banks
                      2) Reinstate Glass Stiegal, but tougher.
                      3) Implement a stiff FTT
                      4) Shrink the financial sector to no more than 5% of any given economy.
                      5) Put money creation back into the hands of sovereign states, not private banks.

    • halfcrown 4.2
      23 June 2015 at 9:01 am

      How’s it going in the Ukraine ?

    • Tracey 4.3
      23 June 2015 at 10:09 am

      you and millions of others predicted it… it’s still not a done deal and it is still not exactly what the EU wanted, say, before the last Greek election.

    • Draco T Bastard 4.4
      23 June 2015 at 10:11 am

      Right, so Europe is following through on it’s threat to cause another major global economic disaster.

      • Gosman 4.4.1
        23 June 2015 at 10:21 am

        The syriza led Greek Government seems to be giving in. Why are they doing this if it will lead to economic catastrophe?

        • Clean_power 4.4.1.1
          23 June 2015 at 10:59 am

          Tsipras has no choice or he’ll find himself out of a job in a matter of weeks. The party is over for the Greeks. Pay your debts or else…..

          • Colonial Rawshark 4.4.1.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 11:00 am

            Said the mafia loan sharks with the base ball bats and knives

            • Gosman 4.4.1.1.1.1
              23 June 2015 at 11:08 am

              Why do you think Syriza is kowtowing to the demands of the Eurozone members?

              • te reo putake …
                23 June 2015 at 11:11 am

                They’re not kowtowing. That’s why the neg’s have been dragging on so long.

                • Gosman …
                  23 June 2015 at 11:41 am

                  They are agreeing to look at Pension reform and increases to VAT. These were two areas that were apparently sacrosanct only a week or so ago. On top of that they have also agrred in principle to running increasing primary budget surpluses for the next few years. This is a key feature of Austerity not of a policy of using the State to spend it’s way to a solution. Please advise me how the so called anti-Austerity platform they ran on has been satisfied by the proposals they have made?

                  • te reo putake …
                    23 June 2015 at 11:47 am

                    It hasn’t because, unlike you, they operate in the real world. Blackmail is hard to respond to, but they haven’t rolled over. What they have done is forced the bankers to compromise as well. That’s a major step forward for the Greek people and a fulfilment of their electoral pledge. The real pledge, btw, not your strawman.

                    • Gosman …
                      23 June 2015 at 12:20 pm

                      How have the bankers compromised? They are still getting the Greeks to follow policies that you would regard as “Neo-liberal”. If they follow through on their committments they would actually be far more right wing than the past Greek governments as they will privatise more State owned assets than was done over the past 5 years.

                    • te reo putake []
                      23 June 2015 at 12:24 pm

                      Because that is less than what was originally demanded. Sheesh, like trying to reason with a puppy.

                    • Gosman …
                      23 June 2015 at 12:35 pm

                      In your mind the fact that Syriza is not having to adopt as strict a range of austerity policies as they could have been forced to follow is a massive success for them is it?

                      If so it would explain why the left is on the back foot in many places around the world.

                      I’m cool with you believing people are striking a blow against right wing policies if you only adopt 75% of them instead of 100%. Whatever makes you feel at ease with supporting ideas that I agree with. 😉

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 12:51 pm

                      Gosman rejoicing at the combined financial might of the IMF, ECB, Germany and Eurozone members crushing down and bringing 12M Greeks to heel.

                      What a prick.

            • Clean_power 4.4.1.1.1.2
              23 June 2015 at 12:56 pm

              No, the debt needs to be paid, so Greece has no choice whatsoever. By the way, how is that anti-science of yours going?

              • Tracey …
                23 June 2015 at 1:25 pm

                Of course they have a choice, it’s the capitalist way

                First, they need to hire Donald Trump’s lawyer

                “Atlantic City lawyer Viscount doesn’t believe Donald Trump himself should be held accountable for any of his company’s bankruptcies — his creditors, he said, knew what they were getting themselves into when they lent Trump money over and over again. “They’re all big boys and girls,” he said. “They’ve all played this game before, in the insolvency space. The company that possessed his name filed bankruptcy because it was overleveraged. What does that tell you? People want to lend him money. He does grandiose things with it.

                …Viscount doesn’t think Trump has misused the system at all. “Chapter 11, in my view, is the ultimate business transaction forum,” he said. “It’s the place you go to keep a business alive and well. He’s done nothing inappropriate.”

                http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2011/04/29/fourth-times-a-charm-how-donald-trump-made-bankruptcy-work-for-him/2/

                So you see, there is support for Greece defaulting and basically becoming bankrupt, from the doyen of capitalism and freedom the USA

                Those banks knew the risks when they lent, they factored it into the interest rate. They knew they might not get the principal and some interest back.

                So, yes there are choices. And those choices have consequences but to make it sound like the lending of money was a gift from a benevolent parent is nonsense. It was a money-making decision to lend money in exchange for projected return.

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  23 June 2015 at 3:33 pm

                  +1

                  This is something that the RWNJs don’t seem to understand despite the fact that they go on about taking risks all the time. They seem to think that people who take risks should always become super wealthy and that they should never lose no matter the risks that they’ve taken.

                  • Gosman …
                    24 June 2015 at 9:11 am

                    Who has ever claimed this? I believe you are creating a strawman argument here.

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      24 June 2015 at 10:15 am

                      You did actually throughout this thread when you keep saying that Greece needs to face reality and agree to the demands of the troika. You’ve been doing it for months.

                    • Gosman …
                      24 June 2015 at 10:32 am

                      Ummm… no. I have never stated that people who take risks should always become super wealthy either as part of my highlighting the problems of Greece or in any other post I have made here.

              • maui …
                23 June 2015 at 1:38 pm

                How the hell does any country pay back $250 billion euros? Sounds a lot like extortion if you ask me.

              • Puddleglum …
                23 June 2015 at 1:50 pm

                “No, the debt needs to be paid, so Greece has no choice whatsoever.”

                Comments like this show that, today, supposed ‘common sense’ puts a priority on returns to private capital over public welfare. Dickensian.

                It’s ‘gotcha’ time for Greece. First comes the easy cash then comes the snare – loan sharkery on a global scale.

                The creditors clearly have the money to save Greece but have decided that an immediate return on their money is more important than preventing widespread hardship.

                Turning the screws at this time also has the added advantage of showing, not just the Greek people but all of us, just who is the boss.

                And the hardship that will result isn’t all about people not being able to retire at age 55 or have a guaranteed, cushy public sector job as Gosman seems to think.

                Greek unemployment has been above 25% for some time.

                Austerity can only push that higher.

                Apparently this is all very moral and ethical on the part of the creditors. Apparently the Greek people are just getting what they deserve.

                What a fine old world of moral rectitude we all live in.

                Message – courtesy of global financiers – to all of us:

                Careful of your next step; there’s precipitous cliffs either side of the pre-designed crumbling ridge you’re all walking along. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Now, take our tender hand – extended only to help you … of course.

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  23 June 2015 at 3:38 pm

                  +1

                  The banksters are setting themselves up as the new dictators.

                • greywarshark …
                  23 June 2015 at 9:48 pm

                  Is Greece’s situation a little like Germany’s after the band of avenging finance ministers punished them for WW1 wasn’t it. Impoverishing a whole nation wasn’t a good idea it transpired. Then a whole lot of expiration happened. In Greece what group is likely to be the scapegoat for the country’s ills?

                  On that note Jung in talking about the Shadow says –
                  The world today hangs by a thin thread, and that thread is the psyche of man. ~C. G. Jung
                  and
                  The supreme danger which threatens individuals as well as whole nations is a psychic danger. Reason has proved itself completely powerless, precisely because its arguments have an effect only on the conscious mind and not on the unconscious. The greatest danger of all comes from the masses, in whom the effects of the unconscious pile up cumulatively and the reasonableness of the conscious mind is stifled
                  http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/diagnosis-psychic-epidemic/

              • Colonial Viper …
                23 June 2015 at 2:07 pm

                Hey Clean Power, debts which can’t be repaid, won’t be repaid. Greece has defaulted on it’s debts several times since the 19th Century, it should do so again.

