Key couldn’t remember what he was doing in the early 1980s.
He was possibly thumbing through his “Battler Britain” comics.
Seems now he might also have been captured by the Falklands and is now
hoping for his own “Thatcher” moment.
hi paul, ref a rogue government: perhaps we do, however till the sheeple wake up to this, nothing changes.
to raise awareness perhaps a day of action akin to the anti tppa protests coming up early march?
If the NZ role is just training, then why not bring the trainees here to New Zealand and teach them all the tactics they need in a non-war zone, peaceful environment.
Because then our “force protection” troops could not help to secure a Forward Operating Base in Iraq from which assault operations on ISIS will be launched from.
Was Key channeling Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men for his performance in parliament yesterday?
Once again key simply does not ring true.Little is a true leader, calm, capable and cogent.
Mr Little was in very good form on tv3 this morning he gave solid reasoned views on Iraq.
Paddy giving not a bad breakdown of the cost of keys announcement in his eyes its when not if we get a retaliation from I S.
To an extent. But he said it doesn’t take guts to sit in Wellington making tough decisions. I think he’s wrong about that.
If he believes what he said then I don’t think he’s ready to step up to Prime Ministerial level, which is a very tough job involving many tough decisions.
Nowhere near that les. I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.
If it had come to the crunch would Labour have voted against it? There’s no way of knowing now, but as this is at the request of Iraq it’s arguably more legitimate than decisions made by the Clark Government and Parliament at the time.
Seeing as Labour and the Greens both put forward a motion for a vote – which National objected to both times – your “no way of knowing” is as empty as Key’s credibility.
ha ha that is the funniest thing heard in a long time. Well actually not that long as it has been heard quite a lot lately. Not surprised you fall for it Pete.
I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.
Yeah, actually, it was. We don’t get democracy by having a few people in cabinet making executive decisions. Going to war is a major policy and really should have been put to referendum even if the nation that we’d be fighting for requested it.
Many of them genuinely seem to think that if they got away with it (so far), it can’t be wrong.
A similar but lighter example is an opinion piece in Stuff today that argued the underarm ball incident was not actually wrong: it was legal, it might have been possible to still hit a six and tie the game, even if it wasn’t possible then the bowler could have bowled a perfect ball that was impossible to hit for six, or that the aussie team could have turned into the keystone cops and allowed NZ to get six runs via fielding errors.
There’s a basic inability to recognise a dick move when it’s there. That winning a game of athletic skill via bureaucratic oversight is preferable to getting a draw. That exploiting a tax loophole to pay less than your fair share is fine because it’s temporarily legal. That taking the ability the Executive has to use the armed forces speedily to react to threats and using it to avoid gaining parliament’s permission for a contentious, planned, long term deployment is not an abuse of the very democracy that parliament is there to exercise.
And the signature of a dick is to not know or care that it’s a dick. That’s why key shrugs his shoulders so often.
actually it’s more like Timothy Dalton’s character thinking that pronouncing it “super marshay” is a cool thing to do, rather than mildly greasy and irritating. 🙂
What tough decisions? A tough decision would be to kick all pedophiles out of the NAct party, or to up the top tax rate, or to chase after corporate fraudsters. Sending our kids to war, or selling state houses are not tough decisions. They come naturally to Tory scum.
“When we’re talking about guts, I think I’ll reserve that for the soldiers who we’re sending up there,” Mr Little responded on Firstline this morning.
“This is one of the most dangerous conflict zones in the world – you don’t need much guts to sit on a leather couch in Wellington and send people off to do your bidding for you, so let’s get that in perspective.”
Sorry chaps. Forgot the rules. DNFTT. Starting at A.
The aardvark (/ˈɑrd.vɑrk/ ard-vark; Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike New World edentates such as the giant anteater, it has a long pig-like snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over most of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, avoiding mainly rocky areas. A nocturnal feeder, it subsists on ants and termites, which it will dig out of their hills using its sharp claws and powerful legs. It also will utilize its digging ability to create burrows in which to live and rear its young.
