[Please note, we are trialling something new for Open Mike and Daily Review.
In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted.
Weirdly reminiscent of Benito Mussolini’s crafted He Man image, Putin like Mussolini is often seen posing on a horse.
Reputedly Mussolini could barely sit on a horse for a posed photo shoot, and had to use a body double for the horse jump. Though it is possible that Putin unlike Mussolini can actually ride a horse.
But whether Putin a pudgy over weight middle aged politician is still actually a black belt capable of tossing much younger men to the ground is probably less likely.
Of course the personality cult serves a much more sinister purpose. When I was in Syria in 2010, the oppressive image of the dictator Basha Assad was everywhere, on huge over head bill boards and hoardings, on motorway over bridges, in every public place. I was told by my guides that to make any negative comment about the dictator and the ubiquity of his image, signaled disloyalty to the state and if overheard by the many spies and informers could result in detention or worse.
Knowing a Syrian lady refugees here in NZ …….I must say her views and opinions are Nothing like the war propaganda that Jenny posts …… And unlike Jenny she has personally suffered with her brother having been killed….. and she has also lost her home and former way of life.
The Syrian lady I know says most people in her country prefer Assad over the religious head choppers that the u.s.a has been supporting …..
Holding elections would be the legitimate way to change the Government in Syria ….
Assad would probably win the elections which is why the U.s.a and European countries who want to remove him oppose them,, ….
Assad won the last elections held …….. “an international delegation led by allies of Assad[17] from more than 30 countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Russia, South Africa and Venezuela[18][19] issued a statement claiming the election was “free, fair and transparent”
IT WAS A POWERFUL piece of technology created for an important customer. The Medusa system, named after the mythical Greek monster with snakes instead of hair, had one main purpose: to vacuum up vast quantities of internet data at an astonishing speed.
The technology was designed by Endace, a little-known New Zealand company. And the important customer was the British electronic eavesdropping agency, Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.
Sept. 23 2015 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand-founded Endace, which develops technology that measures, monitors and protects high-speed networks, is understood to have laid off about two-thirds of its workers, a move that could potentially trigger claw-back provisions for government research and development funding.
The company formed in 2001 to commercialise research out of University of Waikato, was sold for $154 million in 2012 to Californian networking solutions firm Emulex, which in turn, was sold in May to Nasdaq-listed Avago Technologies for US$587 million.
That sale led to a spat between Endace co-founder Selwyn Pellett and Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce over the $11.1 million in taxpayer funding it had received. Pellett was concerned the company was being sold to overseas interests without having to repay the grants, even though he personally benefited from the deal as a shareholder.
Joyce said the government was trying to encourage R&D in New Zealand by funding companies that continued to do that work here regardless of ownership.
Endace. Joyce’s baby. Received a $11m government “loan” at a little over 2.25% interest and only had to pay the interest of the $11m to the government.
Same deal as Media Works getting a $41m “loan” for license payments for 5 years?? Tried to spin it as an advance?? Since when do governments pay for commercial private entities operating licenses? Oh, when crony governments kicked in, in 2008?
While The Standard’s resident Lord Haw Haw enjoys some well deserved time off, it might by a time to reflect on his role as a cheerleader for genocide.
Get a grip Jenny. American sponsored genocide – now there’s a story you should tell. Start, say, with Vietnam then proceed through Central and South America, then onto Middle East, North Africa etc. Dig into Israel’s activities and Saudi Arabia and Turkey for good measure.
Syria is but a drop in the bucket in the overall plan of the American backed Zionists.
if you trawl through Jenny’s comments on this blog you’ll notice she is equally damning of all warmongers and their respective backers – I suspect this is a novel position for the likes of yourself and other cheerleaders for ‘my enemy’s enemy’.
Edit – really Bill ? Are people not allowed to critique CV’s position on Syria and/or Trump ?
The moderation and behaviour on this site is really beyond the pale.
[How many boxes did you just tick with this comment? A fair few. When I first read this comment it was solely in reply in Garibaldi. Even then, it was close to the line. You want to accuse people of being war-mongers, then put up supporting evidence instead of just apparently splabbing shit that may or may not – depending on any given moderators mood – read like bullshit ad hom. Jenny’s banned. If you want to self martyr, just let me know.] – Bill
Also, objectionable to accuse anyone of filling a role of a British citizen who worked full time as a Nazi collaborator under Goebbels during World War Two, which is what Lord Haw Haw was.
There is a difference between critiquing someone’s position, and attacking them. Jenny has a long history of attacking authors and is frequently banned for it. She also lies about authors, intentionally IMO. She knows exactly what she is doing and why she gets a ban.
