Witnessing the A-bomb’s first test in the desert far outside Los Alamos, the New Mexico town where much of the bomb-building took place, he really did (as the film depicts) recite the line from the Bhagavad-Gita, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
At his meeting with President Harry Truman, after the bombs he helped build incinerated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he really did say “I have blood on my hands.” And Truman, who lost no sleep over his decision to drop the bombs, really said to an aide afterward (though not within earshot of Oppenheimer, as he does in the film), “Don’t let that crybaby in here again.”
Psychodrama! Hero as "a complex portrait: a tortured soul, enthralled by the science, then racked by guilt over the hellscape it unleashed. He’s insistent on his independence as a scientist, but also pliant in his role as mere adviser to authority. He’s certain of his convictions, but ambivalent about almost everything."
In the 1930s and early ’40s, he had been a “fellow traveler” – probably not a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, but an active supporter of some of its causes, which in the day included racial integration, a minimum wage, and aiding the anti-fascist soldiers in the Spanish Civil War. Not only that, his wife, Kitty (played by Emily Blunt), had once been a party member, as had his brother and several of his close friends, and he attended several meetings of the party’s chapter in Berkeley, where he was teaching physics. Even after he was appointed director of Los Alamos in 1943, his security clearance was held up because of these connections.
The film seems to have merit as exploration of the science/politics interface, considering timeless issues involving power & truth – plus faustian deals that changed the world.
Listening to Winston Peters on RNZ and really, he hasn't changed. He's tarted things up a bit with some MAGA catch phrases but what makes him jarring is the fact he is still pitching to a Tauranga audience of retired Rob's mob circa 2000.
It is such a pity, because NZ First has some good ideas but ultimately, it is entirely his vanity project and will disappear once he shuffles off this mortal coil.
I always thought there were some good ideas too, but they got lost in the forest of demented rants.
Do you think he's the 4-dimension chess player, the Professor Snape of Parliament, just there to pull the whacko votes without ever intending to action them? Some do.
I think Winston Peters is in it for Winston Peters. Entirely a vanity project. The man seems driven by vendettas real and imaged (mostly imagined). Peters is interesting because he has constantly presented himself to voters as an outsider kicking against the elites. Ingrid Hipkiss gave him pleanty of ammunition to advance that argument with her odd attitude and rather dismissive approach to him in the interview.
In an recent interview with the New Yorker magazine crackpot, cooker and maybe presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr. accused his interviewer as being among the "elites". The journalist replied that Kennedy is from a far more privileged background than he. Kennedy says:
"When I use the word “élite,” I’m talking about the people who are inside the Beltway, the press figures who are supposed to be speaking truth to power, but instead have become propagandists for the government. Who view their jobs as quashing dissent, and quashing political criticism of the government that they’re supposed to be actually criticizing."
Therefore Kennedy, a genuine member of the ruling-class, is not an elite because he's an outsider. The elites are the insiders who shape consensus reality, whose moral and political codes dominate. The rest are forced to live in that reality and are victimised if they question it. Think "woke elite", and "metropolitan elite". Hipkiss firmly placed herself into this notional "elite" with the tone of her interview and walked into the rather obvious traps Peters set for her.
This displacing of class antagonism onto cultural elites is a boring commonplace of the Right – Kennedy might think he is onto something novel, but really, Winston Peters has been doing it for thirty years and Muldoon was doing it in the 1970s.
Yeah – listened to it. I thought, will enough of these old dudes (among whom I place myself) do their coil shuffling thing before the climate crisis has become unsolvable – as they are the major obstacle to even trying? It looks like a tight race – like a reality-based 'reality tv' show. I'm not betting on it.
@ observer (4.3) … Winston Peters is a chameleon, changes his colours constantly to suit Winston. You wouldn't know what you were voting for with him. This leads me to think NZF led as it is presently by Peters is in no man's land, lacking policy, ready and willing to go with any party, which gives him personally a good deal. For these reasons, I would not ever vote for NZF. I like to know what I'm getting when I cast my vote and with Peters, it could be anything, because nothing is black or white with him. He's a grey unknown area unto himself … no pun intended there … known for holding the country to ransom, while he works out what is best for Winston!
About time Peters retired and left NZF to some younger politicians.
security threats are growing, supply chains are faltering, and there’s an ever-present – albeit low at any given moment – threat of natural catastrophe.
To try to limit the extent of the damage, the Government is trying to work out what has to be done to harden the country’s critical infrastructure.
As part of that process, it has published a discussion document full of warnings that risks are growing, while measures to safeguard – or at least minimise the damage –to vital infrastructure are patchy and insufficient.
The document pointed to a 2021 report commissioned for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, which said this country had a historic infrastructure deficit of $104b. Without policy change the shortfall was on track to grow by $106b in the next 30 years.
Better late than never?? At least govt seems to be musing upon this structural problem. No surprise that Labour kicked it down the road into the next electoral cycle though. Labour's real good at that. The thrill from each kick gets them high…
3 Waters covers some of these large infrastructure issues, and I have not seen undue delays to the efforts to fix the mile-long 'potholes' such as in the Coromandel, or the hill slips and flooding that have destroyed homes. Certainly no opposition party has offered and policies that are any different – it is easy to make false accusations of kicking issues down the road without any detail – but the ACT/Nat obsession with complaining about everything while not offering alternatives is not even kicking the tires
Looks like the historical compounding of the infrastructure deficit they refer to has been produced by collusion between Labour and National in the long-term, so your binary framing of the thing doesn't work. It fails to address the root cause.
Pothole repairs get done due to current funding. Ad hoc fixes serve to mask the real problem: towns, roads & bridges vulnerable to climate change. The system needs more of a reboot than tinkering. Neither the left nor the right have the brains & guts to do what is required.
Here is an example of exactly how much the "West' actually care or value Ukrainian lives (as if we already didn't know) …
"Meanwhile, for the United States and its NATO allies, these 18 months of war have been a strategic windfall, at relatively low cost (other than for the Ukrainians)"
…yep, on a scale of one to ten…one, or maybe minus one, as it is plainly obvious that Ukrainian lives have zero value to the Western leaders (and their arse and boot licking media pundits)….but hopefully most sentient observers must have worked out by now that this war has always been about the West and the Wests own geo-political objectives, and Ukraine just happens to be the unfortunate country that is in the wrong place at the wrong time….the West have never given a fuck about Ukraine and they don't now, just like they don't give a fuck about Taiwan.
So you can be sure that no Western leader is going to lose one minute of sleep over the loss of at least two entire generations of Ukrainian men in what the history books will most certainly describe as (what should have been) an easily avoidable war ..much like Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan…..wait, does there seem to be a common denominator here?
"…Ukrainian men in what the history books will most certainly describe as (what should have been) an easily avoidable war…"
How otherwise apparently rational human being can cling to this sort of nonsensicial and illogical thinking on the Ukraine war will puzzle social scientists for decades to come.
The social scientists will have plenty to wrap their heads around.Like how was it possible to fool so many for so long with simple media generated propaganda.In the west! of all places.
The sovietisation of western media is pretty well complete, the free press is dead
"…yep, on a scale of one to ten…one, or maybe minus one, as it is plainly obvious that Ukrainian lives have zero value to the Western leaders"
I tend to agree, due to the cynical slow-rolling by the West of military aid to Ukraine, when they should have given them everything short of nukes in whatever quantities the Ukrainian's asked for.
the war can only continue if the Ukrainian men do the dying – and of course foreign fighters – as no Nato Member country would last a week sending its own to die there.
As opposed to being a non democratic state run by American puppets?
Who knows what would have come to pass had the US and Europe stood by their promises and not betrayed goodwill by embedding NATO further and further eastwards , until it, a hostile military alliance , was entrenched on Russian borders
Who knows what would have come to pass had the US and Europe stood by their promises and not betrayed goodwill by embedding NATO further and further eastwards , until it, a hostile military alliance , was entrenched on Russian borders
It's not like NATO forced Poland or the Baltics to join at gunpoint.
Given the choice between joining an alliance that would at least respect their sovereignty (even if sometimes the US can be an awkward ally), and becoming a Russian satellite state again, they rationally and rightly chose the align themselves with the West.
Don't those countries also have the right to feel that Russia isn't exactly a trustworthy, good-faith actor? I mean, the number of times Lithuania has been occupied, annexed, ethnically cleansed, or otherwise screwed around by the US is exactly zero. Whereas the Russians have form.
And maybe there would have fewer issues with NATO's expansion if the current Russian regime was less repressive, wasn't morally bankrupt, and had weaned itself off the historical inclination to embark on foreign adventures to paper over the cracks.
No gunpoint, but possibly bagfuls of money and other more subtle incentives , I hear US diplomats can be very …ahem.. persuasive.
And one has to be invited by NATO to join NATO .It's not NATO passively accepting anyone who asks, if that was the case , Russia itself would be in NATO
No less old a chestnut than spouting nonsense justifications to support your wannabe hegemon du jour. 'tis a tale as old as war itself.