                Better than impoverishing an entire nation for the banksters.

                • Clean_power …
                  23 June 2015 at 2:12 pm

                  Easier to say since you do not leave in Greece. Maybe some homeopathy remedy can alleviate thirst, hunger and even pay the Greek debt.

                  • Colonial Rawshark …
                    23 June 2015 at 2:15 pm

                    Maybe you can fuck off with your pro-bankster inhumanity

                    • Clean_power …
                      23 June 2015 at 2:23 pm

                      Is that your level of discourse? Maybe some vaccine against anger could help? Ooooops.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 3:54 pm

                      There is no discourse with barbarians. Global insurrection against the banker occupation.

                    • greywarshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 9:55 pm

                      @CR
                      Why do you waste your precious time and intellect on even noticing these morons who are so weak-minded and malicious that they make a game of stupid comments about our future. They are disposable, and dispensable, and there would be a net gain if they weren’t around.

              • adam …
                23 June 2015 at 2:11 pm

                Wow, Clean_power just read a few books, a few on economic history would be a good start. I know it’s all the rage with you new Tory’s to just go with your feeling on issues. But, nothing beats free thinking though…

              • Draco T Bastard …
                23 June 2015 at 3:35 pm

                No, the debt needs to be paid,

                No it doesn’t. The people who made the loans made them with the understanding that they were taking the risk that they weren’t going to get the money back. Greece should simply default. It is actually the correct thing to do.

              • halfcrown …
                23 June 2015 at 3:38 pm

                “No, the debt needs to be paid,”

                So when is Germany going to pay there’s?

                “The Federal Republic of Germany’s creditors — 20 countries including Greece — indeed agreed at a London conference to write off 55 percent of the country’s 32.3 billion Deutsche marks of foreign debt. “More than 50 percent of Greek debt needs to be written off,” says top Syriza economist John Milios. “The solution that was given to Germany at the London conference in 1953 is what we must do for Greece.”

                http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-27/germany-deserved-debt-relief-greece-doesn-t-i5fdca2y

    • millsy 4.5
      23 June 2015 at 10:13 am

      The thought of the Greeks having free health care, and a generous welfare system, and extensive worker protections keeps Gosman up at night,

      So he has to email his paramour, Merkel, to starve them into submission, just like her predecessor, between 1941 and 45 — Dont forget, a lot of old Nazis drifted into the Christian Democrats…

      • Puckish Rogue 4.5.1
        23 June 2015 at 10:22 am

        There nothing wrong with having free health care, and a generous welfare system, and extensive worker protections but someone has to pay for it and the Greeks wern’t

        and before you ask I don’t hate the unions, schools or any other random organisation you’re about to ask me why I hate them

      • Gosman 4.5.2
        23 June 2015 at 10:22 am

        They can have all those things if they want. They just have to pay for them themselves instead of expecting German and other Europeans to do so for them.

        • millsy 4.5.2.1
          23 June 2015 at 10:24 am

          Well by the sounds of it, a lot of Greek businesses pretty much only paid taxes when they felt like it.

          • Gosman 4.5.2.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 10:28 am

            Agreed. Yet Syriza hasn’t made much of a difference to resolving that problem. One thing I thought a left wing government would want to do would be to ensure the taxes it gets from the wealthy are paid but it hasn’t happened for some reason.

            • lprent 4.5.2.1.1.1
              23 June 2015 at 12:36 pm

              Your comment is complete crap. The problem in Greece wasn’t tax evasion, it is legal tax avoidance. Changing tax laws and then implement them takes time. Usually more than a year, and typically closer to 2 years to untangle a web of special cronies legislation accumulated over decades.

              And that requires some stability to work in. Which they don’t have.

              Even then it will takes years to make any significant difference to the tax revenue. The rich will attempt to avoid it, requiring court cases before they start to obey the laws.

              They have only been in power for less than 6 months.

              You really do appear to be particularly stupid at present.

              • Gosman …
                23 June 2015 at 12:54 pm

                I would think for a left wing government dedicated to ensuring the wealthy elites in society pay for the social programmes you want to protect that tax reform would be top of any legislative agenda. What measures have the Syriza government proposed around this area in the past 6 months do you know of? I don’t expect them to have been fully implemented I accept but I would expect the proposals to be out there and being developed in to policies.

                • Colonial Rawshark …
                  23 June 2015 at 2:20 pm

                  There have been hundreds of pages of proposals to the Troika, Gossie.

                  • Gosman …
                    23 June 2015 at 2:40 pm

                    They don’t need to wait for the Troika to approve reforms to the Greek Tax system. They can just go ahead an start implementing (or even developing) the policies. The Troika wants to see an effective Tax collection system. They are hardly going to object to the Greek government doing so.

                • lprent …
                  23 June 2015 at 11:19 pm

                  I’m sure that if you look you will find some on their legislative calendar. All I did was look at the logistics of such legislation.

                  To achieve what you were suggesting, I’d have to consider that you were trying to push for a bloody revolution.

      • Sabine 4.5.3
        23 June 2015 at 11:25 am

        Angela Merkel was raised and educated in East Germany. Her Father was a lutheran pastor. She might have got stuck in East Germany with her family when the wall went up, which happened to a lot of people. No wall in the morning, oops a wall in the evening.

        as her bio: Early Years

        German stateswoman and chancellor Angela Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner on July 17, 1954, in Hamburg, Germany. The daughter of a Lutheran pastor and teacher, Merkel grew up in a rural area north of Berlin in the then German Democratic Republic. She studied physics at the University of Leipzig, earning a doctorate in 1978, and later worked as a chemist at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences (1978–90).

        She entered politics in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall. She was the pet of Helmut Kohl, who himself was chancellior for 16 years replacing the SPD Chancellior Helmut Schmidt.

        Angela Merkel is a lot of things, but she is not a Nazi or a Neo Nazi. She is a capitalist, and maybe an opportunist.

        AS for the well being of the low income countries of the EU, frankly they should have never entered the EU fully. They were set up to fail.

        Btw. The reason Germany managed to get into the monetary Union was be re-evaluating the Gold Reserves under then Finance Minister (article from 1997 in German http://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/theo-waigel-solltedas-nicht-tun/12106.html ) the reason he did this was to reach the thresholds set to actually be a Member of the Einheitswaehrung (single currenzy).

        Read up here in english. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_convergence_criteria

        Without Theo Waigel the EU would not exist today. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Waigel

        .

        I would not draw a line between the Nazi History of Germany and Angela Merkel. That is a bit far fetched. She is a corporatista and a capitalist. WE have these guys running and indebting our country currently. What is little NZ gonna say when the overseas interests that hold our debt come collecting?

        • greywarshark 4.5.3.1
          23 June 2015 at 10:28 pm

          There were things about Merkel’s background that were similar to those of Margaret Thatcher’s. Wikipedia –

          Margaret Thatcher’s father was a Methodist, he was a grocer, and also a local preacher and was in local politics being Mayor of Grantham for a short time.

          She was originally a research chemist, then became a barrister….

          She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich von Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944), which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state…

          In 1948 she applied for a job at ICI, but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as “headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated”…

          She stood for Dartford in early 1950s elections and did well, losing but greatly reducing the Labour majority. She married. She qualified as a barrister and specialised in taxation in 1953, and that year also had twins.

        • Psycho Milt 4.5.3.2
          23 June 2015 at 10:52 pm

          …Angela Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner on July 17, 1954, in Hamburg, Germany. The daughter of a Lutheran pastor and teacher, Merkel grew up in a rural area north of Berlin…

          I didn’t know she was born in Hamburg. Weird to think of people moving from the Bundesrepublik to the DDR, the traffic was mostly the other way. The Kasners must have been spitting when they discovered what “really-existing socialism” meant in practice.

    • vto 5.1
      23 June 2015 at 8:44 am

      Lordy. More and more blather

    • weka 5.2
      23 June 2015 at 9:06 am

      She’s a comedian so she can’t be a feminist obviously.