She just said one of the authors supports genocide. On its own that might not be a big deal, just let it slide. But when it goes on all the time it affects authors and the community. If someone is misrepresenting an author’s position then that tends to keep coming up including when they write posts. Moderators and authors generally don’t have time to chase up attacks to see if they are based in fact. It’s on commenters to figure out how to critique someone’s position without attacking them.
The priority here is to keep authors and to get new authors to write.
There has been a lot of criticism of moderators/authors in the past week. Some of that is understandable (the moderation system isn’t perfect). However it also takes time to deal with and puts off existing and potential authors and moderators.
If commenters want things to improve I suggest that they stop attacking moderators and authors, and either focus on the debate points or put up constructive suggestions of how things would work better (bearing in mind that telling moderators what to do doesn’t count as constructive criticism).
“If commenters want things to improve I suggest that they stop attacking moderators and authors, and either focus on the debate points or put up constructive suggestions of how things would work better (bearing in mind that telling moderators what to do doesn’t count as constructive criticism).”
Well it would also help if the site wasn’t a hot bed of misogyny, testosterone, bullying and group think but then again that’s why I left the site a while back – guess i made a poor decision to come back.
It’s a tricky one and I’d like to give some support but other than ignoring the ‘stuff’ and refusing to engage with it I don’t know what I can do to help. FYI, I completely ignore the newly-setup posting categories, which is a shame because I will miss out on useful and interesting information, but life is too short to have to dig deep for those raw diamonds and gold nuggets.
Well put Weka. I had stopped looking at The Standard at all over the past week and on my return I see there have been some welcome changes. The quarantining of US election material is a brilliant idea and it seems a few of the destructive forces are having a break. Positive moves IMO.
[banned two months for abusing an author, wasting moderator time, self-martyrdom and deliberately ignoring moderation requests and winding up moderators – weka]
In the spirit of this wonderful new bar for intelligent and thoughtful commentary that you’re setting – have a sticky out tongue with a rattling raspberry tinfoilhat.
+100 Garibaldi ………… Jenny may not be a troll but on Syria she’s as one eyed as a Penis …… and it’s only a short step to become a dic pic ( troll ) from there
tinfoilhats dishonest smear post supporting her shows what a drippy little dick he is …..
CV has been an entitled arsehole around this site for a couple of months. Like he appreciates he’s royalty here and can do whatever. I’m not sure I understand the need for Anne’s ban. Just saying not contesting. As far as I know Anne has never behaved in a way which is damaging to this site. CV has. Brusquely, unapologetically.
Love how the council are planning on cutting jobs and services from libraries while spending over a billion on failed IT and now more cash on a waterfront stadium. sarc.
It should be clear why that only 17% approve of the council, i.e. 83% do not approve of the job the council are doing.
On a similar theme was at Long Bay Regional park, which was packed with people in the weekend, a lot of them families who were engaging in sports like cricket at the park. The grass was long and uncut, there was not enough parking for the amount of people and a big billboard proclaimed, donate to preserving the regional park. Ok, so now parks are a charity and big business vanity projects are where ratepayers money goes? In the back ground were multi million dollar housing projects and clearly millions of money doing to the council but not being returned to the area.
Have to wonder about Phil Goff’s credentials for Labour is the first thing he oversees as Mayor is to cut jobs and cut library hours while taking about a vanity real estate sports stadium project for Auckland. We already went through that disaster with Murray McCully. Cut the Grass at the parks and upgrade it with council money, because that is where the kids are playing sports and families can have free fun (not pay $300 for professional sports tickets). http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11734454
And cutting jobs and hours at the library… really…. WTF?
‘Have to wonder about Phil Goff’s credentials for Labour ‘ I think it’s a well established fact that goff is no worker for the lesser peoples , that said he’s got to be better than anything the nat/act types could put up.
@ b waghorn – I’m not so sure that Goff is better than the Nat/act types as he believes in similar principles. Ratepayers want social amenities for their elected councillors and don’t actually care what political party they come from. Len Brown got in for saying he was going to make the swimming pools free and get public transport working. If Phil Goff’s first job as Mayor and the newly elected councillors first job is overseeing employees being made redundant at Christmas and cut their hours at the libraries – is that why people voted for them – I think not? Everyone uses the libraries old to young, rich to poor, even the homeless can be found in the CBD library enjoying a snooze. Likewise libraries are one of the most multicultural areas of the city.
It’s about time the elected councillors show some teeth to the imposed CEO structure. I hope Mike Lee in particular who was nearly pushed out by a taste of electioneering dirty politics, but saved by voters who care about the city and society, actually fights hard for his voters to stop the rot. Cathy Casey also was popular and I don’t see her as one to be diminishing services to the libraries.
Also if the library lending is decreasing, it could be the $1 a day fines per book when overdue. That means within a very short amount of time the public can encrue huge fines.