Nobody disagrees that Eastern Europe has had troubles with corruption: it's been a problem ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. But to try to draw a line between that, the expansion of NATO, and the war in Ukraine takes quite a leap of the imagination!
Besides, I don't think you're giving the people of the former Eastern bloc enough credit. They know what their problems are. They've done their own strategic and foreign policy calculus.
And they've decided that actually, NATO membership is worth it despite the potential downside of pissing off the Russians. Because, in their view, the risk of a Russian invasion/meddling is quite high. Or at least high enough to justify the costs.
As for democratic legitimacy, I think the fact that so many Ukrainians are willing to fight tooth and nail to defend what you are implying is a corrupt government is evidence enough that they don't feel the same way you do.
NATO has been enthusiastically welcomed by many of the states formerly occupied and subjugated by russia. They had the choice to join or stick with russia, but chose NATO – seems one is a much preferred choice to the other, and russian aggression keeps making NATO seem more and more desirable.
Nato hasn't expanded East – it has been invited East. Big difference to russia sending tanks over your border as they are prone to do.
"And one has to be invited by NATO to join NATO ."
Countries that have declared an interest in joining the Alliance are initially invited to engage in an intensified dialogue with NATO about their membership aspirations and related reforms.
Aspirant countries may then be invited to participate in the MAP to prepare for potential membership and demonstrate their ability to meet the obligations and commitments of possible future membership.
"It's not NATO passively accepting anyone who asks, if that was the case , Russia itself would be in NATO"
On 27 May 1997, at the NATO Summit in Paris, France, NATO and Russia signed the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security [de], a road map for would-be NATO-Russia cooperation
Additionally, the act established a forum called the "NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council" (NRPJC) as a venue for consultations, cooperation and consensus building
….
The NATO-Russia Council (NRC) was created on 28 May 2002 during the 2002 NATO Summit in Rome. The NRC was designed to replace the PJC as the official diplomatic tool for handling security issues and joint projects between NATO and Russia. The structure of the NRC provided that the individual member states and Russia were each equal partners and would meet in areas of common interest
NATO–Russia relations stalled and subsequently started to deteriorate, following the Ukrainian Orange Revolution in 2004–2005 and the Russo-Georgian War in 2008….Several highly publicised murders of Putin's opponents also occurred in Russia in that period, marking his increasingly authoritarian rule and the tightening of his grip on the media….Beginning in 2014, Russia engaged in further hostile threats followed by military actions against Ukraine (2014–present); Syria (2015–present), and Turkey (2015–2016), among others.
Meanwhile close to 1 million Russians (including hundreds of thousands of men of enlistment age) have fled the country. Clearly they are overwhelmingly delighted to be forced into a war of conquest /sarc/
Or does 'propaganda' just mean 'information I don't agree with'?
All information sources should be critically considered and not entirely trusted – but do you have actual evidence of wikipedia being widely unreliable and factually incorrect? I’d be interested to see it.
Or does 'propaganda' just mean 'information I don't agree with'?
UncookedSelachimorpha nope, propaganda is the dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion. To quote britannica.
The reality is apart from men being the main editors of wikipedia, something like 90%. Or those in the west who dominate and direct the content, so cultural economic bias. It has become a tool for the ruling class.
Closer to home, we had conscription in WW1 and WW2 here too. Does that invalidate the sacrifice made by those that did go fight? Or the eventual overthrow of Nazism?
OK, I'll give you WW1: a war whose devastation was only outstripped by its sheer pointlessness.
But total war is just that: total. You throw every body. Every bullet. And every ounce of energy into the fight.
Do you live in the real world, not one gaslit by Winston Churchill and Soviet state WWII propaganda about how willing the male population is to fight, and to stand a good chance of wounding or death? Only 17 year olds imagine themselves heroes.
Anyone with half a brain and a knowledge of the realities of war knows that compulsory conscription is there because most men understand full well that the front line of a brutal trench war is not the place to be. But moral, or nationalistic, or 'we're in it together' reasons make most compliant. For others, they slip the net, until rounded up unwillingly.
Exactly. In a life-or-death struggle, you need every warm body you can get your hands on. Modern warfare is brutal.
And if not enough people volunteer, then yeah, using the coercive power of the state to conscript aforementioned warm bodies is the way to go.
But there's a yawning gulf between rounding up criminals to use as cannon fodder in a pointless foreign war, and conscripting citizens when your country has been invaded.
The Baltic states must be delighted they are in NATO with madman Putin in the Kremlin. Can anyone doubt they'd have been first on the block for invasion and annexation if they were not in NATO?
The Balts are giving evcerything they have plus lots of volunteers to support Ukraine, and if you really want to know what the East Europeans think of Russia just take a look at Polands military build up. The huge army they are creating in the next few years isn't designed to stop the Germans…
The purpose of Poland's military buildup is to waste money and impoverish the country, not to mention the enrichment of US arms manufacturers who will selling them the goods.
"let's buy arms to impoverish ourselves and waste money"
not
"Russia invaded, murdered and subjugated us for decades, russia say they want to again, and are invading their other neighbours. So let's arm ourselves and join nato!"
So it's fine for Russia to invade and annex part of another sovereign country.
Do you people ever listen to yourselves?
Crimea had historically *never* been part of post-Soviet Russia. From 1991 it was part of Ukraine (well, there's some argument about whether it was an autonomous republic inside or outside Ukraine – but it was certainly not part of Russia). Until it was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Please save your time and don't bother raising the 'referendum' which is universally held (apart from the pro-Russian apologists) to have been entirely dictated by the Kremlin.
So it's fine for Russia to invade and annex part of another sovereign country.
Depends on the circumstances. All bets were off once Ukraine turned Westward and formed an alliance with the evil empire. Anyhow it was what the majority of the Crimean people wanted.
As for the alleged shonkyness of the referendum, as claimed by NATO's fellow travelers and useful idiots, this has never been proved.
It's the Wests fault that all these newly free former Soviet nations would rather fight to the death than ever suffer under the rule of Russia again.
It's the Wests fault that these nations want to join NATO to protect themselves from an expansionist Russia.
All those eastern Europeans who'd rather be allied with the West than Russia are brainwashed!
Don't they know that the west is bad!!!
They should listen to clueless people who've lived in western countries their whole lives about how the west is just as bad as Russia and just roll over and join Russia again
I mean how would Ukraine and co know whether Russia or the west is worse! It's not like they ever lived under Russian rule before
The Ukrainians should listen to tanky kiwis and surrender to Russia cos the west is bad.
You got in it a nutshell Corey, time for the rose coloured spectacles about the West came off and we face up to the damage we've done, the colonisation, the wars, the excessive polluting consumption , the consequences of western domination on the citizens of the rest of the world.
Gaslighting the Balts, Poles and Ukrainians about the intentions of Russia is a really tasteless thing, given they've all suffered in the last century Soviet genocides.
Which countries bordering Russia have been threatened with Russian domination? When has Putin ever declared a desire to dominate countries bordering the Russian state? Or is it that you are simply believing all the tripe spewed by CNN et al?
History shows that domination by the west is undoubtedly bad.
I realise that Russia has launched a defense maneuver against NATO on Ukrainian soil, but you are right, the "domination" thing seems to have escaped me. Though I suspect it's just a product of your febrile imagination.
Francesca, is that the West you are talking about, or capitalism? Last time I looked, Russia also suffered from ecological disasters, grossly unfair living conditions for a large part of the population, and kleptocratic oligarchs, just like the US, but with a bit less freedom to complain about it.
"And one has to be invited by NATO to join NATO .It's not NATO passively accepting anyone who asks"
This doesn't seem to be true….
NATO says it has an ‘open door’ policy and any European country can join.
The only requirement is that they agree to further the principles of the Washington Treaty and contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area. This is set out in Article 10 of the founding 1949 North Atlantic Treaty (also referred to as the Washington Treaty).
2019 Ukraine elections were rated fair and open by internal and international observers. "In contrast to 2014, when Russian cyberattacks compromised the Central Election Commission network".
You'll notice(maybe not) that I used a western source on NATO, the Guardian, bastion of western "values", because an adversary nation's point of view incites the vapours in red blooded patriots of the glorious west
You quoted an opinion piece that was republished by the Guardian, written by a senior member of a think tank (the Cato Institute) well known for its libertarian, anti-NATO views and belief in a non-interventionist foreign policy.
So, maybe actually check and evaluate your sources before you start firing off quotes.
All that proves is that there is more than one useful idiot in the West.
"At the same time, it is already clear that in two eastern provinces, where 14 percent of the electorate lives, balloting will be next to impossible, thanks to forcible disruption by Russian-backed militants…Six days before the election, that failure is blatantly evident.
“There is intimidation,” a senior U.N. official told the Reuters news agency in describing the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ivan Simonovic, the assistant U.N. secretary general for human rights, said that a number of presidents and vice presidents of local elections commissions had been abducted or otherwise mistreated. Reuters reported that the last election commission attempting to operate in the city of Donetsk shut down Monday, leaving no voting operation in an urban area of 1 million people. Concluded the interior minister of Ukraine’s interim government: “It will be impossible to hold normal elections over the huge territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions."