    • McFlock 5.3
      23 June 2015 at 11:03 am

      lol:

      I’ve been trying to work out what a Tory feminist is, because I keep seeing photographs of female Tory MPs in the newspapers, wearing T-shirts with ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ on them.
      […]
      That’s what it says on the front, anyway, of the Tory feminists’ T-shirts that they’re all wearing now. And on the back it says, ‘Not really, I’m a Tory, you gullible dick.’

      • joe90 5.3.1
        23 June 2015 at 11:37 am

        That’s what it says on the front, anyway, of the Tory feminists’ T-shirts that they’re all wearing now. And on the back it says, ‘Not really, I’m a Tory, you gullible dick.’

        Yup.

        Most of those bourgeois women who act like lionesses in the struggle against “male prerogatives” would trot like docile lambs in the camp of conservative and clerical reaction if they had suffrage.

        – Rosa Luxemburg

  6. Tracey 6
    23 June 2015 at 10:11 am

    “New Zealand’s five major banks are on track for another bumper year, with profits already up strongly in the first quarter.

    ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank and Westpac made $1.69 billion of pre-tax profit in the three months to March 31, up 5.9 per cent from the last quarter of 2014.

    The gains came from an increase in “other” operating income and lower expenses, offset by falling interest income and a higher level of bad loans.

    Total gross loans increased by $6b, or 1.9 per cent, but interest income fell slightly.

    PwC partner and banking and capital markets leader Sam Shuttleworth said that reflected the very competitive lending market.”

    above average wage increases all round for the workers, right? To reflect/acknowledge that no company can make profit without great work by all its employees, right?

    • vto 6.1
      23 June 2015 at 10:18 am

      the banks make obscene profits

      the poor live in substandard housing

      this is how our current system works folks

      you vote for it

      • Colonial Rawshark 6.1.1
        23 June 2015 at 2:25 pm

        their extraction of profits is the taking of financial capital from every sector of NZ and from every household in NZ

        $7B pa, gone into the pockets of the banksters

        And both National and Labour are fine with it

  7. Penny Bright 7
    23 June 2015 at 10:25 am

    FYI
    ____________________________________________________________________________________

    23 June 2015

    Mayor Len Brown

    ‘Open Letter’ /Request for speaking rights at Auckland Council Governing Body Meeting, Thursday 25 June 2015

    Dear Mayor,

    I wish to address the Auckland Council Governing Body Meeting, under ‘Public Forum’ on the following matters:

    1) The failure of Auckland Council to provide information on how Auckland Council Rates Assessment Notices and Rates Invoices are double-checked for statutory compliance with the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, in the LGOIMA reply received (3 months late) on 1 May 2015, on the grounds this information was ‘legally privileged’.

    2) The request from Auckland transport for an ‘extension of time’ to my LGOIMA request, that they provide information about the amount of public subsidy for private passenger transport providers of Auckland bus, ferry and rail operation and management, information which I believe is critical before the proposed ‘transport levy’ is voted upon.

    3) Concerns about how the ‘Special Housing Areas’ have been generated by the, in my view, purported Auckland ‘housing crisis’, which has been based upon the use, by yourself and (former) Chief Planning Officer, Dr Roger Blakeley, of the Department of Statistics ‘high’ population growth projections, when they recommended ‘medium’ – an extra 300,000 people, and my consideration of another Parliamentary Select Committee of Inquiry into this matter.

    4) My concerns, as an ‘anti-corruption Public Watchdog’, of the alleged use of the Auckland real estate market for ‘money-laundering’, and what is Auckland Council doing to minimise this risk.

    5) A formal request, in the interests of transparency and accountability, for you, Mayor Len Brown, to voluntarily provide the ‘Trust Deed’ for the New Auckland Council Trust, so that the public can see who are your main financial backers.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/69510920/Police-investigation-into-750K-of-secret-donors-stymied

    Yours sincerely,

    Penny Bright

    …………………………………

    ‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’

    2009 Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference

    2010 Attendee Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference

    2013 Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference

    2014 Attendee G20 Anti-Corruption Conference

    2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate (polled 4th with 11,723 votes)

    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate

  8. Ffloyd 8
    23 June 2015 at 10:28 am

    Looks like j key is going to have to resort to *rent a crowd* for the meetings on the flag change. Apparently 13 in Auckland BUT 50 IN Invercargill. Woohoo! What else is there to do in Invercargill?

    • Chooky 8.1
      23 June 2015 at 1:14 pm

      Where can you buy t-shirts with the New Zealand flag emblazoned on them?!

      …I want one …or two ..or three

      …be a good money maker for the NZLP or NZF or the Greens

      ( no one wants this jonkey corporate vanity project flag…and the committee being used to steer it reads like a list of wannabes, crooks and trash )

      …pity it is costing the new Zealand taxpayer so much money …$ 28 million?… when New Zealanders are going hungry, cold , without state housing, young people cant afford tertiary education, Continuing Education has been axed ,State Assets have been sold , NZ soldiers have been sent to Iraq, health funding has been cut…and secret corporate rip off TPP looms

    • Tracey 8.2
      23 June 2015 at 1:28 pm

      watch the Ads change to food and drinks available…

    • RedBaronCV 8.3
      23 June 2015 at 10:31 pm

      Judging by the meeting I went to, the email had gone out to the local Nat party members to come along and make the place look less empty. must do a post on this soon – something didn’t feel quite right about the whole deal

  9. Colonial Rawshark 9
    23 June 2015 at 10:31 am

    UK LAB leadership candidates booed at leadership hustings

    The 3 major leadership candidates refuse to condemn Tory benefit cuts, are all for replacing Trident nuclear missile submarines.

    http://www.itv.com/news/2015-06-20/labour-leadership-candidates-booed-at-campaign-hustings/

    • Bill 9.1
      23 June 2015 at 1:34 pm

      That’s not the first time ‘the big three’ have been booed by Labour members. This time, same as last time, it appears that Jeremy Corbyn is the only one of the four who ‘gets it’.

      What does it say that the more popular candidate, at least as far as audience reaction goes, is continually poo-pooed by major media?

      That’s a rhetorical question btw.

    • Clean_power 9.2
      23 June 2015 at 4:31 pm

      UK Labour is going the way of the moa/dodo/dinosaur. It is inevitable: Boris Johnson will be the next PM (two terms).

      • halfcrown 9.2.1
        23 June 2015 at 7:17 pm

        Clean Power, are you trying to tell us that after another 5 years of Camorons austerity if there is not a revolution before hand, that the Tories are going to win with that fucking clown Johnson as premier for 10 further years.

        I cannot see that happening as long as your arseole points downwards.

  10. Penny Bright 10
    23 June 2015 at 10:45 am

    So – in whose interests is NZ Prime Minister John Key working …….?

    http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/tpp-dairy-deal-not-level-we-would-currently-like-key-b-174529?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NBR%2520Heads%2520Up

    The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact does not yet include an acceptable deal on access for New Zealand’s most important exports, dairy products, with little more than a month to go before the controversial 12 nation trade deal could be concluded.

    “I think the way I would describe it is there’s a deal. It’s probably not at the level that we would currently like,” said Prime Minister John Key at his post-Cabinet press conference in Wellington. He was referring to comments last week by Trade Minister Tim Groser that negotiations on dairy access to the heavily protected US, Canadian and Japanese markets had “barely started.”

    A vote is due in the US Senate as early as mid-week to grant “fast-track” negotiating authority to US President Barack Obama to conclude the deal after a crucial vote in the Congress last Thursday left the Senate as the final hurdle.

    Key took issue with Groser’s comments to BusinessDesk last week that there was so far “no deal” on dairy products.

    “It’s not to say that there’s a bad deal on dairy products, it’s more to say that there’s no deal,” Groser said last week. “We’ve barely started. Phony negotiating positions have been put on the table but that doesn’t help a professional negotiator make a judgement as to where the landing zone is.”

    However, Key said: “From what I’ve seen at the moment, if in theory we froze time and concluded the deal as I see it, it’s net positive for New Zealand. But it wouldn’t be doing enough for dairy for us to be comfortable and we would like to do some more there. There are a lot of other sectors that would be very happy about it.”