With that N/ACT brainiac idea to discourage use, it means most people are then trained to take as few books out as possible and not at busy/stressful times in your life when you might return the books late.
If you are poor and can’t afford the fines, you are cut off from the library.
And then it also looks like library lending is declining – which is great because you can then justify cutting services.
Another plan, to reduce the educational ability of the population.
“there was not enough parking for the amount of people”
If you want enough carparks for a busy day, there won’t be much beach or grass left the whole time. Previous years they’ve put on extra bus services at busy times.
We seem to need to spend billions of tax payers money on roads (for the ‘growing’ population), but when it comes to services the council and government takes the money from the newcomers but then cuts services. Would think that with our increased population in Auckland we would need more jobs for the libraries and longer opening hours, not less? Of course that would employ a low paid worker which is a crime under neoliberalism. sarc.
As for the parking, the Long Bay regional park is a large area and there could be plenty of room for all if it was laid out better and bothered to do small things like cut the grass – some of the grass people were parking on and trying to play sports on was nearly half a meter high. I know it’s been wet, but still… is it like the user pays berms, when you go to the beach and take your lawn mower too, mow your way in, is that really the third world look we want for NZ, on a public holiday?
Considering how each member probably pays in rates, it’s a disgrace.
As for cutting costs, $250 a week for lawn mowing – is it really too much? That’s like half an hour for a council lawyer to help ports of Auckland steal our harbour. Probably cost $5000 to lay out the parking better there. We are not talking big bucks at all. Just a lack of interest in real public services that is the problem.
It’s not about the amount of money the council has, it is how they spend it that is the problem.
I recommend visiting http://transportblog.co.nz for detail about parking vs alternatives like public transit.
No idea what council is doing with lawn-mowing but they have been constantly cutting costs at the insistence of those who set up the amalgamation along with those current ratepayers more focused on this year’s rates bill than what sort of region they leave their children. Auckland has suffered from that equation for many decades, and we have the polluted beaches after any storm to show for it.
To be fair, it’s less easy to carry everything a family wants to take to the beach. But with places like Long Bay PT is just going to become the most common way as our city becomes designed to suit a larger population and not having to drive everywhere. Going to be an awesome next 30 years.
Do you mean to imply that at some point Goff was left wing? He was always an eager acolyte of Douglas and ambitious for power. Very likely the only reason that he never left Labour for Act was that he expected to be PM and knew that would never happen as a member of a minor party. He’s always been a right winger genuinely interested only in his own advancement.
While we use FPP for local elections Auckland’s mayor is most likely to straddle left and right, more right-leaning to match the older people who actually vote. Brown fitted that bill as does Goff. Most local issues do not match that binary in any case.
Phil knows the gumming won’t come to a jobs and services party but they’ll turn up to a white elephant party with their hair in a braid and bells on their toes.
I should also note in the interests of accuracy that this allegation comes purely from the Herald’s shockingly poor local govt reporter Bernard Orsman and has been recycled since by righties including Crone with no evidence to back it. Given how legendarily stupid the guy is, I would not be surprised if he’s read the next decade’s operating costs from a budget and turned that into a headline. His editors for some reason keep him on.
Yes, council have stuffed up the regional IT systems merge and the responsible manager has now been removed, but the cost blowout is nowhere near that level and current systems seem to be working in the meantime. It does our activism no favours to be based on misinformation.
Great to see standards are high (sarc) with Atomic and Nuclear Physics industry, in which a gobbledygook paper written using Apple’s iOS autocomplete – and filled with nonsense was accepted by a nuclear physics conference in the USA.
Greenwald puts the slipper in, questions Wikileak’s ethics.
DS: That approach is different than what WikiLeaks has done, where it puts everything out there. Why have you taken a different approach?
GG: Well, because I think that — not just as a journalist but as a human being — I have the ethical responsibility to avoid actions that can harm innocent people. And if you look at some of things that WikiLeaks has published, even in this latest batch of material from John Podesta’s emails, there are things in there talking about the mental health problems of individuals who have no power in Washington, people whose private lives have been exposed for no reason whatsoever.
DS: And what’s wrong with putting everything out at once?
GG: It’s not a difficult call. You’d have to be a sociopath to think that we ought to just take all of this material and dump it all on the internet without regard to the impact that it will have for innocent people.
I particularly like the sociopath line. While Greenwald and Snowden have always behaved ethically with due regard to the effect on innocent people, Assange doesn’t seem to care about collateral damage.
Not to distract from the info in your link Karen, but for me the basic downfall of Assange is and always has been his ego.
Unlike Snowden who insisted that the story was the material he was releasing, Assange positioned himself front, centre stage and self promoted as some kind of crusader. Beyond that, for me, there isn’t really much of worth or interest that can be added in terms of his character.
