Maybe if Mr Sanders doesn’t win the US Primary, it would be nice if he might immigrate to NZ and lead the Labour Party, we need a gentleman like this, I watched his speech in Senate opposing TPP, he spoke for at least 45 mins only barely referrring to his notes… currently our guys have to have notes to ask 3 questions…. I miss Sir David Lange I really do.
Let’s hope Bernie Sanders is a lot sharper than poor old David Lange was. Remember that it was Lange, an economic illiterate, who let Douglas, Prebble, De Cleene and their ideological masters like Roger Kerr run riot in 1984.
I doubt that Bernie Sanders would go about wrecking the education system like Lange did either.
He was. But that is not enough to run a country, sadly.
He was a man of and for the people.
He certainly was conflicted when he saw the effects of his government’s actions on working people. So he was a better person by far than the likes of Moore, Douglas, Prebble and De Cleene, who actually ran the country or, more accurately, ran down the country for six years.
For a good man, he didn’t show much empathy for teachers as his ideologically driven “reforms”—clearly the product of the fevered brains of the Business Round Table rather than Lange himself—were imposed over serious protests from those in the education sector. In fact, he publicly expressed his contempt for them on at least one occasion.
Why are you blaming him for how other people used and abused his goodness.
He was the prime minister. He allowed himself to be manipulated and used by the Douglas-Moore-Prebble faction.
Not even Key has been credited with this much power by lefties such as yourself.
Key is on board with National’s agenda of flogging off our assets, attacking public institutions and destroying dissenting journalists. Unlike Lange vis a vis Douglas, Moore and Prebble, he is not unaware of, or uninterested in, what the likes of Bill English and Steven Joyce are doing.
Where was the rest of Labour? At a perpetual smoko?
Yes. They were organizing their boroughs to be nuclear-free, and left Douglas and his cronies to take care of the boring stuff. Like Lange, the rest of us—except for a few like Bruce Jesson and Jane Kelsey—had little or no idea what they were up to.
He was a good man let down by his party.
No, he was a good man who allowed a small gang of ideologically fanatical theorists to seize control of his party.
The art deco buses that were a financial disaster for Napier City Council have proved a great success for their new owner
The council bought the two converted American school buses for $837,000 in 2011 then spent a further $300,000 repairing numerous faults and getting them shipped from California.
The council then incurred a further $323,000 in operating losses.
When sold last year, bids of around just $25,000 for each bus were accepted
The biggest problem was the NCC was running the buses on an almost identical route run by the HBRC who control the commuter bus network. The deco buses were charging $15 a ride where the commuter buses were around $3.50. No-brainer really.
This is a REALLY big deal, and, in my opinion, these gutsy and persistent members of the Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers’ Association (MRRA) deserve the full support of every decent New Zealander who supports the ‘Rule of Law’ equally applying to Councils / territorial authorities.
What has happened to members of the MRRA is an absolute disgrace to democracy and proves that New Zealand’s ‘perceived’ status as ‘the second least corrupt country in the world’ is a massive crock of the steaming proverbial.
I for one, will be at the NZ Court of Appeal in support of these fellow New Zealand CITIZENS – not SLAVES.
————————————————————————————————-
Democracy on the Line
The Mangawhai Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association in Northland has been challenging the Kaipara District Council ( run since 2013 by a government-appointed commission ) through a Judicial Review in the High Court over illegal borrowing and illegal rates
The issues affect every ratepayer in New Zealand because they centre around a council’s ability to set rates to fund illegal activities.
The High Court effectively says they can, and we are asking the Court of Appeal to reconsider that question.
But Democracy is also on trial here, because Parliament trampled on the community’s civil rights.
The German-American Philosopher Hannah Arendt famously said “Nobody has the right to obey bad orders”
In our context that means “Nobody should uncomplainingly pay illegal taxes”
The people of Mangawhai are law-abiding decent and mostly elderly.
We will pay our rates the instant they are lawful.
Before that can happen there has to be a full independent investigation to ascertain who caused the loss of over $57,000,000.
Without that, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
If we fold, we consign every ratepayer in the country to tyranny at the hands of their councils.
If you can, please come and hear the arguments. 10:00am Tuesday 25/08/2015,
in Wellington at the Court of Appeal Molesworth St. Courtroom 2.
– or in Auckland at Level 11 280 Queen St (opposite Smith & Caughey) where we have a dedicated video link
Guy Williams – Key “Protesters don’t know what they’re talking about because they don’t know what’s in the TPPA.” Protesters “THAT’S WHAT WE’RE PROTESTING”
John Pilger advises a shoddy Kim Hill: “Read. Just read.” Face to Face, Television One, Thursday 20 March 2003
Later this morning Wallace Chapman is going to interview John Pilger. Let’s hope Chapman’s done a bit more prep. than one of his colleagues did a decade ago, otherwise we could be subjected to the unedifying sounds of someone being keelhauled—metaphorically of course.
Intellectually and morally superior journalists like Glenn Greenwald always humiliate lazy and poorly informed chatterers like Bill Maher, Stephen Sackur and Kirsty Wark. This is why the likes of Greenwald are kept off the screens as much as possible.
In 2003, another of the world’s top journalists, John Pilger, in Sydney, was interviewed by a poorly prepared Kim Hill (in Wellington). Now we all know that Kim Hill is a smart, well read woman. But she’s sometimes a little lazy, and doesn’t always do her due diligence. That’s fine in those cases when she’s far smarter than the person she’s interviewing, as she usually is.
Unfortunately, however, shoddy thinking is not going to work when you try to confront someone like John Pilger….
Face to Face, Television One, Thursday 20 March 2003
Pilger was critical from the beginning, correcting Hill’s lead-in statement and saying he had to “deconstruct” her questions….
KIM HILL: All this time, then, the United Nations and weapons inspectors have been some kind of puppets of the US. JOHN PILGER: Are you saying that? KIM HILL: I am asking you whether that is what you are implying? JOHN PILGER: That’s a leading question, I wouldn’t …
KIM HILL: How would you describe the activities of the United Nations up until this point? JOHN PILGER: Which area of the United Nations? It’s a very big organisation.
In the end, the interview dissolved into the journalists talking and shouting over the top of each other.
JOHN PILGER: You waste my time because you have not prepared for this interview, as any journalist does, and I’ve done many interviews. The one thing is to prepare for them and this interview, frankly, is a disgrace. KIM HILL: What preparation would you have cared for, Mr Pilger? JOHN PILGER: To read. Read. It takes time. KIM HILL: It’s a pity you wasted a lot of your time tonight, Mr Pilger. I was looking forward to … JOHN PILGER: No, I haven’t. I’m quite pleased with my answers. I hope you broadcast them as I’ve given them. KIM HILL: We broadcast you exactly as you are. It’s been interesting to speak with you. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3251418
And sure enough, Chapman has put his foot in it. At 9:48 a.m. he said something really careless and an irritated Pilger pulled him up for it.
But Chapman had the grace to admit he’s not really up to speed on the situation, and he let Pilger clarify for him. A stark contrast to what happened twelve and a half years ago, when poor old Kim Hill foolishly tried to match wits with him.
STOP PRESS!
Incredibly, Chapman continues to put his foot in it. He’s just stated that Jeremy Corbyn is far to the left of the mainstream Labour Party. Pilger politely, but devastatingly, corrected him.
POINT TO PONDER:
Why do radio interviewers like Chapman not do their homework?
Oh dear. I missed this because I was out, but from the sounds, it was a good thing to miss. I have become very disillusioned with the aptly-initialed W.C.
Actually Vicky, or friend Wallace did a pretty good job—far better than Kim Hill’s foolish performance twelve and a half years ago. When a clearly irritated Pilger pounced on him for lazily recycling the lies against Assange, he accepted it in good grace.
what an incredibly cheap shot vicky perhaps yr initials should be sb….i thought the whole show was excellent and didnt wallace have to ask the questions that are on so many misinformed minds anyway ?
“The internationally renowned investigative journalist and filmmaker discusses WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his bid for his own freedom – and for freedom of information. John Pilger also gives us his take on Jeremy Corbyn’s bid for leadership of the UK Labour Party”.
