Using the same tactics as the fascist regime in Syria, (and even some of the same video clips), an Israel lobby group spreads hoaxes to whitewash Gaza massacre
Contrary to the Israeli and Western effort to reduce Hamas to a collective of essentially unschooled or unsophisticated foreign born so-called Islamists, nothing could be further from the truth. Hamas is a movement born of Palestine, composed of Palestinians who were raised on the very streets where the blood of their people and families, has been lost to the occupation terror imposed by Israel. For the many who suffer from a now decade old blockade of Gaza–with its lack of food, water, medicine and mobility–Hamas and their families have known the same isolation and paid a like price.
Jenny I am with you on the Palestinian issue.
Not so your standpoint on Syria.
Do you realise that Israel and the Saudis support the head chopping Jihadis in their fight against Assad?
OAB has pro-Assad sympathies and has the overly simplistic view that all Syrian rebels are ISIS? Not that I’ve noticed. Perhaps you are getting him confused with someone else.
I hope you weren’t expecting the courtesy of an apology from Wayne @OAB – even tho’ you can see the timestamps show the irriot is still around, and even tho’ he’s at pains to present himself as a fair and reasonable sort of bloke -affably fair and balanced (almost) and very ‘nice’. Which is probably why the Sunday morning comfy media parachuted in to the studio see him as some sort of wise old sage they can depend on for some words of wisdom (going forward).
He’s as big a ‘spray and walkaway’ spreader of his ideology as the all-purpose drench is to livestock.
The Honourable Dr Wayne Mapp. No wonder we could be in the shit -the guy is as big a fossil to foresight and wisdom as a mizzz Boag is to the consumption of botox and image consultants.
Both very shallow folk. Indeed they could probably set up their own veneer company with the good Doctor advising on the technicalities with Mish advising on the latest trends.
There are plenty of Jihadist groups going under various names that have a thing for chopping off heads. Al Nusra and Al Zinki come instantly to mind.
And there is plenty of evidence that “western” governments have given material support to those groups. Should “western” include Israeli? I guess that’s somewhat of an open question.
Insofar as there is capital punishment for some crimes in Syria, I’d guess that the “preferred” method for death would be by hanging. I could well be wrong – it’s only a guess.
Assad and Putin are Benevolent and Popular Leaders who distribute presents to children and kiss puppies, and this infuriates the evil Western Deep State who spread lies and crisis hoaxes to keep their own populations in fear. The WDS also fund Terrorist Head-Choppers to fight the BPL, and every person who opposes the BPL are THCs. The WDS and their THC puppets also randomly kill BPL political opponents (who are usually THCs or WDS operatives) and innocent civilians in order to make it look like the BPL are actually cruel and totalitarian dictators who do not shy away from torture (lies) and murder (fake news!).
Fortunately, we have amongst us visionaries who can see through the lies of the WDS-controlled Main Stream Media and nobly tell us how good the BPL really are.
Ed 1.1
25 May 2018 at 6:34 am
Jenny I am with you on the Palestinian issue.
Not so your standpoint on Syria.
Do you realise that Israel and the Saudis support the head chopping Jihadis in their fight against Assad?
Hi Ed,
It probably wouldn’t hurt if you put in some links to support your narrative. At the very least to give your comment some context linked to the real world.
Your use of emotive words like “head choppers” to denounce the Syrian people in revolt against the Assad regime. Is at best a generalisation, and at worst a broad smear. Of course Isis has executed people, (and probably innocent people) by chopping off their heads. This is a matter of factual record. But to generalise that to smear the whole opposition to Assad, needs more evidence than you have ever produced.
The fact that some rich and eccentric Saudi princes have funded the fundamentalist parts of the opposition is a matter of public record. As a result, the fundamentalists are the only part of the armed opposition that has ever received much material aid of any sort. While the liberal and progressive forces have been starved of all support. (a fact which has helped the growth of the more extremist Islamist groups).
Your other conjecture Ed, is that Israel is opposed to the Assad regime.
Again you should supply some proof to back up your conjecture. Just saying it, doesn’t make it so.
There is a lot of evidence,( contrary to your conjecture), that leading members of the Assad ruling dynasty have had a close working relationship with the Zionist state over several decades.
As the above link details, much of the Assad dynasty credibility as Arab nationalists, rests on their on their supposed anti Zionist and anti-imperialist position, a position that doesn’t bear much examination.
During my time spent in the refugee camp in Latakia, at any mention or discussion of the Assad regime, the Palestinian refugees that I met expressed open derision at the idea of Assad being opposed to Israel. The Palestinian refugees in Syria told me that the Assad acted as a protector of Israel’s northern border, and that they did not consider the regime to be a genuine supporter of the Palestinian people.
The Assad regime much like the Sadat/Mubarak regime in Egypt had made their peace with the Zionists.
Though this relationship has been strained by the civil war, particularly by the Assad regime taking military support from Israel’s enemy Iran, the links will still be there. Personally I find it uncanny how the Israeli airforce can precisely target Iranian missile shipments to Hezbollah without the regime forces ever taking casualties.
The regime’s Arab nationalist anti-imperialist credentials don’t bear much examination either. As well selling off and privatising its public assets in the early 2000s at the behest of the World Bank and the IMF, (a sellout to Western imperialism that regime insiders also took a cut of), the Assad regime supplied 19,000 troops to support the US in the first Gulf War against Iraq. The Assad regime also worked closely with the CIA to help the CIA torture suspects flown to Syria under the CIA program of extraordinary rendition.
Ed, in past comments, I have provided you and others with the links to disprove your conjecture that Assad is an anti-imperialist Arab Nationalist. I won’t this time, because you obviously don’t read them, or even bother to open them. Because you have adopted a shallow narrative that such facts just don’t fit into.
In your mind Assad is some sort of Ho Chi Minh or Fidel Castro fighting the evil Yankee imperialists, as such we can afford to overlook or ignore his other faults, like genocide, and mass detention and torture in Nazi like death camps. Links that again I have supplied, (facts that you never challenge, instead that you choose to willfully ignore). In willfully overlooking these massive crimes against humanity, (as the necessary acts of a Nationalist leader defending himself against a foreign invader), as a result Ed you have become, wittingly or unwittingly an apologist and party to genocide.
I think it needs to be said over and over again, to the people who support fascism because they’ve been duped by fascist propaganda. Mention Assad, they start screeching about ‘headchoppers’ (another bunch of fascists, as though it needs saying). Mention Trump, they start blithering about her emails.
You can fool some of the people all of the time. Here at The Standard we have real world evidence that Lincoln was right.
What is your definition of fascism? Some people claim the Bathist regime in Syria is Fascist. It certainly is a totalitarian State that promotes a strong government and Syrian nationalism. Those are usually the cornerstone of Fascism.
I think it needs to be said over and over again, to the people who support fascism because they’ve been duped by fascist propaganda.
I think that’s far too narrow a focus and ought to be broadened out to include those who are unwitting supporters of fascistic tendencies because they believe Liberal propaganda.
Actually, on brief reflection, this “fascist” propaganda you speak of – who exactly are the fascists propagating it and that people are listening to?
Edit: I wonder why The Intercept doesn’t appear in your list of news sources that I’m allegedly duped by. No, wait, I’m lying: I know exactly why that is 😆
I don’t suppose you’ve ever bothered to wonder why Eva Bartlett wasn’t subjected to the level of opprobrium she’s attracted for her coverage of Syria when she was reporting on Palestine from Gaza?
Maybe she just “lost the plot” somewhere along the line, or then again, maybe she’s consistent, and it’s just that her reporting from Syria doesn’t fit in the same nice comforting box as her reporting from Palestine?
How’s about you stop with the idiotic narcissism and (given it’s a place for engagement) engage rather than dropping pointless and vaguely inflammatory nonsense on people?
Brigid baldly asserts that Al Jazeera is a mouthpiece for terrorists – attacking the messenger as opposed to engaging with his argument, but I’m the one being pointless, inflammatory and narcissistic?
Pfft.
I don’t have anything to add to Malak Chabkoun’s remarks.
So I just did a Google search for “Israel + ”war crime” + Gaza” (note the syntax – spaces between terms) and returned many pages of results – Google says “about 250k results”. I don’t think much of your “findings”.
Marco the other day ( I think )made a good post containing and accurate statement about ‘farm sewerage
Labour has been attacked for a cow cap / cull based on excessive nutrient levels in our rivers ….. Nutrients don’t sound to bad and I’d swim in them … hell, do I get some vitamins with my nutrients in the river water ??….
But ‘Farm sewerage’ … I’m not going to swim in raw animal shit … it sounds very unhealthy swallowing and bathing in fecal matter …
“farm sewage” +”New Zealand”+river+excessive+safe About 38 results
nutrients +”New Zealand”+river+excessive+safe About 18,781 results
Framing the argument …. shaping opinion
Labour can easily win the excessive farm sewerage argument ….
OAB: absolutely true. One of the most poisonous and pernicious fallacies in contemporary politics is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. That’s what causes otherwise sane people to support crooks and despots like Trump (‘buh, buh, but, her emails, and yuck, icky icky girl cooties’) and Assad (‘buh, buh, but the Russians like him, and we like the Russians because…’ see previous). It’s stupid now, and it was stupid 35 years ago when that senile old fool Reagan was duped into supporting the most evil political movement of the second half of the 20th century.
The children die the same way ….. But the disgusting Mays / Camerons / Trumps / Obamas are sick hypocrytes to lecture anyone about “humanitarian values” …
the United States and the United Kingdom are backing the Saudi-led coalition, and while calling for an end to the war, they continue along with Spain, France, Canada, Australia, and Italy, to sell billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and military equipment to parties to the conflict.
over the past 1,000 days:
Nearly 5,300 civilians were killed
Three million people were forced to flee their homes
Nearly one million people are suspected of contracting cholera in the world’s worst outbreak ever recorded
Poor old National party. The classic five stages of grief are on full display.
1 – DENIAL – Period suffered: Election night to budget day
Politics became meaningless. Parliament makes no sense. National were in a state of shock and denial. They were numb. Some pretended they were still minister, issuing decrees and orders that were ignored by tearful ex-staffers moving their boxes out of their Beehive offices. Awkward. Others wondered how they could go on, why should they go on. Many, many couldn’t go on and resigned. They tried to find a way to simply get through each day, going on diets, appearing on reality TV dancing shows.
2 – ANGER – Period suffered – Budget day to present.
National’s anger seems endless. But the more National truly feel it, the more the anger will begin to dissipate and the more they will heal. The truth is that Tory anger has no limits. It can extend not only to the speaker but their friends, the civil service, and silly little girls everywhere. Judith Collins, in her daily prayer session with Cameron Slater probably asks, “Where is God in this?” Underneath the anger is their pain. It is natural to feel deserted and abandoned by the electorate. Anger and fear are National’s strength and anchor, giving them temporary structure to the nothingness of their existence.
I’m not sure how you expect an opposition to behave. If memory serves me correctly I believe people like you were almost demanding Labour and the rest of the Opposition parties oppose the last government far more vigorously. It was as if not doing their utmost to stop them would be a betrayal of the nation. Now you think National should somehow become compliant. It makes little sense.
Gosman, don’t confuse opposing ‘far more vigorously’ with petulant and pre-planned disobedience. They have the entitlement of their questions allocated by the Clerk according to their numbers in the House. They should learn to ask questions properly.
The Key kleptocracy’s innumerable rorts, failures and shortcomings were sufficient to keep a vigorous opposition busy for decades.
Having nothing comparable to criticize, the wretched Gnats are reduced to picking fights with the speaker. Had they the sporting chops to which Key so often pretended they’d realise that slagging off the Ref is a great way to excuse failure, but a lousy tactic if you actually mean to win.
More like “Great Cthulhu, blight my enemies.” Until recently her real enemies were on her own side of the house, but it must be hard to consider B&B a threat.
Aha… I was planning a bit of a dissertation along the same lines but yours is – as usual – better Sanctuary.
I think they’re almost done with the ‘Bargaining phase” (at least for the time being because Bridges won’t see the term out) and they’re moving into the ‘Depression’ state. Hence the tears of frustration and imagined victimisation by the Speaker. They’re causing it themselves but won’t ever admit it. This is likely to last until the end of the term with occasional outbursts of denial and anger thrown in for good measure.
– Pulled out of Paris Climate Accord
– Pulled out of CPTPP
– Pulled out of Iran
– Obliterated Palestinian peace dialogue
– Killed historic talks with North Korea
But delivered tax reform for corporations and very wealthy people, and increased funding for the military.
Yes but it’s the best POTUS the industrial military complex have ever had and in this world that’s all that seems to matter now with they’re pervasive ways.