And ‘over there’, Wikileaks have done some sterling things and some woeful things.
That was an interesting read Karen and gave some context that I hadn’t understood before. Not sure what to make of it. The journalist’s story and take on things seemed plausible, yet the photos of the trashed bookcase, and the last few paragraphs jarred. Maybe that was an editorial thing.
Photographs and headlines are usually editorial but I’d say Jamie Ball has written it all including the last few paragraphs. I found it an interesting analysis from someone who was once part of Wikileaks, but in the end it is still his opinion (albeit based on a more personal relationship than the rest of us have).
“Now it is the darling of the alt-right, revealing hacked emails seemingly to influence a presidential contest, claiming the US election is “rigged”, and descending into conspiracy. ” ….. ahh yes who dosn’t think the US elections are rigged . thats not an “alt right” view
“Neither Assange nor WikiLeaks (and the two are virtually one and the same thing) have changed ” …….. ummm maby ! maby not .
the whole story about “adam” … not creditable, lots of column inches lots of innuendo, no actual verifiable content!
lots of “opinion” about the swedish investigation at odds with the documented facts
Commonwealth Bank senior economist Gareth Aird has released a report showing population growth was helping the economy and keeping some key figures looking positive but may not be improving the lives of many ordinary Australians.
“The economy might be growing at 3 per cent but that is being massively assisted by population growth and the fact we might be selling more commodities offshore,” he told news.com.au.
No, where have we seen that before?
“If you have more people, they can buy more things,” he said. “If there’s faster population growth, you can have a faster rate of growth of prospective customers.”
Which is, of course, the drive for ever more exports. The problem when those exports are physical is that it results in a real decrease in the wealth that the country has.
The Mumbai leg of the trip has now been cancelled – the business delegation travelling with Key were meant to be taking part in an innovation showcase while there.
Key would also miss a visit to Shree Siddhivinayak Marble Temple, speaking at the Bombay Stock exchange, meeting the chief minister of Maharashtra and signing an education agreement.
I’ll say. Imagine the resources spent attending this cheap labour love-in. To then have a no-show by the chief clown himself is a massive loss of face.
She seems so preoccupied and upset that John Key has ‘been made to look bad’ by the RNZAF, rather than looking deeper into the issue of why the RNZAF can’t keep its aircraft in operational order.
She must be on this flight as one of Key’s embedded journalists and is stung by the increasingly amateurish nature of official tours.
Nothing more than a mouth piece for John Key’s penny-pinching, do-nothing government. Even at her most upset – when her junket tour to India has been disrupted – she can’t put two and two together and sheet the blame home to where it lies.
[In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted – weka]
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Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
Troy Rawhiti-Connell reviews Kia Tupu Te Ara, a documentary chronicling the meteoric rise of Aotearoa’s groundbreaking metal band. “Two brothers attempt to storm the world of thrash metal with the Māori language, despite the fact they’re both still teenagers,” reads the synopsis of Kent Belcher’s documentary, Kia Tupu Te Ara. ...
Three freelance writers have been awarded grants to work on their ambitious journalism projects. In January, The Spinoff announced the Vince Geddes In-Depth Journalism Fund, supported by the Auckland Radio Trust (ART). The fund was established to provide much-needed financial and editorial support to talented freelance journalists, empowering them to ...
[Please note, we are trialling something new for Open Mike and Daily Review.
In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted.
Have fun folks – weka]
Will John Key and the Nats pick up on the trend?
The rise of the personality cult.
The Putin Calender
Weirdly reminiscent of Benito Mussolini’s crafted He Man image, Putin like Mussolini is often seen posing on a horse.
Reputedly Mussolini could barely sit on a horse for a posed photo shoot, and had to use a body double for the horse jump. Though it is possible that Putin unlike Mussolini can actually ride a horse.
But whether Putin a pudgy over weight middle aged politician is still actually a black belt capable of tossing much younger men to the ground is probably less likely.
Putin doesn’t fake any of the physical stuff.
In about any way I can think of, Key is a whelp.
Guy can’t even handle a hammer.
Of course the personality cult serves a much more sinister purpose. When I was in Syria in 2010, the oppressive image of the dictator Basha Assad was everywhere, on huge over head bill boards and hoardings, on motorway over bridges, in every public place. I was told by my guides that to make any negative comment about the dictator and the ubiquity of his image, signaled disloyalty to the state and if overheard by the many spies and informers could result in detention or worse.
Anita McNaught reports from Syria
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/08/20128213363370291.html
Ah for an ounce of charisma in the Labour leadership.
Just an ounce is all I’m asking.
It’s not too much without going all Assad on everything.
