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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Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week...
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Australia's High Court has ruled that the "palace letters" between the queen and then-Governor-General John Kerr are public records rather than private papers: Historian Jenny Hocking has won her High Court bid to access the letters exchanged between then governor-general Sir John Kerr and the Queen around the time of ...
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Labour's talk of gutting the RMA to push through "shovel ready" projects to boost employment after the pandemic predictably has every half-arsed pipe-dream crawling out of the woodwork demanding special treatment. Today, it's the West Coast inbreds, who are demanding a host of laws be rescinded so they can dig ...
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Hon Shane Jones, NZ First List MP based in Northland New Zealand First MP Hon Shane Jones has today announced his candidacy for the electorate of Northland. Speaking at a New Zealand First meeting in Kerikeri, Northland, Mr Jones said it was a privilege to be selected by the Party ...
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Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
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Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
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The Coalition Government has confirmed five Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 Super Hercules transport aircraft will be purchased to replace the existing fleet, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “Last year, Cabinet selected these aircraft as the preferred option to replace the current Hercules fleet. Procurement of the Super Hercules has been ...
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Mobile traders and truck shops must adhere to responsible lending requirements Interest rate cap on high-cost loans Lenders prohibited from offering further credit to an applicant who has taken two high-cost loans in the past 90 days The Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kris Faafoi, has signalled an end ...
94% of firms say wage subsidy had positive impact on cashflow 62% of firms say support helped to manage non-wage costs like rent A survey of business that have received the Government’s wage subsidy show it has played a significant role in saving jobs, and freed up cash flow to ...
New legislation introduced to Parliament today will support growth and assist businesses on the road to economic recovery, said Revenue Minister Stuart Nash. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2020-21, Feasibility Expenditure, and Remedial Matters) Bill proposes that businesses can get tax deductions for ‘feasibility expenditure’ on new investments,” said Mr ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has welcomed the first release of funds from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced as part of Budget 2020. Sport NZ has announced that $4.6 million in funding will go to the Wellington Phoenix, NZ Warriors, Super Rugby teams and the ANZ Premiership ...
An iconic New Zealand tourism attraction and the country’s 31 Regional Tourism Organisations are the first recipients of support from the $400 million Tourism Sector Recovery Plan, to help position the sector for recovery from COVID-19, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. The plan includes a Strategic Tourism Assets Protection ...
The Government will legislate to ensure businesses that suffered as a result of the COVID-19 response will get help to resolve disputes over commercial rent issues, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. A temporary amendment to the Property Law Act will insert a clause in commercial leases requiring a fair ...
The Minister for Small Business says new data from Xero highlights the urgency of prompt payment practices to small and medium enterprises as we move into economic recovery. Last month Government ministers wrote to significant private enterprises and the banking industry to request they join efforts by government agencies to ...
Young people in Waikato will be the first to have free access to period products in schools in another step to support children and young people in poverty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. During term 3, the Ministry of Education will begin providing free period products to schools following the ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash has issued the following statement in response to charges filed against three Police officers this morning in the New Plymouth District Court. “Any incident involving a loss of life in Police custody is taken very seriously. The charges today reflect the gravity of the ...
$196 million for Crown Research Institutes $150 million for R&D loan scheme $33 million for Māori research and development opportunities $12 million for the Nationally Significant Collections and Databases $10 million to help maintain in-house capability at Callaghan Innovation New Zealand’s entrepreneurs, innovators and crown researchers will benefit from a ...
Further temporary changes to NCEA and University Entrance (UE) will support senior secondary school students whose teaching and learning have been disrupted by COVID-19. “The wellbeing of students and teachers is a priority. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has created massive disruption to the school system, and the Government ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters today announced that the terms for the directors of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) have been extended to 30 June 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the transition period has been extended to ensure that the Racing Industry Bill can complete its progress through ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
Does a move to Covid-19 Level 1, that Cabinet is considering tomorrow (Monday, June 8), mean back-to-normal for 290,000 rental property owners and managers, Tenancies War spokesman Mike Butler said today. The Covid-19 Response (Urgent Management) Act, ...
ANALYSIS:By Denis Muller of theUniversity of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Noble, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Three quarters of a million Australian children are likely to be experiencing employment stress in the family as a result of COVID-19. This is on top of around 615,000 children whose families were ...