Russia and China are flexing the muscles with trump effectively paving a path for them with his ‘diplomacy’ and generally making America ‘great’ again.
Eye on those mid terms as the Donald goes hard out before the GOP likely lose more than a few sitting members.
Yeah not looking so bad for Trump especially given most of the polling is probably done in and around New York and California where most of the media is ensconced
I’ve had a bit of practice doing deals with people from Korea, albeit on a much, much smaller scale, and my take is that the deal is still very much live. The deal will have several more bounces between top table and garbage bin before we get to the end result.
Jude doesn’t actually want Twyford to resign from anything as shes having far too much fun pointing out why Twyford has been promoted above his capabilities
“shes having far too much fun”.
Don’t you feel just a bit sorry for Twyford?
Question time has Phil looking rather like a mouse that a domestic cat has caught. There is the little rodent Twyford squeaking away in his state of terrified befuddlement.
Mind you, as someone who lives in the country that he claims to have some control over I would be only too happy to see Collins put him out of his misery and that he be replaced by someone with at least a skerrick of ability.
Oh for goodness sake Alvin. Go and change your pants. You are way to excited about chest beating Collins. Bet your dreams are full of Collins, black leather, thigh high boots and whips and handcuffs. Have i missed anything?
The amount of time i spend on here is directly proportionate to how much work i have on at the time
At the moment I don’t have much on so i can spend more time on here but on some days i can’t get on here at all because of the amount of work i have on
That is called Psychological Projection isn’t it FFluffy?
“Psychological projection is a defense mechanism people subconsciously employ in order to cope with difficult feelings or emotions. Psychological projection involves projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings”
Is that how you feel about Ms Collins? It certainly not something that ever occurred to me. Just don’t try and put your fantasies into practice.
My God, FFluffy.
More Projecting on your part.
You identify as being an exhibitionist as well. You know you should be ashamed of yourself so you try and pretend it is other people who do the things that are the flaws in your own behaviour.
Sad. Really sad. Keep away from Primary Schools until you learn to control yourself.
I don’t feel sorry for him at all, he was part of the group that stated time and time again how bad NZ was, how bad National were, how Labour were so much better well hes got his chance and now hes showing just how competent he really is
The longer Jude toys with him and makes him look like the incompetent he really is the better, hes sort of representative of Labour really
Take Cindy away from Labour and all you have is people like Twyford
Funny, I seem to remember Judith Collins as one of the ‘”what housing crisis?” mob. Phil Twyford is doing OK. Don’t believe all the MSM bleats.
Collins was sacked for taking advantage of her position, so why is she so good? Oh your opinion.??
@PR.
True. When you really look at him he isn’t worthy of sympathy.
I personally think that Grant Robertson is about all the CoL has going for it. He has surprised me with the way he seems to have started getting a grasp on his portfolio. When you look back at his mucking about a couple of years ago with his blathering about things like a UBI and so on he has got much better.
I suppose it is because he has been house-trained by Treasury.
Ardern remains a major disappointment in my view. Perhaps she will learn in the future but she shows no signs of having any grasp of her job to date. She has been pretty much a glove-puppet for Tsar Winston so far.
“praising with faint damnation”.
Sounds a reasonable interpretation of my opinion.
I simply don’t think she is up to the job. She simply doesn’t know enough about the problems and isn’t prepared for it..
I want someone competent in that job, and she simply isn’t the one.
Of the Labour leaders since Clark, who was up to the job, the only one who seemed to be capable of filling the role was Shearer. Why did the Labour Party stab him in the back?
And, for your mate adam, it has nothing whatsoever to do with her sex.
But he knows that doesn’t he?
Obviously sowing discord and fanning paranoia in Labour is a perishable skill.
A solid seven years of Labour fighting itself left you incompetent at doing the job yourself.
Putting the Shearer barb aside (which is just disappointingly weak), Ardern consistently nukes shouty&co in the House, her ministers are getting results, and all in all they’ve stepped into their new roles with ease and competence. But then it doesn’t take much to improve on the last batch of ministers, anyway.
Ardern, in the House, simply doesn’t answer the questions. Still, she has got Mallard to protect her doesn’t she.
Look at this extract from Hansard. It was Question 1 last Tuesday.
“Hon Simon Bridges: What extra funding did the Budget provide to fulfil her promise to pay early childhood education (ECE) centres more for employing 100 percent qualified staff?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As the member will know, Budget 2018 included a 45 percent increase in education funding. The fact that we could put 45 percent more into education—new funding—and still have additional needs that we need to meet demonstrates just how bad things were for the education sector.”
When it was pointed out that there had been no attempt to answer the question Trevor came out with,
“Mr SPEAKER: Well, it was very clearly addressing the question.”
You call that “nuking”?
“her ministers are getting results”. Really?
How many of the billion trees have been planted?
How many of the 100,000 homes have at least been started?
How many pensioners are getting their $700 heating allowance this year?
“after a few years more “.
You may be right. Of course after a few more years the answers to my 3 questions will still be the same.
Trees planted. ZERO.
Kiwibuild affordable homes started. ZERO
Pensioners getting $700 heating allowance in 2018. ZERO.
Have a nice day y’all.
Alywyn and PR if you are feeling excited that Judith blew the whistle on pt use of the cell phone you are desperate. It is a minor misdemeanor and only serves to compare and contrast what happened with Gerry and airport security. No conquence for Gerry. Phil stands down on a very minor part of his workload(probably glad to get rid of it)………jacinda looks good. The majority on an on-line poll thinks phill didn’t need to stand down……..is this all national have got? Rather pathetic
That’s nothing to do with Twyford. That’s Collins declaring open war against Brownlee – because any discussion of Twyford’s actions inevitably broadens to include Brownlee’s own error of judgement.
It’s almost sad to see how the Nats have begun tearing themselves apart after their election loss. Even Labour in 2008 weren’t that bad.
(The system is telling me this is a duplicate comment – but the original comment was lost in cyberspace – admins feel free to delete one or t’ other)
That’s nothing to do with Twyford. That’s Collins declaring open war against Brownlee – because any discussion of Twyford’s actions inevitably broadens to include Brownlee’s own error of judgement.
It’s almost sad to see how the Nats have begun tearing themselves apart after their election loss. Even Labour in 2008 weren’t that bad.
Uber autonomous car crash in Arizona investigation report is out
The Uber car, a Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicle equipped with Uber’s sensing technology, comes with an automatic emergency braking system from the manufacturer.
But Uber disabled that function as well as other safety features to “reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior,” according to the report.
micro plasma bovis spread – “Livestock transporters let down over effluent “- By Ken Shirley.
This was an Interesting bit here; – from a National Party ally and ex MP in the Act party in coalition with the 1990’s era of the National Government.
Ken Shirley is now talking about shifting the blame onto Labour now!!!!
incredible it is when he was firstly an MP under Labour in the Langey government then under National Party as an ACT MP in 1990’s alongside National when they were in power!!!
Ken Shirley couild have sung loud about road truck effluent spread then couldn’t he?
Livestock transporters let down over effluent
Thursday, 24 May 2018, 12:06 pm
Press Release: Road Transport Forum
24 May 2018
Livestock transport operators are extremely disappointed in the way farmers, OSPRI and MPI have failed to implement and properly enforce stock movement regulations as is their responsibility under the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme, says Road Transport Forum Chief Executive Ken Shirley.
“These regulations were put in place for a reason, as we are now finding out to the country’s considerable cost with the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak.”
“Stock trucks are fitted with effluent tanks with a finite capacity that require frequent emptying. The act of disposing effluent, which in the past was difficult enough, has as a direct result of the fear associated with disease spread become a significant issue.”
Many farmers have been remiss in not adequately standing stock off green feed prior to transport to reduce effluent production while local government and meat processing companies have been extremely tardy in providing access to effluent disposal facilities. Access to traditional disposal facilities is also now being restricted fearing disease spread.
“With Mycoplasma bovis upon us greater demands are being put on stock transporters to wash and sanitise their vehicles but there has been no focus on the provision of adequate effluent disposal sites by the other parties.”
“Farmers and meat processors are placing increased burdens and cost on stock transporters but steadfastly refuse to shoulder the additional costs and responsibility generated by their own tardiness.”
“What if Mycoplasma bovis was an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease? In that nightmare scenario it would clearly not be acceptable to leave the burden of responsibility for effluent disposal solely with transporters, yet the primary sector doesn’t seem to appreciate that the principle here is just the same.”
“Livestock transporters are more than happy to continue to play their part in the responsible movement of animals. However, MPI, councils, farmers and meat processors also need to help facilitate the appropriate disposal of stock effluent through better facilities and practices,” says Shirley.
ends
We will not miss those rattling nasty smelling stock trucks as the smell is also the sign we are recieving water droplets of aerosols that can cause us many diseases we are warned constantly.
Yes I operate a small farm but we keep our stock away from our home.
We advocate using rail again to move our stock as rail is away from roads and our driving behind stock trucks is a health risk but trains we dont travel behind. so this is worth thinking abiout now.
Besides the roads are falling apart with so many stock trucks on our rural roads now.
Shirey and his gangsrters should ppay to fix our rural roads then he may jion us and use rail again.
Not sure that he’s trying to “blame” Labour, rather a plea for everyone in the industry to work together sort the situation out.
“Many farmers have been remiss in not adequately standing stock off green feed prior to transport to reduce effluent production while local government and meat processing companies have been extremely tardy in providing access to effluent disposal facilities. ”
That’s a full on assault on farmers and the parties that should have been providing the effluent disposal and washing facilities. And coming from the stock transport sector who’ve made a considerable amount out of being a bus service to the livestock industry. But think Citybus rather than Tour Bus.
What Ken doesn’t touch on, but which is freaking the transport sector, is transport becoming a party to NAIT. This way the stock will be tagged off the farm, onto the truck, off the truck, and onto the farm. So then there’s a record of the animals that have been on each truck. Easy to do but a considerable cost to the transporter, and will put the clammers on black / grey market stock movements. And that side of the business is where the money is. Ooooops
A stock truck pulls up to a farm loading ramp in the middle of the night, 10 cows get off, 4 get on, that’s after the same truck took a full load past the gate to the works that afternoon from a farm 100 km away.
Then you’ve got RentaBull, guy down the road has several hundred for short term hire, along with NickaBull, (can get tricky getting him into the trailer in the middle of the road), and BorrowaBull (short out the fence with your cows in the boundary paddock)
What Ken doesn’t touch on, but which is freaking the transport sector, is transport becoming a party to NAIT. This way the stock will be tagged off the farm, onto the truck, off the truck, and onto the farm. So then there’s a record of the animals that have been on each truck.
As it always should have been.
Easy to do but a considerable cost to the transporter, and will put the clammers on black / grey market stock movements.
Make it mandatory to have GPS tracking on all vehicles and road sensors watching and counting the vehicles.
Also, go Cashless. It’s difficult to commit crime when it will be picked up automatically.
Would love to see the decision trail around that. There would have been some intense lobbying to keep the truckies out of it and create a gap that the cash could flow through. Interesting that the most vocal opponents of NAIT were stock agents.
It gives me great Pleasure to announce the long awaited marriage between the above two tireless contributors to Drivel Inc . It is seldom that two blogees marry and produce happiness. We should be so grateful for their joint outpourings of hot crap.
Heres a poem i wrote that succinctly describes my feelings, what do you think?
My life is brilliant
My life is brilliant
My love is pure
I saw an angel
Of that I’m sure
She smiled at me on the TV
She was with another man
But I won’t lose no sleep on that
‘Cause I’ve got a plan
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful, it’s true
I saw her face in a crowded place (parliament)
And I don’t know what to do
‘Cause I’ll never be with you
Yes, she caught my eye
As we walked on by
She could see from my face that I was
Flyin’ high
And I don’t think that I’ll see her again
But we shared a moment that will last till the end
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful, it’s true
I saw your face in a crowded place
And I don’t know what to do
‘Cause I’ll never be with you
La-la-la-la
La-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful, it’s true
There must be an angel with a smile on her face
When she thought up that I should be with you
But it’s time to face the truth
I will never be with you
Hm.
I suppose you are trying but I’m not sure you should give up your day job to chase your dream of becoming Poet Laureate/
Mind you, when very young, I used to feel much the same way about Sophia Loren. That young lady, for some strange reason, seemed to prefer that old, bald, short chap Carlo Ponti. Very odd of her when you consider all I had to offer.
After all, when she said “I do” she would have been entitled to half my bicycle.
ps. Is that suitably ageist, sexist and racist to satisfy you adam?