Worse than cyber attacks – kidnapping and intimidation of electoral officials.
Apparently state agents have no right of free speech. Well, that seems to be the view of the PM. I presume he doesn't believe in civil rights? I suppose he would claim he does, but privileged members of the control system are meant to keep quiet regardless.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told Morning Report it was not appropriate for a board member of a Crown entity to publish his opinions in such a public space. "Somebody who is on a board of a Crown entity, particularly an independent media entity like Radio New Zealand, shouldn't be providing an independent political commentary."
So the muzzle he was obliquely referring to does exist but in a quasi-covert method of suppressing free speech:
In a statement, the RNZ board said chairperson Dr Jim Mather, who is currently overseas, has been made aware of the issue and has spoken to Ake about his responsibilities under the Code of Conduct for Crown entity board members. He specifically informed Ake of the protocol which states "when acting in our private capacity, we avoid any political activity that could jeopardise our ability to perform our role or which could erode the public's trust in the entity".
The general idea seems to be that board members cease being able to do social media and become robots instead. Or maybe androids. Mere cogs in the machine of governance.
Rob Campbell ought to put his lengthy experience & expertise to work on the situation: form a union of oppressed board members, use it to speak out in the public interest.
Assuming Ake has no expert knowledge on mental heath matters, Ake has made a groundless and gratuitous attack on Hipkins handling of the Allan situation.
Hardly acceptable behaviour coming from a board member of a Crown Entity, especially one whose key role is supposed to be politically neutral, and only 12 weeks out from an election.
I suggest Ake knew exactly what he was doing here and so should be sacked.
Am I wrong? I thought this board member/social media responsibility debate had been thrashed out in full in two recent cases, with appropriate consequences.
Looks as though he's doubling down on his commentary in this space (although, not directly critical of the PM – he's still critical of the government's delivery on mental health for Maori). Despite being told by the RNZ Chair that he can't be political – and a pretty direct statement from Hipkins that he was out of line.
Ake has this afternoon published a new post, saying events like Allan’s resignation elevate the opportunity for Māori to have conversations about mental health.
“We need to grab those opportunities because they encourage public discourse especially among our whānau. Mental health and well-being is the silent killer and a swathe of Māori journos got it immediately.”
Māori were disproportionately affected by mental health issues, he said.
“Yes we live longer but we continue to lag behind Pākehās. That’s the real crime here and much of it is borne out of this ideological premise that we as Māori must conform.
“That’s the conversation we had in our whare last night with our kids. We probably would not have had that yarn if we were not jabbed by recent events. I wonder how many other Māori households had that discussion or at least raised their collective awareness.”
…
This morning Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson said Ake had always been a vocal person and this would need to stop if he was to remain an RNZ board member.
"He will pull back though, because as I said the chair's been in touch and he's going to have to if he wants to stay a board member there."
X is on. Looks dreadful. Did they get AI to do it? Two snap-off craft knife blades arranged in a way to suggest authority, denial, intimidation. Musk is a dick.
Musk wants to have messaging, social media (audio and video) as well as banking on one platform/app – it's been done and called we chat.
His X is one overlayed by the other, his blade over that of the planet – satellite comms frequency to all, terrestial activity connections, transportation by smart device car (automatic management by AI) and lift of into space to escape it all.
An X man, with Sumerian god pretensions walks among us.
personal, meaningful words X'ed out by abstract corporate slogans.
symbolism:
X – wrong answer
X – illiteracy, anonymity, removal of personhood, censorship
X – extinction, extermination, death
X – corporate fascism "crossing out" democracy and free exchange of ideas
X – skull and crossbones; piracy; vulture capitalism
X – pornography, forbidden knowledge, occult
but hidden in this darkness is a redemptive arc:
+ in Jesus, the death of God breaks open new life 🐣
+ a cross is where heaven and earth intersect 🔀
+ psalm 85:10 "Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other." 🫶🏼
+ the red cross is a symbol of healing and peace amidst troubled times
Looking forward to questions to the leader of the opposition if he will introduce a bill to require anyone taking a mental health day or two to have clinical clearance before they return to work. What a tosser.
Hipkins should have bent time, looked through to the future void to see how Allan’s break up was going to go and if she was going to be okay to work and only then allowed her back.
They could do worse than Parker himself. Yes, I know he's boring, but I reckon he would make mincemeat of Luxon in the campaign debates. And perhaps the electorate is tired of colourful figures. Jacinda-ism may be outmoded.
It was Wood and Allan, so their wings clipped it is onward with Hipkins.
His job is at it was, to compete to win and fall on his sword if he does not. Though the law and order of politics, Professor Palmer, handed on late to the last line of defence for the old regime (Meikayla Moore) in 1990. Who tried again in 1993.
After the election, the precedent is falling back to either a future candidate for UNSG or Mayoralty of Auckland.
I agree…I came on here expecting it to be full of it..
The revenue minister walking away from his portfolio in protest at the canning of the wealth tax he developed ..is a very big deal..
I don't doubt his sincerity in this move..
And it makes sense as positioning as a future progressive leader of labour..
And if gren/tmp do as well as some hope..and demand a wealth tax as the price to pay for coalition support ..labour can roll hipkins…and parker is there…ready to roll..
It sums up the emptiness of NZ's political coverage.
Kiri Allan's departure, while very sad for her, is not about any policy issue at all. It has no bearing at all on what this government or an alternative government would do. It does not affect the voters' real lives in any way. Unlike say, tax policy.
But for political reporters it's the soap opera, and they love it. Parker's just boring.
I agree that Parker is boring (policy wonk, with little public appeal or charisma).
But the timing of this ministerial shuffle has to have been very deliberate – Hipkins (and, I'm sure Parker with his loyal to Labour hat on) – will be hoping to slide it under the kerfuffle occasioned by Allen's resignation, and the consequent reallocation of portfolios.
The last thing Hipkins or Labour want is a forensic journalist asking hard questions about how solid Labour's tax policy is; and/or how solid Hipkins' support is from the Labour front bench.
First Robertson (not exactly enthusiastic in the media stand up around the tax policy), and now Parker (basically saying, 'not on my watch').
Of National’s 69 candidates, 23 are women and 46 are men.
There are seven women standing in safe National seats, only one of whom is not a sitting MP.
By contrast there are 17 men in safe seats and 16 in potentially winnable seats.
The only category in which women candidates outnumber men are in safe Labour seats, which National has zero to little chance of winning. In those, there are 12 women and 11 men.
Of National’s tranche of new candidates, 15 men were selected in winnable seats compared to just four women.
Sounds about right. That article states the Nat list is expected by the end of July.
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It is quiet reading time in Room 13! It is so quiet you can hear the Tui outside. It is so quiet you can hear the Fulton Hogan crew.It is so quiet you can hear old Mr Grant and old Mr Bradbury standing by the roadworks and counting the conesand going on ...
It looks like the new ministerial press secretaries have quickly learned the art of camouflaging exactly what their ministers are saying – or, at least, of keeping the hard news out of the headlines and/or the opening sentences of the statements they post on the home page of the governments ...
The big dairy co-op Fonterra had some Christmas cheer to offer its farmers this week, increasing its forecast farmgate milk price and earnings guidance for the year after what it calls a strong start to the year. The forecast midpoint for the 2023/24 season is up 25cs to $7.50 per ...
Michael Bassett writes – Many of the comments about the Coalition’s determination to wind back the dramatic Maorification of New Zealand of the last three years would have you believe the new government is engaged in a full-scale attack on Maori. In reality, all that is happening ...
Mary Robinson asked Al Jaber a series of very simple, direct and highly pertinent questions and he responded with a high-octane public meltdown. Photos: Getty Images / montage: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR The hygiene effects of direct sunshine are making some inroads, perhaps for the very first time, on the normalised ‘deficit ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Appointed by new Labour PM Jacinda Ardern in 2018, Cindy Kiro headed the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to the welfare system. Kiro had been Children’s Commissioner during Helen Clark’s Labour government but returned to academia subsequently. ...
It seems even our transport agencies don’t want Labour’s harbour crossing plans. In August the previous government and Waka Kotahi announced their absurd preferred option the new harbour crossing that at the time was estimated to cost $35-45 billion. It included both road tunnels and a wiggly light rail tunnel ...
Hi,Paying Webworm members such as yourself keep this thing running, so as 2023 draws to close, I wanted to do two things to say a giant, loud “THANKS”. Firstly — I’m giving away 10 Mister Organ blu-rays in New Zealand, and another 10 in America. More details down below.Secondly — ...
Yesterday saw the State Opening of Parliament, the Speech from the Throne, and then Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s dream for Aotearoa in his first address. But first the pomp and ceremony, the arrival of the Governor General.Dame Cindy Kiro arrived on the forecourt outside of parliament to a Māori welcome. ...