Also worth listening to is ‘Media Watch’ on bias in NZ journalism…eg. Mike Hoskings
( sound links yet to come up)
(@ Morrissey…I thought it a pretty fair and good interview …interviewers can not be experts or perfect on ALL subjects…nor can they be perfect interviewers….As long as they tackle the BIG ISSUES with courage …and engage and stand corrected …that is all that matters!….and Pilger is notoriously tetchy)
A couple of embarrassing slips by a well-intentioned but poorly prepared Chapman. Still, it’s better than nothing—which is the amount of time John Pilger will receive on our media for the rest of this year.
By comparison, this fellow is on virtually non-stop….
(@ Morrissey…I thought it a pretty fair and good interview …interviewers can not be experts or perfect on ALL subjects…nor can they be perfect interviewers….As long as they tackle the BIG ISSUES with courage …and engage and stand corrected …that is all that matters!
Fair comment, Chooky. I agree that it was a pretty fair interview. However, I was annoyed—as Pilger clearly was—to hear Chapman recycling the brutal, discredited smears against Assange.
….and Pilger is notoriously tetchy)
No, he is not tetchy. He simply does not suffer fools—as anyone who watched the Kim Hill interview will acknowledge. And Wallace Chapman, nice guy that he is, was a fool to come not fully briefed into an interview with a rigorous thinker like Pilger.
When quizzed days later, those with perfect scores earn a virtual award proclaiming, “I’m Peculiar” — the company’s proud phrase for overturning workplace conventions.
Ah, the conformity of capitalism forced upon the workers.
“Conflict brings about innovation,” he said.
Yep, it can do. It can also bring about stagnation as new ways of thinking and looking at things get shouted down. Cooperation can actually bring more because even the smallest voice will be heard.
After reading the NYTimes piece it’s obvious that it’s hard out competition with the message of kill, kill, kill.
From 2 to 4 months old, babies begin their primary course of vaccinations. This is also the peak age for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The timing of these two events has led some people to believe they might be related. However, studies have concluded that vaccinations are not a risk factor for SIDS
The Hib vaccine is very safe, and it is effective at preventing Hib disease. Vaccines, like any medicine, can have side effects. Most children who get the Hib shot have no side effects.
What are the side effects?
The most common side effects are usually mild and last 2 or 3 days. They include the following:
Redness, swelling, and warmth where the child got the shot
Fever
VAERS received 29,747 reports after Hib vaccines; 5179 (17%) were serious, including 896 reports of deaths. Median age was 6 months (range 0-1022 months). Sudden infant death syndrome was the stated cause of death in 384 (51%) of 749 death reports with autopsy/death certificate records. The most common nondeath serious AE categories were neurologic (80; 37%), other noninfectious (46; 22%) (comprising mainly constitutional signs and symptoms); and gastrointestinal (39; 18%) conditions. No new safety concerns were identified after clinical review of reports of AEs that exceeded the data mining statistical threshold.
CONCLUSION
Review of VAERS reports did not identify any new or unexpected safety concerns for Hib vaccines
“Underreporting” is one of the main limitations of passive surveillance systems, including VAERS. The term, underreporting refers to the fact that VAERS receives reports for only a small fraction of actual adverse events. The degree of underreporting varies widely
* USA – Most vaccinated babies on earth
* USA – Highest rates of infant mortality in developed world
Oh, I found your information most interesting, especially the way you highlighted insufficient information in order to justify your sarcastic last sentence.
But really, the best bit was you asking CV to see what stands out from his “perspective”. That’s like asking a Cantabrian to ref a rugby match.
The CDC statement that Hib vaccine is ‘very safe’ is quite correct as is their conclusion that no new or unexpected safety concerns have been identified.
That you misunderstand the data and try to raise an argument that Hib vaccination is causative in SIDS is due to your inability to understand the information.
One can only be thankful that you aren’t also raising false allegations and conspiracy theories about fluoridation and the twin towers.
National Library of Medicine – Study rationalized VAERS stats around vaccine related injury and deaths confirming the CDC lie
Nope.
From the VAERS paper:
VAERS generally cannot assess whether a vaccine caused an AE. VAERS does not collect data on the number of individuals vaccinated; therefore, with no denominator data, it is
not possible to calculate incidence rates of AEs.
So your comment “VAERS stats around vaccine related injury and deaths ” is pretty misleading – if someone had been hit by an asteroid after vaccination, you’d call that a “vaccine related injury”? Nope.
You’re a fucking moron, but good on you for not letting that get in the way of your belief in your own brilliance.
Abstract
The infant mortality rate (IMR) is one of the most important indicators of the socio-economic well-being and public health conditions of a country. The US childhood immunization schedule specifies 26 vaccine doses for infants aged less than 1 year—the most in the world—yet 33 nations have lower IMRs. Using linear regression, the immunization schedules of these 34 nations were examined and a correlation coefficient of r= 0.70 (p<0.0001) was found between IMRs and the number of vaccine doses routinely given to infants. Nations were also grouped into five different vaccine dose ranges: 12–14, 15–17, 18–20, 21–23, and 24–26. The mean IMRs of all nations within each group were then calculated. Linear regression analysis of unweighted mean IMRs showed a high statistically significant correlation between increasing number of vaccine doses and increasing infant mortality rates, with r=0.992 (p=0.0009). Using the Tukey-Kramer test, statistically significant differences in mean IMRs were found between nations giving 12–14 vaccine doses and those giving 21–23, and 24–26
doses.
A closer inspection of correlations between vaccine doses, biochemical or synergistic toxicity, and IMRs is essential.
Quite a stunning summary.
As I read it, the researchers suggest a very strong mathematical relationship between the countries utilising the highest numbers of vaccination doses on infants and those same countries having higher rates of infant mortality.
One imagines that countries which can afford to mandate the most vaccination doses to their populations are the richest countries in the world where infant mortality should be lower, not higher.
Given recent advances in understanding how individually safe chemicals can combine in effect to be toxic (i.e. synergistically toxic) in the human body, I think it can be said that the recommendation of the researchers to pursue “closer inspection” is well taken.
“The current study joins a long list of poorly planned, poorly executed, poorly analyzed studies that purport to show that vaccines cause autism, neurological diease, or even death. It is not the first, nor will it be the last. The question is: How do we respond to such studies? First off, we as skeptics have to be very careful not to become so jaded that knee-jerk hostility predominates. As unlikely as it is, there is always the possibility that there might be something worth taking seriously there. Next off, we have to be prepared to analyze these studies and explain to parents, when appropriate (which is the vast majority of the time) exactly why it is that they are bad science or why their conclusions are not supported by the data presented. Finally, we have to be prepared to provide these analyses fast. The Internet is speed. Already, if you Google the terms “infant mortality” and “vaccine,” anti-vaccine blogs gloating over Miller and Goldman’s study and the study itself appear on the very first page of search results.”