This is what famous literary critic Harold Bloom said about never writing poetry himself:
” It must have had something to do with the enormous reverence and rapture I felt about poetry, the incantatory strength that Crane and Blake had for me from the beginning. To be a poet did not occur to me. It was indeed a threshold guarded by demons. To try to write in verse would have been a kind of trespass.”
But…but, Tony Hazlett (Head of Talley’s Nelson division) says the hoki fishery is healthy and will be for some time.
They can still make money then. That’s nice. And they envisage making money “for some time” – that time being when the fishery is completely fucked which, as Hazlett has basically acknowledged, is what’s on the cards.
Now that National has declared on Labour the first casualty of this political war is truth.
it seems that all Polititians seem to rush to cover themselves first and ignore the truth starring thwem in the face as we all see is there today,
Labour so far have a better record onn admitting their faults than National ever had done.
So we hope this increases and labour takes the ‘bull by the preverbial horn’ and gets in and fixes all these worrying issues so we can say “we did this”
Yes Labour are better, but there is a massive mess left behind… like this one..
More than 98,000 non-New Zealand citizens arrived in the April 2018 year. However, more than 30,000 non-New Zealand citizens left this country.
The more important question might be, did the non NZ citizens leave after buying housing and assets in NZ and did they leave satellite families behind who qualify for government assistance?
Should long term NZ residents and citizens be expected to pick up the welfare bill for asset rich people who have only been in the country for a few years?
How will the government’s 1000 – 1600 new affordable houses help when 60,000+ new people arrived last year?
Should there be an expiry date and controls on residency to people who are just using NZ as a cockoo lifestyle to raise their kids or care for their aged parents after gaining residency and heading back overseas to work?
Should there be a minimum amount of time spent in the country (aka 75% of time spent in NZ over a lifetime of gaining residency) to be allowed access to free health care, education and super and voting if you come into NZ under the pretext of working or settling here permanently but then as increasingly the case, it’s leaving NZ after getting the paperwork through?
Should there be a lot more safe guards with clearer controls on trusts and companies hiding assets like housing or small businesses which can then be used to mask or structure people’s wealth enabling rich people to legitimately claim welfare and accommodation benefits, tax write offs and WFF or straight benefits through loopholes and our very relaxed laws on companies and trusts holding assets.
This is a serious issue facing the country as we have people who are born here or migrated here and working hard or just being a citizen who is also a beneficiary and genuinely poor and they are getting less opportunities.
NZ is no longer the land of plenty, somehow we have gone from state houses to living in cars, as well as people who genuinely need secure work and opportunities at living wages… and the government is not doing enough to ensure to protect our system against abuse that has occurred under the National government’s decade reign of ‘rockstar economy’ aka widespread fraud and sell offs and trougher’s of all descriptions at the public purse.
Lend me your Ears
We simply cannot admit any or every passport into NZ until we have housing, plumbing, sewerage, health, education and work for the owner of the Passport.
National, namely John Key and Billy English and their handmaids being of low IQ, did not understand that. And they have created chaos. National will never rise again for what they did not do.
For those who follow the great game of Cricket I shall tell you the score at the time of the declaration.
When they declared National had reached 987 runs for 3 wickets.
Labour went into bat and when stumps were drawn due to bad light Labour had reached a score of 16 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.
National’s score of course took four days to compile; from 450 overs.
At the end of the drawn game, National declared themselves the winner as they were the team that had scored the most runs.
The series had of course been decided with Labour winning three of the five matches.
National attacked the match umpires for obvious bias, and besides they had more players in their team.
Team vice-captain, MS Bennett, who retired early, frustrated at not scoring any runs, alleged the umpires’ decisions were “dangerous for cricket”. Later cautioned for ball-tampering with the heavy roller, she said “Their decisions had become personal.”
When the after-match commentators pointed out that the great majority of the National wickets that fell were either due to hit wicket or were bowled middle stump and obviously out, MS Bennett said that the decisions were flawed and anyway they hadn’t been quite ready.
“The pitch was too green and the opposition’s ball was red,” she said.
The question is also ‘where has all the money going” that has been collected by Auckland council. They have outrageous water bills, actually not the water apparently which is free but for the pipes which actually seem to be a mess still after years of Metrowater, we have 54% of rates going to Auckland Transport which is also a mess and takes 5 times longer than a car for a 2 stage journey and costs 5 times the cost of petrol, while many areas have little to zero public transport at all, then we have our infrastructure and development costs which seem astronomical but somehow also seem to need to go up to $70k per development and not much sign of all the infrastructure being put in by council for all the new developments they took the contributions for over the past decade of contributions. And now a petrol tax, actually two taxes, a regional one and an Auckland one.
All this while reducing library services, making people mow their own berms and thinking we need a billion dollar stadium and giving themselves salary rises and new premises, more marketing people, more lawyers, more of everyone pushing paper around at great cost and with little practical reality coming out of it.
Sounds like Phil and the Auckland council are hoping to bankrupt the city to join the government in borrowing money as fast as possible to put in development, which seems to be for the Ponzi scheme of importing in low skilled people needing welfare to top up their meagre wages, the higher skilled who leave after a few years to work after obtaining residency, while leaving behind children to be educated and the elderly to be looked after by tax paying Kiwis who now struggle to afford a house, or even to drive to work with the petrol taxes to pay for the folly.
Prior to the last decade we had a normal level of people migrating here who stayed and made a life here, we did not have floodgates of people buying up assets and then leaving with non working family members living here in million dollar houses or with small businesses losing money while employing more and more overseas people into the country!
Unfair, savey, unfair. The widespread misunderstanding of Goffles’ socalled secretiveness highlights the need for a massively expanded PR campaign. Obviously more management will be needed and managers cost money. Ratepayers will appreciate the effort and the jump in their property values.
Ok I agree a bit unfair for Goffles, he inherited the problem, but he is going in the wrong direction by adding in more managers and listening to those already there who seem to have misdirected the money collected so far.
Nope, ratepayers who actually work in Auckland are not happy unless they are cashing up and leaving, those left are paying more rates and now petrol taxes, but have nothing working ain’t happy. Even in 2015 it showed over 80% of ratepayers were not happy with the council. (The stopped public polling after that result).
You can’t go to the beach because of sewerage, you can’t drive across town because of congestion, you can’t catch public transport because it doesn’t go there or takes even longer to get there…. nothing really being done about that, even though in places there are train tracks that the experts don’t want to use, You can’t even get a decent meal these days and in the legacy of having chefs and burger managers considered a ‘essential skill’ McDonalds has been in the news when pills have been found in the Sundaes and the famous French cafe has apparently been bought out and the joke being is it going to be renamed the French curry? Now that’s capitalism and globalism at work or maybe the fall of it, I’m not sure!
Auckland council and COO thinking is from a money grab perspective, and still adding in more people. The poorer citizens are being advised by MSM to leave the city and go to the provinces, essentially surrender and just leave the neoliberals to sell off the city.
What a legacy, bankrupting the city and purging it of poor and middle class people and leaving the rich, the rich who claim benefits, more and more fake, illegal or misleading businesses and a few refugees left. How Rogernomics.
It’s a beautiful day in Putaruru Aotearoa at the minute.
Io gave us another big bouncy baby boy yesterday and it our mokos birthday today she’s 3 our mokos in Auckland are all good here’s a link to some music ECO MAORI likes below.
Hi standardistas. I know you have differences with people in New Zealand. But today a man in England was sentenced to death by the Tory government run by the Israeli interests in England for standing up for the working class girls of England.
This is bipartisan issue. If a Tory government can arrest people and sentence and imprison them within the hour for speech in the United Kingtom for standing up for British working class girls who were raped under Labour we are in dire straights.
Please stand up for free speech. Stand up for Tommy Robinson, defending the working class girls who were sacrificed to diversity.
The working class in England should be marching in the streets. This is bipartisan, genuine fascism. You want to see real fascism? Here it is.
If Tommy Robinson dies in prison because he’s murdered by muslims, it’s time for bad things to start happening to the British ruling classes.
The man was imprisoned over nothing, and then sentenced and imprisoned within the hour. No jury. No trial.
I’m going to be doing daily posts on Tommy Robinson.
The British government and the overall British ruling class have no mandate by the British people. They have suspended their relations with the British people. They should be regarded as an illegitimate government ruling by force and their supposed authority should be suspended and they should be regarded as adversaries of the British people.
The people of England need to start arming themselves with anything they can find. This is real. This is terrifying. And justice needs to be served.
The rape of 1 million girls by the English ruling class deserves justice.
I hope that justice comes for the English ruling class, whatever form it takes. The English ruling class are aliens to England. I won’t state why, but they are not English. They are of another group of people who have a different agenda to the English.
Every day, I’m going to start writing about the English government and what it is doing.
New Zealand needs to put pressure on this regime and start divesting ourselves of the relationship until they restore the rule of law and the freedoms of western institutions to England.
Good evening Newshub Lloyd looks like Ireland is going to catch up with the times and give Lady’s the right to have a abortion the Mana Wahine = rights movement is strong. Lloyd do you miss Winston.
Judge Andrew Becroft is a good fair Kiwi who ECO MAORI backs 100 %. Off topic my view is that Judith Collins the – – – – – – is at her worst paying someone to spy on Phil Twyford and slowly leak the the bad habits of Phil that’s is how nasty people like Judith Collins behave .
Does that show te tangata what tech can be use for the tracking of visit to farms with the bovine virus is a good thing but there are many bad things that people can use tech for even the state.
ECO MAORI Says there should be a total set net ban around the endanger Mauri dolphins habitat come on there are less than 60 of these beautiful creatures of Tangaroa left these fishmen can use long lines some how I think NZF are slowing down the process of a set net ban – – – – – – you Ka kite ano P.S people like Judith Collins can’t win fairly so they cheat
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Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister The Government is placing temporary entry restrictions into New Zealand on all foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through mainland China to assist with the containment of the novel coronavirus and to protect New Zealand and the Pacific Islands from the disease. This ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little will travel to Berlin tomorrow to represent New Zealand at a high-level summit on nuclear disarmament. This year, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) celebrates 50 years since it entered into force. “New Zealand’s proud record and leadership on nuclear disarmament is unwavering, so it’s important we are present ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit two of New Zealand’s most important Pacific partners, Fiji and Australia, next week. The visit to Fiji will be the first by a New Zealand Prime Minister in four years and comes during the 50th anniversary of Fijian independence and diplomatic relations between our ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little and New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball, have today announced the appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the location, and the membership of the Establishment Advisory Group. Colin Carruthers QC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of the CCRC for an ...
Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Agriculture Minister Hon Damien O’Connor co-announced the first horticultural finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy celebrating excellence in the Māori agricultural sector. The three finalists are Ngai Tukairangi Trust from Mt Maunganui, Otama Marere Trust from Tauranga, and Hineora Orchard Te Kaha 15B Ahuwhenua ...
A new kete of resources to strengthen support for students with dyslexia will provide extra tools for the new Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs) as they start in schools, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Minister launched the kete in Wellington this morning, at the first of three induction ...
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape will visit New Zealand from 21-25 February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have a warm and friendly relationship. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Marape here and strengthening the relationship between our two countries,” ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni today announced a new approach that continues to broaden the Government’s social sector focus from a narrow, investment approach to one centred on people and wellbeing. Minister Sepuloni said redefining the previous approach to social investment by combining science, data and lived experience ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. E ngā mana whenua ki tēnei rohe Taranaki Whānui, Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa – kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. E ngā mana, e ...
Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. E ngā mana whenua ki tēnei rohe Taranaki Whānui, Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa – kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. E ngā mana, e ngā ...
Tougher penalties for gun crime are a step closer with the passage of firearms reform legislation through another stage in Parliament. The Arms Legislation Bill has tonight passed its Second Reading. “The changes have one objective - to prevent firearms falling into the wrong hands,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Introduction Mr Speaker We all know why we are here today. It has been a long journey. The journey did not actually begin on 15 March 2019. It began on 30 June 1997. Almost 23 years ago, Justice Sir Thomas Thorp told us what was wrong with our firearms legislation. ...
The Government’s work to put trades and vocational education back on the agenda took another major step forward today with the passing of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “This is a watershed day for trades and vocational education. These law changes formalise ...
Speeding up the return of Christchurch regeneration activities to local leadership is behind the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament today by Minister Megan Woods. “As we approach nine years since the February 2011 earthquake in Canterbury, and with the transition to local leadership well underway, the time ...
Hundreds of New Zealanders and international visitors will be able to get back out into nature with the Milford Track partially reopening next week, after extensive assessments and repairs, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The popular Great Walk has been closed since 3 February after an extreme ...