Probably not since 1975 have we seen a government take office up against such a wall of protest and complaint. That was highlighted yesterday, the day that the new Parliament was sworn in, with news that King Tuheitia has called a national hui for late January to develop a ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). War, conflict and climate change are tearing apart lives across the world. But these aren't separate harms - they're intricately connected. ...
These dire woeful and intolerant people have been so determinedly going about their small and petulant business, it’s hard to keep up. At the end of the new government’s first woeful week, Audrey Young took the time to count off its various acts of denigration of Te Ao Māori:Review the ...
The new white supremacist government made attacking te reo a key part of its platform, promising to rename government agencies and force them to "communicate primarily in English" (which they already do). But today they've gone further, by trying to cut the pay of public servants who speak te reo: ...
Buzz from the Beehive The biggest buzz we bring you from the Beehive today is that the government’s official website is up and going after being out of action for more than a week. The latest press statement came from Education Minister Eric Stanford, who seized on the 2022 PISA ...
There was another ETS auction this morning. and like all the other ones this year, it failed to clear - meaning that 23 million tons of carbon (15 million ordinary units plus 8 million in the cost containment reserve) went up in smoke. Or rather, they didn't. Being unsold at ...
This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. In the NZ Herald, Audrey Young has compiled a useful list of the many, many ways that ...
New Zealand’s dairy industry, the mainstay of the country’s export trade, has been under pressure from rising costs. Down on the farm, this has been hitting hard. But there was more positive news this week, first from the latest Fonterra GDT auction where prices rose, and then from a report ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In their rush to discredit the new government (which our MainStream Media regard as illegitimate and having no right to enact the democratic will of voters) the NZ Herald and Newshub are arguing ACT’s Deputy Leader Brooke van Veldon is not following Treasury advice ...
Even many young people who smoke support smokefree policies, fitting in with previous research showing the large majority of people who smoke regret starting and most want to quit. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Wednesday, December ...
Well it didn’t take six months, but the leaks have begun. Yes the good ship Coalition has inadvertently released a confidential cabinet paper into the public domain, discussing their axing of Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs).Oops.Just when you were admiring how smoothly things were going for the new government, they’ve had ...
A wave of new and higher fees, rates and charges will ripple out over the economy in the next 18 months as mayors, councillors, heads of department and price-setters for utilities such as gas, electricity, water and parking ramp up charges. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Just when most ...
Hi,Kiwis — keep the evening of December 22nd free. I have a meetup planned, and will send out an invite over the next day or so. This sounds sort of crazy to write, but today will be Tony Stamp’s final Totally Normalcolumn of 2023. Somehow we’ve made it to ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
The electorate has high expectations of the new government. The question is: can it deliver? Some might say the signs are not promising. Protestors are already marching in the streets. The new Prime Minister has had little experience of managing very diverse politicians in coalition. The economy he ...
Nicola of Marsden:Yo, normies! We will fix your cost of living worries by giving you a tax cut of 150 dollars. 150! Cash money! Vote National.Various people who can read and count:Actually that's 150 over a fortnight. Not a week, which is how you usually express these things.And actually, it looks ...
When this government came to power, it did so on an explicitly white supremacist platform. Undermining the Waitangi Tribunal, removing Māori representation in local government, over-riding the courts which had tried to make their foreshore and seabed legislation work, eradicating te reo from public life, and ultimately trying to repudiate ...
Buzz from the Beehive Maybe this is not the best time for our Minister of Defence to have gone overseas. Not when the Maori Party is inviting (or should that be inciting?) its followers to join a revolution in a post which promoted its protest plans with a picture of ...
A Maori Party post on Instagram invited party followers to …. Tangata Whenua, Tangata Tiriti, Join the REVOLUTION! & make a stand! Nationwide Action Day, All details in tiles swipe to see locations. • This is our 1st hit out and tomorrow Tuesday the 5th is the opening ...
The RBNZ governor is citing high net migration and profit-led inflation as factors in the bank’s hawkish stance. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Tuesday, December 5, including:Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says high net migration and ...
Willis has accused labour of “economic vandalism’, while Robertson described her comments as a “desperate diversion from somebody who can't make their tax package add up”. There will now be an intense focus on December 20 to see whether her hyperbole is backed up by true surprises. Photo montage: Lynn ...
The City Rail Link has been in the headlines a bit recently so I thought I’d look at some of them. First up, yesterday the NZ Herald ran this piece about the ongoing costs of the CRL. Auckland ratepayers will be saddled with an estimated bill of $220 million each ...
Is this the most shambolic government in the history of New Zealand? Given that parliament hasn’t even opened they’ve managed quite a list of achievements to date.The Smokefree debacle trading lives for tax cuts, the Trumpian claims of bribery in the Media, an International award for indifference, and today the ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis late yesterday stopped only slightly short of accusing her predecessor Grant Robertson of cooking the books. She complained that the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), due to be made public on December 20, would show “fiscal cliffs” that would amount to “billions of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme – that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.Brian Easton writes – The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate changeDaily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenanceBeehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
Radio NZ reports: Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has accused the new government of “deliberate .. systemic genocide” over its policies to roll back the smokefree policy and the Māori Health Authority. The left love hysterical language. If you oppose racial quotas in laws, you are a racist. And now if you sack ...
Labour’s immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford is calling on the Government to follow the example of Australia and help New Zealanders’ close family members stuck in Gaza to escape and take shelter here. ...
The Green Party is urging the Government to recognise its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi so our tamariki and mokopuna can grow up in an Aotearoa where their language is celebrated, their health is prioritised, and their whenua is protected. ...
By scrapping Aotearoa’s world-leading smokefree laws, this government is sacrificing Māori lives to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Not only is this plan revolting, but it doesn’t add up. Treasury has estimated that the reversal of smokefree laws to pay for tax cuts will cost our health system $5.25bn, ...
Figures showing National needs to find another $900 million for landlords highlights the mess this coalition Government is in less than a week into the job. ...
Community organisations, mana whenua and the Greens have written to the incoming Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to call for the progression without delay of the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill. ...
"On behalf of the Labour Party I would like to congratulate Christopher Luxon on his appointment as Prime Minister,” Labour Party Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
NZ First has gotten their wish to ‘take our country back’ to the 1800s with a policy program that will white-wash Aotearoa and erase tangata whenua rights. By disestablishing the Māori Health Authority this Government has condemned Māori to die seven years earlier than Pākehā. By removing Treaty obligations from ...
Te Pāti Māori have called for the resignation of the Ministry of Foreign and Trade chief executive Chris Seed following his decision to erase te reo Māori from government communications. While the country still waits for a new government to be formed, Mr Seed took it upon himself to undermine ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Cyclone Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, to meet leaders of cyclone and flood-affected regions in the Hawke’s Bay. The visit reinforced the coalition Government’s commitment to support the region and better understand its ongoing requirements, Mr Mitchell says. ...
New Zealand has joined the UK and other partners in condemning malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government, Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau Judith Collins says. The statement follows the UK’s attribution today of malicious cyber activity impacting its domestic democratic institutions and processes, as well ...
The Government has begun the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga as part of its 100-day plan, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds says. “I have started putting that plan into action and have met with the chair and chief Executive of Te Pūkenga to advise them of my ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will be leaving for Dubai today to attend COP28, the 28th annual UN climate summit, this week. Simon Watts says he will push for accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver New Zealand’s national statement and connect with partner countries, private sector leaders ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins yesterday announced New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). “Having just returned from this year’s meeting in Nouméa, I witnessed first-hand the value of meeting with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security and defence matters. I welcome the opportunity to ...
The Government is committed to lifting school achievement in the basics and that starts with removing distractions so young people can focus on their learning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. The 2022 PISA results released this week found that Kiwi kids ranked 5th in the world for being distracted ...
Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids. The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
Most weeks, following Cabinet, the Prime Minister holds a press conference for members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. This page contains the transcripts from those press conferences, which are supplied by Hansard to the Office of the Prime Minister. It is important to note that the transcripts have not been edited ...
The Government has axed the $16 billion Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme championed by the previous government, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “This hugely wasteful project was pouring money down the drain at a time when we need to be reining in spending and focussing on rebuilding the economy and ...
New Zealand welcomes the further one-day extension of the pause in fighting, which will allow the delivery of more urgently-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of more hostages, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. “The human cost of the conflict is horrific, and New Zealand wants to see the violence ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today expressed on behalf of the New Zealand Government his condolences to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. “While opinions on his legacy are varied, Secretary Kissinger was ...
Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan. Education Minister Erica Stanford says that will start with banning cellphone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day. ...
I would like to begin by echoing the Prime Minister’s thanks to the organisers of this Summit, Fran O’Sullivan and the Auckland Business Chamber. I want to also acknowledge the many leading exporters, sector representatives, diplomats, and other leaders we have joining us in the room. In particular, I would like ...
Good morning. Thank you, Rosemary, for your warm introduction, and to Fran and Simon for this opportunity to make some brief comments about New Zealand’s relationship with the United States. This is also a chance to acknowledge my colleague, Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Ambassador Tom Udall, Secretary of Foreign ...