How much of a dishonest wanker must you be to continually use that website
Not only that, but you actively fight to ‘debunk’ every and any study that might remotely threaten the establishments doctrine which you have been pushing on behalf, for christ knows how long
What sort of arsehole claims to be a medical professional carrying the way you do on this blog site. I suspect there is no amount of ‘evidence’ which would sway you from the blind belief
Fuck the deaths and injury, seems to be your position, and I imagine that Paul Offit is an idol of yours
Here is the news for you dickhead. The world as you believe it to be is currently coming under the most intense scrutiny courtesy of your ‘colleagues’ in the USA who are fronting the ‘mandatory agenda’
I concur with OAB, and hope that those whose lies maim and kill are prosecuted, one way or another
No amount of diversion will prevent the crumbling wall created by the lies and bullishit, about ‘benefits’ of vaccination
It is phenomenal to me, that the same types who put such stock in ‘scientific method’, are seemingly oblivious to the hypocrisy they peddle via their willingness to accept with little more than a shrug, the continual exposure of corruption and fraud seeping from the cesspool CDC/FDA and the networks which they ‘oversee’
The drive towards compulsion, is going to expose the death and injury causing fraudulent entities, by putting the industry structures under the microscope like nothing previously witnessed in the history of modern medicine. This is where the ‘scientific method’ is going to be shown has having been utterly bastardized for profit
Staggering is the juvenile attitude by some, who (must) deliberately refuse to see the gaping holes, which even the most fundamental techniques in logical thinking can drive a truck through
I do agree with the comment from One Anonymous Bloke. People that tell lies which kill, maim and injure, should be prosecuted…
Starting with war criminals, and swiftly followed by medical professionals who have accepted lies as knowledge, and uncritically pushed the amoral, and unethical establishments medical agenda, onto unwitting yet trusting populace
The drive towards compulsion, is going to expose the death and injury causing fraudulent entities, by putting the industry structures under the microscope like nothing previously witnessed in the history of modern medicine. This is where the ‘scientific method’ is going to be shown has having been utterly bastardized for profit
So you’re in favour of compulsion then, as it’s the quickest way to expose teh liez…
I do agree with the comment from One Anonymous Bloke. People that tell lies which kill, maim and injure, should be prosecuted…
Starting with war criminals, and swiftly followed by medical professionals who have accepted lies as knowledge, and uncritically pushed the amoral, and unethical establishments medical agenda, onto unwitting yet trusting populace
lol
You’ve just completely slipped off Sanity Hill, haven’t you…
Oh there is no confusion from Mr Leitch and his possie of Demo Creds. Caught out again ‘same confused excuse’. Bit of cannon fodder for Peters who will be looking to add Whangarei to his Northern Kingdom. His loyal Greypower command post crew in Wellsford will be keeping their eyes peeled for the fleet of Ministers limo’s racing North in a hurry.
Subject: Mr Reti Challenged To Come Clean On TPPA
Democrats for Social Credit Deputy Leader and Whangarei candidate Chris Leitch, has called on MP Shane Reti to “come clean or resign” over his attempt to mislead constituents on the ability of the public to have input to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.
Mr Leitch said he had a copy of the material Mr Reti had sent out and the claims in it were “blatantly untrue”.
“Putting it down to “bad grammar” is like a naughty child getting his hand caught in the cookie jar, and claiming “I was just counting them”, said Mr Leitch.
“As deputy chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, Mr Reti should know exactly what the government is proposing to allow in the way of public input and I challenge him to make a clear, definitive, detailed, public statement”.
The best way for him to do this would be at a public meeting where he could put his case for Whangarei voters to support the government’s stance on the TPPA, and explain the process.
“If his statement was honestly intended, this would give him an excellent opportunity to demonstrate his sincerity to the general public”, Mr Leitch said.
“In response, I would be keen to put the opposing point of view so the public could hear both sides of the debate, and get their questions answered”, he said.
If he would just name the day and time, I will book a hall and arrange advertising for a public meeting.
Failure on Mr Reti’s part to “fess up” and “front up” over his press statement would likely be seen by constituents as admission that he did indeed try to mislead them.
Ends
May I humbly note that Hib presents like the flu, however it is a bacterial infection that if not treated or immunised against in under 4yrs age (because child can’t tell diff between viral flu and bacterial Hib) it will kill them. As an “attached” parent, maybe an answer to SIDs being high in the US as opposed to say 3rd world country may lie in the lack of contact the baby has with its mother, being that the ‘norm’ in western world is to put them in their cot and let them cry themselves to sleep aka “self soothe”…in the “3rd world” babies are attached to mum day and night… no SIDs… coincidence too maybe. Of course there are many what ifs when a baby dies, but loneliness doesnt just kill babies. But being unvaccinated will definitely up the odds of your baby failing to reach 5.. and if you havent heard a small child with whooping cough then you are very lucky. Its not a sound you ever forget. We immunised our child and strongly recommend it. Just my opinion. And 100+ for comments re Lange, I forgot those bits.
From memory Haemophilius influenza used to cause death in around 3% or less of those who presented with an infection.
Before we used to vaccinate against it, it was the most common cause of meningitis in children, i can remember seeing 1-2 a week when I was training many years ago.
SIDs is considerably lower in the US than in any 3rd world country. The data that has been shown above is defective as countries measure things such as SIDs differently.
Importantly there are many studies and much information to show that immunising as per the schedule along with Hib immunisation lowers the risk of SIDs, indeed one of the studies that shows this to be the case was completed in NZ many years ago.
But being unvaccinated will definitely up the odds of your baby failing to reach5 .. and if you havent heard a small child with whooping cough then you are very lucky. Its not a sound you ever forget. We immunised our child and strongly recommend it
As a parent who has chosen to vaccinate, you HAVE TO believe that statement, because you have painted yourself into a corner through the choices you have made
Because of the choice you made, you have no control over the long term (unknown) outcomes which could seriously impact the health of your offspring. You have no choice but to emphatically believe the decision you took, was the best one
It is the ultimate conundrum for parents, which can leave them terribly exposed and vulnerable. Fear that vaccinating / not vaccinating will lead to their child experiencing pain, injury or death
I note that your ‘strong recommendation’, reads like an attempt to to validate and endorse the decision which you made. Making a recommendation on such a sensitive topic, is terribly ignorant, and a herd mentality tactic
Consequences are too serious on either side of the decision tree, to be making ‘strong recommendations’
“Consequences are too serious on either side of the decision tree, to be making ‘strong recommendations’”
No they aren’t, all sound medical and public health authorities strongly recommend vaccination as per the schedule for all those people as long as they don’t have contraindications to vaccination.
Was it Labour who enthusiastically closed down the mental institutions? Now many people who would have had care there are in prison. Or wandering the streets taking up police time, causing problems to the people they obssess about.
Caring for but limiting the freedom of people not in control of themselves must save money in the long run. And that was one of the reasons for deinstitutilisation, the other was to give people who would benefit from being on their own in the community that chance. But their was no place for those who needed to return to the closer environment. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/71312457/public-menace-margaret-dodds-trespassed-again-in-christchurch
no must have been the Nats as it hit its straps in the early mid nineties…given some of the activities uncovered in the institutions over the years there is a case to be made for it, certainly in the majority of instances, but unfortunately the policy has never been able to implemented as intended due to chronic underfunding….what else is new. Dont worry Im sure Serco have a mental health division…they’ll do it better and cheaper…and still provide a return to their shareholders…..Tui moment.
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Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...
Today's abortion reform announcement is just the latest in a long line of disappointing decisions or outright failures from the Labour government. The 90-day law. KiwiBuild. A capital gains tax. Climate change. Every time they make one of those decisions, we hope for better next time. No repeal of the ...
The Greens used their party conference over the weekend to push for a rent-to-own scheme, where people would be able to work towards home ownership by renting from the government. Its a sensible policy, and one which could make a real difference to home ownership rates. But its also basicly ...
by Daphna Whitmore Over the past fortnight, thousands of people have come to the Ihumātao land protest in South Auckland. On 23 July police prepared to evict a few dozen people who had maintained the encampment at Ihumātao for the past three years. As hundreds of supporters arrived the ...
The following article is translated from an article in Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of the French revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle). The United States’ blacklisting of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which took shape in Google’s ban on Huawei using its systems on its phones, marks a ...
There is a military phrase: “Full spectrum dominance”. It refers to the all-encompassing policy to dominate across all spheres of war. Lately, that has come to include the internet – in other words, cyberwarfare initiatives. That is in addition to land, sea, air and the like. Now, if ...
The IMF issued a Report on the state of the Economy as it is at present. Some of it points out significant issues that certainly warrant attention, but that we know already exist. Some of it is very much tied to the very obvious context of global concerns, that everyone ...
I'm glad to see the Lib Dems won.I had a moment of terror yesterday thinking that the Conservatives might cling on, due to a combination of Johnson's elevation to the premiership, the apparent uselessness of the Lib Dem candidate (who had failed to be elected in other constituencies) and the ...
. . Current Leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges gave the usual rah-rah speech to the Loyal & Faithful in Christchurch today (27 July). With National’s party polling and his own personal popularity sliding steadily in the polls, Mr Bridges has not much left to reverse his fortunes. ...