Spice up the classic banana muffin with a subtle touch of star anise.These muffins came about one rainy Saturday when the cupboards were bare and there was nothing much left in the fruit bowl aside from some very sad-looking bananas. Fortunately we know sad bananas result in the best kind ...
For years, Work and Income has been telling New Zealanders they couldn’t get the benefit until their redundancy payments ran out. Turns out, it was wrong.What’s all this then?Work and Income has long told New Zealanders receiving redundancy payments that they weren’t eligible for the benefit until their redundancy money ...
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...
Until the sudden closure of Bauer Media in April, Simon Farrell-Green was the editor of HOME, New Zealand’s oldest architecture magazine. Here he explains what comes next.Being the editor of a major architecture magazine was the best job I ever had. I got it in 2016, after a career spent ...
A global success story or an overly generous, unsustainable scheme that is doing lasting damage to our fish stocks? Ethan Neville looks at the ongoing debate over New Zealand’s fishing quota management system. The management of our fisheries is a touchy topic – and why wouldn’t it be? New Zealanders ...
By RNZ News Thousands of people were protesting across Australia today to oppose the deaths of Indigenous people in police custody. It comes as Black Lives Matter protests are held around the world after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in the US ...
Wrapping everyone in a blanket of love, whakapapa and mauri for Matariki is the brave, exuberant and generous fabric art of Maungarongo Te Kawa, writes Amanda Thompson.E te AtuaNau enei rau harakeke he taongaTukuna ki a matouKia tika o matou mahiKo Papatuanuku e takoto neiTuturu WhakamauaKia tina, tinaHui eTaiki e.‘Karakia ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...
It’s not often that someone graduates from university one year and becomes a senior economist commentating on national media the next. George Driver investigates the meteoric rise of the high-flying Brad Olsen.Google “senior economist Brad Olsen” and you’ll find him quoted in no fewer than 167 articles in the past ...
As public sentiment turned against Uber Eats, a new local operation emerged promising a more ethical alternative to help New Zealand’s struggling hospitality industry. But now Eat Local NZ has suspended trading after falling out with its Australian partner Mr Yum. So what happened?A dispute between local hospitality platform Eat ...
By Budi Sutrisno in Jakarta As the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died while being arrested in the United States, sparks a global outcry, Indonesian rights advocates and young people have stepped forward to remind fellow citizens that racism has long been an issue at home as ...
Edward Cullen became a vampire to survive the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Now a new Twilight novel looms and Laura Surynt, a New Zealander living in the UK, wants to live forever too. As I lay in bed this morning watching Instagram stories, Tayi Tibble told my reluctant little Capricorn ...
Over the lockdown period, thousands of people joined a Facebook group dedicated to remembering the nightlife of inner-city Auckland. Its creator Simon Grigg explains why it touched a chord in lockdown.Within a few days of The Lost Nightlife of Inner-city Auckland Facebook page accidentally going live on May 12, we ...
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...
"The countdown clock ticks 2, then 1, then the prime minister raises her drink": dystopia, by Ōtautahi writer Laura Borrowdale. You stand in the centre of the room, and around you, the guests seem to swirl and blend into one. There’s a mouth, gaping and red, filled with laughter. A ...
WATCH: In a candid interview on Sky Sport, Dame Susan Devoy talks on her concern for rising sports stars, the state of NZ squash, and the spectre of racism. Dame Susan Devoy is proudly still “a little terrier who fights for the underdog”. “I have been doing it all my life and ...
Martin Luther King Jr said in 1963: “America has given the Black people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’." Six generations of egregious police violence later, the sentiment out of which those bad cheques were born could be shifting. In the wake of egregious police violence, ...
Of the huge funding boost coming for early childhood education, Playcentre has been left with just the crumbs, writes Kate Barber. Amidst all the celebration of the $430m funding boost for early childhood education (ECE) announced in this year’s budget, little attention was paid to the plight of Playcentre. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vikrant Minhas, PhD candidate, University of Adelaide Although bacteria are single-celled and microscopically small, they still need energy to survive, just like us. One of the most efficient ways of acquiring energy for bacteria is through sweet, soluble carbohydrates: sugars. In fact, ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie Three cartoonists had especially poignant takes on the tragic and toxic political aftermath of martyr George Floyd’s brutal killing under the knee of a white American policeman in Minneapolis last week. The Boston Globe’s Christopher Weyant featured a split frame contrasting a red-capped “Make ...