Good morning, tēnā koutou and namaskar. Many thanks, Michael, for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge the work of the India New Zealand Business Council in facilitating today’s event and for the Council’s broader work in supporting a coordinated approach for lifting New Zealand-India relations. I want to also ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has laid out the Coalition Government’s plan for its first 100 days from today. “The last few years have been incredibly tough for so many New Zealanders. People have put their trust in National, ACT and NZ First to steer them towards a better, more prosperous ...
A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
In just 18 months, the Auckland-based YouTube channel has gone from working from home and out of cafes to a brand new multi-million dollar studio. Sam Brooks asks the trio how they pulled it off, and what they’re planning to do with it.On December 4, a video called “The ...
The Anika Moa Unleashed host unleashes her thoughts on After the Party, Paul Holmes, The Walking Dead, stalking celebrities and more. Anika Moa has a proud history of angering strangers online, whether it’s due to her tattoos, her love life, or something else entirely. When she sits down with The ...
Searching widely for ways to overcome deep opposition by fossil fuel nations to a phase-out of their products, the President of COP28 enlisted an ally while negotiators sought subtler language yesterday. “We have been asked by the UAE presidency to help find common language that will be acceptable ...
With a topic so universal, it’s almost always about something bigger. Consider the contents of your fridge. What kinds of fruits and vegetables are in your crisper drawer? How much did that block of cheese set you back? Where did you source most of this kai from? Are there ingredients ...
You can read the full story, plus see photographs from Craig McKenzie, in the November-December issue of New Zealand Geographic magazine, or on their website. The bittern’s eerie, booming call sounds like a lament, a tangi ringing across the marshes. Now, the birds themselves are in trouble. ...
Opinion: You may have been there, waiting your turn, wearing an ill-fitting hospital gown, surrounded by a flurry of staff, the smell of disinfectant in the air. If you’ve ever undergone surgery, you probably know the nervous, stress-laden pre-op feeling. What may come as a surprise is that ...
1. In the evening and in the night, I sit on the balcony and think of you. I can’t see the water but I know it’s there, soft and slow. We bathed in it that last day, you and I, when the dusk hung heavy as cloth of gold ...
Alex Casey unearths the origin story of an New Zealand icon – featuring a surprise cameo from an international comedy megastar. At first glance, the Facebook post from a Waipu cafe reads like any other heartfelt change in ownership announcement. “George and Amber have reflected on their involvement in our ...
This week on Their house, my garden, why my spinach plant has grown suspiciously tall, and how to deal with your own over-eager plants. Beginner gardeners would be forgiven for thinking a plant growing tall is reason to celebrate. We are, after all, the kind of species who mark door ...
Luxon drove the crumbling SH2 with a handful of MPs on Friday morning to reach the small town, gauge progress of its recovery, and learn what it needs from the new government. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bianca Baggiarini, Lecturer, Australian National University Last week, reports emerged that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are using an artificial intelligence (AI) system called Habsora (Hebrew for “The Gospel”) to select targets in the war on Hamas in Gaza. The system has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Johan Lidberg, Associate Professor, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University The most significant recommendation in the Senate inquiry report on the functionality of the Commonwealth FOI system is this: move the federal Freedom of Information (FOI) function from the Office ...
Analysis: The government was under attack on multiple fronts during a week of relentless criticism and then faced its first Question Time in Parliament, Peter Wilson writes. ...
Well, it’s 4.30pm on a Friday which feels as appropriate time as ever to say goodbye. The Spinoff’s live updates have come to an end, almost four years after they were first switched on. If you missed my explainer this morning of what’s going on, here it is. In short: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, La Trobe University Shutterstock A home – in the physical and emotional sense – is foundational to living an ordinary life with a feeling of inclusion. National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants with the highest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Roberts, Conjoint Associate Professor in clinical pharmacology and toxicology, St Vincent’s Healthcare Clinical Campus, UNSW Sydney Veronika Kunitsyna/Shutterstock Red imported fire ants are a particularly nasty type of ant because they are aggressive, and inflict painful stings that may ...
Christopher Luxon says the new government is going to continue everything that the previous one put into place to help with the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Te Whatu Ora is continuing to investigate after a data breach that saw vaccine-related information shared online last week. The agency is liaising with the Privacy Commissioner and said it will make “any appropriate notifications” if individuals were impacted by the breach. “Alongside the work to identify the material allegedly ...
Live - Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been in Wairoa this morning to gauge progress of the town's recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle. Watch a media conference with him here. ...
Sam Brooks reviews a new immersive film experience at Auckland’s planetarium.Journalists get invited to review things all the time. Books, films, shows, exhibitions, all of it. I say yes to a lot of them and “no, sorry” to a bit more. Very rarely do I go, “Absolutely I need ...
Waka Kotahi has begun the process of re-adopting its former name, the New Zealand Transport Agency (or NZTA). It follows a directive from the new government that public agencies should have their primary name in English and not te reo. This came as part of the coalition deal between National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Pavlovich, Senior lecturer in the School of Accounting and Commercial Law, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The new coalition government has announced a suite of tax reforms, including reintroducing the ability for property investors to deduct the interest ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1The Bee Stingby Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton, $37) The runner-up for the 2023 Booker Prize ...
A new poem by Ōtepoti poet Jasmine O M Taylor. a retreat if you find a chance before they’ve all melted into the air find time to get on a glacier and find a cave in the glacier and go inside the cave inside the glacier it will speak to ...
Our award-winning podcast assesses the opening stanza of the Luxon-led government. After the long, serene political gap as coalition talks went on, politics has roared back with plenty of shouting and not so much rizz. Toby Manhire, Ben Thomas and Annabelle Lee-Mather assess the early exchanges, including Winston Peters’ ...
“The new government has a clear choice to make before Christmas. Do they live up to their stated intention of governing for all New Zealanders, or do they dash the hopes of tens of thousands of kiwi workers by unilaterally abolishing Fair Pay ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kimberley Reid, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Atmospheric Sciences, Monash University titoOnz, Shutterstock You’ve probably heard El Niño brings hot and dry weather to the eastern states, but what about the rest of Australia? Are we all in for a scorcher ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Currie, Professor of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Heatwaves are a major public health hazard. Socially disadvantaged people are especially exposed to extreme heat and other impacts of climate change. Many people experiencing homelessness – more than 120,000 ...
The Free Speech Union has sent 14 Cabinet Ministers a comprehensive Briefing to the Incoming Government, outlining five key areas of policy that the Government must address in order to protect and expand Kiwis’ speech rights. We look forward to ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says she has already met twice with KiwiRail bosses over a "major cost blowout" in the project to replace the Interislander ferries. ...
With the new government gaining international infamy for its climate policy, for rangatahi Māori like Kaeden Watts, attending climate conferences is more important than ever. Every year world leaders meet for the annual Conference of the Parties (Cop), the world’s most powerful climate crisis conference. Despite Cop being criticised for ...
Accidental Partridge is one of my favourite Twitter (I am never going to call it X) accounts, and given today is the last day of live updates I think it’s absolutely fair I include a video from it. If you don’t know why it’s called Accidental Partridge, go watch all ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the National Party to front up to consumers who will face 15% higher prices for some services from the likes of Uber, Airbnb and food delivery apps after their app tax U-turn rather than trying to erase all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Fujak, Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University While 2023 was a watershed year for Australian women’s sport due to the Matildas’ stirring run at the Women’s World Cup, netball is going through its worst period ever. Netball Australia and the ...
The prime minister is spending the day out of Wellington, touring parts of cyclone-damaged Hawke’s Bay and meeting with senior leaders in the community. Christopher Luxon began the day in Wairoa, where he met with mayor Craig Little. Later, he’ll head to Napier for a meeting with regional council members. ...
How will the new government look at our television? Duncan Greive reflects on this year’s awards ceremony. This is an excerpt from The Spinoff’s weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. The NZ TV Awards took place in downtown Auckland on Tuesday, which coincided with Te Pāti Māori’s National Māori ...
Responding to news that Wellington City Councillors have voted down a proposal to reduce business rates in the capital, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said: “When Mayor Tory Whanau comes out with a line like ‘I couldn’t in good ...
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X marks the spot – Musk abolishes Twitter logo, name next https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/494400/x-marks-the-spot-musk-abolishes-twitter-logo-name-next
Wow, I wonder how much this brilliant logo cost to design
He plans to have his own form of we chat (messaging, social media and banking around since 2011) in a few more years.
Musk and his Planet X.com solar system.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/matt-lowrie-greater-auckland-director-says-its-impossible-for-tolls-to-pay-current-construction-costs-as-suggested-by-act/
Acts road toll policy doesn't stack up!!
Unless like all good free market right wingers they expect tax payers to subsidize their profits??
There's a good review here, for those interested in dramatic history: https://slate.com/culture/2023/07/oppenheimer-movie-historical-accuracy-communist-manhattan-project.html
Psychodrama! Hero as "a complex portrait: a tortured soul, enthralled by the science, then racked by guilt over the hellscape it unleashed. He’s insistent on his independence as a scientist, but also pliant in his role as mere adviser to authority. He’s certain of his convictions, but ambivalent about almost everything."