As it turns out I didn’t like Key’s second speech, I don’t think that was appropriate. But there was an unusual amount of emotion expressed so fair enough for Key to say what he thought.
And the Green faithful will have lapped up Norman’s naivety and contradictions.
Chard and the other beets are chenopods, a group which is either its own family Chenopodiaceae or a subfamily within the Amaranthaceae. Although the leaves of chard are eaten, it is in the same species as beetroot (garden beet), which is grown primarily for its edible roots. Both are cultivated descendants of the sea beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, but they were selected for different characteristics.
Chard is also known by its many common names such as Swiss chard,[7] silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, bright lights, seakale beet, and mangold.[8] In South Africa, it is simply called spinach.[9]
Key’s performance yesterday was Oscar worthy. He has to make an effort to convince NZer’s he’s made the right decision. And I agree with freedom, he is under stress and losing his composure.
Bullshitting to save your arse can be really stressful, and add all that acting effort, it’s no wonder he’s looking a bit undone.
E. lecontei adults are smaller than most terrestrial weevils, measuring only 3 mm in length. This weevil is generally dark-colored with a pattern of dark brown/black and yellowish stripes on the dorsal half, fading to a lighter, yellow-beige underbelly. However, some weevil individuals vary in color from almost completely tan to beige.
“From observing your pet every day, you’ll have noticed that your cat has a pattern that it follows quite religiously. For example, your adult indoor cat might spend the mornings lying in a pool of sunshine in the corner of the dining room. Later, he watches you as you go about your household chores, and then his rigorous day winds down with a patient vigil by the kitchen door waiting for his children – otherwise known as your children – to come home. Your feline has developed these routines to protect his territory and frequently your pet’s definition of “territory” includes his human family members.
As your cat grows older, he becomes less capable of adapting to changes in his environment. Your pet gets particular about even the smallest detail of his surroundings and will notice changes in food (brand or type), the consistency of his litter and even in your schedule or in the schedules of other family members. Abrupt or drastic changes in your cat’s routine and environment can produce a great deal of stress, which can result in a variety of stress-induced behaviors – including litter box problems, aggression, self-mutilation or general despondency.
The best possible way to keep your cat stress free is to try to maintain your daily routine and to keep changes to a minimum. When changes are necessary, try introducing them to your cat gradually while leaving every other aspect of the routine in place. Limit exposure to new people and new foods, etc., on the first day and increase the exposure to newness over a seven-day period. If you have houseguests or other situations where the household is materially changed, remember to give your cat as much extra attention as you can.”
what with: spying in tangimoana on behalf of the us,
rounding up that pesky german,
altering nz labour law,
offering tax breaks to american film companies,
sending kiwi soldiers to help clean up another us war,
and being a golf buddy to the pousa.
i am reminded of a the the song, heartland.
youtube.com/watch?v=1osdqwaiu08
” The ammunition’s being passed and the lords been praised
But the wars on the televisions will never be explained
All the bankers gettin’ sweaty beneath their white collars
As the pound in our pocket turns into a dollar
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
this may give an insight to what our dear leader wants our new flag to look like.
Alcohol is not so much the elephant in the room – It’s were is the room, because I can’t see anything but the elephant.
As long as we keep up prohibition – people suffer, people dying suffer, families suffer, criminals are made for no reason, racist cops have laws which enable them to be racists, and we can’t tell children not to smoke pot in a public debate.
Clemgeopin, live pure – like that going to happen. I’d rather we had open debate around drugs and drug use rather than it being hidden.
Hell I dream of the day we can have adds on TV which say.
“Don’t smoke pot and drink alcohol together – why? Because – it really does make you into an arsehole”
or
“Smoking pot under the age of 21 is like drinking under 21 – a licence to make you stupid and compliant. Wait till your 21 ah.”
alcohol and cannabis aren’t the problem. Why some people use in unhealthy ways is where to look if we want to see the problem. Take away the drugs, what are those people going to do?
No, no, I do enjoy a drink or three.