Are central bankers jealous that epidemiologists are the rock stars of the current crisis?There is talk that both the British and New Zealand central banks might institute negative interest rates as part of the policy response to the Covid shock. While Sweden’s central bank ended its five year experiment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Monika Sarder, Senior Strategic Analyst, Monash University Algorithmic decision-making has enormous potential to do good. From identifying priority areas for first response after an earthquake hits, to identifying those at risk of COVID-19 within minutes, their application has proven hugely beneficial. But ...
LISTEN: This week's Extra Time podcast discusses racism in sport and the role of athletes and organisations in making a stand for good. Former Silver Fern and Black Fern Louisa Wall believes today's sports stars must have a social conscience and stand up against discrimination and divisiveness. Sport and politics, once ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Thomas, Associate professor, Flinders University We have seen ten days of protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd. While thousands of people have gathered to express their outrage peacefully, some demonstrations have been marred by vandalism and ...
40 percent of millennials have one, and an increasing number of GenXers and Baby Boomers do too. Two Cents' Worth delves into the world of side hustles. ...
Auckland writer Caroline Barron has a terrific book out today called Ripiro Beach: A Memoir of Life After Near Death. Here, she writes about the memoirs that have been a balm, a lesson, or both. Throughout my life, I’ve sought solace between the covers of books, particularly memoirs. There, I’ve learnt ...
An exclusive interview with Steve McSteverson about his traumatic and tragic ordeal this week.Many New Zealanders are struggling with the news that a children’s book not commissioned or authorised by Jacinda Ardern was advertised in a newsletter for children’s books. This horrific attack on New Zealanders whose ears are permanently ...
Air New Zealand staff are dismayed and angered at the company’s announcement to cut a further $150 million from their wage bill. On Friday, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Greg Foran, made the announcement to employees, who are still ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr. Bodean Hedwards, Lecturer, Monash University This week the leaders of India and Australia reaffirmed their mutual interest in closer diplomatic and economic ties. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during their long-delayed Thursday “virtual summit”: ...
The Herald reported this morning that MediaWorks was on the verge of selling its TV assets to US TV giant Discovery – but an internal email and senior source suggest the story may have been premature.A senior MediaWorks source has emphatically denied a report in the NZ Herald that a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gery Karantzas, Associate professor in Social Psychology / Relationship Science, Deakin University Life in lockdown has been tough on many relationships. But negotiating the transition back to “normal” as restrictions continue to lift could also be a challenge for couples. So what ...
A slight bounce in the economy is brightening the outlook as the country heads into the winter months, Radio NZ reports. Retail spending is up and NZ shares rose on Thursday for a third day running. Key indicators have led some economists to point to a faster recovery than expected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide HomeBuilder is a good idea gone bad. It is possibly the most complex and least equitable program the government could have devised to deliver construction jobs. It gives $25,000 to people who already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Keller, Professor of Cognitive Science, Western Sydney University The coronavirus pandemic has silenced the world’s concert halls and opera theatres. Organisations specialising in live performance face an existential crisis under current restrictions on social gatherings, with up to 75% of people ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, wearing his Sport and Recreation ministerial hat, can show he can be a big spender and draw voters’ attention to his largess each time he dispenses money from the funds under his control – or the control of an agency within his ministerial bailiwick. Yesterday he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University Scott Morrison wants to overhaul the skills workforce to ensure a better post-COVID-19 recovery. But there may not be enough people with the necessary skills to do so. And travel restrictions, which ...
As we transition out of a Covid-focused world and prepare for what comes next, New Zealand’s ICT industry is gearing towards growth.From app development helping track the Covid-19 virus to website engineering keeping businesses in touch and online, ICT knowledge has been crucial to keeping New Zealand working over the ...
Analysis: As New Zealand eases restrictions, it no longer has international precedent to look towards and must decide on its own how to reopen the economy while reducing the risk of a second wave of infections, Marc Daalder reports While most of the country eagerly awaits a likely move to ...
Ten days is too long. That from insurance claimant advocate, Ali Jones. EQC has today made contact with homeowners via email after accidentally releasing confidential details of 8000 insurance claims on May 26. Jones says although she has not received ...