Those concerned for Langridge’s wellbeing say they hope he’ll change his mind when he sees the ocean coming. The protester who has vowed to stand outside Parliament every day until the Government announces a climate emergency says he accepts that his quest will most likely end in drowning. Ollie Langridge, ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the report of the Small Business Council will help maintain the momentum for innovation and improvements in the sector. Mr Nash has thanked the members of the Small Business Council (SBC) who this week handed over their report, Empowering small businesses to aspire, succeed ...
Extra Police officers are being deployed from Northland to Southland with the graduation of a new wing of recruits from the Royal New Zealand Police College. “The graduation of 78 constables today means that 1524 new constables have been deployed since the government took office,” says Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Ongoing drug-test sanctions contradicts Government’s rhetoric on drugs Reports that two-thirds of beneficiaries who fail drug tests are still having their benefit sanctioned contradicts the Government’s so-called health approach to drugs. Auckland ...
An Auckland Homelessness Collective is optimistic extra government support for sustaining tenancies signals a commitment to a multi-pronged approach to tackling homelessness. ...
Wanaka-based trust ONE New Zealand will be hosting six days of talks, workshops and hands-on activities with local and national experts to educate, inspire and enable grassroots action towards a sustainable future. ...
In last week’s episode of Politics in Full Sentences, David, Brooke and Ruwan discussed why Jacinda Ardern has been lecturing our friends overseas, why Andrew Little called ACT's three strikes law “fascism”, whether he will give prisoners the right to ...
“Community safety must be the paramount consideration when releasing an offender, and the only way for that to be achieved is for the offender to acknowledge their crimes.” ...
“District Health Boards are failing to foster a culture of distributed clinical leadership, despite its demonstrated benefits to the sector,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
Ratepayers around Auckland were spitting out their morning coffees listening to Phil Goff’s incredible claims on breakfast radio today that this election is about ‘honesty’ and that Aucklanders can trust him on his promises. Auckland Ratepayers’ ...
The Hōkai Rangi plan for reducing Māori reoffending announced today fails to fulfil the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendations, says justice organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. Minister Kelvin Davis announced the plan this morning, which aims ...
Waatea News at the invitation of the North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency will exclusively broadcast the next Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki starting today at 1pm. ...
Staff at the Ministry of Social Development say they are enthusiastic about the government’s $54 million investment in housing the homeless, with many describing it as a welcome change. ...
Today posters have gone up outside ANZ branches across New Zealand to expose ANZ’s sponsorship of an exclusive oil industry group, ‘The Petroleum Club’. The satirical posters play on ANZ’s recent ad campaigns, replacing the banks’ tagline ‘healthy ...
Imagine a country where children look forward to walking or cycling to school, parents arrive home safely, and the journeys we take for work or pleasure do more than leave us alive or uninjured, they also improve our lives. This is happening now in countries ...
Sunday, 18 August, 2019 - Environmental groups and well known New Zealanders are preparing to deliver a 55,000 strong petition to the steps of Parliament tomorrow, calling on the Government to protect the world’s smallest dolphin. ...
The Government’s proposed rescue plan must be strengthened because it is the last chance to save Māui dolphins from extinction and secure the future for Hector’s dolphins, Forest & Bird says. ...
Simon Shepherd: Roads, schools, hospitals, prisons, the building blocks that keep society functioning. And we don't have enough. It's called the infrastructure deficit and will be the focus of a major conference this coming week. The man charged with ...
New Zealand has been issued a stark challenge from Pacific leaders to dramatically upscale its action to address climate breakdown, Oxfam says, after a clear rallying cry from nations at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum. ...
Support for Recreational Dope Going ‘Up in Smoke’ Family First NZ is welcoming yet another poll showing plummeting support for legalising cannabis in New Zealand. The Horizon Research poll shows support for legalising has plummeted from 60% last ...
The prospect of ending wider cannabis prohibition looks increasingly unlikely. Over the last nine months, the percentage of New Zealanders who would vote for legalising the personal use of cannabis has declined at a near linear rate of around 10% per ...
“It’s disappointing that news out of the United States of hospitalisations linked to illegal street drugs is somehow seen as relevant to the New Zealand vaping scene,” says Ben Pryor, Director of Alt New Zealand – the largest Kiwi-owned vaping company. ...
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) welcomes the successful passing of Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill through parliament, by the New Zealand Government. ...
Today’s news from the Electoral Commission has provided the party with the clarity it was seeking around use of the word “Coalition” being used as the brand name of the party. ...
A recently released Otago University study has provided further evidence that low-quality housing is a significant problem in Aotearoa. This has prompted the Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ) Paul Evans to question “why ...
With the BNZ-Business NZ PMI signaling manufacturing is contracting , the Government needs to seriously consider tax relief, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called for an overhaul of the Public Services executive ranks as the Corrections debacle shows mis-management and incompetence at the highest level. Matthew Tukaki, Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council has said ...
Findings from the 2018 New Zealand Consumer Survey have been released and the results are in; 48 per cent of respondents consider their purchases based on how ethically employees are treated. ...
The responsibility for the fact that Westland Milk Products is now in the hands of an overseas conglomerate 25% owned by the Chinese government can be laid fair and square at our government's doorstep. ...
As Fonterra is projecting multi million dollar losses for the second year in a row, it is clear the writing is on the wall for dairy as more and more Kiwis turn to plant milks. 22nd August is International Plant Milk Day and there is now a different plant ...
The $65,000 granted to Interislander so it can install electric vehicle chargers on its ferries is the most absurd waste of money yet to be delivered by the “Low Emissions” vehicle fund, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
Wellingtonians will have the chance to hear international child rights experts from Ireland, Scotland and Samoa speak at the Making Child Rights Real in Aotearoa New Zealand seminar to be held in the city on Wednesday 21 August. ...
Paul Evans, Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ), is advocating a balanced approach to the development of productive land. ...
CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) says that new research from the University of Otago provides a solid foundation for why the Government must not delay instating a comprehensive Warrant of Fitness for tenanted homes in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer drove carelessly during a pursuit and that this was the primary cause of a collision with a motorcycle that injured the rider. ...
Responding to the Prime Minister’s commitment of $150 million in funding for climate change response in the Pacific, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “It is no secret that many Pacific nations lack serious oversight when it ...
AUT research not only shows an increase in political affiliation, but that candidates affiliated to a central political party are more likely to win seats in Auckland local government. ...
On the 23rd of August School Strike NZ will join Ollie Langridge in his 100th day of sitting outside of New Zealand Parliament calling for the government to declare a climate emergency. School Strike 4 Climate NZ also demand that Parliament acknowledge ...
You have stood up for what is fair, and I am sure you will speak for over 7 million people who have been muted and rendered voiceless in Indian occupied Kashmir for more than a 10 days now. I am writing to bring to your notice the plight of Kashmiri ...
In the last 10 months alone, 11 petitions have been delivered to Parliament calling for medicines to be funded by Pharmac. Today, another nine petitions have been launched by Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) members asking that life changing, saving and extending ...
When we were first working to get Miscanthus approved for import into New Zealand, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) waived the fee for their work because they thought that having Miscanthus in New Zealand was so very much in the ...
PHARMAC’s recent decision to fund two additional drugs from December this year has been widely welcomed by patients and the general public alike. The drugs, Kadcyla and Ibrance, are used in the treatment of advanced lung and breast cancers and will ...
Animal rights organisation SAFE is urging the Government to include experts and advocates from outside the agriculture industry on its newly announced winter crop grazing taskforce. ...
The Government’s plans to prohibit housing on ‘productive’ farmland will serve as yet another regulatory tax on housing, and is a shameful breach of Jacinda Ardern’s promise to fix housing supply, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The latest round of the Ethnic Communities Development Fund opens today, supporting projects that grow the leadership and capability of ethnic groups, improve cultural understanding, and ensure our ethnic communities are a vibrant and celebrated part ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is warning of the dangers of hiking excise tax, in response to calls from a former Prime Minister for stronger action on alcohol harm. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It seems inevitable ...