The film seems to have merit as exploration of the science/politics interface, considering timeless issues involving power & truth – plus faustian deals that changed the world.
Listening to Winston Peters on RNZ and really, he hasn't changed. He's tarted things up a bit with some MAGA catch phrases but what makes him jarring is the fact he is still pitching to a Tauranga audience of retired Rob's mob circa 2000.
It is such a pity, because NZ First has some good ideas but ultimately, it is entirely his vanity project and will disappear once he shuffles off this mortal coil.
Also, he is completely owned Ingrid Hipkiss.
I always thought there were some good ideas too, but they got lost in the forest of demented rants.
Do you think he's the 4-dimension chess player, the Professor Snape of Parliament, just there to pull the whacko votes without ever intending to action them? Some do.
I think Winston Peters is in it for Winston Peters. Entirely a vanity project. The man seems driven by vendettas real and imaged (mostly imagined). Peters is interesting because he has constantly presented himself to voters as an outsider kicking against the elites. Ingrid Hipkiss gave him pleanty of ammunition to advance that argument with her odd attitude and rather dismissive approach to him in the interview.
In an recent interview with the New Yorker magazine crackpot, cooker and maybe presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr. accused his interviewer as being among the "elites". The journalist replied that Kennedy is from a far more privileged background than he. Kennedy says:
"When I use the word “élite,” I’m talking about the people who are inside the Beltway, the press figures who are supposed to be speaking truth to power, but instead have become propagandists for the government. Who view their jobs as quashing dissent, and quashing political criticism of the government that they’re supposed to be actually criticizing."
Therefore Kennedy, a genuine member of the ruling-class, is not an elite because he's an outsider. The elites are the insiders who shape consensus reality, whose moral and political codes dominate. The rest are forced to live in that reality and are victimised if they question it. Think "woke elite", and "metropolitan elite". Hipkiss firmly placed herself into this notional "elite" with the tone of her interview and walked into the rather obvious traps Peters set for her.
This displacing of class antagonism onto cultural elites is a boring commonplace of the Right – Kennedy might think he is onto something novel, but really, Winston Peters has been doing it for thirty years and Muldoon was doing it in the 1970s.
It's a funny theory of his, "insiders who shape consensus reality", when he's supposedly 'saying-what-we're-all-thinking'
.
I wonder what shenanigans he'll get up to if he squeaks in again then.
Yeah – listened to it. I thought, will enough of these old dudes (among whom I place myself) do their coil shuffling thing before the climate crisis has become unsolvable – as they are the major obstacle to even trying? It looks like a tight race – like a reality-based 'reality tv' show. I'm not betting on it.
The funniest thing about Winston at the weekend was seeing all those Asian immigrants (mostly Indian) turning up at his party conference.
He didn't tell them to go home because there were too many of them. That was 1996 Winston. So many different Winstons over the years, I've lost count.
@ observer (4.3) … Winston Peters is a chameleon, changes his colours constantly to suit Winston. You wouldn't know what you were voting for with him. This leads me to think NZF led as it is presently by Peters is in no man's land, lacking policy, ready and willing to go with any party, which gives him personally a good deal. For these reasons, I would not ever vote for NZF. I like to know what I'm getting when I cast my vote and with Peters, it could be anything, because nothing is black or white with him. He's a grey unknown area unto himself … no pun intended there … known for holding the country to ransom, while he works out what is best for Winston!
About time Peters retired and left NZF to some younger politicians.
The Nat/Lab obsession with short-term politics posed a big problem for the younger generations now: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/132487585/global-megatrends-putting-critical-infrastructure-system-under-pressure
Better late than never?? At least govt seems to be musing upon this structural problem. No surprise that Labour kicked it down the road into the next electoral cycle though. Labour's real good at that. The thrill from each kick gets them high…
3 Waters covers some of these large infrastructure issues, and I have not seen undue delays to the efforts to fix the mile-long 'potholes' such as in the Coromandel, or the hill slips and flooding that have destroyed homes. Certainly no opposition party has offered and policies that are any different – it is easy to make false accusations of kicking issues down the road without any detail – but the ACT/Nat obsession with complaining about everything while not offering alternatives is not even kicking the tires
Looks like the historical compounding of the infrastructure deficit they refer to has been produced by collusion between Labour and National in the long-term, so your binary framing of the thing doesn't work. It fails to address the root cause.
Pothole repairs get done due to current funding. Ad hoc fixes serve to mask the real problem: towns, roads & bridges vulnerable to climate change. The system needs more of a reboot than tinkering. Neither the left nor the right have the brains & guts to do what is required.
Here is an example of exactly how much the "West' actually care or value Ukrainian lives (as if we already didn't know) …
"Meanwhile, for the United States and its NATO allies, these 18 months of war have been a strategic windfall, at relatively low cost (other than for the Ukrainians)"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/18/ukraine-war-west-gloom/
…yep, on a scale of one to ten…one, or maybe minus one, as it is plainly obvious that Ukrainian lives have zero value to the Western leaders (and their arse and boot licking media pundits)….but hopefully most sentient observers must have worked out by now that this war has always been about the West and the Wests own geo-political objectives, and Ukraine just happens to be the unfortunate country that is in the wrong place at the wrong time….the West have never given a fuck about Ukraine and they don't now, just like they don't give a fuck about Taiwan.
So you can be sure that no Western leader is going to lose one minute of sleep over the loss of at least two entire generations of Ukrainian men in what the history books will most certainly describe as (what should have been) an easily avoidable war ..much like Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan…..wait, does there seem to be a common denominator here?
"…Ukrainian men in what the history books will most certainly describe as (what should have been) an easily avoidable war…"
How otherwise apparently rational human being can cling to this sort of nonsensicial and illogical thinking on the Ukraine war will puzzle social scientists for decades to come.
The social scientists will have plenty to wrap their heads around.Like how was it possible to fool so many for so long with simple media generated propaganda.In the west! of all places.
The sovietisation of western media is pretty well complete, the free press is dead
(Ask Assange)
"…yep, on a scale of one to ten…one, or maybe minus one, as it is plainly obvious that Ukrainian lives have zero value to the Western leaders"
I tend to agree, due to the cynical slow-rolling by the West of military aid to Ukraine, when they should have given them everything short of nukes in whatever quantities the Ukrainian's asked for.
the war can only continue if the Ukrainian men do the dying – and of course foreign fighters – as no Nato Member country would last a week sending its own to die there.
And how would this war have been avoided without Ukraine becoming a non-democratic state run by Russian puppets?
As opposed to being a non democratic state run by American puppets?
Who knows what would have come to pass had the US and Europe stood by their promises and not betrayed goodwill by embedding NATO further and further eastwards , until it, a hostile military alliance , was entrenched on Russian borders
It's not like NATO forced Poland or the Baltics to join at gunpoint.
Given the choice between joining an alliance that would at least respect their sovereignty (even if sometimes the US can be an awkward ally), and becoming a Russian satellite state again, they rationally and rightly chose the align themselves with the West.
Don't those countries also have the right to feel that Russia isn't exactly a trustworthy, good-faith actor? I mean, the number of times Lithuania has been occupied, annexed, ethnically cleansed, or otherwise screwed around by the US is exactly zero. Whereas the Russians have form.
And maybe there would have fewer issues with NATO's expansion if the current Russian regime was less repressive, wasn't morally bankrupt, and had weaned itself off the historical inclination to embark on foreign adventures to paper over the cracks.
That old chestnut!
No gunpoint, but possibly bagfuls of money and other more subtle incentives , I hear US diplomats can be very …ahem.. persuasive.
And one has to be invited by NATO to join NATO .It's not NATO passively accepting anyone who asks, if that was the case , Russia itself would be in NATO
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine
Talk about corruption!
Ukraine and many of the other East European states are absolutely riddled with it
And come to that , we could be looking a lot closer to home
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/07/25/mediawatch-astounding-corporate-capitalism-corruption-from-consultants-guyon-espiner-at-his-best/
No less old a chestnut than spouting nonsense justifications to support your wannabe hegemon du jour. 'tis a tale as old as war itself.
Nobody disagrees that Eastern Europe has had troubles with corruption: it's been a problem ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. But to try to draw a line between that, the expansion of NATO, and the war in Ukraine takes quite a leap of the imagination!
Besides, I don't think you're giving the people of the former Eastern bloc enough credit. They know what their problems are. They've done their own strategic and foreign policy calculus.
And they've decided that actually, NATO membership is worth it despite the potential downside of pissing off the Russians. Because, in their view, the risk of a Russian invasion/meddling is quite high. Or at least high enough to justify the costs.
As for democratic legitimacy, I think the fact that so many Ukrainians are willing to fight tooth and nail to defend what you are implying is a corrupt government is evidence enough that they don't feel the same way you do.