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 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (Penguin Classics, $24)Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. The other day, ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Simon Day discovers how the voluntary carbon market allows both individuals and companies to offset their emissions at the same time as investing in native forest regeneration.When Celia Wade-Brown sold her first batch of carbon credits earned from the native forest on her Wairarapa farm, she had two customers: Z ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin. The conversation around the 2020 covid19 pandemic has been widely framed as ‘health versus the economy’. It has been quite political, with people leaning to the left emphasising ‘health’, and people leaning to the right emphasising ‘the economy’. A couple of weeks ago ...
Sam Brooks pays tribute to Alex Rider, and the new TV series that (finally) captures the spirit of the books.“What if James Bond was a teenager?”The concept for Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series is so simple but so brilliant. There’s a reason why the franchise has managed to sustain 12 ...
Analysis - The PM resists pressure to move immediately to level 1, Winston Peters' tactics play into the hands of the Opposition and the government at last works out a commercial rent solution, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHAFrom Washington DC Federal charges against the four protectors of the Venezuelan Embassy, who defended the building in Washington DC against violent opposition crowds for several weeks between April 10 and May 16 of 2019, were completely dropped in a case that ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By COHA Editorial TeamFrom Washington DC The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) joins the Black Alliance for Peace[1] and other pro-democracy organizations throughout the world in calling for the United Nations to address the systemic violations of human rights by the police and ...
Being shot by police had a profound, transformational effect on Rob Mokaraka’s life in more ways than you’d expect. A new documentary, airing on Māori TV at 7.30pm on Sunday, explores the work he’s done to heal his own mind and to ensure nobody has to go through the same ...
Human rights watchdog TAPOL has condemned the demand by Indonesian prosecutors seeking 17 and five years imprisonment for West Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Irwanus Uropmabin. On June 2, the Jayapura District Prosecutor’s Office issued 33 pages containing charges against the defendant Irwanus Uropmabin. In the document, the Public Prosecutor ...
The arrival of Dan Carter is far from the first time the ever-struggling Auckland team has hoped to turn around its fortunes with a star signing, writes Jamie Wall.New Zealand rugby Twitter is a generally desolate place, especially lately given that there’s been nothing to talk about ever since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity US President Donald Trump delivered an address this week in which he threatened military action on the nation. Then he walked to the nearby St John’s Episcopal Church ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University Why do we burp? We sometimes also burp before meals, why does this happen? — Ahaana, age 7 That is a really interesting question, Ahaana! There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Bell-James, Associate Professor, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland After years of litigation, Australia’s highest court will today make a major decision on the fate of the controversial proposed expansion to the New Acland Coal mine in Queensland. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Williams, Associate Professor in Urban Ecology and Urban Horticulture, University of Melbourne Tomorrow is the first World Green Roof Day. Cities around the world will celebrate the well-documented environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs. New ground-level green spaces are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Senior Lecturer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Robodebt isn’t the only measure the government should consider withdrawing. Late last Friday, after a long press conference from the prime minister which avoided any mention of the topic, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW Harvard University’s Alberto Alesina died suddenly of a heart attack on May 23. He was 63. His long-time colleague and friend Larry Summers wrote that before him, “there was no academic field of political economy. Today, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University What keeps democracies together? As America burns, Brazilians die and Europe braces for another wave of the coronavirus, the question assumes an alarming immediacy. If the answer is complicated in one way, it is ...