Is a second attempt at merging parts of Stuff and NZ Herald owner NZME planned, with a bid for political intervention to help the media industry? Tim Murphy reports. ...
How the NZ Superfund has drummed up $15 trillion to put pressure on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube giants over livestreaming following the Christchurch terror attacks. ...
Kiwi Jamie Greene has established herself as one of the fittest women on the globe in the fast-growing gruelling sport of CrossFit. And she wants to thank her runner sister for helping drive her. ...
Newsroom is delighted to welcome the University of Otago as our third university partner for the IdeasRoom section exploring issues of importance to society and the country’s future. ...
Who should decide how many more tourists fly into Queenstown and Wanaka? Journalist and former district councillor, Cath Gilmour, argues local residents should, not the airlines. ...
Phil Goff has kept a low profile compared with his headline-grabbing opponent in the early stages of the Auckland mayoral campaign. Hayden Donnell heads along to see if the mayor can win back the spotlight at his campaign launch.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to ...
Backed by businessman Eric Watson and launched in a blaze of publicity, online trader Fashbae disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. Now its founder is traversing the globe in a jeep. Business editor Maria Slade tries to keep up with events.It had it all. A suave multi-millionaire investor and ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Rioting broke out in Manokwari, West Papua, today as local people – mostly university students – protested against racial abuse of Papuan students in East Java, reports TheJakarta Post. The protesters blocked a number of major streets in the city this morning, cutting down ...
By Ben Bilua in Suva Multimedia skills and innovation are key to adapting to the changing media landscape, said US academic Professor Debora Wenger as newsmakers around the world continue to grapple with challenges arising from the transformation of technology and social media. Speaking to journalists at a regional ...
The new RBNZ seems to crave the limelight and be known for advocacy of new causes, and that has not impressed macroeconomics professor Robert MacCulloch. ...
The prime minister won't meet with Ihumātao protesters before Thursday - the deadline given by the group to stop them marching to her Auckland electorate office. ...
Cabinet ministers will discuss possible law changes to what mail can be received and sent by prisoners, after the accused Christchurch gunman was able to send mail to supporters. ...
The Catholic and Anglican churches are still considering quashing legal agreements that may prevent abuse survivors from giving evidence to the inquiry investigating historical abuse in care. ...
The new joint from the team behind one of Wellington’s favourite craft beer bars is dedicated to minimal-intervention, organic wine – and more exciting things are coming to the heritage building it’s housed in.Before the Cadbury factory opened in Dunedin in 1930, New Zealanders ate Cadbury chocolate made in England. ...
Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsAnalysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The election race is on. The nominations process for local government positions has now closed, and the political campaign is officially underway. But does the public care? Will many of us even vote for any of the various mayoral or council ...
At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty StevensonThe rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Local government Michael Fallow (Stuff): Your council – what’s its job description? Dileepa Fonseka and ...
Protesters occupying land at Ihumātao will begin a four-hour hikoi to Mt Albert on Thursday to present a petition calling on the Prime Minister to visit the land. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Walvisch, Lecturer, Monash University This morning an Extinction Rebellion protester was arrested after hanging from a rope over the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, blocking all lanes to peak hour traffic. And earlier this month in Brisbane, more than 70 climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Jobson, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Monash University Many of us enjoy writing in a diary, reading autobiographies or nostalgically reflecting with others about past times. Why is remembering our past so important? Are there downsides? And what can we do ...
Roll Red Roll is a brutal, painfully illuminating documentary on the Steubenville High School rape case, a shocking crime that made headlines worldwide. Emily Writes reviews. This review discusses rape and sexual violenceAugust 11, 2012: two teenage boys rape an unconscious teenage girl as two of their peers watch and ...
By RNZ Pacific Tuvalu’s Prime Minister has condemned the Australian Prime Minister’s conduct at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum, calling Scott Morrison’s attitude “unfortunate” and “neo-colonial,” and questioning Australia’s future in the 18-member body. In an interview with RNZ on Sunday, Enele Sopoaga also threatened to pull Tuvaluan labour from ...
The second hui of the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki takes place in Hamilton today. Newsroom, in partnership with Radio Waatea, are broadcasting it live from 1pm. ...
Prolific, award-winning Palmerston North poet Paula Harris somehow manages to be stroppy and properly vulnerable all at once. Here, she writes about her first slam competition – and why she cried all the way home. I am old enough to have given birth to most of the people here.Sure, there’s a ...
High speed rail links between cities could play a massive role in revitalising regional New Zealand, says a visiting transport infrastructure expert. Professor Andrew McNaughton spoke to Alex Braae. Imagine commuting from Hamilton to Auckland, and it only taking an hour to get there. It’s a vision of how the right ...
On the good days, riding a bike is the best. But in Auckland there aren’t nearly enough of those days, and unless decision makers take urgent action, that’s not going to change.This piece originally appeared on Bike AucklandMy first bike crash in central Auckland happened on Symonds Street. I was ...
It's not since 1989 that a mayoralty campaign in the southern city has been so unpredictable - a record 14 candidates have put their names forward. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Mills, Hon Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney On the morning of the last Monday in April, 2019, federal election officials opened the doors of more than 500 pre-poll voting centres around Australia, and waited for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Veronica Alfano, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University Memorising poetry was once common in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, gone out of style. There are good reasons for this. Memorisation can clash with creativity and analytical thought. Rote learning can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University What do J.J. Abrams, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Shonda Rhimes, David Lynch, Aaron Sorkin, Donald Glover, Jenji Kohan, Jordan Peele, Tina Fey, and Joss Whedon have in common? They ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mayors launch bids to return in Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton’s skyline could change significantly, and support for cannabis legalisation plummets in poll.Two incumbent mayors have launched their re-election campaigns over the weekend, with a bigger fight on their hands than ...
MediaWorks has been lobbying the Government to turn TVNZ 1 into a non-commercial channel to help stem its own financial bleeding. Frustrated, and getting nowhere, it’s decided to change tack. ...
Open mike 23/08/2015 
Open mike is your post.
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...16 hours ago
Last week, Australia sabotaged the Pacific Forum by opposing action on climate change. Their Deputy Prime Minister followed that up by saying that Pacific Peoples could always pick Australian fruit - just as they had done in the era of blackbirding. And now, that arrogant, tone-deaf approach has drawn a ...16 hours ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...2 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...2 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...3 days ago
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Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...4 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...5 days ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...6 days ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...6 days ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...6 days ago
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...6 days ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...6 days ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 6 days ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...7 days ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...1 week ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...1 week ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...1 week ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...2 weeks ago
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Just received this on my facebook page… NZ ranks 3rd in the highest rates of child poverty in the western world… how Appalling… is this true???
https://berniesanders.com/issues/income-and-wealth-inequality/?source=facebook08222015&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=facebook08222015
Maybe if Mr Sanders doesn’t win the US Primary, it would be nice if he might immigrate to NZ and lead the Labour Party, we need a gentleman like this, I watched his speech in Senate opposing TPP, he spoke for at least 45 mins only barely referrring to his notes… currently our guys have to have notes to ask 3 questions…. I miss Sir David Lange I really do.
Let’s hope Bernie Sanders is a lot sharper than poor old David Lange was. Remember that it was Lange, an economic illiterate, who let Douglas, Prebble, De Cleene and their ideological masters like Roger Kerr run riot in 1984.
I doubt that Bernie Sanders would go about wrecking the education system like Lange did either.
+100…Lange sure did wreck and de professionalise the education system!…”Tomorrow’s Schools’ …was cost cutting, ignorance and arrogance
You would not put parents in charge of the legal system or the medical system…why put them in charge of schools and education?
Kiaora
Lange was a good man. He was a man of and for the people. Why are you blaming him for how other people used and abused his goodness.
Lange was a good man.
He was. But that is not enough to run a country, sadly.
He was a man of and for the people.
He certainly was conflicted when he saw the effects of his government’s actions on working people. So he was a better person by far than the likes of Moore, Douglas, Prebble and De Cleene, who actually ran the country or, more accurately, ran down the country for six years.