Knowing a Syrian lady refugees here in NZ …….I must say her views and opinions are Nothing like the war propaganda that Jenny posts …… And unlike Jenny she has personally suffered with her brother having been killed….. and she has also lost her home and former way of life.
The Syrian lady I know says most people in her country prefer Assad over the religious head choppers that the u.s.a has been supporting …..
“analyzing the factions involved in the global jihad, takes a careful look at who is fighting against Assad in Syria. To what should be no one’s surprise — but will apparently be very surprising to many — the bulk of the opposition consists of Islamists.” http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439161/aleppo-syria-moderate-secular-rebels-al-qaeda-muslim-brotherhood-russia-iran
Holding elections would be the legitimate way to change the Government in Syria ….
Assad would probably win the elections which is why the U.s.a and European countries who want to remove him oppose them,, ….
Assad won the last elections held …….. “an international delegation led by allies of Assad[17] from more than 30 countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Russia, South Africa and Venezuela[18][19] issued a statement claiming the election was “free, fair and transparent”
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/23/endace-mass-surveillance-gchq-governments/
What is your point?
Endace used public money to help develop and sell their product to unethical dragnet surveillance markets. Then the firm was sold to foreign owners
(Sorry, had forgotten to put the link to the above quote.)
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/endace-shed-jobs-under-new-owner-avago-risks-having-government-grants-clawed-back-b-179094
Endace is now again NZ owned.
https://channellife.co.nz/story/endace-returns-new-zealand-ownership-once-again/
There needs to be some ethical standards in relation to how R and D funding is used.
Endace. Joyce’s baby. Received a $11m government “loan” at a little over 2.25% interest and only had to pay the interest of the $11m to the government.
Same deal as Media Works getting a $41m “loan” for license payments for 5 years?? Tried to spin it as an advance?? Since when do governments pay for commercial private entities operating licenses? Oh, when crony governments kicked in, in 2008?
While The Standard’s resident Lord Haw Haw enjoys some well deserved time off, it might by a time to reflect on his role as a cheerleader for genocide.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/aleppo-once-the-jewel-of-syrias-rebellion-faces-possible-collapse/
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=captured+syrian+pilot+you+tube&view=detail&mid=DFD73E031467791E0C66DFD73E031467791E0C66&FORM=VIRE
[Attacking authors again?! Are you ever going to learn Jenny? One week off (again)] – Bill.
Get a grip Jenny. American sponsored genocide – now there’s a story you should tell. Start, say, with Vietnam then proceed through Central and South America, then onto Middle East, North Africa etc. Dig into Israel’s activities and Saudi Arabia and Turkey for good measure.
Syria is but a drop in the bucket in the overall plan of the American backed Zionists.
if you trawl through Jenny’s comments on this blog you’ll notice she is equally damning of all warmongers and their respective backers – I suspect this is a novel position for the likes of yourself and other cheerleaders for ‘my enemy’s enemy’.
Edit – really Bill ? Are people not allowed to critique CV’s position on Syria and/or Trump ?
The moderation and behaviour on this site is really beyond the pale.
[How many boxes did you just tick with this comment? A fair few. When I first read this comment it was solely in reply in Garibaldi. Even then, it was close to the line. You want to accuse people of being war-mongers, then put up supporting evidence instead of just apparently splabbing shit that may or may not – depending on any given moderators mood – read like bullshit ad hom. Jenny’s banned. If you want to self martyr, just let me know.] – Bill
Entirely reasonable.
Read the policy Tinfoil.
Also, objectionable to accuse anyone of filling a role of a British citizen who worked full time as a Nazi collaborator under Goebbels during World War Two, which is what Lord Haw Haw was.
I have read the policy Ad – still can’t see any justification for Jenny’s ban in this instance.
[explanation here https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24102016/#comment-1249420 - weka]
There is a difference between critiquing someone’s position, and attacking them. Jenny has a long history of attacking authors and is frequently banned for it. She also lies about authors, intentionally IMO. She knows exactly what she is doing and why she gets a ban.
She just said one of the authors supports genocide. On its own that might not be a big deal, just let it slide. But when it goes on all the time it affects authors and the community. If someone is misrepresenting an author’s position then that tends to keep coming up including when they write posts. Moderators and authors generally don’t have time to chase up attacks to see if they are based in fact. It’s on commenters to figure out how to critique someone’s position without attacking them.
The priority here is to keep authors and to get new authors to write.
There has been a lot of criticism of moderators/authors in the past week. Some of that is understandable (the moderation system isn’t perfect). However it also takes time to deal with and puts off existing and potential authors and moderators.
If commenters want things to improve I suggest that they stop attacking moderators and authors, and either focus on the debate points or put up constructive suggestions of how things would work better (bearing in mind that telling moderators what to do doesn’t count as constructive criticism).