Don’t do drugs and will most certainly NEVER visit a NZ casino EVER AGAIN after the recent fiasco and the disgraceful dodgy nexus between the two evils : The nasty Nats and the gambling Casino goons.
Cripes phillip u can you stay off pot for a week? I am not talking about what happens at your place just give us a break here. Make that a month would you. I and some others would be grateful to not have that subject for a good while.
Regulating it is fine but taxing it ‘heavily’ is not so much because, as is always the case, be it tobacco, dope, or GST, it will hit the poorest the most…and in the case of dope, I think it will be the gangs that will rub their hands with joy and heartily support ‘heavy’ taxes!
I was wondering how long it would take you to reference that red herring of a study.
They simply compared the lethal dose 50 of alcohol to the lethal dose 50 of marijuana.
The LD50 of alcohol is significantly lower than marijuana. That’s it. That’s all the study found.
It doesn’t mention anything about societal use or injuries / damage caused by the drugs, it’s purely looking at the dose it would take to kill you.
You might notice, that very few people actually die of alcohol poisoning. Virtually no one dies of marijuana poisoning.
These findings are not news nor surprising to anyone who understands what the study is *actually* about. Unfortunately, as usual, the media have boiled it down to the lowest-common-denominator and written a headline and article that distorts the study to a huge degree and presents it as if it is some great new finding and is somehow relevant to the marijuana vs alcohol debate, when really it warrants nothing more than a passing interest.
No, I’m not arguing against that proposition. Alcohol is obviously much more damaging to society and individuals than marijuana is.
I’m saying *this* article doesn’t offer any new insight to anyone who would be making legislative decisions about this. Anyone trumpeting this as some sort of grand new evidence is misguided.
In simple terms: this study is telling us what we already knew and what was already obvious.
Just a couple of pieces to remind people that rabid right wing have no morals. They love money not people and are only interested in “the bottom line”. The sooner we stand up against this greed mentality – the better for humanity and an increased chance for it’s survival, as we approach the end of the golden weather.
Barry Gustafson I think was on Radionz – came to know her well. She was very supportive of old Fartface and was a true blue lady herself. She probably enjoyed a relationship with Margaret Thatcher. I think she had a pretty good time of it all.
Cf Margaret Thorn’s life. Now that was a staunch and beautiful woman to admire. Does anyone remember her?
Thanks for that greywarshark. Just read a short piece about her on Te Ara website. Sounds like an interesting and admirable woman, and the experience of her and her husband is a timely one to read regarding the ISIS discussion.
As for the title of her last book: “Stick out, and keep left”. Pretty much sums it up.
Yes Molly I had the book in the back of my mind for yonks but couldn’t get the name right and I think Ennui or one of the stalwarts here gave me the steer.
And the difference between now and how politics used to be! At one stage she and her husband filled a major political role, can’t remember the exact position and she visited an organisation in her elevated capacity. Then they were out of government, her husband got sick, and she was back at that organisation as a cook working flat out in the kitchens. Real Cinderella stuff. A very hard worker. Both of the Thorns were.
Thea Muldoon was a genuine conservative lady – one of the old fashioned
Conservatives who believed in following and supporting her husband at all cost. I met her once after her husband had died and realised she was a kind and genuine person. She was a product of her conservative upbringing, but I came to admire her for her loyalty and decency.
Grey – Best not to compare and contrast these very different women in this manner.
Would you do the same if a man you disliked passed away (find a ‘worthy’ man with whom to compare him)?
Massive methane gas blowholes opening up in SIberia
Seems like Russian scientists think that the “clatharate gun” has gone off. That 2 degree C target is history, methinks, and with it, hundreds of millions of human lives.
I have been expecting that to start showing up in the far north. They’re still estimating how much is stored there on land, but it looks like a lot.
Fortunately there is less of a tundra land mass in the south. It looks like the WAIS has been burnt off several times for shortish periods in the last 25 million years anyway which means that it probably has little methane stored.
US Police now using Stasi secret police tactics on protestors
Chicago’s “Homan Square” police facility where protestors can get disappeared to and chained up without access to lawyers, phone calls, or contact with the outside world. Detainees are not officially charged.