For a good man, he didn’t show much empathy for teachers as his ideologically driven “reforms”—clearly the product of the fevered brains of the Business Round Table rather than Lange himself—were imposed over serious protests from those in the education sector. In fact, he publicly expressed his contempt for them on at least one occasion.
Why are you blaming him for how other people used and abused his goodness.
He was the prime minister. He allowed himself to be manipulated and used by the Douglas-Moore-Prebble faction.
Teenaa koe, Morrisey
The Prime Minister is not the government. Not even Key has been credited with this much power by lefties such as yourself.
Where was the rest of Labour? At a perpetual smoko?
He was a good man let down by his party.
Not even Key has been credited with this much power by lefties such as yourself.
Key is on board with National’s agenda of flogging off our assets, attacking public institutions and destroying dissenting journalists. Unlike Lange vis a vis Douglas, Moore and Prebble, he is not unaware of, or uninterested in, what the likes of Bill English and Steven Joyce are doing.
Where was the rest of Labour? At a perpetual smoko?
Yes. They were organizing their boroughs to be nuclear-free, and left Douglas and his cronies to take care of the boring stuff. Like Lange, the rest of us—except for a few like Bruce Jesson and Jane Kelsey—had little or no idea what they were up to.
He was a good man let down by his party.
No, he was a good man who allowed a small gang of ideologically fanatical theorists to seize control of his party.
Agree, agree, agree. It is sad that the left in NZ is as bad as pure politicking is the only game in town. No humanities here I am afraid.
The art deco buses that were a financial disaster for Napier City Council have proved a great success for their new owner
The council bought the two converted American school buses for $837,000 in 2011 then spent a further $300,000 repairing numerous faults and getting them shipped from California.
The council then incurred a further $323,000 in operating losses.
When sold last year, bids of around just $25,000 for each bus were accepted
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/71272308/councils-disastrous-art-deco-buses-are-deco-duds-no-more
The biggest problem was the NCC was running the buses on an almost identical route run by the HBRC who control the commuter bus network. The deco buses were charging $15 a ride where the commuter buses were around $3.50. No-brainer really.
Coupled with the pitiful amount they secured selling the buses.
Yeah, $25k each was not a fair price no matter what the new owner thinks.
This is a REALLY big deal, and, in my opinion, these gutsy and persistent members of the Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers’ Association (MRRA) deserve the full support of every decent New Zealander who supports the ‘Rule of Law’ equally applying to Councils / territorial authorities.
What has happened to members of the MRRA is an absolute disgrace to democracy and proves that New Zealand’s ‘perceived’ status as ‘the second least corrupt country in the world’ is a massive crock of the steaming proverbial.
I for one, will be at the NZ Court of Appeal in support of these fellow New Zealand CITIZENS – not SLAVES.
————————————————————————————————-
Democracy on the Line
The Mangawhai Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association in Northland has been challenging the Kaipara District Council ( run since 2013 by a government-appointed commission ) through a Judicial Review in the High Court over illegal borrowing and illegal rates
The issues affect every ratepayer in New Zealand because they centre around a council’s ability to set rates to fund illegal activities.
The High Court effectively says they can, and we are asking the Court of Appeal to reconsider that question.
But Democracy is also on trial here, because Parliament trampled on the community’s civil rights.
The German-American Philosopher Hannah Arendt famously said “Nobody has the right to obey bad orders”
In our context that means “Nobody should uncomplainingly pay illegal taxes”
The people of Mangawhai are law-abiding decent and mostly elderly.
We will pay our rates the instant they are lawful.
Before that can happen there has to be a full independent investigation to ascertain who caused the loss of over $57,000,000.
Without that, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
If we fold, we consign every ratepayer in the country to tyranny at the hands of their councils.
If you can, please come and hear the arguments. 10:00am Tuesday 25/08/2015,
in Wellington at the Court of Appeal Molesworth St. Courtroom 2.
– or in Auckland at Level 11 280 Queen St (opposite Smith & Caughey) where we have a dedicated video link
– and again on Wednesday the 26th of August 2015.
Approved by Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents Association.
Mob: 02108180162 – e-mail: mangawhairatepayers@gmail.com
http://www.mrrainc.weebly.com
For more background on our case , go to http://www.kaiparaconcerns.co.nz/
==============================================
Penny Bright
+100 Go Penny!
These folks need all the support they can get
The implications of this are wide reaching, so it is expected the establishment will use every level of the corrupted frameworks at its disposal
All at tax payers expense of course
To the good people of the MRRA and their supporters – Give it heaps
Guy Williams – Key “Protesters don’t know what they’re talking about because they don’t know what’s in the TPPA.” Protesters “THAT’S WHAT WE’RE PROTESTING”
https://insightnz.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/thats-literally-why-theyre-protesting-guy-williams-reminds-pm-why-kiwis-are-angry-over-tpp-video/
+100…thanks
John Pilger advises a shoddy Kim Hill: “Read. Just read.”
Face to Face, Television One, Thursday 20 March 2003
Later this morning Wallace Chapman is going to interview John Pilger. Let’s hope Chapman’s done a bit more prep. than one of his colleagues did a decade ago, otherwise we could be subjected to the unedifying sounds of someone being keelhauled—metaphorically of course.
Intellectually and morally superior journalists like Glenn Greenwald always humiliate lazy and poorly informed chatterers like Bill Maher, Stephen Sackur and Kirsty Wark. This is why the likes of Greenwald are kept off the screens as much as possible.
In 2003, another of the world’s top journalists, John Pilger, in Sydney, was interviewed by a poorly prepared Kim Hill (in Wellington). Now we all know that Kim Hill is a smart, well read woman. But she’s sometimes a little lazy, and doesn’t always do her due diligence. That’s fine in those cases when she’s far smarter than the person she’s interviewing, as she usually is.
Unfortunately, however, shoddy thinking is not going to work when you try to confront someone like John Pilger….
Face to Face, Television One, Thursday 20 March 2003
Pilger was critical from the beginning, correcting Hill’s lead-in statement and saying he had to “deconstruct” her questions….
KIM HILL: All this time, then, the United Nations and weapons inspectors have been some kind of puppets of the US.
JOHN PILGER: Are you saying that?
KIM HILL: I am asking you whether that is what you are implying?
JOHN PILGER: That’s a leading question, I wouldn’t …
KIM HILL: How would you describe the activities of the United Nations up until this point?
JOHN PILGER: Which area of the United Nations? It’s a very big organisation.
In the end, the interview dissolved into the journalists talking and shouting over the top of each other.
JOHN PILGER: You waste my time because you have not prepared for this interview, as any journalist does, and I’ve done many interviews. The one thing is to prepare for them and this interview, frankly, is a disgrace.
KIM HILL: What preparation would you have cared for, Mr Pilger?
JOHN PILGER: To read. Read. It takes time.
KIM HILL: It’s a pity you wasted a lot of your time tonight, Mr Pilger. I was looking forward to …
JOHN PILGER: No, I haven’t. I’m quite pleased with my answers. I hope you broadcast them as I’ve given them.
KIM HILL: We broadcast you exactly as you are. It’s been interesting to speak with you.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3251418
And sure enough, Chapman has put his foot in it. At 9:48 a.m. he said something really careless and an irritated Pilger pulled him up for it.
But Chapman had the grace to admit he’s not really up to speed on the situation, and he let Pilger clarify for him. A stark contrast to what happened twelve and a half years ago, when poor old Kim Hill foolishly tried to match wits with him.
STOP PRESS!
Incredibly, Chapman continues to put his foot in it. He’s just stated that Jeremy Corbyn is far to the left of the mainstream Labour Party. Pilger politely, but devastatingly, corrected him.
POINT TO PONDER:
Why do radio interviewers like Chapman not do their homework?
Oh dear. I missed this because I was out, but from the sounds, it was a good thing to miss. I have become very disillusioned with the aptly-initialed W.C.