    Key said his “gut instinct” was that the Senate would follow the US Congress, which by a narrow vote last week approved US President Barack Obama’s so-called “fast-track” authority to negotiate a conclusion to the TPP deal. “We’ll eventually get the chance to potentially get a deal before the summer recess” Key said.
    ……..

    • Draco T Bastard 10.1
      23 June 2015 at 3:51 pm

      Thing is, opening up the US dairy market or even any of the others won’t get NZ dairy into those markets as they’re all quite capable of producing their own dairy. Hell, the US has been ramping up dairy production for years now and will probably end up flooding their own home market and thus will need other countries to dump excess on which will probably include NZ.

  11. Save NZ 11
    23 June 2015 at 11:13 am

    Someone do a request for how much the taxpayer has paid for Groser to be conducting these ‘forced’ trade deals and then see what could the money be better spent on.

    The poor and increasingly former middle class starve and freeze in NZ while our money is spent on hair straighteners and junkets for Groser to further enslave us..

    In a similar vein in Auckland Council, the public COO Ports of Auckland illegally try to steal our harbour and the council use the ratepayer money on barristers to defend it.

    Oh another rates increase….. And the public has to pay to defend themselves from the illegal actions of the council resource consent officers….

    • Atiawa 12.1
      23 June 2015 at 12:08 pm

      Who cares?

    • Tracey 12.2
      23 June 2015 at 1:30 pm

      That headline is appalling. It actually distracts from what seems to be suggested which is a form of sexual harrassment (if true). So it serves no one but the stupid editorial push for salacious headlines.

  13. Charles 13
    23 June 2015 at 12:29 pm

    Self-acceptance and harassment

    Watching a youtube clip about internet harassment posted here today, it doesn’t escape notice that people often use the internet because of a lack of close relationships that allow them to express themselves freely, without threat of violence or punitive repercussions. I certainly use it for that reason.

    Fighting everyone all the time about everything wears thin after a few decades, sooner, for those with little to no social status. Expecting one person to win against the collective power of any culture is a big ask, and the internet is the perfect place to resume that fight and not take so many direct hits. The same distance created by the screen that allows people to be or say what they like, also allows others to reply in an equally negative manner.

    I hope the solution is obvious, though clearly not so obvious that people can easily access multifarious, safe, real-life, community. Some of the problem will be that the more vulnerable aspects of their personality or lifestyle they still, themselves, find embarrassing in some way; or by being overly aware of the cultural value attached to it, or something along those lines.

    It’s a matter of accepting oneself first, he says, but in the classic catch-22 situation, people often can’t access that place in real life until real life allows them to access that place. To say it’s difficult, time-consuming and expensive to overcome one’s own emotional and psychological tendencies and scars and just accept oneself is gross understatement. It’s one of the times that “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and doing it all yourself” is not practical advice. That idea just makes it worse.

    Doing it all yourself is contraindicated, because even if you are “successful” you’ll end up isolated in your own personal – if safe – world; a world which divorces a person from the social interface of a healthy psyche. It’s not all bad, though: living in your own personal world might make you an expert observer of the human condition, an academic unrestrained by official ideology, an artist of particular skill; or perhaps some unforeseen disastrous external event will catapult you into a position to act for the social good, with well-honed skills that mainstream people will never have developed. On a day-to-day basis though, it’s likely to be all small private victories, and mostly failures, and not much in the surrounding external culture will change.

    Nothing gets done by one woman or one man against the World. It’s what we like to tell ourselves, though: it’s great flattery, good for destructive myths and Hollywood movies – and most often distorted by economic theory.

    All the great people of progressive social change depended on their ideas being enacted and supported by other people who could act, by followers in the thousands, if not millions. The World, and the British, were in India before Gandhi was born. Social Chaos reigned before Muhammad had his vision of a new way of living. King Herod was already ruthless and threatened before he attempted to kill Jesus of Nazareth. Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. were spokespeople of a collective awareness, not isolated individual saviours. And anyone else who starts today isn’t the source of their own future power. Not even John Key created the trends of the National Party… though you could argue that last one isn’t into social progressive anything, or particularly “great” in a World history sense. Sorry, John.

    Accepting oneself… the many methods and the associated fear, yes… that’s what I was attempting to say. What’s some of the misunderstood and early blockades to self-acceptance? Reminding myself of them could be good exercise… if a little pedestrian…

    “If this person looks like me and thinks like me… they seem like nice people… no wait, they’re that …I could be them! I can’t be them. I hate that idea, it disgusts me. I have too much to lose. No, I must reject that person to protect myself, my family, my way of life.”

    Whoa, whoa there cowboy! The reasons why things happen in other people’s brains is not caused by external indicators. The gene for skin colour does not also assure gender. Dressing in jeans and a t-shirt doesn’t mean you listen to rock music. Wearing a skirt doesn’t make you a woman, in the same way as wearing Rayban sunglasses will not instantly make you “cool”.

    New Age ideas that have crept into progressive culture have been ruthlessly trimmed down to “We are all the same, we are all one” – except we aren’t and never were. The philosophical origin of those New Age ideas says, “We are all from the same original source, made of the same life-breath, which takes the form it must to maintain balance in the world. The reasons we are all different is unknown.” This means we should respect the inherent life force within each other, whatever our external appearance; not that we are all the same person, will turn into the same person under the correct circumstances; or that by sitting next to the disabled person on the bus your leg will begin to twist; or if a poor person lives next door to you you’ll lose your inherent personal worth; or that if you hug a transgender person (with their permission, of course) your dick will fall off. Although it’s good to find the commonalities between each of us (for the sake of exercising compassion, for example), the differences are equally important. Focussing on either at detriment of the other will cause problems and manifest in rejection and division.

    “My brain can’t take this shit, I think I have an identity crisis going. Entertaining the idea of dealing with these different people shakes me up too much!”

    Congratulations, you’ve fallen in the deep-end of self-acceptance! Already you’ve learned that ideas cannot maintain a static reality, but if you could calmly paddle back to the shallow end of the pool, that’d be best for everyone, and possibly you, too. But if you enjoy it there, swim around a bit. Make your own calls. The most important thing to remember is this: I am not you, you are not me, in human form we are separate beings, that’s the law of Nature. Unless someone is rushing at you with an axe, there is no other immediate physical threat. So no need for abuse towards the thing that you think you fear.

    Telling a fearful brain the above is not really possible while it’s freaking out, although forewarned is well-armed. Sometimes the psychological threat is enough to instil terror. The best I can offer is anecdotal advice: Last time I was in identity crisis town, the loss of conscious control did not give me up to imagined wild extremes. One thing did not follow another. The sense of terror in potentially having no conscious control, while impressively overwhelming, did not automatically become what I thought it might, what logic thought it could. Logic was gone, so did not apply. If you ever go there, if you even just take a quick trip past there, remember that nothing happens till it happens. Remember that feeling of the incredible vastness of the unknown: that’s how big people are, not some small description of lifestyle, gender, skin colour or socio-economic status. When you get back, you’ll have proved to yourself you have the courage to face any other thought you might have, and the courage to refuse the urge to restrict people to your own categorisations.

    “So, what, I have to give everything up my house and BMW and go find less fortunate people to help?”

    Only if it eventually turns out that way. I’m not one to demand you follow the strict either/or of a monotheistic religion for your behavioural cues. It always disturbed me that when the rich man who realised he couldn’t follow Jesus example turned away sadly, that Jesus didn’t immediately add, “Oh but hey, you should totally check out XYZ religion… they have a temple about two days that direction, you’ll fit right in there. You’re doing ok, bro, don’t be discouraged!” Maybe he did. Already there’s a lot of paper in the bible. They might’ve edited for brevity.

    Do what comes naturally, progressively, whatever you feel. Don’t follow a list of common misconstrued expectations. Forcing the issue out of guilt, duty or collective identity of the group you support is not recommended. It won’t be true, and if anything goes wrong, if your expectations of gratitude or outcome are not met, you’ll blame the people you tried to help instead of realising you didn’t understand your own motivations. Just be where you are, change what you know you can change. That feeling of discomfort when you know something is not quite right, as you’re doing it and that goes away shortly afterwards, that’s your conscience alerting you to inspect why you do things.