Open Mike 25/05/2018 
You’ve got to wonder why the New Zealand Police undertook an armed response teams (ARTs) trial in the first place? Of course there was the Christchurch mosque terrorism attack, but that was an isolated incident and therefore cannot be used as an excuse to arm Police. What this trial does ...8 hours ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 31 through Sat, June 6, 2020 Editor's Choice The world must seize this opportunity to meet the climate challenge As current and former central bankers, we believe the pandemic offers ...14 hours ago
The 60 Years of New Zealand Television celebrations, such as they were, seemed to rely heavily on the classics: here we go again with Lynn of Tawa, A Week of It and the Country Calendar spoofs. Wonderful highlights of our televisual past, to be sure, but after hearing Paul Holmes’ ...1 day ago
The Two Americas Collide: You gotta love the Americans marching for George Floyd and the fragile promises of the US Constitution. But, you also gotta keep your eye on the pale rider in the White House, and understand that behind him Hell follows.THE FRAGILITY of democracy’s promise is becoming clearer ...2 days ago
Oliver Twist, famously asked for ‘more’. He did not challenge the system of workhouses – Dickens did – nor the authority of Beadle Bumble. He was only nine. I am often struck how critics of the current income maintenance system are like Oliver Twist. They ask for more, but they ...2 days ago
New Zealand’s history as a sheep-farming nation means the command “Get in behind!” has long had a particular resonance — but not usually for journalists. However, in late March, as panic over the coronavirus pandemic surged around the world, Dr Gavin Ellis — former editor-in-chief of the NZ Herald — ...2 days ago
When the New Zealand Police started using Armed Response Teams - gangs of heavily-armed police cruising Māori-Pacifica neighbourhoods in juiced-up gun-trucks - they told us it was a "trial". But it turns out that those armed police - who were mainly doing traffic stops and bail checks, rather than the ...2 days ago
Another study comparing effect in children from nonendemic areas (Dagang) and endemic fluorosis area (Jinghai) about 80km apart in the Tianjin area of China. Hardly sampling the same population. Anti-fluoride campaigners still use studies from ... 3 days ago
George Thomson, Nick Wilson, Richard Edwards This blog discusses the passing of the Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Act last week. We briefly review some lessons from this legislation’s long journey and explore future smokefree possibilities in Aotearoa / New Zealand. A law ...4 days ago
Bernard Hickey is one of New Zealand’s leading financial journalists. His latest article, published by Newsroom, lays bare the cruel treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers stranded since the lockdown. Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of ...4 days ago
For a good part of my adult life I have studied civil-military relations. I have studied authoritarian and democratic variants, and I have studied them across countries and regions. I have also worked in and with several US security agencies and have lectured on the theme at a number of ...4 days ago
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...5 days ago
Like the rest of the world, I have been aghast at what I have seen of, and read and heard about, what is happening currently in the United States. It seems incredible that a once great country should be suffering the worst effects and the highest number of deaths worldwide ...6 days ago
Image credit: Writing an Article vs. Writing a Blog Post: What’s the Difference? I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is ... 6 days ago
It’s almost painful to watch. Let’s be honest, maybe a pleasure too, in some quarters, but painful nonetheless. Because the fact is, for a democracy to function properly, any sitting Government does need honest and proper Opposition so that it doesn’t get ahead of itself. That’s what we should ...1 week ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...2 weeks ago
Hon Shane Jones, NZ First List MP based in Northland New Zealand First MP Hon Shane Jones has today announced his candidacy for the electorate of Northland. Speaking at a New Zealand First meeting in Kerikeri, Northland, Mr Jones said it was a privilege to be selected by the Party ...5 hours ago
We started the week by announcing free apprenticeships to support Kiwis into work and to help get New Zealand moving again - and we ended the week by extending the wage subsidy to 40,000 more businesses, helping to protect businesses and workers alike. ...2 days ago
The Green Party is urging the New Zealand Police to rule out the use of Armed Response Teams, following their recent trial in communities around Aotearoa. ...3 days ago
This summer presents a great opportunity for New Zealanders to get out into nature with bookings on Great Walks for 2020/21 set to open next week, says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Bookings for the Great Walks will open between 9 and 11 June, excluding Milford and Routeburn tracks which ...2 days ago
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The Spanish-owned contractor behind the stalled Transmission Gully Public Private Partnership is accused of abandoning projects in Australia. ...2 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By Denis Muller of the University of Melbourne When a newspaper with the authority of The New York Times chooses to publish a party-political essay calculated to further inflame the violence wracking cities across America, serious questions arise. On June 3 the Times published in its opinion section an ...7 hours ago
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...8 hours ago
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin reports from Los Angeles. Last Friday afternoon, I went downtown to a protest outside the enormous Los Angeles Police Department headquarters on 1st Street. The LAPD had set up cordons, placing orange cones across streets to block traffic. Arms crossed, they stood with a wide ...15 hours ago
Tania Tapsell is replacing MP Anne Tolley as National's candidate for the East Coast. ...23 hours ago
One press statement from the Beehive yesterday sounded more like advertising – or a barker’s pitch – than a Government announcement. Another advised of two diplomatic appointment, one of them – has the woman who landed the post done something wrong? – to protest-troubled and politically volatile Hong Kong. And ...1 day ago
Throughout Anglo colonial states there is a constant habit of defining people who aren’t white as a problem, writes Aaron Smale in this personal essay. It was a balmy summer evening in the capital and cops were standing over a young brown man. I was walking down Courtenay Place on ...2 days 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