Actually Vicky, or friend Wallace did a pretty good job—far better than Kim Hill’s foolish performance twelve and a half years ago. When a clearly irritated Pilger pounced on him for lazily recycling the lies against Assange, he accepted it in good grace.
what an incredibly cheap shot vicky perhaps yr initials should be sb….i thought the whole show was excellent and didnt wallace have to ask the questions that are on so many misinformed minds anyway ?
Great interview with John Pilger – Julian Assange this morning, on Wallace Chapman’s ‘Sunday Morning’ Radio New Zealand!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
“The internationally renowned investigative journalist and filmmaker discusses WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his bid for his own freedom – and for freedom of information. John Pilger also gives us his take on Jeremy Corbyn’s bid for leadership of the UK Labour Party”.
Also worth listening to is ‘Media Watch’ on bias in NZ journalism…eg. Mike Hoskings
( sound links yet to come up)
(@ Morrissey…I thought it a pretty fair and good interview …interviewers can not be experts or perfect on ALL subjects…nor can they be perfect interviewers….As long as they tackle the BIG ISSUES with courage …and engage and stand corrected …that is all that matters!….and Pilger is notoriously tetchy)
A couple of embarrassing slips by a well-intentioned but poorly prepared Chapman. Still, it’s better than nothing—which is the amount of time John Pilger will receive on our media for the rest of this year.
By comparison, this fellow is on virtually non-stop….
@chooky +100 I thought Wallace did a good job.
(@ Morrissey…I thought it a pretty fair and good interview …interviewers can not be experts or perfect on ALL subjects…nor can they be perfect interviewers….As long as they tackle the BIG ISSUES with courage …and engage and stand corrected …that is all that matters!
Fair comment, Chooky. I agree that it was a pretty fair interview. However, I was annoyed—as Pilger clearly was—to hear Chapman recycling the brutal, discredited smears against Assange.
….and Pilger is notoriously tetchy)
No, he is not tetchy. He simply does not suffer fools—as anyone who watched the Kim Hill interview will acknowledge. And Wallace Chapman, nice guy that he is, was a fool to come not fully briefed into an interview with a rigorous thinker like Pilger.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock, of ‘global economic analysis’ on China’s economic woes
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.co.nz/
and on America’s economic woes…as interviewed on the Keiser Report on
http://www.rt.com/shows/keiser-report/312522-episode-max-keiser-797/
http://www.rt.com/shows/keiser-report/312709-%D1%81hicago-poor-communities-bankrupt/
This jackass will endorse ANYTHING…
And who in their right mind would use that jackass to endorse their product. Accumulating as much wealth as possible seems to be his endgame.
The future has arrived:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/22/amazon-brutal-work-culture
Some sad reading in the comments on Bezos’ rebuttal.
Ah, the conformity of capitalism forced upon the workers.
Yep, it can do. It can also bring about stagnation as new ways of thinking and looking at things get shouted down. Cooperation can actually bring more because even the smallest voice will be heard.
After reading the NYTimes piece it’s obvious that it’s hard out competition with the message of kill, kill, kill.
CDC – No Link Between Vaccine and Infant Deaths
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/sids.html
From 2 to 4 months old, babies begin their primary course of vaccinations. This is also the peak age for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The timing of these two events has led some people to believe they might be related. However, studies have concluded that vaccinations are not a risk factor for SIDS
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/hib/fs-parents.html
Is it safe?
The Hib vaccine is very safe, and it is effective at preventing Hib disease. Vaccines, like any medicine, can have side effects. Most children who get the Hib shot have no side effects.
What are the side effects?
The most common side effects are usually mild and last 2 or 3 days. They include the following:
Redness, swelling, and warmth where the child got the shot
Fever
http://www.globalresearch.ca/centers-for-disease-controls-cdc-own-data-shows-links-between-vaccines-and-sudden-infant-death-syndrome-sids/5426990
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25598306
RESULTS
VAERS received 29,747 reports after Hib vaccines; 5179 (17%) were serious, including 896 reports of deaths. Median age was 6 months (range 0-1022 months). Sudden infant death syndrome was the stated cause of death in 384 (51%) of 749 death reports with autopsy/death certificate records. The most common nondeath serious AE categories were neurologic (80; 37%), other noninfectious (46; 22%) (comprising mainly constitutional signs and symptoms); and gastrointestinal (39; 18%) conditions. No new safety concerns were identified after clinical review of reports of AEs that exceeded the data mining statistical threshold.
CONCLUSION
Review of VAERS reports did not identify any new or unexpected safety concerns for Hib vaccines
“Underreporting” is one of the main limitations of passive surveillance systems, including VAERS. The term, underreporting refers to the fact that VAERS receives reports for only a small fraction of actual adverse events. The degree of underreporting varies widely
* USA – Most vaccinated babies on earth
* USA – Highest rates of infant mortality in developed world
Must be, coincidence
Must be, right…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170075/
CV ,can you take a read through of the above link, and see what stand out from your perspective
Cheers
roger
🙄
I dunno. It’s strangely fascinating watching paranoiacs try their hand at sciencing.
Next they’ll discover that countries that vaccinate against polio have high polio rates, dun dun DUUUHHNN
No doubt you’re a total fuckwit
Use of ad homs deflection and ignoring the information in the links leaves little room for error with that call
Interpreting lies spin and outright bullshit is nothing related to science , dickhead
By all means keep flapping your ignorance
Oh, I found your information most interesting, especially the way you highlighted insufficient information in order to justify your sarcastic last sentence.
But really, the best bit was you asking CV to see what stands out from his “perspective”. That’s like asking a Cantabrian to ref a rugby match.
Wait on.
CDC says – HiB vaccine is safe
VAERS – Stats indicate CDC statement is a lie
National Library of Medicine – Study rationalized VAERS stats around vaccine related injury and deaths confirming the CDC lie
McFlock – Flings his own shit and can’t or won’t see that the CDC statement about safety of the HiB vaccine is a lie
Slow hand clap
The CDC statement that Hib vaccine is ‘very safe’ is quite correct as is their conclusion that no new or unexpected safety concerns have been identified.
That you misunderstand the data and try to raise an argument that Hib vaccination is causative in SIDS is due to your inability to understand the information.
One can only be thankful that you aren’t also raising false allegations and conspiracy theories about fluoridation and the twin towers.
After the Berlin Wall fell, West Germany ordered a halt to the water fluoridation that was occurring in Wast Germany.
Nope.
Nope.
From the VAERS paper:
So your comment “VAERS stats around vaccine related injury and deaths ” is pretty misleading – if someone had been hit by an asteroid after vaccination, you’d call that a “vaccine related injury”? Nope.
You’re a fucking moron, but good on you for not letting that get in the way of your belief in your own brilliance.
More so when they do their research.
Thanks, CV
Quite a stunning summary.
As I read it, the researchers suggest a very strong mathematical relationship between the countries utilising the highest numbers of vaccination doses on infants and those same countries having higher rates of infant mortality.
One imagines that countries which can afford to mandate the most vaccination doses to their populations are the richest countries in the world where infant mortality should be lower, not higher.
Given recent advances in understanding how individually safe chemicals can combine in effect to be toxic (i.e. synergistically toxic) in the human body, I think it can be said that the recommendation of the researchers to pursue “closer inspection” is well taken.
CV the information you’ve posted has been well and truly debunked.
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/vaccine-schedules-and-infant-mortality-a-false-relationship-promoted-by-the-anti-vaccine-movement/
“The current study joins a long list of poorly planned, poorly executed, poorly analyzed studies that purport to show that vaccines cause autism, neurological diease, or even death. It is not the first, nor will it be the last. The question is: How do we respond to such studies? First off, we as skeptics have to be very careful not to become so jaded that knee-jerk hostility predominates. As unlikely as it is, there is always the possibility that there might be something worth taking seriously there. Next off, we have to be prepared to analyze these studies and explain to parents, when appropriate (which is the vast majority of the time) exactly why it is that they are bad science or why their conclusions are not supported by the data presented. Finally, we have to be prepared to provide these analyses fast. The Internet is speed. Already, if you Google the terms “infant mortality” and “vaccine,” anti-vaccine blogs gloating over Miller and Goldman’s study and the study itself appear on the very first page of search results.”