“If commenters want things to improve I suggest that they stop attacking moderators and authors, and either focus on the debate points or put up constructive suggestions of how things would work better (bearing in mind that telling moderators what to do doesn’t count as constructive criticism).”
Well it would also help if the site wasn’t a hot bed of misogyny, testosterone, bullying and group think but then again that’s why I left the site a while back – guess i made a poor decision to come back.
I appreciate the sentiment. Those of us trying to do something about that could do with some support tbh.
It’s a tricky one and I’d like to give some support but other than ignoring the ‘stuff’ and refusing to engage with it I don’t know what I can do to help. FYI, I completely ignore the newly-setup posting categories, which is a shame because I will miss out on useful and interesting information, but life is too short to have to dig deep for those raw diamonds and gold nuggets.
Well put Weka. I had stopped looking at The Standard at all over the past week and on my return I see there have been some welcome changes. The quarantining of US election material is a brilliant idea and it seems a few of the destructive forces are having a break. Positive moves IMO.
Thanks Karen 🙂
[deleted]
[banned two months for abusing an author, wasting moderator time, self-martyrdom and deliberately ignoring moderation requests and winding up moderators – weka]
In the spirit of this wonderful new bar for intelligent and thoughtful commentary that you’re setting – have a sticky out tongue with a rattling raspberry tinfoilhat.
edit. Oh. Or then again…
+100 Garibaldi ………… Jenny may not be a troll but on Syria she’s as one eyed as a Penis …… and it’s only a short step to become a dic pic ( troll ) from there
tinfoilhats dishonest smear post supporting her shows what a drippy little dick he is …..
He should keep his raincoat on more
thanks bill
CV has been an entitled arsehole around this site for a couple of months. Like he appreciates he’s royalty here and can do whatever. I’m not sure I understand the need for Anne’s ban. Just saying not contesting. As far as I know Anne has never behaved in a way which is damaging to this site. CV has. Brusquely, unapologetically.
Love how the council are planning on cutting jobs and services from libraries while spending over a billion on failed IT and now more cash on a waterfront stadium. sarc.
It should be clear why that only 17% approve of the council, i.e. 83% do not approve of the job the council are doing.
On a similar theme was at Long Bay Regional park, which was packed with people in the weekend, a lot of them families who were engaging in sports like cricket at the park. The grass was long and uncut, there was not enough parking for the amount of people and a big billboard proclaimed, donate to preserving the regional park. Ok, so now parks are a charity and big business vanity projects are where ratepayers money goes? In the back ground were multi million dollar housing projects and clearly millions of money doing to the council but not being returned to the area.
Have to wonder about Phil Goff’s credentials for Labour is the first thing he oversees as Mayor is to cut jobs and cut library hours while taking about a vanity real estate sports stadium project for Auckland. We already went through that disaster with Murray McCully. Cut the Grass at the parks and upgrade it with council money, because that is where the kids are playing sports and families can have free fun (not pay $300 for professional sports tickets).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11734454
And cutting jobs and hours at the library… really…. WTF?
‘Have to wonder about Phil Goff’s credentials for Labour ‘ I think it’s a well established fact that goff is no worker for the lesser peoples , that said he’s got to be better than anything the nat/act types could put up.
@ b waghorn – I’m not so sure that Goff is better than the Nat/act types as he believes in similar principles. Ratepayers want social amenities for their elected councillors and don’t actually care what political party they come from. Len Brown got in for saying he was going to make the swimming pools free and get public transport working. If Phil Goff’s first job as Mayor and the newly elected councillors first job is overseeing employees being made redundant at Christmas and cut their hours at the libraries – is that why people voted for them – I think not? Everyone uses the libraries old to young, rich to poor, even the homeless can be found in the CBD library enjoying a snooze. Likewise libraries are one of the most multicultural areas of the city.
It’s about time the elected councillors show some teeth to the imposed CEO structure. I hope Mike Lee in particular who was nearly pushed out by a taste of electioneering dirty politics, but saved by voters who care about the city and society, actually fights hard for his voters to stop the rot. Cathy Casey also was popular and I don’t see her as one to be diminishing services to the libraries.
Also if the library lending is decreasing, it could be the $1 a day fines per book when overdue. That means within a very short amount of time the public can encrue huge fines.
With that N/ACT brainiac idea to discourage use, it means most people are then trained to take as few books out as possible and not at busy/stressful times in your life when you might return the books late.
If you are poor and can’t afford the fines, you are cut off from the library.
And then it also looks like library lending is declining – which is great because you can then justify cutting services.
Another plan, to reduce the educational ability of the population.
Like the other righties, Goff campaigned on capping rates and making ‘savings’. That means cutting staff and services.