If the Ukrainians are universally willing to fight tooth and nail, forced conscription where men are grabbed off the street would not be necessary
And this would not be happening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0sQxiLrnOQ
or this
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/18584
NATO has been enthusiastically welcomed by many of the states formerly occupied and subjugated by russia. They had the choice to join or stick with russia, but chose NATO – seems one is a much preferred choice to the other, and russian aggression keeps making NATO seem more and more desirable.
Nato hasn't expanded East – it has been invited East. Big difference to russia sending tanks over your border as they are prone to do.
"And one has to be invited by NATO to join NATO ."
Yes, nato invites you, but only after a country first approaches Nato and expresses an interest in joining:
"It's not NATO passively accepting anyone who asks, if that was the case , Russia itself would be in NATO"
Have you read this?
And it fell apart.
If the Ukrainians are universally willing to fight tooth and nail, forced conscription where men are grabbed off the street would not be necessary
And this would not be happening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0sQxiLrnOQ
or this
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/18584
Meanwhile close to 1 million Russians (including hundreds of thousands of men of enlistment age) have fled the country. Clearly they are overwhelmingly delighted to be forced into a war of conquest /sarc/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_emigration_following_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
Good grief. Did you actually read this Wiki? The claim is not verified as stated '[not verified in body] '.
I'd say a wider search of information may be called for.
wikipedia hs slipped to being just propaganda. I avoid like the plague these days.
Or does 'propaganda' just mean 'information I don't agree with'?
All information sources should be critically considered and not entirely trusted – but do you have actual evidence of wikipedia being widely unreliable and factually incorrect? I’d be interested to see it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia
UncookedSelachimorpha nope, propaganda is the dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion. To quote britannica.
The reality is apart from men being the main editors of wikipedia, something like 90%. Or those in the west who dominate and direct the content, so cultural economic bias. It has become a tool for the ruling class.
This worth a watch if you have time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3LxXqV_4UU
Closer to home, we had conscription in WW1 and WW2 here too. Does that invalidate the sacrifice made by those that did go fight? Or the eventual overthrow of Nazism?
OK, I'll give you WW1: a war whose devastation was only outstripped by its sheer pointlessness.
But total war is just that: total. You throw every body. Every bullet. And every ounce of energy into the fight.
Jingoistic shitfuckry at it's finest.
Do you live in the real world, not one gaslit by Winston Churchill and Soviet state WWII propaganda about how willing the male population is to fight, and to stand a good chance of wounding or death? Only 17 year olds imagine themselves heroes.
Anyone with half a brain and a knowledge of the realities of war knows that compulsory conscription is there because most men understand full well that the front line of a brutal trench war is not the place to be. But moral, or nationalistic, or 'we're in it together' reasons make most compliant. For others, they slip the net, until rounded up unwillingly.
Exactly. In a life-or-death struggle, you need every warm body you can get your hands on. Modern warfare is brutal.
And if not enough people volunteer, then yeah, using the coercive power of the state to conscript aforementioned warm bodies is the way to go.
But there's a yawning gulf between rounding up criminals to use as cannon fodder in a pointless foreign war, and conscripting citizens when your country has been invaded.
The Baltic states must be delighted they are in NATO with madman Putin in the Kremlin. Can anyone doubt they'd have been first on the block for invasion and annexation if they were not in NATO?
The Balts are giving evcerything they have plus lots of volunteers to support Ukraine, and if you really want to know what the East Europeans think of Russia just take a look at Polands military build up. The huge army they are creating in the next few years isn't designed to stop the Germans…
The purpose of Poland's military buildup is to waste money and impoverish the country, not to mention the enrichment of US arms manufacturers who will selling them the goods.
Makes sense.
Of course the Polish government argue
"let's buy arms to impoverish ourselves and waste money"
not
"Russia invaded, murdered and subjugated us for decades, russia say they want to again, and are invading their other neighbours. So let's arm ourselves and join nato!"
Yup. There is a reason Ukraine wants into NATO – Russia doesn't dare attack anyone backed up by Uncle Sam.
Yes the same backing Israel enjoys as it continues to stick 2 fingers aloft to all and sundry including its own people.
You forget that it was not Russia who started this war. It started in 2014 when Ukraine attacked it's Eastern provinces.
Do you mean when Russia annexed the Crimea?
Yes. When Crimea once again became Russian territory.
So it's fine for Russia to invade and annex part of another sovereign country.
Do you people ever listen to yourselves?
Crimea had historically *never* been part of post-Soviet Russia. From 1991 it was part of Ukraine (well, there's some argument about whether it was an autonomous republic inside or outside Ukraine – but it was certainly not part of Russia). Until it was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Please save your time and don't bother raising the 'referendum' which is universally held (apart from the pro-Russian apologists) to have been entirely dictated by the Kremlin.
So it's fine for Russia to invade and annex part of another sovereign country.
Depends on the circumstances. All bets were off once Ukraine turned Westward and formed an alliance with the evil empire. Anyhow it was what the majority of the Crimean people wanted.
As for the alleged shonkyness of the referendum, as claimed by NATO's fellow travelers and useful idiots, this has never been proved.
Ahh the west is bad chestnut!
It's the Wests fault that all these newly free former Soviet nations would rather fight to the death than ever suffer under the rule of Russia again.
It's the Wests fault that these nations want to join NATO to protect themselves from an expansionist Russia.
All those eastern Europeans who'd rather be allied with the West than Russia are brainwashed!
Don't they know that the west is bad!!!
They should listen to clueless people who've lived in western countries their whole lives about how the west is just as bad as Russia and just roll over and join Russia again
I mean how would Ukraine and co know whether Russia or the west is worse! It's not like they ever lived under Russian rule before
The Ukrainians should listen to tanky kiwis and surrender to Russia cos the west is bad.
West is baaaaaaad!
You got in it a nutshell Corey, time for the rose coloured spectacles about the West came off and we face up to the damage we've done, the colonisation, the wars, the excessive polluting consumption , the consequences of western domination on the citizens of the rest of the world.
Gaslighting the Balts, Poles and Ukrainians about the intentions of Russia is a really tasteless thing, given they've all suffered in the last century Soviet genocides.
I don't really think that levels of pollution is a field on which Russia can win.
Ever hear of Lake Baikal, Norilsk, Dzerzinsk….. the list goes on.
And, you still seem to be missing the point: the citizens of the Countries bordering Russia *do not want* Russian domination….
Somehow, in your mind, "western domination" (by which you seem to mean the USA) is bad; but Russian domination is good.
Don't you even see the contradiction?
Which countries bordering Russia have been threatened with Russian domination? When has Putin ever declared a desire to dominate countries bordering the Russian state? Or is it that you are simply believing all the tripe spewed by CNN et al?
History shows that domination by the west is undoubtedly bad.
Gosh, I'd have to say Ukraine.
An invasion, with appalling civilian casualties, pretty much qualifies as 'domination'.
What 'Russian domination' ? It's 30 years since Warsaw pact dismantled.
Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a strong indicator of Russian domination…..
Or perhaps you've missed it….
I realise that Russia has launched a defense maneuver against NATO on Ukrainian soil, but you are right, the "domination" thing seems to have escaped me. Though I suspect it's just a product of your febrile imagination.
Yup completely missed the illegal armed invasion of an independent country – with appalling civilian casualties.
Your pro-Russian blinkers are super strength – the Kremlin must be proud.
I look forward to you holding the UK and USA accountable for the invasion of Iraq.
Invasion of an independent countries is a war crime, and all cases should be treated as such.
Yup completely missed the illegal armed invasion of an independent country – with appalling civilian casualties.
A country that was already conducting civil war against its Eastern provinces.
Doesn’t it warm the cockles of your heart seeing those brave Ukranians sacrificing themselves for Uncle Sam. Bless ’em.
Well I would say American arms manufacturers are laughing all the way to their banks. Apparently Ukraine is not as "independent" as you imagine.
Francesca, is that the West you are talking about, or capitalism? Last time I looked, Russia also suffered from ecological disasters, grossly unfair living conditions for a large part of the population, and kleptocratic oligarchs, just like the US, but with a bit less freedom to complain about it.
This doesn't seem to be true….
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9813/
The restriction on membership is that the joining criteria are fairly stringent (so Ukraine was unlikely to have qualified for quite some time)
Oh, do give us examples of the NATO states which are "non democratic states run by American puppets"
Were you thinking of Germany, France, Iceland? Turkey, perhaps? Surely not the most recent NATO countries of Finland and Sweden?
All of whom are highly democratic (vastly more so than Russia) – and frequently critical of the US when their interests don't align.
If they are puppet states, then the puppet-master is a pretty incompetent one.
As a contrast, I offer you … Belarus….
It was never democratic before the conflict and signing the Permanent Neutrality Agreement would have halted the ..bloodshed.
Did Boris Johnson scuttle a Russia-Ukraine peace deal – back in APRIL? | Vox Political (voxpoliticalonline.com)
2019 Ukraine elections were rated fair and open by internal and international observers. "In contrast to 2014, when Russian cyberattacks compromised the Central Election Commission network".