    Do you occasionally resent or avoid the people you help?
    Then how are you neglecting yourself? What personal requirements are you not getting and instead filling that gap with consumption of material accumulation, personal sacrifice, or comforting and strictly ideological ideas? Are they helpful, overall, or do they need to be adjusted?

    “My losses are in the past, the neglect was in the past, I can’t change what I never had, I can’t go back and stop things happening that happened. Nothing in the present will change the way I am. The changes I would have to make would hurt too many people. I can’t take another failure.”

    That’s up to you to decide. Shit happens to everyone. Thanks to us all actively or passively supporting our respective cultures, shit happens a lot more to some than others – a lot more. But we’ve also identified that punishing other people for our pain isn’t right either, neither is sneakily spreading it around a little to ease our relatively lighter load. No matter what we do to them, it can’t solve our past, or our present predicament.

    I get the impression that many people think culture is made by external authority, then people conform to it, when in actual fact people express their internal attitudes externally, and the collective similarities become culture. Soon as people consciously choose to conform, rather than express, culture begins to stagnate and die. The problem we often see in NZ is that one part of the collective expressive range is shamed into repressed non-existence.

    Failure doesn’t exist. Like most things in the Western mind-set the idea of failure depends on someone arbitrarily stopping a hypothetical clock, halting the inexorable continuum of time as we know it, and saying, “Done. You’ve failed, you’ve lost, conclusively. Global, galactic, Universal Time has stopped and nothing more can happen.” A person can miss a deadline, there may be consequences to that missed time-point, but time will continue and so will you. Calling someone a loser, a failure, or useless, is a gross expression of idiocy – and their pain, as described above. Failing to boil a potato doesn’t mean you’ve failed as a parent, or that you can’t refill the pot and try again. As long as time happens, as long as you’re alive, there is opportunity to continue constructively in some way.

    ”Nup, way too hard, too much effort, no time, no interest, nothing in it for me, too many other things to do. Life is good. Fuck off, you idiot loser.”

    Other than finding opinions that make me think, the aspect I enjoy the most about this place is that I can say my idiotic piece to whoever wants to listen, relatively unmolested and not often censored, whereas in other places I can’t.

    If we attempt to create spaces in real life, and in ourselves, where other people can risk (if they want to) admitting, suggesting, or implying by omission that they’re fucked-up too, without the either of us deriding, punishing or shaming the other, maybe together we can help each other progress. It’s a big ask, but the risk of harassment in such a space would be minimal:

    “Oh hey did you hear about that person?”
    “No, what happened?”
    “Turns out they’re human.”
    “Me too!”
    “Cool!”
    “That’s what I thought.”
    “We should go see if they have any cake…”

    Sounds like the best anyone can do.

    For harassment to work, we have to have collectively agreed to promote the idea that some things that are simply human, and some things that don’t even exist, are wrong, worth ridicule, or are shameful. If strong supportive real-life communities existed, the idea of sticking someone’s face to a chipmunk body and saying they were available for sex and posting it online would not only not happen, but if it did, people would just move on – secure in their safe realities, with no reputation to uphold – and not attempt suicide as a first-option response. Their psyche would either be strong to the threat, resilient to the impact, or they’d be immediately supported by someone who could help.

    The reason we don’t have supportive strong community is because we think we’re all isolated individuals who must do it all by ourselves or be deemed worthless. The internet has failed to provide safe communities. Legislating punishments won’t change that, and might inadvertently let us go on believing destructive ideas about other people. Opportunity for progressive social change may still exist in real life, starting with the attitudes we measure ourselves by.

  14. Ruth 14
    23 June 2015 at 1:48 pm

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201506/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america
    Don’t know the form for posting links but thought this an interesting read and you could almost replace America with New Zealand as we seem to be slavishly following the Great American Way

  16. One Anonymous Bloke 16
    23 June 2015 at 4:20 pm

    The Market will provide.

    Look, here it is, providing.

    The experiment has failed. Drag it ’round the back of the barn and kill it with an axe.

    • adam 16.1
      23 June 2015 at 4:33 pm

      That one I’m not complaining about, nice to have no planes fly over head.

      That said, I agree – capitalism, post-scarcity capitalism, or what ever name it’s running by this week – needs to be put out of it’s misery. It’s going to kill us all, look, we tried reforming it – and that did not work – it just kept on monopolising and burning up everything.

      What’s a lay person’s definition of madness again…

      It’s well past time we applied that to the current economic thinking…

    • The lost sheep 16.2
      23 June 2015 at 4:47 pm

      A technical fault in a radar system proves that the Free Market system has failed?
      And implies that under a different system all technology would work perfectly?

      1000 lashes for a criminal abuse of the noble science of Logic OAB.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 16.2.1
        23 June 2015 at 5:00 pm

        It’s another piece in a jigsaw of which we have the vast majority of the pieces in place already. Most of them have been there for centuries.

        Get some perspective.

        • The lost sheep 16.2.1.1
          23 June 2015 at 5:20 pm

          If your ‘jigsaw’ is representative of the state of left wing logic, it’s no wonder that even in Denmark voters are turning Centre Right.

          See, I can make a logical linkage every bit as dumb as the one you make above.

          • Colonial Rawshark 16.2.1.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 5:22 pm

            nah, yours are way dumber

          • One Anonymous Bloke 16.2.1.1.2
            23 June 2015 at 5:56 pm

            Oh clever Sheep! You made your very own shiny strawman and knocked him down! Aww!

            Piece of jigsaw, “proof”. Do you know the difference? Apparently not.

      • Puddleglum 16.2.2
        23 June 2015 at 5:56 pm

        “A technical fault in a radar system proves that the Free Market system has failed?”

        No. But see my link in 15 above for some evidence that it is hardly gold-plated economic wisdom.

  17. Penny Bright 17
    23 June 2015 at 4:59 pm

    URGENT ‘Open Letter’ /OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key, regarding the TPPA, from ‘anti-corruption Public Watchdog’ Penny Bright:
    _________________________________________________________________________________

    23 June 2015

    Dear Prime Minister,

    Please be reminded of your extensive employment background in the investment banking industry, including your significant role in the ‘derivatives trading market’:

    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/biography/john-key

    “Mr Key launched his investment banking career in New Zealand in the mid-1980s.

    After 10 years in the New Zealand market he headed offshore, working in Singapore, London, and Sydney for US investment banking firm Merrill Lynch.

    During that time he was in charge of a number of business units, including global foreign exchange and European bond and derivative trading.

    In 1999, he was invited to join the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and on two occasions undertook management studies at Harvard University in Boston. ”
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    Please be reminded (again), that according to the 2015 NZ Register of Pecuniary Interests, you are (still) a shareholder in the Bank of America:

    http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/00CLOOCMPPFinInterests20151/8bb43d9064b110c19c88349a36301a9580cfb3ed

    “Rt Hon John Key (National, Helensville)

    2 Other companies and business entities

    Little Nell – property investment (Aspen, Colorado)

    Bank of America – banking ”
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    (Please be reminded, that I have previously asked you about your personal shareholding in the Bank of America, back in February 2011, at the following Grey Power Public Meeting:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXwNoaOpDMw

    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    Please provide the information which confirms that:

    1) The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT provide big banks with a backdoor means of rolling back efforts to re-regulate Wall Street in the wake of the global economic crisis.

    2) The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT require domestic law to conform to the now-rejected model of extreme deregulation that caused the crisis – such as forbidding countries from banning particularly risky financial products, such as the toxic derivatives that led to the $183 billion government bailout of AIG.

    3) The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT threaten the use of “firewalls” – policies that are employed to stop the spread of risk between different types of financial institutions and products.

    4) The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT bar the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, that helped eliminate banking crises for four decades by prohibiting deposit-holding commercial banks from dealing in risky investments.

    5) The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT ban capital controls, an essential policy tool to counter destabilizing flows of speculative money.

    6)The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT prohibit taxes on Wall Street speculation, that means that there would be no hope of passing proposals like the Robin Hood Tax, which would impose a tiny tax on Wall Street transactions to tamp down speculation-fueled volatility while generating hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of revenue for social, health, or environmental causes.