“there was not enough parking for the amount of people”
If you want enough carparks for a busy day, there won’t be much beach or grass left the whole time. Previous years they’ve put on extra bus services at busy times.
We seem to need to spend billions of tax payers money on roads (for the ‘growing’ population), but when it comes to services the council and government takes the money from the newcomers but then cuts services. Would think that with our increased population in Auckland we would need more jobs for the libraries and longer opening hours, not less? Of course that would employ a low paid worker which is a crime under neoliberalism. sarc.
As for the parking, the Long Bay regional park is a large area and there could be plenty of room for all if it was laid out better and bothered to do small things like cut the grass – some of the grass people were parking on and trying to play sports on was nearly half a meter high. I know it’s been wet, but still… is it like the user pays berms, when you go to the beach and take your lawn mower too, mow your way in, is that really the third world look we want for NZ, on a public holiday?
Considering how each member probably pays in rates, it’s a disgrace.
As for cutting costs, $250 a week for lawn mowing – is it really too much? That’s like half an hour for a council lawyer to help ports of Auckland steal our harbour. Probably cost $5000 to lay out the parking better there. We are not talking big bucks at all. Just a lack of interest in real public services that is the problem.
It’s not about the amount of money the council has, it is how they spend it that is the problem.
I recommend visiting http://transportblog.co.nz for detail about parking vs alternatives like public transit.
No idea what council is doing with lawn-mowing but they have been constantly cutting costs at the insistence of those who set up the amalgamation along with those current ratepayers more focused on this year’s rates bill than what sort of region they leave their children. Auckland has suffered from that equation for many decades, and we have the polluted beaches after any storm to show for it.
Catching a bus is easy. As long as there are buses to catch. Been doing this my whole life. I don’t know why others can’t at least try
To be fair, it’s less easy to carry everything a family wants to take to the beach. But with places like Long Bay PT is just going to become the most common way as our city becomes designed to suit a larger population and not having to drive everywhere. Going to be an awesome next 30 years.
The first thing left wing (or even centre left) people do when they take office is lose their backbone.
Do you mean to imply that at some point Goff was left wing? He was always an eager acolyte of Douglas and ambitious for power. Very likely the only reason that he never left Labour for Act was that he expected to be PM and knew that would never happen as a member of a minor party. He’s always been a right winger genuinely interested only in his own advancement.
While we use FPP for local elections Auckland’s mayor is most likely to straddle left and right, more right-leaning to match the older people who actually vote. Brown fitted that bill as does Goff. Most local issues do not match that binary in any case.
Phil knows the gumming won’t come to a jobs and services party but they’ll turn up to a white elephant party with their hair in a braid and bells on their toes.
“spending over a billion on failed IT”
I should also note in the interests of accuracy that this allegation comes purely from the Herald’s shockingly poor local govt reporter Bernard Orsman and has been recycled since by righties including Crone with no evidence to back it. Given how legendarily stupid the guy is, I would not be surprised if he’s read the next decade’s operating costs from a budget and turned that into a headline. His editors for some reason keep him on.
Yes, council have stuffed up the regional IT systems merge and the responsible manager has now been removed, but the cost blowout is nowhere near that level and current systems seem to be working in the meantime. It does our activism no favours to be based on misinformation.
Great to see standards are high (sarc) with Atomic and Nuclear Physics industry, in which a gobbledygook paper written using Apple’s iOS autocomplete – and filled with nonsense was accepted by a nuclear physics conference in the USA.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11734639
It was probably accepted by software as well…
It’s the machines – they’re taking over
Today is demolition day for the Calais Refugee Camp, where around 7,000 people have been living for the last five months:
https://news.vice.com/article/france-will-tear-down-the-calais-jungle-refugee-camp-that-houses-7000
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/23/indecision-and-fear-stalk-young-residents-of-calaiss-refugee-camp
Medecins Sans Frontiers have expressed concern for those most vulnerable:
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201609151045353411-demolition-calais-refugee-camp-minors-mental-health-patients/
Greenwald puts the slipper in, questions Wikileak’s ethics.
DS: That approach is different than what WikiLeaks has done, where it puts everything out there. Why have you taken a different approach?
GG: Well, because I think that — not just as a journalist but as a human being — I have the ethical responsibility to avoid actions that can harm innocent people. And if you look at some of things that WikiLeaks has published, even in this latest batch of material from John Podesta’s emails, there are things in there talking about the mental health problems of individuals who have no power in Washington, people whose private lives have been exposed for no reason whatsoever.
DS: And what’s wrong with putting everything out at once?
GG: It’s not a difficult call. You’d have to be a sociopath to think that we ought to just take all of this material and dump it all on the internet without regard to the impact that it will have for innocent people.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/greenwald-the-investigators-1.3816510
I particularly like the sociopath line. While Greenwald and Snowden have always behaved ethically with due regard to the effect on innocent people, Assange doesn’t seem to care about collateral damage.