Up to 110 new EV chargers nationwide in cities and regions 50 electric vehicles for ride-sharing The Government is helping deliver more infrastructure and options for low emissions transport through new projects, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. Tauranga, Nelson, Levin, New Plymouth and Oamaru are just some ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
The Labour Party says it has received money from two of the people facing charges in relation to National Party donations but says they were above board. ...
New Zealand First’s action to halt the introduction of a ‘feebate’ scheme designed to support the nation’s transition to low-emission vehicles is a leap back into the industrial age, says Drive Electric Chairman Mark Gilbert. “While ...
Staff expenses at the Reserve Bank – which have increased by an average 4.4% a year since 2009/11 – surged by 14.8% in the 12 months to 2018/19. Total staff numbers increased by an average 3.4 a year during those nine years but shot up by 19 in 2018/19 from ...
The Socialist Equality Group is holding a protest rally on Sunday February 23 in Wellington to demand freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Sunday 23 February, 3:00pm Cuba Street (Left Bank intersection) ...
By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Lopez Katigbak has broken his silence amid the controversy over renewal of the Philippine TV giant’s broadcast franchise, which expires in one month. Katigbak, in a video posted on the ABS-CBN News site and aired over flagship ...
RNZ management wants to grow a youth audience without having to build a costly new platform. Anna Dean offers a bunch – none of which involves scrapping RNZ Concert.Over the next few weeks RNZ National Concert staff are set to take part in strategy workshops focused on “growth in audience reach, ...
Today LockerRoom brings you the first episode of Pure As, a mini documentary series on the Silver Ferns' personal journeys to World Cup glory. So much of the magic and composure Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio brings to the netball court today was learned from years of sitting on the ...
"He was an energy vacuum, a shit magnet, a waste of skin": a black comedy by Nelson writer Grant Smithies. The stars he saw were blue, green, golden. Little lights swam around slowly, then went out one by one. His face felt hot. His left eye wasn’t working. And ...
Yes, it’s still summer and, en route to that final festival or beach bolt-hole, the season of the road trip. Here Spinoff Art co-editor Mark Amery runs down some of the best North Island contemporary art stopovers, and the mavericks behind them. We cross the Cook Strait next year, promise.Back ...
The Star Wars prequels are universally regarded as the nadir of the franchise, but at least they gave us spinoff series The Clone Wars, writes Sam BrooksNobody likes the Star Wars prequels. Though that statement is slightly hyperbolic, it’s not far from the truth. Even if you can make a ...
Jai Breitnauer on what happens when male role models start disappearing from a child’s life.Recently, we saw a ghost from the past. Once a regular visitor to our home, there just after the birth of our first child and a constant presence for more than a decade, this individual disappeared ...
Dragon Quest: Your Story feels like an hour-and-a-half-long highlight reel of an adventure spanning dozens of hours, but it’s damn fun, writes Felix Walton.One of Netflix’s current hustles seems to be grabbing movies with little to no hope of a wide release and publishing them as “Netflix Originals.” The latest ...
The Ministry of Education is proposing a number of changes to NCEA Level One, including the merging of several subjects to be phased in over the next five years. Felix Walton looks into how, and why, these changes are happening.Why are they changing things now?They aren’t changing things now, per ...
Pacific Media Centre Chinese authorities are systematically harassing Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups even after they have left the country, according to new testimonies gathered by Amnesty International. Uyghur New Zealanders were among those interviewed, despite the threat of further intimidation. The case studies, published online today, reveal ...
A victim of the Generate KiwiSaver hack is considering legal action to seek compensation for stress and the risk of identity theft. One of the 26,000 KiwiSavers who had personal information, including their physical address, IRD number, bank statements and identification, stolen by an unknown third party has sought advice ...
Healthcare appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has upped its profit forecasts for the third time this year, with increased sales off the back of the coronavirus. The company now expects a full year net profit of between $260 and $270 million, up 1.9 percent on its previous forecast. Chief ...
Power company Genesis Energy has taken a significant financial hit and lowered its guidance, because of lower hydro generation and gas shortages. Net profit for the six months ended December fell 81.4 percent to $9.2 million, from slightly lower revenue of $1.3 billion. Lower inflows for its hydro power stations ...
Kiwibank's first half profit is down on flat revenue growth and increased operations and compliance costs. The New Zealand-owned bank's net profit fell 18 percent to $51 million in the six months to December, compared with the year earlier's $62m. "As expected the bank faced rising operating costs due to ...
The New Zealand Bar Association has urged Parliament to balance carefully the need to reform legislation in respect of sexual violence with the need to ensure that only the guilty are convicted. The Association told the Justice Select Committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan talks with Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher about the week in politics, including the extension of the coronavirus travel ban, the royal commission into the bushfires, and labor’s stance on a compulsory superannuation guarantee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Steen, Professor of Midwifery, University of South Australia In a new parenting podcast, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, said she used hypnobirthing techniques to help her get through severe morning sickness – a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. She also used the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Alexander, Research fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne This article is the first in a three-part series on radical ideas to solve the environmental crisis. As the Productivity Commission confirmed this week, Australia’s economy has enjoyed uninterrupted growth for ...
The Nats are accusing Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor of being slow to act on a tuberculosis outbreak in Hawke’s Bay. Is it a fair cop? OSPRI confirmed an outbreak in Hawke’s Bay in April last year, but a disease management response wasn’t put in place until October, National agriculture spokesman ...
Porirua City Council is scratching its head on how it's going to meet the costs of a $2 billion bill to bring its water network up to scratch over the next two to three decades. ...
The sentencing of Grace Millane’s killer to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years marks the end of a judicial process that can only have been extremely harrowing for her family. They had already experienced the loss of their daughter, ...
Twenty years ago, Auckland’s streets were ruled by diesel-hating narcs. Josie Adams looks back at the short-lived 0800 SMOKEY campaign.For five chaotic weeks in 2000, the Auckland Regional Council experimented with extreme, multi-level peer pressure. The goal: to get cleaner-burning fuel into Auckland cars. The method: turning citizens against each ...
The National Party donations scandal that had nothing to do with the National Party was the big news of the week. James Elliott has some thoughts on that. Simon Bridges has climbed into double digits as preferred Prime Minister in the latest political polling which is significant for two reasons. ...
He thought he’d moved on, but the news the Holden brand was being killed off hit Trevor McKewen harder than he expected. Here he reminisces about a youthful infatuation that never quite burned out.A part of me died this week and I didn’t see it coming.Holden has shut up shop ...
Today the unnamed man found guilty of murdering Grace Millane was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 17. “One person has been locked away but are New Zealand women any safer?” asks White Ribbon Manager Rob McCann. “We certainly ...
Pacific Media Watch An Australian federal court decision upholding the legality of the police raid on the Sydney headquarters of the national public broadcaster ABC last June has dealt a major blow to the protection of journalists’ sources and poses a grave danger for the future of public interest ...
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 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $20)What is going on, Auckland? Is it just ...
A poem by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.The FightThe rising sun paints the feet of night-crawling enemies. And they scatter into the burning hills. I have fought each of them. I know them by name. From before I could speak. I’ve used every weapon. To make them retreat. Yet they ...
A string of toy companies are facing legal action for selling unsafe toys that pose choking hazards for young children. Yesterday, Cinevan International was fined $81,000 and another four companies are before the courts. Businesses have been using a sticker on the packaging saying 'not suitable for children under three' ...
The Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee, Gareth Hughes, is calling for public submissions on the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which was referred to the committee on 20 February 2020. The Residential Tenancies Act ...
ANALYSIS:By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has embarked on a state visit to New Zealand. It is the first visit to New Zealand by a sitting PNG prime minister since Marape’s predecessor Peter O’Neill’s trip in 2013. Marape, who rolled O’Neill ...
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 contentDonations scandals Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Who are the people at the centre of the SFO political donation row? Collette ...
Policyholders fear the sale of AMP LIfe to a Bermuda-based 'zombie fund guru' could leave them stranded because a legal gap means the FMA is powerless to protect them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Giancaspro, Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide When booking a luxury cruise, you generally expect relaxation and enjoyment, not forced quarantine and distress. Unfortunately, for the thousands of vacationers trapped on cruise ships in Asia the past month, what started as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Courtney Hempton, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University The Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board has this week published a report detailing the first six months of the legislation in action in Victoria. The report reveals 52 people legally ended their lives from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blanca del Rosal Rabes, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology Brain temperature is implicated in many common conditions including stroke, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and headaches. Changes in brain temperature can indicate there is a disease developing, but researchers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Anthony Albanese will commit a Labor government to adopting a target of zero net emissions by 2050, in a speech titled “Leadership in a New Climate” to be delivered on Friday. The opposition leader’s embrace ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy N. W. Jackson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Venom Research Unit, University of Melbourne This is an article from I’ve Always Wondered, a series where readers send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. Send your question to alwayswondered@theconversation.edu.auWho would ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamen Franklen Gussen, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology In 1971, a Time magazine article, titled “Should New York City Be the 51st State?”, observed: States have not only short-changed and hamstrung their cities but are themselves the least creative ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ida Kubiszewski, Associate professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Labor’s treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, wants to follow New Zealand’s example and introduce a “wellbeing budget” alongside the traditional budget that stresses economic growth, when Labor is next in office. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Andreallo, Honorary research fellow, University of Sydney A sea of oversized hair bows bobs through primary school gates each morning. It might be dismissed as a harmless children’s fad but big bows are back, driven by current fashions, tween influencers and ...
The Government of New Zealand has recognized that the country is facing a housing crisis, said Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, at the end of her visit to the country . “While the Government has taken important steps ...
Survey results released today by the Helen Clark Foundation and the New Zealand Drug Foundation show that support for cannabis legalisation grows when people know more about the proposed legislation. When respondents were asked how they would vote ...
In today’s edition: Views on cannabis legalisation could hardly be tighter, the Papua New Guinea PM arrives in NZ, and bad light threatens cricket on the radio.A new poll published this morning finds that 46% of those surveyed would vote yes, and 44% no, with 10% undecided. That’s a markedly different ...
Actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand Te Atamira, a long-time champion of the arts, and te reo Māoriis the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year for 2020. Mark Jennings reports on the night that honours the best of us. What does it mean to be a New Zealander? The question was posed by ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias.FICTION 1 In the Clearing by JP Pomare (Hachette, $34.99) All next week at ReadingRoom is devoted to this brilliant thriller inspired by Australian cult The Family, led by ...
‘A life-changing experience’, ‘The greatest of the great! It must be experienced!’, ‘That show with the dancing lady on the billboard.’ Shen Yun ads are impossible to avoid, but what on earth is it?So what is Shen Yun?According to the Shen Yun website: “It is a brilliant artistic revival ...
Georgia Hale's tireless and compassionate work, using her sport of rugby league to create opportunities for many different communities, has earned her the title of Young New Zealander of the Year. As soon as she left high school, Georgia Hale began working with children with intellectual disabilities. It changed her ...
A new, "true green" party hoping to break into Parliament at this year's election has been hit by resignations and allegations of questionable conduct, Newsroom's political editor Sam Sachdeva reports Fledgling political party Sustainable New Zealand has been rocked by a flurry of resignations and allegations of questionable behaviour by its ...
"To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within, please speak up. We need to hear your voices." These are the words of Hildur Guðnadóttir, who recently accepted the Oscar for best original score for the film Joker at the 92nd ...
Dr Amanda Landers discusses the stigma associated with palliative care and why the field deserves recognition Scalpels are a powerful tool in medicine, but words can be just as mighty. Some medical specialties are easy to comprehend - they cut, stitch, unblock, restart or fix. Others are just too hard ...
A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to the attention of authorities, the poorly stored solvents remain a fire and environmental risk. While Government agencies struggled to get a polluter to clean up his mess, up to one million ...
A rare visit by a prime minister of Papua New Guinea to New Zealand highlights a strong friendship, but one which could be closer, writes Johnny Blades for RNZ.Papua New Guinea’s James Marape has embarked on a state visit to New Zealand. It’s the first visit to New Zealand by ...
Plant-based food producers ‘stigmatise and demonise’ traditional agriculture, according to Jones, but those working in the new industry say it should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. NZ First minister Shane Jones’ suggestion that plant-based food must be “stopped in its tracks” has been labelled concerning, negligent and anti-competitive ...
The prospect of going to the Red Planet is possibly a step closer with the US President's State of the Nation speech, in which he promises we will land there. The chances of anything coming from Mars - according to the 1978 Jeff Wayne musical War of the Worlds - are ...