    7) The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), will NOT empower financial firms to directly attack these government policies in foreign tribunals, and demand taxpayer compensation for policies they claim undermine their expected future profits.

    (Please be advised that I have based these questions upon information from the following:
    http://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpacts_FinRegulation.html )
    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    If you cannot provide ALL of this above-requested information, please confirm that you, as the Prime Minister of New Zealand, will no longer continue to advocate for, or in any way support this TPPA, from which you may personally profit, given your shareholding in the Bank of America, which, in my considered opinion as an ‘anti-corruption Public Watchdog’, is potentially a significant corrupt ‘conflict of interest’.

    Yours sincerely,

    Penny Bright
    ………….

    ‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’

    2009 Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference

    2010 Attendee Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference

    2013 Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference

    2014 Attendee G20 Anti-Corruption Conference

    2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate (polled 4th with 11,723 votes)

    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate

  18. Colonial Viper 18
    23 June 2015 at 6:10 pm

    Grindingly slow science discovers: chemicals considered individually safe may act together in the human body to cause cancer

    http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/23/exposure-to-mixture-of-chemicals-may-trigger-cancer-scientists-find

    • McFlock 18.1
      23 June 2015 at 8:52 pm

      Not all of us can read the matrix code as it flies by, or great one. Some of us need things like “evidence” before we leap to a conclusion.

      But keep up with that anti-science schtick. It really shows how much of an authority you are when it comes to logic.

      • TheContrarian 18.1.1
        23 June 2015 at 9:11 pm

        CR yesterday: Pffft science!

        CR today: This science isn’t fast enough!

      • Lanthanide 18.1.2
        23 June 2015 at 9:21 pm

        CV is a complete jerk. He knew all along that these chemicals together would cause cancer, but he refused to tell anyone, instead he kept it for himself.

        • McFlock 18.1.2.1
          23 June 2015 at 9:45 pm

          while Big Chiropracty makes a killing curing it with spinal manipulation, and Big Homeopathy refuses to add the cure to the municipal water supply in statistically non-existent concentrations.

          • weka 18.1.2.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 9:59 pm

            He does have a point though. Why has it taken science so long to explore this hypothesis? People have been talking about it for a very long time.

            • Colonial Rawshark 18.1.2.1.1.1
              23 June 2015 at 10:05 pm

              the big money for academics, researchers and journals is in testing new drugs for Big Pharma, one chemical at a time. There simply is much less money and career reward in doing this kind of much more complex public good work.

            • Lanthanide 18.1.2.1.1.2
              23 June 2015 at 10:16 pm

              Because generally experimenting on humans is frowned upon, and population-based studies are very time consuming an expensive.

              The simple answer is that society doesn’t dedicate enough money towards science.

              • Colonial Rawshark …
                23 June 2015 at 10:33 pm

                Given that science has helped lead us into this civilisational dead end, that’s no surprise.

                • Lanthanide …
                  23 June 2015 at 10:59 pm

                  Everything about civilisation has lead us to this dead end.

                  Pillorying ‘science’ as the root of all evil is quite bizarre.

                  • Colonial Rawshark …
                    23 June 2015 at 11:12 pm

                    It’s the one which has created the means to destroy the entire world in under 6 hours (global nuclear warfare) so it’s up there in the rankings.

            • McFlock 18.1.2.1.1.3
              23 June 2015 at 10:32 pm

              what lanth said.
              And factors that work together disproportionately are exponentially more difficult to identify above margin for error, replicate the results a few times, and then filter out into the general safety/awareness system.

              Things like smoking/lung cancer and asbestos/asbestosis are exceptionally low-hanging fruit.

              Look at sudi/sids/cot death: smoking was an easily identified risk factor, bedsharing/sleeping arrangements less clear. But only a few years ago was the disproportionate association between the two identified: as risk factors together, they multiply rather than add.

              That took epidemiology to identify and pig models to determine a biologically-plausible mechanism by which it manifests before a variety of responses/interventions could be piloted. And both of those were identified and measured risk factors before the relationship was identified.

              So yeah, it took a whilefor researchers to go through the obvious ones before individually benign factors were compared together on a macro scale to find an association.

              The problem is that CR’s list of things that his hippie friends were concerned about that have not and will never be associated with an actual hazard is impossible to collate due to the illogical nature of confirmation bias and our inability to foresee the future.

              • weka …
                23 June 2015 at 11:58 pm

                Sure, complexity, but I also think it’s because once you go down this track it’s harder to hang on to the reductionist world view. And that presents other problems, like how to deal with individual reactions to chemicals.

                • McFlock …
                  24 June 2015 at 12:07 am

                  I’m not particularly surprised at that.

                  • weka …
                    24 June 2015 at 12:27 am

                    surprised at what?

                    • McFlock …
                      24 June 2015 at 12:42 am

                      That some commenters here would believe that a research direction his put off because any resulting data might actually raise further research problems and challenge the scientist’s reductio-whosie-whatsits to a comparable degree as the basic volume of data and methodological complexity required to explore a research question. After all, scientists are terrified of learning anything new.

                      I mean, even a couple of decades ago the technology might not have existed to even examine the possible low-incidence interactions between an assortment of random chemicals to create an unknown health effect in a large, international population for a study that involves global collaboration of researchers in a timely and not-space-program-expensive manner. But no, I’m not surprised that some commenters here would feel that a significant factor in preventing this research in the 1980s or 90s would simply be the hesitancy of a scientist to have their “reductionist world view” challenged.

                    • weka …
                      24 June 2015 at 12:12 pm

                      Fuck off McFLock. I’m not even going to bother reading that properly. I’m not ‘some commenters’, I’m one commenter. If you can’t address the points in the actual comments I make and feel a need to make generic statements about unspecified arguments that just feeds the impression that your ideology is blinding you here.

                      “After all, scientists are terrified of learning anything new.”

                      Fuck off again. I’m guessing that you actually have no idea what I meant by my comment and instead of engaging meaningfully and asking, you just kept on with the prejudicial diatribes.

                    • McFlock …
                      24 June 2015 at 4:52 pm

                      So you won’t read it properly, then claim I never addressed the point.

                      Allow me to expand on some of the points you couldn’t be bothered reading:

                      Sometimes shit doesn’t get looked at because the technology doesn’t exist to look at it and there is more low-hanging fruit to look at. But nah, you leap at the idea that it’s because scientists don’t want to change their world view. When in fact robustly demonstrating something that requires a revolutionary change in understanding would actually make a scientist’s career – look at the holographic universe theory, or gastric ulcers being caused by bacteria.

                      So nah, I couldn’t then and can’t now be bothered getting into a debate about “reductionist world views”.

      • Adele 18.1.3
        23 June 2015 at 9:55 pm

        Kia ora McFlock

        I am anti the arrogance of science. However, I have just attended a science symposium and I thought eureka.

        What was so enlightening about this particular convention was an acceptance of a Science – Maatauranga Maaori collaboration.

        Maatauranga Maaori is Maaori knowledge and Maaori science

        In other words, Science in NZ is acknowledging that an alternative view of existence is valid.

        Its an impressive development scientifically, and bi-culturally.

        • McFlock 18.1.3.1
          23 June 2015 at 10:45 pm

          I’d be interested if there was a link to the proceedings.

          Don’t let my bickering with CR mislead you – even within the “mainstream” there can be a bit of snickering between the quantitative and qualitative crowds, or even the population vs case analysis crowds, but each of us would be significanty less without the others.

          Except chemistry majors. They’re basically the polytech cookery students of the sciences 😛

        • Psycho Milt 18.1.3.2
          23 June 2015 at 10:58 pm

          I am anti the arrogance of science.

          For my part, I’m anti the arrogance of culturally-based evidence-free assertions, but we all have our biases.

          • Adele 18.1.3.2.1
            23 June 2015 at 11:16 pm

            Kia ora Psycho

            ” For my part, I am anti the arrogance of culturally-based evidence-free assertions, but we all have our biases.”

            Well, stop reading your own posts then.