A lie runs the world around while truth is still strapping on its boots. An aphorism that surely predates the interwebz.
I think people who tell the lies that kill can be prosecuted. I hope they will be.
I agree with you.
How much of a dishonest wanker must you be to continually use that website
Not only that, but you actively fight to ‘debunk’ every and any study that might remotely threaten the establishments doctrine which you have been pushing on behalf, for christ knows how long
What sort of arsehole claims to be a medical professional carrying the way you do on this blog site. I suspect there is no amount of ‘evidence’ which would sway you from the blind belief
Fuck the deaths and injury, seems to be your position, and I imagine that Paul Offit is an idol of yours
Here is the news for you dickhead. The world as you believe it to be is currently coming under the most intense scrutiny courtesy of your ‘colleagues’ in the USA who are fronting the ‘mandatory agenda’
I concur with OAB, and hope that those whose lies maim and kill are prosecuted, one way or another
Macbeth.
lol
The self-awareness is weak in this one.
😆
Yeah, whoosh, I’m afraid.
Thanks for taking the time to read the link, CV
No amount of diversion will prevent the crumbling wall created by the lies and bullishit, about ‘benefits’ of vaccination
It is phenomenal to me, that the same types who put such stock in ‘scientific method’, are seemingly oblivious to the hypocrisy they peddle via their willingness to accept with little more than a shrug, the continual exposure of corruption and fraud seeping from the cesspool CDC/FDA and the networks which they ‘oversee’
The drive towards compulsion, is going to expose the death and injury causing fraudulent entities, by putting the industry structures under the microscope like nothing previously witnessed in the history of modern medicine. This is where the ‘scientific method’ is going to be shown has having been utterly bastardized for profit
Staggering is the juvenile attitude by some, who (must) deliberately refuse to see the gaping holes, which even the most fundamental techniques in logical thinking can drive a truck through
I do agree with the comment from One Anonymous Bloke. People that tell lies which kill, maim and injure, should be prosecuted…
Starting with war criminals, and swiftly followed by medical professionals who have accepted lies as knowledge, and uncritically pushed the amoral, and unethical establishments medical agenda, onto unwitting yet trusting populace
So you’re in favour of compulsion then, as it’s the quickest way to expose teh liez…
lol
You’ve just completely slipped off Sanity Hill, haven’t you…
Nope, I was talking about Mr. Andrew Wakefield et al.
Serco, soon to run our ‘social’ housing?
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/serco-interested-in-nz-state-housing-2015082210#axzz3jVKjWnVj
This sucks.
This is deliberately miss leading the public – well done Russell Norman on pulling the git up on his remarks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11500982
par for the course from this bunch of corrupt p***ks
Oh there is no confusion from Mr Leitch and his possie of Demo Creds. Caught out again ‘same confused excuse’. Bit of cannon fodder for Peters who will be looking to add Whangarei to his Northern Kingdom. His loyal Greypower command post crew in Wellsford will be keeping their eyes peeled for the fleet of Ministers limo’s racing North in a hurry.
Subject: Mr Reti Challenged To Come Clean On TPPA
Democrats for Social Credit Deputy Leader and Whangarei candidate Chris Leitch, has called on MP Shane Reti to “come clean or resign” over his attempt to mislead constituents on the ability of the public to have input to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.
Mr Leitch said he had a copy of the material Mr Reti had sent out and the claims in it were “blatantly untrue”.
“Putting it down to “bad grammar” is like a naughty child getting his hand caught in the cookie jar, and claiming “I was just counting them”, said Mr Leitch.
“As deputy chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, Mr Reti should know exactly what the government is proposing to allow in the way of public input and I challenge him to make a clear, definitive, detailed, public statement”.
The best way for him to do this would be at a public meeting where he could put his case for Whangarei voters to support the government’s stance on the TPPA, and explain the process.
“If his statement was honestly intended, this would give him an excellent opportunity to demonstrate his sincerity to the general public”, Mr Leitch said.
“In response, I would be keen to put the opposing point of view so the public could hear both sides of the debate, and get their questions answered”, he said.
If he would just name the day and time, I will book a hall and arrange advertising for a public meeting.
Failure on Mr Reti’s part to “fess up” and “front up” over his press statement would likely be seen by constituents as admission that he did indeed try to mislead them.
Ends
Plug for my long rebuttal of Karl du Fresne’s attack on Otago academics.
http://tewharewhero.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/the-rise-of-industry-apologists-of.html
May I humbly note that Hib presents like the flu, however it is a bacterial infection that if not treated or immunised against in under 4yrs age (because child can’t tell diff between viral flu and bacterial Hib) it will kill them. As an “attached” parent, maybe an answer to SIDs being high in the US as opposed to say 3rd world country may lie in the lack of contact the baby has with its mother, being that the ‘norm’ in western world is to put them in their cot and let them cry themselves to sleep aka “self soothe”…in the “3rd world” babies are attached to mum day and night… no SIDs… coincidence too maybe. Of course there are many what ifs when a baby dies, but loneliness doesnt just kill babies. But being unvaccinated will definitely up the odds of your baby failing to reach 5.. and if you havent heard a small child with whooping cough then you are very lucky. Its not a sound you ever forget. We immunised our child and strongly recommend it. Just my opinion. And 100+ for comments re Lange, I forgot those bits.
Hi Gael
From memory Haemophilius influenza used to cause death in around 3% or less of those who presented with an infection.
Before we used to vaccinate against it, it was the most common cause of meningitis in children, i can remember seeing 1-2 a week when I was training many years ago.
SIDs is considerably lower in the US than in any 3rd world country. The data that has been shown above is defective as countries measure things such as SIDs differently.
Importantly there are many studies and much information to show that immunising as per the schedule along with Hib immunisation lowers the risk of SIDs, indeed one of the studies that shows this to be the case was completed in NZ many years ago.
But being unvaccinated will definitely up the odds of your baby failing to reach5 .. and if you havent heard a small child with whooping cough then you are very lucky. Its not a sound you ever forget. We immunised our child and strongly recommend it
As a parent who has chosen to vaccinate, you HAVE TO believe that statement, because you have painted yourself into a corner through the choices you have made
Because of the choice you made, you have no control over the long term (unknown) outcomes which could seriously impact the health of your offspring. You have no choice but to emphatically believe the decision you took, was the best one
It is the ultimate conundrum for parents, which can leave them terribly exposed and vulnerable. Fear that vaccinating / not vaccinating will lead to their child experiencing pain, injury or death
I note that your ‘strong recommendation’, reads like an attempt to to validate and endorse the decision which you made. Making a recommendation on such a sensitive topic, is terribly ignorant, and a herd mentality tactic
Consequences are too serious on either side of the decision tree, to be making ‘strong recommendations’
“Consequences are too serious on either side of the decision tree, to be making ‘strong recommendations’”
No they aren’t, all sound medical and public health authorities strongly recommend vaccination as per the schedule for all those people as long as they don’t have contraindications to vaccination.
Was it Labour who enthusiastically closed down the mental institutions? Now many people who would have had care there are in prison. Or wandering the streets taking up police time, causing problems to the people they obssess about.
Caring for but limiting the freedom of people not in control of themselves must save money in the long run. And that was one of the reasons for deinstitutilisation, the other was to give people who would benefit from being on their own in the community that chance. But their was no place for those who needed to return to the closer environment.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/71312457/public-menace-margaret-dodds-trespassed-again-in-christchurch
no must have been the Nats as it hit its straps in the early mid nineties…given some of the activities uncovered in the institutions over the years there is a case to be made for it, certainly in the majority of instances, but unfortunately the policy has never been able to implemented as intended due to chronic underfunding….what else is new. Dont worry Im sure Serco have a mental health division…they’ll do it better and cheaper…and still provide a return to their shareholders…..Tui moment.
Could angry andy get some tips from angry jeremy corbyn? At 8:00 minutes in for about 3 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZAn7ZEvwek
Straight talking and not taking any shit has it’s merits.