Jennifer Ward-Lealand’s dedication to acting, directing and te ao Māori saw her named the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year at a special dinner in Auckland last night. Alice Webb-Liddall speaks to her about how she hopes to nurture the future of the craft that has given her so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Seen as a political narrative, the Morrison government’s handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) fits the patterns of its approaches on border security and anti-terrorism. Stressing the central imperative is to “keep Australians safe”, it has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The coronavirus is presenting a major threat to Australia’s education export industry, which is highly dependant upon the China market, and a huge challenge to the universities. Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The corona virus is presenting a major threat to Australia’s education export industry, which is highly dependant upon the China market, and a huge challenge to the universities. Phillip Honeywood, CEO of the International Education ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stacey L Rowe, PhD candidate, Monash University Today’s evacuation of about 180 passengers from the cruise ship Diamond Princess to serve another period of quarantine back in Australia has raised questions about the best way to control spread of the coronavirus. The ...
Open Mike 25/05/2018 
Last week the Wall Street Journal published an article ‘The Dangerous Denial of Sex by two scientists Colin Wright and Emma Hilton. Write is an evolutionary biologist at Penn State and Hilton is a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester. It is well worth reading the article in full. Here ...7 hours ago
I am about to mail my overseas ballot to Florida so that it can be counted in the Democratic primary on March 17. In Florida you have closed as opposed to open primaries, which means that one must declare a party preference in order to vote in a party primary. ...9 hours ago
Winston Peters - Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the NZ First PartyWe all know that politics can be pretty messy at times. Just look at the Dirty Politics saga in New Zealand, the misgovernment of the Australian bushfires or the recent Trump impeachment debacle in the US. In a ...14 hours ago
Last Monday SpaceX launched another clutch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, bringing up to 300 the number of these units intended to bring 5G internet to the whole globe. In this post I present a movie showing how all 300 such satellites will be zipping around our planet over ...1 day ago
The recent floods in Southland have highlighted the issue of Rio Tinto's illegal toxic waste dump in Mataura. But according to Newsroom, there's an even worse mess in Ruakaka near Whangarei:A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to ...1 day ago
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman CARLSBAD, CA. – When it comes to paying the electric bill, most people don’t give it a second thought – it’s something that in effect is “baked in.” But across California and several other states, local governments increasingly are ...2 days ago
The Democracy Virus: China’s authoritarian political system enables a level of social surveillance and control that liberal democratic societies cannot match. The Chinese Government makes full use of the latest digital technology to both punish – and reward – its citizens. The plans it formulates cannot be challenged, or hindered. Where ...2 days ago
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...3 days ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...6 days ago
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We're taking action on child poverty, getting Kiwis into the trades, and more ...5 hours ago
Today New Zealand First made a pledge to campaign at the election to fund St John Ambulance the 90 per cent it has asked for. Government funding would allow St. John’s to achieve fully funded status. Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters publicly declared his determination to deliver ...1 day ago
Justice Minister Andrew Little will travel to Berlin tomorrow to represent New Zealand at a high-level summit on nuclear disarmament. This year, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) celebrates 50 years since it entered into force. “New Zealand’s proud record and leadership on nuclear disarmament is unwavering, so it’s important we are present ...11 hours ago
The Labour Party says it has received money from two of the people facing charges in relation to National Party donations but says they were above board. ...6 hours ago
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Using the same tactics as the fascist regime in Syria, (and even some of the same video clips), an Israel lobby group spreads hoaxes to whitewash Gaza massacre
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/israel-lobby-group-spreads-hoaxes-whitewash-gaza-massacre-0
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/22/broken-dreams-and-lost-lives-israel-gaza-and-the-hamas-card/
Jenny I am with you on the Palestinian issue.
Not so your standpoint on Syria.
Do you realise that Israel and the Saudis support the head chopping Jihadis in their fight against Assad?
+1
I presume your “head chopping jihadis” is a reference to ISIS. When has Israel ever supported ISIS?
In the propaganda that dupes believe, it’s common knowledge. But Israel doesn’t need to support external fascism: it has its own.
OAB
Plenty of information that Israel has supported Syrian rebels, zero evidence that Israel has supported ISIS.
Though given your pro Assad sympathies, perhaps you think all Syrian rebels are ISIS.
OAB has pro-Assad sympathies and has the overly simplistic view that all Syrian rebels are ISIS? Not that I’ve noticed. Perhaps you are getting him confused with someone else.
your pro Assad sympathies
Are you on drugs Mapp? Beta blockers? Viagra*? Something that induces hallucinations?
*”Some sildenafil users have complained of seeing everything tinted blue”.
I hope you weren’t expecting the courtesy of an apology from Wayne @OAB – even tho’ you can see the timestamps show the irriot is still around, and even tho’ he’s at pains to present himself as a fair and reasonable sort of bloke -affably fair and balanced (almost) and very ‘nice’. Which is probably why the Sunday morning comfy media parachuted in to the studio see him as some sort of wise old sage they can depend on for some words of wisdom (going forward).
He’s as big a ‘spray and walkaway’ spreader of his ideology as the all-purpose drench is to livestock.
The Honourable Dr Wayne Mapp. No wonder we could be in the shit -the guy is as big a fossil to foresight and wisdom as a mizzz Boag is to the consumption of botox and image consultants.
Both very shallow folk. Indeed they could probably set up their own veneer company with the good Doctor advising on the technicalities with Mish advising on the latest trends.
Wayne you need to reread what oab wrote – he is no supporter of Assad.
Nice straw man and diversion there Wayne.
There are plenty of Jihadist groups going under various names that have a thing for chopping off heads. Al Nusra and Al Zinki come instantly to mind.
And there is plenty of evidence that “western” governments have given material support to those groups. Should “western” include Israeli? I guess that’s somewhat of an open question.
What’s The governments preferred method for execution in Syria Bill ?
Insofar as there is capital punishment for some crimes in Syria, I’d guess that the “preferred” method for death would be by hanging. I could well be wrong – it’s only a guess.
I had a look on the amnesty site but couldn’t find it.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/syria/report-syria/
You quote Amnesty?
Hilarious
Brigid I don’t find any of the information relayed by Amnesty International hilarious, if you do you have a very strange and dark sense of humour.
As everyone knows*, Amnesty are headchoppers.
*terms and conditions apply.
Ah thanks for the clarification it’s so hard to keep up with who’s in whose bad books these days.
Pretty simple, really.
Assad and Putin are Benevolent and Popular Leaders who distribute presents to children and kiss puppies, and this infuriates the evil Western Deep State who spread lies and crisis hoaxes to keep their own populations in fear. The WDS also fund Terrorist Head-Choppers to fight the BPL, and every person who opposes the BPL are THCs. The WDS and their THC puppets also randomly kill BPL political opponents (who are usually THCs or WDS operatives) and innocent civilians in order to make it look like the BPL are actually cruel and totalitarian dictators who do not shy away from torture (lies) and murder (fake news!).
Fortunately, we have amongst us visionaries who can see through the lies of the WDS-controlled Main Stream Media and nobly tell us how good the BPL really are.
lol
Don’t forget torture.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/26/saudi-arabia-criticised-over-executions-for-drug-offences
48 beheadings in Saudi so far in 2018
But think of the sheep exports!
“I’m going to call the State Department!”
“What?”
“I’m going to call them a barrel of motherfuckers…”
Frank Zappa.
Apparently we’re supposed to turn a blind eye to all this because trade.
This is true. This is why we still have trade with many countries that do not have an ethical government.
That you don’t know Wayne, demonstrates your ignorance.
Wayne, FYI
Israeli Intelligence chief: We do not want ISIS defeat in Syria
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/israeli-intelligence-chief-not-want-isis-defeat-syria/
Why isn’t the Assad regime fascist?
Maybe it needs to try harder?
Hi Ed,
It probably wouldn’t hurt if you put in some links to support your narrative. At the very least to give your comment some context linked to the real world.
Your use of emotive words like “head choppers” to denounce the Syrian people in revolt against the Assad regime. Is at best a generalisation, and at worst a broad smear. Of course Isis has executed people, (and probably innocent people) by chopping off their heads. This is a matter of factual record. But to generalise that to smear the whole opposition to Assad, needs more evidence than you have ever produced.
The fact that some rich and eccentric Saudi princes have funded the fundamentalist parts of the opposition is a matter of public record. As a result, the fundamentalists are the only part of the armed opposition that has ever received much material aid of any sort. While the liberal and progressive forces have been starved of all support. (a fact which has helped the growth of the more extremist Islamist groups).
Your other conjecture Ed, is that Israel is opposed to the Assad regime.
Again you should supply some proof to back up your conjecture. Just saying it, doesn’t make it so.
There is a lot of evidence,( contrary to your conjecture), that leading members of the Assad ruling dynasty have had a close working relationship with the Zionist state over several decades.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/features/2015/8/17/exclusive-assads-sanctions-busting-ties-to-israeli-business-tycoon
As the above link details, much of the Assad dynasty credibility as Arab nationalists, rests on their on their supposed anti Zionist and anti-imperialist position, a position that doesn’t bear much examination.
During my time spent in the refugee camp in Latakia, at any mention or discussion of the Assad regime, the Palestinian refugees that I met expressed open derision at the idea of Assad being opposed to Israel. The Palestinian refugees in Syria told me that the Assad acted as a protector of Israel’s northern border, and that they did not consider the regime to be a genuine supporter of the Palestinian people.
The Assad regime much like the Sadat/Mubarak regime in Egypt had made their peace with the Zionists.
Though this relationship has been strained by the civil war, particularly by the Assad regime taking military support from Israel’s enemy Iran, the links will still be there. Personally I find it uncanny how the Israeli airforce can precisely target Iranian missile shipments to Hezbollah without the regime forces ever taking casualties.
The regime’s Arab nationalist anti-imperialist credentials don’t bear much examination either. As well selling off and privatising its public assets in the early 2000s at the behest of the World Bank and the IMF, (a sellout to Western imperialism that regime insiders also took a cut of), the Assad regime supplied 19,000 troops to support the US in the first Gulf War against Iraq. The Assad regime also worked closely with the CIA to help the CIA torture suspects flown to Syria under the CIA program of extraordinary rendition.
Ed, in past comments, I have provided you and others with the links to disprove your conjecture that Assad is an anti-imperialist Arab Nationalist. I won’t this time, because you obviously don’t read them, or even bother to open them. Because you have adopted a shallow narrative that such facts just don’t fit into.
In your mind Assad is some sort of Ho Chi Minh or Fidel Castro fighting the evil Yankee imperialists, as such we can afford to overlook or ignore his other faults, like genocide, and mass detention and torture in Nazi like death camps. Links that again I have supplied, (facts that you never challenge, instead that you choose to willfully ignore). In willfully overlooking these massive crimes against humanity, (as the necessary acts of a Nationalist leader defending himself against a foreign invader), as a result Ed you have become, wittingly or unwittingly an apologist and party to genocide.
Don’t support fascism.
It really shouldn’t have to be said.
I think it needs to be said over and over again, to the people who support fascism because they’ve been duped by fascist propaganda. Mention Assad, they start screeching about ‘headchoppers’ (another bunch of fascists, as though it needs saying). Mention Trump, they start blithering about her emails.
You can fool some of the people all of the time. Here at The Standard we have real world evidence that Lincoln was right.
So very true aob
What is your definition of fascism? Some people claim the Bathist regime in Syria is Fascist. It certainly is a totalitarian State that promotes a strong government and Syrian nationalism. Those are usually the cornerstone of Fascism.
You can add the practice of corporatism, torture and extrajudicial killing. Racism and “self-made-man” myths are usually to the fore aswell.
+111
Pretty sure most of those are part of the Assad regime as well.
‘Pretty sure’
Yep that’s proof enough
Why are you so quick to leap to the defence of the Assad government Brigid ?
Why are you so quick to make insinuations, Stoned Mullett?
I think it needs to be said over and over again, to the people who support fascism because they’ve been duped by fascist propaganda.
I think that’s far too narrow a focus and ought to be broadened out to include those who are unwitting supporters of fascistic tendencies because they believe Liberal propaganda.
Actually, on brief reflection, this “fascist” propaganda you speak of – who exactly are the fascists propagating it and that people are listening to?
Duped by fascist propaganda, from the likes of decent journalists like Pilger, Bartlett, Beeley and others. Hmm..k.
Sure you haven’t been duped by CNN, MSNBC, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights working out of his house in the UK?
Pilger supports the Chavista regime in Venezuela. Enough said.
Which we may surmise means you support extreme rightists like the New Order, who mean to steal their oil reserves.
Beeley and Bartlett are decent journalists? 😆
Edit: I wonder why The Intercept doesn’t appear in your list of news sources that I’m allegedly duped by. No, wait, I’m lying: I know exactly why that is 😆
I don’t suppose you’ve ever bothered to wonder why Eva Bartlett wasn’t subjected to the level of opprobrium she’s attracted for her coverage of Syria when she was reporting on Palestine from Gaza?