Joe, have you seen this?
Interesting analysis of the motivation and character of Assange from a former wikileaks insider:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jamesball/heres-what-i-learned-about-julian-assange?utm_term=.wtOzMzQeb#.pfK1b1P4j
Not to distract from the info in your link Karen, but for me the basic downfall of Assange is and always has been his ego.
Unlike Snowden who insisted that the story was the material he was releasing, Assange positioned himself front, centre stage and self promoted as some kind of crusader. Beyond that, for me, there isn’t really much of worth or interest that can be added in terms of his character.
And ‘over there’, Wikileaks have done some sterling things and some woeful things.
https://t.co/bYyWwMG5Ox
statement from wikileaks re status of assange, equador, and internet access
I absolutely agree with you that “Wikileaks have done some sterling things and some woeful things.”
As for ego being the main problem with Assange I would mostly agree, though I also think there is a fair measure of misogyny in his character as well.
That was an interesting read Karen and gave some context that I hadn’t understood before. Not sure what to make of it. The journalist’s story and take on things seemed plausible, yet the photos of the trashed bookcase, and the last few paragraphs jarred. Maybe that was an editorial thing.
Photographs and headlines are usually editorial but I’d say Jamie Ball has written it all including the last few paragraphs. I found it an interesting analysis from someone who was once part of Wikileaks, but in the end it is still his opinion (albeit based on a more personal relationship than the rest of us have).
i dont buy it, looks like a hit job
“Now it is the darling of the alt-right, revealing hacked emails seemingly to influence a presidential contest, claiming the US election is “rigged”, and descending into conspiracy. ” ….. ahh yes who dosn’t think the US elections are rigged . thats not an “alt right” view
“Neither Assange nor WikiLeaks (and the two are virtually one and the same thing) have changed ” …….. ummm maby ! maby not .
the whole story about “adam” … not creditable, lots of column inches lots of innuendo, no actual verifiable content!
lots of “opinion” about the swedish investigation at odds with the documented facts
quite simply IMHO an uninformed smear!
He is indeed a rather odd character, Karen, who seems to have made more than a few enemies for himself and his organisation.
https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=24468#.WA1z4ySE-Un
http://forward.com/news/national/347546/why-does-wikileaks-have-a-reputation-for-anti-semitism/
And now for something completely different 🙂
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/reunion-between-a-mama-bat-and-her-lost-baby/
Some more awwwww
https://www.thedodo.com/sea-otter-mom-reunites-baby-1836949318.html
🙂
Population growth gives Australians misleading picture of economy
No, where have we seen that before?
Which is, of course, the drive for ever more exports. The problem when those exports are physical is that it results in a real decrease in the wealth that the country has.
And, no, more spending is not a positive.
The RNZAF is getting back at Key for stripping funding, literally.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/85673878/john-keys-plane-is-grounded-in-australia-en-route-to-india-due-to-a-technical-fault
Pretty embarrassing for the prime minister to be on a biz-tour to India with his good mate BMac only to arrive days late.
Updated. What a shambles.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/85673878/john-keys-plane-is-grounded-in-australia-en-route-to-india-due-to-a-technical-fault
I can just hear him now: When in India, do as the Indians do.
i bet he would have made it if he had of gone with an airline instead of on clownforce1 .
The business people must be pissed off. Amateur hour.
I’ll say. Imagine the resources spent attending this cheap labour love-in. To then have a no-show by the chief clown himself is a massive loss of face.
Audrey Young tries to shit in her own nest on this but ends up blaming the wrong people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11734917
She seems so preoccupied and upset that John Key has ‘been made to look bad’ by the RNZAF, rather than looking deeper into the issue of why the RNZAF can’t keep its aircraft in operational order.
She must be on this flight as one of Key’s embedded journalists and is stung by the increasingly amateurish nature of official tours.
Audrey Young is a shameless propagandist.
Nothing more than a mouth piece for John Key’s penny-pinching, do-nothing government. Even at her most upset – when her junket tour to India has been disrupted – she can’t put two and two together and sheet the blame home to where it lies.
Her own comfortable lifestyle is more important than the truth.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11734737
the pirates are taking over icelands government (maybe if they get elected)
Love how Iceland has jailed bankers rather than bailing them out.
yes i thought that was a great move ,the next lot will be a bit more careful
Bail was set at the banks debt levels,hence time served was the only viable option.
[In order to keep OM and DR free for other conversations, all comments, link postings etc about the US election now need to go in the dedicated US election discussion here.
If you are unsure, post in that thread rather than here. It’s not possible for moderators to shift comments from OM to there, so any comments here may get deleted – weka]