(https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/foreign-interference-in-ukraine-s-election/).
Posting a link to the Atlantic Council is equivalent to posting a link to Sputnik, or the old Pravda
Francesca, isn't that exactly what you're doing with your whole "the war in Ukraine is NATO's fault" routine?
You'll notice(maybe not) that I used a western source on NATO, the Guardian, bastion of western "values", because an adversary nation's point of view incites the vapours in red blooded patriots of the glorious west
You quoted an opinion piece that was republished by the Guardian, written by a senior member of a think tank (the Cato Institute) well known for its libertarian, anti-NATO views and belief in a non-interventionist foreign policy.
So, maybe actually check and evaluate your sources before you start firing off quotes.
All that proves is that there is more than one useful idiot in the West.
All right then, Washinton Post Reuters report from UN officials in 2014 on election in eastern Ukraine:
"At the same time, it is already clear that in two eastern provinces, where 14 percent of the electorate lives, balloting will be next to impossible, thanks to forcible disruption by Russian-backed militants…Six days before the election, that failure is blatantly evident.
“There is intimidation,” a senior U.N. official told the Reuters news agency in describing the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Ivan Simonovic, the assistant U.N. secretary general for human rights, said that a number of presidents and vice presidents of local elections commissions had been abducted or otherwise mistreated. Reuters reported that the last election commission attempting to operate in the city of Donetsk shut down Monday, leaving no voting operation in an urban area of 1 million people. Concluded the interior minister of Ukraine’s interim government: “It will be impossible to hold normal elections over the huge territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions."
Worse than cyber attacks – kidnapping and intimidation of electoral officials.
Apparently state agents have no right of free speech. Well, that seems to be the view of the PM. I presume he doesn't believe in civil rights? I suppose he would claim he does, but privileged members of the control system are meant to keep quiet regardless.
So the muzzle he was obliquely referring to does exist but in a quasi-covert method of suppressing free speech:
The general idea seems to be that board members cease being able to do social media and become robots instead. Or maybe androids. Mere cogs in the machine of governance.
Rob Campbell ought to put his lengthy experience & expertise to work on the situation: form a union of oppressed board members, use it to speak out in the public interest.
Assuming Ake has no expert knowledge on mental heath matters, Ake has made a groundless and gratuitous attack on Hipkins handling of the Allan situation.
Hardly acceptable behaviour coming from a board member of a Crown Entity, especially one whose key role is supposed to be politically neutral, and only 12 weeks out from an election.
I suggest Ake knew exactly what he was doing here and so should be sacked.
Yeh he’s got a job which specifically precludes his involvement in politics. It’s in the contracts.
Either choose the job or your social media. Not tricky.
Am I wrong? I thought this board member/social media responsibility debate had been thrashed out in full in two recent cases, with appropriate consequences.
Looks as though he's doubling down on his commentary in this space (although, not directly critical of the PM – he's still critical of the government's delivery on mental health for Maori). Despite being told by the RNZ Chair that he can't be political – and a pretty direct statement from Hipkins that he was out of line.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/494454/rnz-board-member-jason-ake-makes-fresh-comments-on-kiri-allan-saga-despite-criticism-from-pm
X is on. Looks dreadful. Did they get AI to do it? Two snap-off craft knife blades arranged in a way to suggest authority, denial, intimidation. Musk is a dick.
It's a unicode character.
https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+1D54F
https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-x-logo-unicode-math-textbooks-2023-7
edit: it gets better
@keithedwards
Microsoft owns the trademark for X. This is just too good.
https://twitter.com/keithedwards/status/1683586586007437312
He's been at this 'X' idea for a while:
https://www.businessinsider.com/history-behind-elon-musk-x-brand-that-may-replace-twitter-2023-7
Be interesting how the Microsoft trademark, XBOX and everything that entails, plays out.
No doubt we'll hear that some brains trust have been working on the X for two years and spent millions coming up with it.
And once revealed it took five minutes and no dollars for someone to say "I recognise that."
The legal cases to follow? Probably run into the tens of millions.
Looks like 2 ys to me ,
X for games – Microsoft patent
X for social media – Meta patent
X for banking – Musk patent
Musk wants to have messaging, social media (audio and video) as well as banking on one platform/app – it's been done and called we chat.
His X is one overlayed by the other, his blade over that of the planet – satellite comms frequency to all, terrestial activity connections, transportation by smart device car (automatic management by AI) and lift of into space to escape it all.
An X man, with Sumerian god pretensions walks among us.
We have a winner.
Sesame Street
@sesamestreet
The letter X will be holding a press conference later today. #TwitterX
https://twitter.com/sesamestreet/status/1683508159942467584
This X debacle is just confirmation beyond doubt that Musk is an egotistical grifting fuckwit
twitter -> X
google -> ABC
facebook -> Meta
personal, meaningful words X'ed out by abstract corporate slogans.
symbolism:
X – wrong answer
X – illiteracy, anonymity, removal of personhood, censorship
X – extinction, extermination, death
X – corporate fascism "crossing out" democracy and free exchange of ideas
X – skull and crossbones; piracy; vulture capitalism
X – pornography, forbidden knowledge, occult
but hidden in this darkness is a redemptive arc:
+ in Jesus, the death of God breaks open new life 🐣
+ a cross is where heaven and earth intersect 🔀
+ psalm 85:10 "Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other." 🫶🏼
+ the red cross is a symbol of healing and peace amidst troubled times
Looking forward to questions to the leader of the opposition if he will introduce a bill to require anyone taking a mental health day or two to have clinical clearance before they return to work. What a tosser.
Hipkins should have bent time, looked through to the future void to see how Allan’s break up was going to go and if she was going to be okay to work and only then allowed her back.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132611615/david-parker-untenable-to-remain-revenue-minister-after-wealth-tax-rejection
In some ways, this is more important than the departure of Kiri Allan
It's a public acknowledgement of a very significant split in the Labour cabinet.
Time, I think, for Chippy to fall on his sword like Andrew Little did in 2017.
Who would you see as the Ardern in that situation? I certainly don't see a popular, unifying figure waiting in the Labour caucus wings.
Absent an Ardern-style figure emerging, Hipkins resigning would be an unmitigated disaster for Labour.
They could do worse than Parker himself. Yes, I know he's boring, but I reckon he would make mincemeat of Luxon in the campaign debates. And perhaps the electorate is tired of colourful figures. Jacinda-ism may be outmoded.
It was Wood and Allan, so their wings clipped it is onward with Hipkins.
His job is at it was, to compete to win and fall on his sword if he does not. Though the law and order of politics, Professor Palmer, handed on late to the last line of defence for the old regime (Meikayla Moore) in 1990. Who tried again in 1993.
After the election, the precedent is falling back to either a future candidate for UNSG or Mayoralty of Auckland.
@ alan
I agree…I came on here expecting it to be full of it..
The revenue minister walking away from his portfolio in protest at the canning of the wealth tax he developed ..is a very big deal..
I don't doubt his sincerity in this move..
And it makes sense as positioning as a future progressive leader of labour..
And if gren/tmp do as well as some hope..and demand a wealth tax as the price to pay for coalition support ..labour can roll hipkins…and parker is there…ready to roll..
Yes, NACT will be singing that loud and clear every day leading up to the election.
It sums up the emptiness of NZ's political coverage.
Kiri Allan's departure, while very sad for her, is not about any policy issue at all. It has no bearing at all on what this government or an alternative government would do. It does not affect the voters' real lives in any way. Unlike say, tax policy.
But for political reporters it's the soap opera, and they love it. Parker's just boring.
I agree that Parker is boring (policy wonk, with little public appeal or charisma).
But the timing of this ministerial shuffle has to have been very deliberate – Hipkins (and, I'm sure Parker with his loyal to Labour hat on) – will be hoping to slide it under the kerfuffle occasioned by Allen's resignation, and the consequent reallocation of portfolios.
The last thing Hipkins or Labour want is a forensic journalist asking hard questions about how solid Labour's tax policy is; and/or how solid Hipkins' support is from the Labour front bench.
First Robertson (not exactly enthusiastic in the media stand up around the tax policy), and now Parker (basically saying, 'not on my watch').
Sounds about right. That article states the Nat list is expected by the end of July.
I have to take it back. The politicians (if not nec the journos) are being very magnanimous towards Kiri. Both sides. Even more so than with Muller.
I'll eat my hat over this. I hope it gets reported properly.
(I’m watching parl tv)
I think many of them will be thinking, "There, but for the Grace of God, go I"
Parliament – especially cabinet – is a pressure cooker – and it sometimes just takes one additional source of pressure for an explosion to happen.
I suspect that all of them are treating Allen very differently to either Wood or Nash – whose errors were arrogance and entitlement.
Congrats to the Philippines soccer team, which beat us in the Womens' World cup.
NZ had 70% possession and 4 accurate shots on goal to their opponents' 1, but still lost
by the only goal in the match. Those stats are not good if you are the NZ coach.
The stats were great, not the result.