Maybe she just “lost the plot” somewhere along the line, or then again, maybe she’s consistent, and it’s just that her reporting from Syria doesn’t fit in the same nice comforting box as her reporting from Palestine?
What you suppose is of no concern to me.
As for Bartlett, I broadly agree with Malak Chabkoun.
Aljazeera, the mouth piece for El Nusra.
Do you actually believe I’m going to take your word for that?
How’s about you stop with the idiotic narcissism and (given it’s a place for engagement) engage rather than dropping pointless and vaguely inflammatory nonsense on people?
@Bill.
Brigid baldly asserts that Al Jazeera is a mouthpiece for terrorists – attacking the messenger as opposed to engaging with his argument, but I’m the one being pointless, inflammatory and narcissistic?
Pfft.
I don’t have anything to add to Malak Chabkoun’s remarks.
To bloody right maui … and we could add Fisk, Jeremy Scahill , Seymor hersh and others who have to find a outlet in our media landscape …
And what a warped landscape it is …. Here’s the results of some google searches I did ….
Skripal+poison+russia About 863,443 results
Yemen+siege+u.s.a+famine+2018 About 270 results
Syria+gas+Assad+2018 About 2,859,015 results
Yemen+siege+Britain+2018 About 15 results
Russia+”war crime”+Syria+2018 About 30,358 results
Israel+”war crime”+Gaza About 3 results
Corbyn+Anti-Semite bout 21,479 results
“Israeli terrorists”About 3,430 results
“Palestinian terrorists” About 24,209 results
Shaping opinion …. manufacturing consent
So I just did a Google search for “Israel + ”war crime” + Gaza” (note the syntax – spaces between terms) and returned many pages of results – Google says “about 250k results”. I don’t think much of your “findings”.
Edit: “Yemen + siege + u.s.a + famine + 2018” (note the syntax again) returns “about 253k results”. 🙄
Thanks OAB … can you fact check this for me
Marco the other day ( I think )made a good post containing and accurate statement about ‘farm sewerage
Labour has been attacked for a cow cap / cull based on excessive nutrient levels in our rivers ….. Nutrients don’t sound to bad and I’d swim in them … hell, do I get some vitamins with my nutrients in the river water ??….
But ‘Farm sewerage’ … I’m not going to swim in raw animal shit … it sounds very unhealthy swallowing and bathing in fecal matter …
“farm sewage” +”New Zealand”+river+excessive+safe About 38 results
nutrients +”New Zealand”+river+excessive+safe About 18,781 results
Framing the argument …. shaping opinion
Labour can easily win the excessive farm sewerage argument ….
“farm sewage” + ”New Zealand” + river + excessive + safe: “about 253 results”.
nutrients + ”New Zealand” + river + excessive + safe: “about 899k results”.
This is the last time I will try and educate you about syntax: add spaces between your search terms.
M. Bovis might just give the government space to initiate some “disaster Socialism“, and I’m not holding my breath.
OAB: absolutely true. One of the most poisonous and pernicious fallacies in contemporary politics is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. That’s what causes otherwise sane people to support crooks and despots like Trump (‘buh, buh, but, her emails, and yuck, icky icky girl cooties’) and Assad (‘buh, buh, but the Russians like him, and we like the Russians because…’ see previous). It’s stupid now, and it was stupid 35 years ago when that senile old fool Reagan was duped into supporting the most evil political movement of the second half of the 20th century.
What Is the difference in a nazi / facist who does this … http://ahrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ravensbruck-Emaciated_Children-.gif
And the people who do this https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yemen-civil-war-crisis-conflict-udai-faisal-starving-children-malnutrition-saudi-air-strikes-aid-a6958096.html
The children die the same way ….. But the disgusting Mays / Camerons / Trumps / Obamas are sick hypocrytes to lecture anyone about “humanitarian values” …
the United States and the United Kingdom are backing the Saudi-led coalition, and while calling for an end to the war, they continue along with Spain, France, Canada, Australia, and Italy, to sell billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and military equipment to parties to the conflict.
over the past 1,000 days:
Nearly 5,300 civilians were killed
Three million people were forced to flee their homes
Nearly one million people are suspected of contracting cholera in the world’s worst outbreak ever recorded
Oxfam said all that all parties to the conflict bear responsibility for these huge levels of human suffering and all are responsible for violations of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law.http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/the-united-states-is-complicit-in-the-destruction-of-yemen.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yemen-saudi-blockade-un_us_5a04678fe4b0f76b05c3d4f1
Poor old National party. The classic five stages of grief are on full display.
1 – DENIAL – Period suffered: Election night to budget day
Politics became meaningless. Parliament makes no sense. National were in a state of shock and denial. They were numb. Some pretended they were still minister, issuing decrees and orders that were ignored by tearful ex-staffers moving their boxes out of their Beehive offices. Awkward. Others wondered how they could go on, why should they go on. Many, many couldn’t go on and resigned. They tried to find a way to simply get through each day, going on diets, appearing on reality TV dancing shows.
2 – ANGER – Period suffered – Budget day to present.
National’s anger seems endless. But the more National truly feel it, the more the anger will begin to dissipate and the more they will heal. The truth is that Tory anger has no limits. It can extend not only to the speaker but their friends, the civil service, and silly little girls everywhere. Judith Collins, in her daily prayer session with Cameron Slater probably asks, “Where is God in this?” Underneath the anger is their pain. It is natural to feel deserted and abandoned by the electorate. Anger and fear are National’s strength and anchor, giving them temporary structure to the nothingness of their existence.
Still to come:
BARGAINING
DEPRESSION
ACCEPTANCE
Sanctuary 100%
A good wrap on the shonkey way National mussles in to crash Parliament now as they are such sore loosers arent they just.
They still dont accept defeat because they oppose MMP and believe they still have the right to Govern.
Sad folks National Party are really.
I’m not sure how you expect an opposition to behave. If memory serves me correctly I believe people like you were almost demanding Labour and the rest of the Opposition parties oppose the last government far more vigorously. It was as if not doing their utmost to stop them would be a betrayal of the nation. Now you think National should somehow become compliant. It makes little sense.
Gosman, don’t confuse opposing ‘far more vigorously’ with petulant and pre-planned disobedience. They have the entitlement of their questions allocated by the Clerk according to their numbers in the House. They should learn to ask questions properly.
You’re confusing form with content.
The Key kleptocracy’s innumerable rorts, failures and shortcomings were sufficient to keep a vigorous opposition busy for decades.
Having nothing comparable to criticize, the wretched Gnats are reduced to picking fights with the speaker. Had they the sporting chops to which Key so often pretended they’d realise that slagging off the Ref is a great way to excuse failure, but a lousy tactic if you actually mean to win.
“Where is God in this?”
More like “Great Cthulhu, blight my enemies.” Until recently her real enemies were on her own side of the house, but it must be hard to consider B&B a threat.
Aha… I was planning a bit of a dissertation along the same lines but yours is – as usual – better Sanctuary.
I think they’re almost done with the ‘Bargaining phase” (at least for the time being because Bridges won’t see the term out) and they’re moving into the ‘Depression’ state. Hence the tears of frustration and imagined victimisation by the Speaker. They’re causing it themselves but won’t ever admit it. This is likely to last until the end of the term with occasional outbursts of denial and anger thrown in for good measure.
I’m lovin it. 😀
President Trump.
– Pulled out of Paris Climate Accord
– Pulled out of CPTPP
– Pulled out of Iran
– Obliterated Palestinian peace dialogue
– Killed historic talks with North Korea
But delivered tax reform for corporations and very wealthy people, and increased funding for the military.
Worst US President in my lifetime.
Yes but it’s the best POTUS the industrial military complex have ever had and in this world that’s all that seems to matter now with they’re pervasive ways.
Russia and China are flexing the muscles with trump effectively paving a path for them with his ‘diplomacy’ and generally making America ‘great’ again.
Eye on those mid terms as the Donald goes hard out before the GOP likely lose more than a few sitting members.
Wasn’t he going to be the most tremendous bestest dealmaker ever? He did say maker, not breaker, right?
http://fortune.com/2018/05/04/unemployment-rate-century-low-percent/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-15/this-is-what-record-low-unemployment-looks-like-in-america
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/business/economy/jobs-report.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/05/04/black-unemployment-rate-hits-record-low-april/581090002/
Now you’re about to show me the causal relationship between President Trump’s economic policies and record low unemployment.
and of course if unemployment rose you wouldn’t use that as proof of how bad Trump is
President Trump’s track record in international relations is unquestioningly bad.
As to unemployment levels being an indicator of national belief in his leadership, check his polling.
President Trump is an exceptionally bad US President.
Ok I will:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/trump-bounceback/553337/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/donald-trump-poll-numbers-rising-foreign-policy-challenges/
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/07/politics/cnn-poll-trump-steady-right-direction-rises/index.html
Yeah not looking so bad for Trump especially given most of the polling is probably done in and around New York and California where most of the media is ensconced
Even a dead cat bounces. Check the trend.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/
So Labour won’t take credit for NZs good economy and will instead pay tribute to Nationals handling of the economy for the last nine years?
So, what you’re saying is that the US’s boom economy is all on Obama?
Might well be, I’m not that into american politics
Good economy.
What planet are you on?
Sames as Grants apparantly
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11994447
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/govt-finances-better-expected
Ah, planet Key.
Robertson. Another Neo-Lib.
They changed how the unemployed are counted again pucker?
I thought pulling out of the TPP would have been counted as a positive.
He was very close to being the first US president to meet the DPRK president, I thought that would be a positive too, and it’s still possible.
“….and it’s still possible.”
I’ve had a bit of practice doing deals with people from Korea, albeit on a much, much smaller scale, and my take is that the deal is still very much live. The deal will have several more bounces between top table and garbage bin before we get to the end result.
In the face of Donald Trump’s saber rattling and veiled threat about the size and power of the US nuclear strike capability.
Will South Korea and Japan defy the US and continue to seek rapprochement with North Korea?
South Korean president ‘perplexed’ at Trump’s decision to cancel North Korea summit
JULIA MANCHESTER – 24 May, 2018
http://thehill.com/policy/international/389219-south-korean-president-holds-emergency-meeting-after-trump-scraps-summit
Japan has reportedly reached out to North Korea for a summit meeting
http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-summit-with-north-korea-2018-3/?r=AU&IR=T
Has Donald Trump torpedoed the proposed peace treaty between North and South Korea to officially end the Korean War?
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/north-and-south-korea-agree-to-pursue-signing-a-peace-treaty-2018-4?r=US&IR=T
Judith Collins says Jacinda weak by not accepting Twyfords resignation. Yet here she still is. .
Unfortunately.
Jude doesn’t actually want Twyford to resign from anything as shes having far too much fun pointing out why Twyford has been promoted above his capabilities
“shes having far too much fun”.
Don’t you feel just a bit sorry for Twyford?
Question time has Phil looking rather like a mouse that a domestic cat has caught. There is the little rodent Twyford squeaking away in his state of terrified befuddlement.
Mind you, as someone who lives in the country that he claims to have some control over I would be only too happy to see Collins put him out of his misery and that he be replaced by someone with at least a skerrick of ability.
Oh for goodness sake Alvin. Go and change your pants. You are way to excited about chest beating Collins. Bet your dreams are full of Collins, black leather, thigh high boots and whips and handcuffs. Have i missed anything?
Thats quite a detailed description there Ffloyd 🙂
Cold shower, Pucky!
I’m getting some strange looks from around the office at the moment
Suit drenched in perspiration? Heart beating like a drum? The barely audible whine? Or is it something unmentionable? Costume malfunction?
Well…
LMFAO !!! Fancy looking codpiece, ROFL, that curve would hit the spot. Too funny!
That’s about your 50th post of the day and you are at work? Not getting much value out of you, are they?
Your tax payers dollars at work 🙂
An you’re proud of it!
That’s the smug dishonesty of the right for you I guess.
I am proud that I can work so efficiently that i can muck around on here and get all my work done 🙂
Not sure how you sleep at night.
If you really want to know I sleep au natural, mostly on my side (sometimes on my front) and am quite the deep sleeper
Can’t work out why you are so gleeful about wasting your employer’s time. You admonish others for arrogance but display all the signs of it yourself.
The amount of time i spend on here is directly proportionate to how much work i have on at the time
At the moment I don’t have much on so i can spend more time on here but on some days i can’t get on here at all because of the amount of work i have on
If you had a job you’d understand this concept 🙂
You have given away quite a lot of information about yourself today.