    • Colonial Rawshark 18.2
      23 June 2015 at 9:46 pm

      Gawd all you Scientism types are struggling. Ah well, seems like my new age hippy friends were right about the dangers of this environmental chemical cocktail shit 20 years ago. Smart people.

      • Lanthanide 18.2.1
        23 June 2015 at 9:54 pm

        A stopped clock is right twice a day.

        • weka 18.2.1.1
          23 June 2015 at 9:59 pm

          facile.

          • Colonial Rawshark 18.2.1.1.1
            23 June 2015 at 10:07 pm

            And these are the self proclaimed rational scientific intellectual analytical thinkers amongst us.

          • Lanthanide 18.2.1.1.2
            23 June 2015 at 10:22 pm

            No, not at all. It’s very easy to declaim that any sort of new science or technology is going to be bad and have bad outcomes, and to be very general about it. Throw enough darts, some of them will hit bulls-eyes occasionally.

            But the real point here actually, is that it’s very easy to say “all vaccines are bad”, and then when *a* vaccine is bad, use it as an example that backs up your claim that “all vaccines are bad”, when actually it’s just a one-off occurrence and the vast majority of vaccines are fine.

            It reminds me of AFewKnowTheTruth, who was very insistent that come 2015, people would be literally starving to death in Auckland due to peak oil and lack of resources and the entire world economy collapsing. He made a very specific prediction – and was quite clearly wrong. It’s much easier to claim to be correct if you make really vague predictions and then say anything that happens to fit your claim proves you were right all along.

            Nostradamus was pretty good at this.

            • Colonial Rawshark 18.2.1.1.2.1
              23 June 2015 at 10:32 pm

              I for one have never said all vaccines are bad

              You are the one who has said all vaccines are good

              I think each vaccine needs to be judged on its own merits and used only when the situation demands it.

              • McFlock …
                23 June 2015 at 10:36 pm

                your expression “only when the situation demands it” demonstrates that you have no fucking idea whatsoever.

                • Colonial Rawshark …
                  23 June 2015 at 10:38 pm

                  I wonder what groupings of chemicals are in those vaccinations.

                  • McFlock …
                    23 June 2015 at 10:50 pm

                    sorry, I missed that as I’m currently dying of sepsis from a shaving cut.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:08 pm

                      There’s a vaccination for that

                    • McFlock …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:14 pm

                      no, antibiotics.

                      But you’ll pretend to have known that already.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:16 pm

                      antibiotics meh

                      colloidal silver

                    • McFlock …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:44 pm

                      lol

                      a good disinfectant, but not the same.

                    • weka …
                      24 June 2015 at 12:03 am

                      “sorry, I missed that as I’m currently dying of sepsis from a shaving cut.”

                      If science were really on the ball, it would be exploring more in depth why you got a blood infection from that particular cut at the particular time and why your mate who shaved himself in the same bathroom cut himself but didn’t get an infection.

                      If we’d done that we might not be on the verge of running out of antibiotics.

                    • McFlock …
                      24 June 2015 at 12:10 am

                      It’s lucky that scientists have sooo many people telling them what they should be researching (or even that we have people like CR who know the answers without dirtying themselves with “evidence”), then.

                    • weka …
                      24 June 2015 at 12:28 am

                      It’s pretty easy to argue that science shouldn’t be left to scientists alone.

                      But I see we’re at the let’s just make up smartarse shit point in the conversation.

                      Night then.

                    • McFlock …
                      24 June 2015 at 12:46 am

                      You might want to look up Ignaz Semmelweiss, in the time when people thought bad air caused disease.

              • Lanthanide …
                23 June 2015 at 10:56 pm

                “You are the one who has said all vaccines are good”

                Pretty sure I haven’t said that, actually. What I would have said is that with modern vaccines, there is no reason to doubt the medical fraternity that they are safe and effective.

                The only valid reasons not to receive routine childhood vaccinations are if there’s a specific medical reason why you shouldn’t receive the vaccination, such as compromised immune system, or just allergic to one of the chemicals or processes used to create the vaccine.

                • Colonial Rawshark …
                  23 June 2015 at 11:07 pm

                  They hid critical facts about the MMR vaccination in the UK circa ’88, they hid critical facts about the effectiveness of the MeNZ B vaccination in young children circa 2002, they consistently overstate the practical value of the flu vaccination in preventing deaths, hospitalisations and sick days, they’re hiding critical adverse reaction issues with the HPV vaccination right now.

                  I don’t think that trusting the authorities at face value is really an option.

            • Colonial Rawshark 18.2.1.1.2.2
              23 June 2015 at 10:36 pm

              It reminds me of AFewKnowTheTruth, who was very insistent that come 2015, people would be literally starving to death in Auckland due to peak oil and lack of resources and the entire world economy collapsing. He made a very specific prediction – and was quite clearly wrong.

              Cut the guy some slack yeah. He’s only about 15 years out.

              • Lanthanide …
                23 June 2015 at 10:53 pm

                Potentially, but the point is he was making a very specific near-term prediction. The ones that should be more accurate.

                Barring completely unexpected events like a solar flare shutting down the electricity grid etc, I think there’s likely to be several years of declining and very bad financial news for the world economy, before it gets to the point of people literally starving to death in Auckland.

                • Colonial Rawshark …
                  23 June 2015 at 11:01 pm

                  indeed, though i would say that younger and older people in Auckland dying of the secondary effects of insufficient nutrition is basically upon us.

                  • Lanthanide …
                    23 June 2015 at 11:05 pm

                    Hmm, I’m not sure that the rate of the deaths that you could contribute to those nebulous causes would be any higher now than in the past.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:10 pm

                      Well, child poverty is way up compared to 1980 so I am guessing there is a big negative effect somewhere there although it is likely hard to quantify exactly…

                    • Lanthanide …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:15 pm

                      Death rate amongst children is really quite low. If there had been any noticeable upsurge in child deaths that could be clearly linked to malnutrition, I think we’d have heard about it.

                    • Colonial Rawshark …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:17 pm

                      then increasing levels of child poverty perhaps aren’t that big of a problem

                    • McFlock …
                      23 June 2015 at 11:33 pm

                      Parents tend to starve themselves beforetheir kids, no matter what the fucking tories say.

                      But we’re also really good at letting kids get sick and saving their lives at the last minute.

                    • Lanthanide …
                      24 June 2015 at 9:08 am

                      “then increasing levels of child poverty perhaps aren’t that big of a problem”

                      Wow, really? Did you honestly just say, that if children aren’t dying, there mustn’t be a problem with child poverty?

                      Some pretty high bar you have to reach, there.

      • Psycho Milt 18.2.2
        23 June 2015 at 10:40 pm

        Ah well, seems like my new age hippy friends were right about the dangers of this environmental chemical cocktail shit 20 years ago.

        You do know that the environment is a chemical cocktail, right? As are we, and any matter in the universe you might not have automatically assumed under the heading “environment.” Still, if your new age hippy friends had some evidence-based insights into what particular combinations of chemicals constitute “dangers,” it’s a shame they never published their findings and reaped the rewards.

        • weka 18.2.2.1
          24 June 2015 at 12:06 am

          Very odd how otherwise intelligent people can’t differentiate various uses of the word ‘chemical’ in context. It’s not the hippies or CV misuing the word (I understood what he meant).

          The hippies did publishe their findings, you’ve just been reading the wrong things.

  19. Penny Bright 19
    23 June 2015 at 7:03 pm

    [Sitting date: 23 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:11.
    Text is subject to correction.]

    9. FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First) to the Prime Minister : Does he stand by all his statements?

    Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.

    Fletcher Tabuteau : Given that he stated that all New Zealanders should trust him regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, why then, with the endgame now playing out and after years of negotiations, is your Minister of Trade now saying: “It’s not to say that there’s a bad deal on dairy products; it’s more to say that there’s no deal.”?

    Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Because the Minister is technically correct. We are in a negotiating phase, and so there is not actually a completed deal yet.

    Fletcher Tabuteau : In saying that he would like to do some more for the dairy industry, what will he do for Beef and Lamb New Zealand and the Fonterra Cooperative Group, which have gone on record saying that they would struggle to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement if, like the Chinese free-trade deal and the South Korean free-trade deal, there are no actual free-trade clauses for them in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement?

    Rt Hon JOHN KEY : The member will have to wait and see, on the basis that the US Senate ultimately gets through it and we get to a deal. But on the basis of what I have seen as being proposed at the moment, I think net-on-net the benefits are positive for New Zealand, and many sectors, I think, will be happy.

    ————————————————————-

    So – is NZ Prime Minister John Key primarily working for NZ’s Fonterra – or the Bank of America?

    Follow the dollar ….. ?

    In which company does Prime Minister John Key have shares?

    Oh – that’s right.

    The Bank of America …..

    Happy with THAT New Zealanders?

    I’m not.

    Penny Bright

    http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz

  20. Heartbleeding Liberal 20
    23 June 2015 at 9:32 pm

    MS sufferer who cannot walk, talk or feed himself told to attend job center for interviews: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/multiple-sclerosis-sufferer-who-communicates-5928207

    • Chooky 20.1
      23 June 2015 at 10:50 pm

      …that is so disgraceful it is funny…and this sort of thing is what Bill English and jonkey nactional have plans for in New Zealand

    • McFlock 20.2
      23 June 2015 at 10:56 pm

      goldfish moment – mouth opening and closing, but no words fit the idea

  21. Chooky 21
    23 June 2015 at 10:48 pm

    ‘‘Saudi Cables release is just one tenth of what we have’ – WikiLeaks to RT’

    http://rt.com/news/268948-wikileaks-saudi-documents-new/

    …“We are seeing how the oil money is being used to increase influence of Saudi Arabia which is substantial of course – this is ally of the US and the UK. And since this spring it has been waging war in neighboring Yemen,” Icelandic investigative journalist and spokesperson for the WikiLeaks organization Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT.

    On Friday, the whistleblowing website released the first tranche of nearly 70,000 secret government files, providing an insight into the kingdom’s interior and foreign policies. Hrafnsson said that this is “only one tenth of the documents that we have which, will be released in the coming weeks.”…

    ( God bless wikileaks and Julian Assange …and investigative journalists for revealing the truth and fighting oppression and corruption)

  22. lprent 22
    23 June 2015 at 10:56 pm

    Unjammed the RSS feed. It was choking on some bad RSS / HTML in the last post from WatchBlog.

    I have trashed picking up from that site for the moment, dropped all of their entries, and kicked the cache to get rid of it.

  23. lprent 23
    24 June 2015 at 2:22 am

    Test comment for Edge 0.11 on Windows 10

    So far I haven’t seen any problems.

    Even the re-edit editor works.

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    Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    1 day ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Friday, July 26

    TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Weekly Roundup 26-July-2024

    Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    1 day ago
  • God what a relief

    1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 day ago
  • Trust In Me

    Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • The Hoon around the week to July 26

    TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Care report released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Friday, July 26

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced $802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Radical law changes needed to build road

    The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 day ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #30 2024

    Open access notables Could an extremely cold central European winter such as 1963 happen again despite climate change?, Sippel et al., Weather and Climate Dynamics: Here, we first show based on multiple attribution methods that a winter of similar circulation conditions to 1963 would still lead to an extreme seasonal ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago
  • First they came for the Māori

    Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Join us for the weekly Hoon on YouTube Live

    Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Will the real PM Luxon please stand up?

    Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Will debt reduction trump abuse in care redress?

    Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Care report in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Olywhites and Time Bandits

    About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Why were the 1930s so hot in North America?

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob Henson Those who’ve trawled social media during heat waves have likely encountered a tidbit frequently used to brush aside human-caused climate change: Many U.S. states and cities had their single hottest temperature on record during the 1930s, setting incredible heat marks ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago
  • Throwback Thursday – Thinking about Expressways

    Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    2 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Thursday, July 25

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • The Possum: Demon or Friend?

    Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago
  • Not a story

    Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Thursday, July 25

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry published its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • A tougher line on “proactive release”?

    The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • 'Let's build a motorway costing $100 million per km, before emissions costs'

    TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Lester's Prescription – Positive Bleeding.

    I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Casey Costello gaslights Labour in the House

    Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone icon on the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    3 days ago
  • Why is the Texas grid in such bad shape?

    This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Headline from 2021 The Texas grid, run by ERCOT, has had a rough few years. In 2021, winter storm Uri blacked out much of the state for several days. About a week ago, Hurricane Beryl knocked out ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on a textbook case of spending waste by the Luxon government

    Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    3 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Wednesday, July 24

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • LXR Takaanini

    As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    3 days ago
  • Four kilograms of pain

    Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Wednesday, July 24

    TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive: Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Luxon gets caught out

    NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • A worrying sign

    Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Are we fine with 47.9% home-ownership by 2048?

    Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloitte report for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Let's Win This

    You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • Waimahara: The Singing Spirit of Water

    There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
    Greater AucklandBy Connor Sharp
    4 days ago
  • A major milestone: Global climate pollution may have just peaked

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Tuesday, July 23

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’s Oliver LewisScoop: Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Tuesday, July 23

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announced the Board of Te Whatu Ora- Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • HealthNZ and Luxon at cross purposes over budget blowout

    Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago
  • 2500-3000 more healthcare staff expected to be fired, as Shane Reti blames Labour for a budget defic...

    Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    4 days ago
  • Might Kamala Harris be about to get a 'stardust' moment like Jacinda Ardern?

    As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    5 days ago
  • Solutions Interview: Steven Hail on MMT & ecological economics

    TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
    The KakaBy Steven Hail
    5 days ago
  • Reported back

    The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Vandrad the Viking, Christopher Coombes, and Literary Archaeology

    Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell On The Biden Withdrawal

    History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    5 days ago
  • Joe Biden's withdrawal puts the spotlight back on Kamala and the USA's complicated relatio...

    This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    5 days ago
  • Why we have to challenge our national fiscal assumptions

    A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Existential Crisis and Damaged Brains

    What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • A speed limit is not a target, and yet…

    This is a guest post from longtime supporter Mr Plod, whose previous contributions include a proposal that Hamilton become New Zealand’s capital city, and that we should switch which side of the road we drive on. A recent Newsroom article, “Back to school for the Govt’s new speed limit policy“, ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    5 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Monday, July 22

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Monday, July 22

    TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29

    A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago
  • I'd like to share what I did this weekend

    This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • For the children – Why mere sentiment can be a misleading force in our lives, and lead to unex...

    National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Order image, ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • A friend in uncertain times

    Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • The Chaotic World of Male Diet Influencers

    Hi,We’ll get to the horrific world of male diet influencers (AKA Beefy Boys) shortly, but first you will be glad to know that since I sent out the Webworm explaining why the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was not a false flag operation, I’ve heard from a load of people ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • It's Starting To Look A Lot Like… Y2K

    Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Bernard’s Saturday Soliloquy for the week to July 20

    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Pharmac Director, Climate Change Commissioner, Health NZ Directors – The latest to quit this m...

    Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    1 week ago
  • Flooding Housing Policy

    The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago
  • A Voyage Among the Vandals: Accepted (Again!)

    As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā's Chorus for Friday, July 19

    An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Friday, July 19

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Weekly Roundup 19-July-2024

    Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    1 week ago
  • Weekly Climate Wrap: A market-led plan for failure

    TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Tobacco First

    Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Trump’s Adopted Son.

    Waiting In The Wings: For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Friday, July 19

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSA announced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • The Hoon around the week to July 19

    TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #29 2024

    Open access notables Improving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society: To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Joint statement from the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand

    Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.  We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago
  • AG reminds institutions of legal obligations

    Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    19 hours ago
  • More young people learning about digital safety

    Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views.  “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago
  • Speech to the Conference for General Practice 2024

    Tēnā tātou katoa,  Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    22 hours ago
  • Employers and payroll providers ready for tax changes

    New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts.  “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    23 hours ago
  • Experimental vineyard futureproofs wine industry

    An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Funding confirmed for regions affected by North Island Weather Events

    The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Indonesian Foreign Minister to visit

    Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced.   “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
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