Noted for the future.
That is called Psychological Projection isn’t it FFluffy?
“Psychological projection is a defense mechanism people subconsciously employ in order to cope with difficult feelings or emotions. Psychological projection involves projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings”
Is that how you feel about Ms Collins? It certainly not something that ever occurred to me. Just don’t try and put your fantasies into practice.
So funny Alvin. You’d better sit down your projection is showing.
My God, FFluffy.
More Projecting on your part.
You identify as being an exhibitionist as well. You know you should be ashamed of yourself so you try and pretend it is other people who do the things that are the flaws in your own behaviour.
Sad. Really sad. Keep away from Primary Schools until you learn to control yourself.
I don’t feel sorry for him at all, he was part of the group that stated time and time again how bad NZ was, how bad National were, how Labour were so much better well hes got his chance and now hes showing just how competent he really is
The longer Jude toys with him and makes him look like the incompetent he really is the better, hes sort of representative of Labour really
Take Cindy away from Labour and all you have is people like Twyford
Funny, I seem to remember Judith Collins as one of the ‘”what housing crisis?” mob. Phil Twyford is doing OK. Don’t believe all the MSM bleats.
Collins was sacked for taking advantage of her position, so why is she so good? Oh your opinion.??
@PR.
True. When you really look at him he isn’t worthy of sympathy.
I personally think that Grant Robertson is about all the CoL has going for it. He has surprised me with the way he seems to have started getting a grasp on his portfolio. When you look back at his mucking about a couple of years ago with his blathering about things like a UBI and so on he has got much better.
I suppose it is because he has been house-trained by Treasury.
Ardern remains a major disappointment in my view. Perhaps she will learn in the future but she shows no signs of having any grasp of her job to date. She has been pretty much a glove-puppet for Tsar Winston so far.
Your assessment of ardern is praising with faint damnation.
I thought the casual sexism from alwyn was the standout silliness, but I can see what you’re saying McFlock.
“praising with faint damnation”.
Sounds a reasonable interpretation of my opinion.
I simply don’t think she is up to the job. She simply doesn’t know enough about the problems and isn’t prepared for it..
I want someone competent in that job, and she simply isn’t the one.
Of the Labour leaders since Clark, who was up to the job, the only one who seemed to be capable of filling the role was Shearer. Why did the Labour Party stab him in the back?
And, for your mate adam, it has nothing whatsoever to do with her sex.
But he knows that doesn’t he?
lol
Obviously sowing discord and fanning paranoia in Labour is a perishable skill.
A solid seven years of Labour fighting itself left you incompetent at doing the job yourself.
Putting the Shearer barb aside (which is just disappointingly weak), Ardern consistently nukes shouty&co in the House, her ministers are getting results, and all in all they’ve stepped into their new roles with ease and competence. But then it doesn’t take much to improve on the last batch of ministers, anyway.
Ardern, in the House, simply doesn’t answer the questions. Still, she has got Mallard to protect her doesn’t she.
Look at this extract from Hansard. It was Question 1 last Tuesday.
“Hon Simon Bridges: What extra funding did the Budget provide to fulfil her promise to pay early childhood education (ECE) centres more for employing 100 percent qualified staff?
Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As the member will know, Budget 2018 included a 45 percent increase in education funding. The fact that we could put 45 percent more into education—new funding—and still have additional needs that we need to meet demonstrates just how bad things were for the education sector.”
When it was pointed out that there had been no attempt to answer the question Trevor came out with,
“Mr SPEAKER: Well, it was very clearly addressing the question.”
You call that “nuking”?
“her ministers are getting results”. Really?
How many of the billion trees have been planted?
How many of the 100,000 homes have at least been started?
How many pensioners are getting their $700 heating allowance this year?
maybe after a few years more practise you’ll get the hang of it.
“after a few years more “.
You may be right. Of course after a few more years the answers to my 3 questions will still be the same.
Trees planted. ZERO.
Kiwibuild affordable homes started. ZERO
Pensioners getting $700 heating allowance in 2018. ZERO.
Have a nice day y’all.
I would bookmark that prediction, but in two years we’ll probably have plenty of more recent examples of your grief-ridden disconnect with reality.
That addressing the question malarkey is bollocks isn’t it wally. Whose bright idea was that?
Alywyn and PR if you are feeling excited that Judith blew the whistle on pt use of the cell phone you are desperate. It is a minor misdemeanor and only serves to compare and contrast what happened with Gerry and airport security. No conquence for Gerry. Phil stands down on a very minor part of his workload(probably glad to get rid of it)………jacinda looks good. The majority on an on-line poll thinks phill didn’t need to stand down……..is this all national have got? Rather pathetic
It’s those godawful butchered eyebrows that terrorise the poor man wally.
That’s nothing to do with Twyford. That’s Collins declaring open war against Brownlee – because any discussion of Twyford’s actions inevitably broadens to include Brownlee’s own error of judgement.
It’s almost sad to see how the Nats have begun tearing themselves apart after their election loss. Even Labour in 2008 weren’t that bad.
(The system is telling me this is a duplicate comment – but the original comment was lost in cyberspace – admins feel free to delete one or t’ other)
That’s nothing to do with Twyford. That’s Collins declaring open war against Brownlee – because any discussion of Twyford’s actions inevitably broadens to include Brownlee’s own error of judgement.
It’s almost sad to see how the Nats have begun tearing themselves apart after their election loss. Even Labour in 2008 weren’t that bad.
Uber autonomous car crash in Arizona investigation report is out
The Uber car, a Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicle equipped with Uber’s sensing technology, comes with an automatic emergency braking system from the manufacturer.
But Uber disabled that function as well as other safety features to “reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior,” according to the report.
While the person pushing the bike across the road had traces of P and marijuana in her system, its stunning to find Uber had disabled part of the vehicles emergency systems
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/technology/uber-autonomous-car-ntsb-investigation.html
micro plasma bovis spread – “Livestock transporters let down over effluent “- By Ken Shirley.
This was an Interesting bit here; – from a National Party ally and ex MP in the Act party in coalition with the 1990’s era of the National Government.
Ken Shirley is now talking about shifting the blame onto Labour now!!!!
incredible it is when he was firstly an MP under Labour in the Langey government then under National Party as an ACT MP in 1990’s alongside National when they were in power!!!
Ken Shirley couild have sung loud about road truck effluent spread then couldn’t he?
“I see nothing” = Ken Shirley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Shirley
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1805/S00364/livestock-transporters-let-down-over-effluent.htm
SCOOP POLITICS
Livestock transporters let down over effluent
Thursday, 24 May 2018, 12:06 pm
Press Release: Road Transport Forum
24 May 2018
Livestock transport operators are extremely disappointed in the way farmers, OSPRI and MPI have failed to implement and properly enforce stock movement regulations as is their responsibility under the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme, says Road Transport Forum Chief Executive Ken Shirley.
“These regulations were put in place for a reason, as we are now finding out to the country’s considerable cost with the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak.”
“Stock trucks are fitted with effluent tanks with a finite capacity that require frequent emptying. The act of disposing effluent, which in the past was difficult enough, has as a direct result of the fear associated with disease spread become a significant issue.”
Many farmers have been remiss in not adequately standing stock off green feed prior to transport to reduce effluent production while local government and meat processing companies have been extremely tardy in providing access to effluent disposal facilities. Access to traditional disposal facilities is also now being restricted fearing disease spread.
“With Mycoplasma bovis upon us greater demands are being put on stock transporters to wash and sanitise their vehicles but there has been no focus on the provision of adequate effluent disposal sites by the other parties.”
“Farmers and meat processors are placing increased burdens and cost on stock transporters but steadfastly refuse to shoulder the additional costs and responsibility generated by their own tardiness.”
“What if Mycoplasma bovis was an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease? In that nightmare scenario it would clearly not be acceptable to leave the burden of responsibility for effluent disposal solely with transporters, yet the primary sector doesn’t seem to appreciate that the principle here is just the same.”
“Livestock transporters are more than happy to continue to play their part in the responsible movement of animals. However, MPI, councils, farmers and meat processors also need to help facilitate the appropriate disposal of stock effluent through better facilities and practices,” says Shirley.
ends
The constant movement of stock will be a thing of the past now the disease is here. If you have a disease free herd you will want to keep it that way.
by bye stock trucks. You wont be missed. ( other than to the works)
here here; dukeofurl,
We will not miss those rattling nasty smelling stock trucks as the smell is also the sign we are recieving water droplets of aerosols that can cause us many diseases we are warned constantly.
Yes I operate a small farm but we keep our stock away from our home.
We advocate using rail again to move our stock as rail is away from roads and our driving behind stock trucks is a health risk but trains we dont travel behind. so this is worth thinking abiout now.
Besides the roads are falling apart with so many stock trucks on our rural roads now.
Shirey and his gangsrters should ppay to fix our rural roads then he may jion us and use rail again.
Not sure that he’s trying to “blame” Labour, rather a plea for everyone in the industry to work together sort the situation out.
“Many farmers have been remiss in not adequately standing stock off green feed prior to transport to reduce effluent production while local government and meat processing companies have been extremely tardy in providing access to effluent disposal facilities. ”
That’s a full on assault on farmers and the parties that should have been providing the effluent disposal and washing facilities. And coming from the stock transport sector who’ve made a considerable amount out of being a bus service to the livestock industry. But think Citybus rather than Tour Bus.
What Ken doesn’t touch on, but which is freaking the transport sector, is transport becoming a party to NAIT. This way the stock will be tagged off the farm, onto the truck, off the truck, and onto the farm. So then there’s a record of the animals that have been on each truck. Easy to do but a considerable cost to the transporter, and will put the clammers on black / grey market stock movements. And that side of the business is where the money is. Ooooops
Graeme! Wash, as the trucks have to be, your mouth out with soap! Such things you say! Calves, without ear-tags? Surely, no!
A stock truck pulls up to a farm loading ramp in the middle of the night, 10 cows get off, 4 get on, that’s after the same truck took a full load past the gate to the works that afternoon from a farm 100 km away.
Then you’ve got RentaBull, guy down the road has several hundred for short term hire, along with NickaBull, (can get tricky getting him into the trailer in the middle of the road), and BorrowaBull (short out the fence with your cows in the boundary paddock)
Indeed.
As it always should have been.
Make it mandatory to have GPS tracking on all vehicles and road sensors watching and counting the vehicles.
Also, go Cashless. It’s difficult to commit crime when it will be picked up automatically.
“As it always should have been.”
Would love to see the decision trail around that. There would have been some intense lobbying to keep the truckies out of it and create a gap that the cash could flow through. Interesting that the most vocal opponents of NAIT were stock agents.
Cashless..
There you go again, Draco..
How do you see cashless playing out …really…
Serious question…
Pretty well. We’re almost there already as I point out.
It’s difficult to commit crime when it will be picked up automatically.
No, it will simply require a little more coordination between organised criminals in the banking sector and those in the underground economy.
The banking sector won’t actually have the money on them. It will be entirely stored in government servers.
Shirley he’s not preempting some revelation about effluent disposal.
Gosman
Puckish Rogue
It gives me great Pleasure to announce the long awaited marriage between the above two tireless contributors to Drivel Inc . It is seldom that two blogees marry and produce happiness. We should be so grateful for their joint outpourings of hot crap.
They are so well matched and mated.
No, they are too imbued in the concept of self pleasuring to be able to consumate a relationship.
On the marriage of Gosman and Pucky; Jude will be seething!!
Pucky’s hers!
Heres a poem i wrote that succinctly describes my feelings, what do you think?
My life is brilliant
My life is brilliant
My love is pure
I saw an angel
Of that I’m sure
She smiled at me on the TV
She was with another man
But I won’t lose no sleep on that
‘Cause I’ve got a plan
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful, it’s true
I saw her face in a crowded place (parliament)
And I don’t know what to do
‘Cause I’ll never be with you
Yes, she caught my eye
As we walked on by
She could see from my face that I was
Flyin’ high
And I don’t think that I’ll see her again
But we shared a moment that will last till the end
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful, it’s true
I saw your face in a crowded place
And I don’t know what to do
‘Cause I’ll never be with you
La-la-la-la
La-la-la-la
La-la-la-la, la
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful
Shes beautiful, it’s true
There must be an angel with a smile on her face
When she thought up that I should be with you
But it’s time to face the truth
I will never be with you
Hm.
I suppose you are trying but I’m not sure you should give up your day job to chase your dream of becoming Poet Laureate/
Mind you, when very young, I used to feel much the same way about Sophia Loren. That young lady, for some strange reason, seemed to prefer that old, bald, short chap Carlo Ponti. Very odd of her when you consider all I had to offer.
After all, when she said “I do” she would have been entitled to half my bicycle.
ps. Is that suitably ageist, sexist and racist to satisfy you adam?
lols.
But I have to agree with alwyn. Don’t give up your day job.
This is what famous literary critic Harold Bloom said about never writing poetry himself:
” It must have had something to do with the enormous reverence and rapture I felt about poetry, the incantatory strength that Crane and Blake had for me from the beginning. To be a poet did not occur to me. It was indeed a threshold guarded by demons. To try to write in verse would have been a kind of trespass.”
Advice worth heeding Pucky.
Jude is a big fan of casual racism and sexism, so I guess you’re right Robert Guyton – Gossy would not be a perfect fit.
http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/312/563/05d.jpg
Not really interested in another round of you trying to laugh off your casual sexism and racism Puckish Rogue – so jog on.
OT they are probably one of the same person; who knows?
Yes. Felicitations to them both. They are well-matched.
One has all the questions. The other has all the answers.
And we get to critique both. 🙂
More hidden reports and zero action on industry from the Natz. But what is Labour going to do about it, give a free pass to industry?
Fishing industry lies revealed in leaked report
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1805/S00160/fishing-industry-lies-revealed-in-leaked-report.htm
Labour wont do shit because Winston.
Fisheries in NZ is a disgrace.
But…but, Tony Hazlett (Head of Talley’s Nelson division) says the hoki fishery is healthy and will be for some time.
They can still make money then. That’s nice. And they envisage making money “for some time” – that time being when the fishery is completely fucked which, as Hazlett has basically acknowledged, is what’s on the cards.
saveNZ,
Now that National has declared on Labour the first casualty of this political war is truth.
it seems that all Polititians seem to rush to cover themselves first and ignore the truth starring thwem in the face as we all see is there today,
Labour so far have a better record onn admitting their faults than National ever had done.
So we hope this increases and labour takes the ‘bull by the preverbial horn’ and gets in and fixes all these worrying issues so we can say “we did this”
Yes Labour are better, but there is a massive mess left behind… like this one..
More than 98,000 non-New Zealand citizens arrived in the April 2018 year. However, more than 30,000 non-New Zealand citizens left this country.
The more important question might be, did the non NZ citizens leave after buying housing and assets in NZ and did they leave satellite families behind who qualify for government assistance?
Should long term NZ residents and citizens be expected to pick up the welfare bill for asset rich people who have only been in the country for a few years?
How will the government’s 1000 – 1600 new affordable houses help when 60,000+ new people arrived last year?
Should there be an expiry date and controls on residency to people who are just using NZ as a cockoo lifestyle to raise their kids or care for their aged parents after gaining residency and heading back overseas to work?
Should there be a minimum amount of time spent in the country (aka 75% of time spent in NZ over a lifetime of gaining residency) to be allowed access to free health care, education and super and voting if you come into NZ under the pretext of working or settling here permanently but then as increasingly the case, it’s leaving NZ after getting the paperwork through?
Should there be a lot more safe guards with clearer controls on trusts and companies hiding assets like housing or small businesses which can then be used to mask or structure people’s wealth enabling rich people to legitimately claim welfare and accommodation benefits, tax write offs and WFF or straight benefits through loopholes and our very relaxed laws on companies and trusts holding assets.
This is a serious issue facing the country as we have people who are born here or migrated here and working hard or just being a citizen who is also a beneficiary and genuinely poor and they are getting less opportunities.
NZ is no longer the land of plenty, somehow we have gone from state houses to living in cars, as well as people who genuinely need secure work and opportunities at living wages… and the government is not doing enough to ensure to protect our system against abuse that has occurred under the National government’s decade reign of ‘rockstar economy’ aka widespread fraud and sell offs and trougher’s of all descriptions at the public purse.
@Save NZ
An excellent article !
Lend me your Ears
We simply cannot admit any or every passport into NZ until we have housing, plumbing, sewerage, health, education and work for the owner of the Passport.
National, namely John Key and Billy English and their handmaids being of low IQ, did not understand that. And they have created chaos. National will never rise again for what they did not do.
“National has declared on Labour”.
For those who follow the great game of Cricket I shall tell you the score at the time of the declaration.
When they declared National had reached 987 runs for 3 wickets.
Labour went into bat and when stumps were drawn due to bad light Labour had reached a score of 16 runs for the loss of 7 wickets.
National’s score of course took four days to compile; from 450 overs.
At the end of the drawn game, National declared themselves the winner as they were the team that had scored the most runs.
The series had of course been decided with Labour winning three of the five matches.
National attacked the match umpires for obvious bias, and besides they had more players in their team.
Team vice-captain, MS Bennett, who retired early, frustrated at not scoring any runs, alleged the umpires’ decisions were “dangerous for cricket”. Later cautioned for ball-tampering with the heavy roller, she said “Their decisions had become personal.”
When the after-match commentators pointed out that the great majority of the National wickets that fell were either due to hit wicket or were bowled middle stump and obviously out, MS Bennett said that the decisions were flawed and anyway they hadn’t been quite ready.
“The pitch was too green and the opposition’s ball was red,” she said.
Next week we could see the end of Kiwibuild and the NZ dream for all of Home Ownership. If Auckland Council has its way lifting development contributions from $20-$25k/house to $70k/house for Greenfield developments. You can argue from both positions as to the justification of who incurs the financial cost of infrastructure.
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/93235/auckland-councils-economists-argue-full-development-contributions-are-unlikely-result
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12043072
“And a separate proposal could see developers on future greenfields sites paying as much as $70,000 per dwelling.”
And would not the Unitec development be considered Greenfields as its current use is not housing ?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/353359/mt-albert-kiwibuild-homes-private-sector-needs-help-twyford
“Forty percent of the houses will be part of KiwiBuild – available to first-home buyers at between $500,000 and $600,000.” Unfortunately there is even more pressure on the cost to construct and still be considered “Affordable”
How sad for the young that owing a house is fast vanishing more most 🙁
The question is also ‘where has all the money going” that has been collected by Auckland council. They have outrageous water bills, actually not the water apparently which is free but for the pipes which actually seem to be a mess still after years of Metrowater, we have 54% of rates going to Auckland Transport which is also a mess and takes 5 times longer than a car for a 2 stage journey and costs 5 times the cost of petrol, while many areas have little to zero public transport at all, then we have our infrastructure and development costs which seem astronomical but somehow also seem to need to go up to $70k per development and not much sign of all the infrastructure being put in by council for all the new developments they took the contributions for over the past decade of contributions. And now a petrol tax, actually two taxes, a regional one and an Auckland one.
All this while reducing library services, making people mow their own berms and thinking we need a billion dollar stadium and giving themselves salary rises and new premises, more marketing people, more lawyers, more of everyone pushing paper around at great cost and with little practical reality coming out of it.
Prior to having his heart attack Phil Goff was in China. This is an interesting article about how a Chinese strategy is to get countries to borrow money that they can’t pay back. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/warning-sounded-over-chinas-debtbook-diplomacy.
Sounds like Phil and the Auckland council are hoping to bankrupt the city to join the government in borrowing money as fast as possible to put in development, which seems to be for the Ponzi scheme of importing in low skilled people needing welfare to top up their meagre wages, the higher skilled who leave after a few years to work after obtaining residency, while leaving behind children to be educated and the elderly to be looked after by tax paying Kiwis who now struggle to afford a house, or even to drive to work with the petrol taxes to pay for the folly.
Prior to the last decade we had a normal level of people migrating here who stayed and made a life here, we did not have floodgates of people buying up assets and then leaving with non working family members living here in million dollar houses or with small businesses losing money while employing more and more overseas people into the country!
What is going wrong with this picture?
Remember this, nobody held to account and the ratepayers forced to pay 25% rises of rates for the folly which mean’t many lost their houses….
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1208/S00196/commissioners-at-kaipara-council-a-sign-of-things-to-come.htm
Detroit city council approves bankruptcy related water authority deal
http://www.jurist.org/paperchase/2014/09/detroit-city-council-approves-bankruptcy-related-water-authority-deal.php
Unfair, savey, unfair. The widespread misunderstanding of Goffles’ socalled secretiveness highlights the need for a massively expanded PR campaign. Obviously more management will be needed and managers cost money. Ratepayers will appreciate the effort and the jump in their property values.
Ok I agree a bit unfair for Goffles, he inherited the problem, but he is going in the wrong direction by adding in more managers and listening to those already there who seem to have misdirected the money collected so far.
Nope, ratepayers who actually work in Auckland are not happy unless they are cashing up and leaving, those left are paying more rates and now petrol taxes, but have nothing working ain’t happy. Even in 2015 it showed over 80% of ratepayers were not happy with the council. (The stopped public polling after that result).
You can’t go to the beach because of sewerage, you can’t drive across town because of congestion, you can’t catch public transport because it doesn’t go there or takes even longer to get there…. nothing really being done about that, even though in places there are train tracks that the experts don’t want to use, You can’t even get a decent meal these days and in the legacy of having chefs and burger managers considered a ‘essential skill’ McDonalds has been in the news when pills have been found in the Sundaes and the famous French cafe has apparently been bought out and the joke being is it going to be renamed the French curry? Now that’s capitalism and globalism at work or maybe the fall of it, I’m not sure!
Auckland council and COO thinking is from a money grab perspective, and still adding in more people. The poorer citizens are being advised by MSM to leave the city and go to the provinces, essentially surrender and just leave the neoliberals to sell off the city.
What a legacy, bankrupting the city and purging it of poor and middle class people and leaving the rich, the rich who claim benefits, more and more fake, illegal or misleading businesses and a few refugees left. How Rogernomics.
Lip Reading the Royal Wedding. Very clever and very funny.
Because its Friday heres my two favourite bad lip reading efforts
It’s a beautiful day in Putaruru Aotearoa at the minute.
Io gave us another big bouncy baby boy yesterday and it our mokos birthday today she’s 3 our mokos in Auckland are all good here’s a link to some music ECO MAORI likes below.
Ka kite ano P.S Its Mataraki
Hi standardistas. I know you have differences with people in New Zealand. But today a man in England was sentenced to death by the Tory government run by the Israeli interests in England for standing up for the working class girls of England.
This is bipartisan issue. If a Tory government can arrest people and sentence and imprison them within the hour for speech in the United Kingtom for standing up for British working class girls who were raped under Labour we are in dire straights.
Please stand up for free speech. Stand up for Tommy Robinson, defending the working class girls who were sacrificed to diversity.
The working class in England should be marching in the streets. This is bipartisan, genuine fascism. You want to see real fascism? Here it is.
If Tommy Robinson dies in prison because he’s murdered by muslims, it’s time for bad things to start happening to the British ruling classes.
The man was imprisoned over nothing, and then sentenced and imprisoned within the hour. No jury. No trial.
https://www.menofthewest.net/the-murder-of-tommy-robinson-how-britain-became-the-kebab-archipelago/
I’m going to be doing daily posts on Tommy Robinson.
The British government and the overall British ruling class have no mandate by the British people. They have suspended their relations with the British people. They should be regarded as an illegitimate government ruling by force and their supposed authority should be suspended and they should be regarded as adversaries of the British people.
The people of England need to start arming themselves with anything they can find. This is real. This is terrifying. And justice needs to be served.
The rape of 1 million girls by the English ruling class deserves justice.
I hope that justice comes for the English ruling class, whatever form it takes. The English ruling class are aliens to England. I won’t state why, but they are not English. They are of another group of people who have a different agenda to the English.
Every day, I’m going to start writing about the English government and what it is doing.
New Zealand needs to put pressure on this regime and start divesting ourselves of the relationship until they restore the rule of law and the freedoms of western institutions to England.
God bless the English
Good evening Newshub Lloyd looks like Ireland is going to catch up with the times and give Lady’s the right to have a abortion the Mana Wahine = rights movement is strong. Lloyd do you miss Winston.
Judge Andrew Becroft is a good fair Kiwi who ECO MAORI backs 100 %. Off topic my view is that Judith Collins the – – – – – – is at her worst paying someone to spy on Phil Twyford and slowly leak the the bad habits of Phil that’s is how nasty people like Judith Collins behave .
Does that show te tangata what tech can be use for the tracking of visit to farms with the bovine virus is a good thing but there are many bad things that people can use tech for even the state.
ECO MAORI Says there should be a total set net ban around the endanger Mauri dolphins habitat come on there are less than 60 of these beautiful creatures of Tangaroa left these fishmen can use long lines some how I think NZF are slowing down the process of a set net ban – – – – – – you Ka kite ano P.S people like Judith Collins can’t win fairly so they cheat