This is what the gradual evolution of a totalitarian security state looks like, people.
Can I add, one of the Anarchy-capitalist I talk to sometimes. He’s always good for a argument. Got pulled into something similar to this. Luckily he was missed, and his friends/family knew/guessed it was the cops – so eventually got a lawyer – after 3 days from memory.
So if you think it’s only us on the left they are targeting – think again.
With their new systems they are targetting anyone who is identified as a potential dissenter to the current systems of privilege and power. That’s why they’ll target lefty protestors, Tea Party members, whistle blowers and journalists.
This more than anything else, signals how the Left/Right paradigm is breaking down. Now it is about the Inner Circle (and their professional enablers/hangers ons) and Everybody else.
The PTB want you to think the left/right paradigm is breaking down. It’s actually the monopolist right versus everyone else as we head into peak capitalism.
Don’t know about Snowden’s politics, but he is currently sheltering in an authoritarian country and Assange is a fan of surprise sex, so probably a wee bit of the do as I say style bastard about him, too. Hitler right, Stalin left, as we know. I think Snowden is probably the only one who might conceivably be ‘left’ but Assange is clearly some sort of libertarian, and, as most of them do when opportunity arises, likes taking an authoritarian line. Though of course it’s not just opportunity that arises with Jules, if you get my drift.
The point is that Marx is still entirely correct about the class divide and the inevitable tendency of capital to coalesce around itself, sort of a black hole of money, sucking in everything of value including the light of understanding. Unless the working class and its allies recognise that their class interests are not shared by their masters, then we will not have control of our destiny. The bollocks about the left/right paradigm is defeatist and ignorant. But, that’s the way the 1% want it.
Snowden is a right wing libertarian, while Assange is a left wing libertarian.
Hitler was right wing authoritarian and Stalin a left wing authoritarian.
I guess then (and it is only a guess) that you’d have been among the millions lauding Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin et al last century even as they sent non-authoritarian leftists to the gulags and worse. (Right wing libertarianism didn’t exist back then as a political field of thought as far as I’m aware.)
And Marx had only a partial insight to class divisions. He missed the co-ordinators – the managers if you prefer – those with a penchant for authoritarianism (wielders of, and/or faithful adherents to) who breath life into the hierarchies of our systems of production and distribution and who, on a 9 – 5 basis, help ‘teach’ workers that ‘this (servility to authority) is the way’.
Apart from the fact that self labelled ‘right wing libertarians’ are under the delusion that markets are neutral, they exhibit far more understanding of, and appetite for, such basic ‘leftist’ values as liberty, freedom etc than many a supposed left wing liberal…and waaay more than any apologist (many still around!) for what what flowed from Lenin and the Bolsheviks’ successful defeat of the Russian Revolution.
Smoking, growing and owning small amounts of marijuana became legal in Alaska on Tuesday as a growing decriminalization movement reached the United States’ northwest frontier.
Alaska, which narrowly passed the measure in November, followed Colorado and Washington among states allowing recreational use, reflecting a rapidly shifting legal landscape for the drug.
One aspect of that article niggles me bones. The article fails to say why rent has not been paid since October. That seems too obvious a question for the journalist – or the editor – to ignore. Call me a cynic, but could it be they want it to grow negative suspicions in the minds of the reader as to why it has not been paid?
it seems to be the date her mother was removed to hospital … then her mother’s death .. fear of winz and generally overwhelmed … who knows ? but the cynic in me agrees with the cynic in you …
and that must have been her home for her whole life .. imagine the hurt and horror of it …
Yeah, that was what I was thinking. I suspect that it has something to do with the house being in her mother’s name and with her mother moving into a rest home and then dying has stuffed things up. She’s probably been trying to get things sorted but that’s not mentioned in the article.
did you see the picture of her belongings under what looks like cardboard at the back of the house ? Shame on the Winz enforcers treating a young mother and two children like this. THERE ARE NO HOUSES ! and yes, dying has a habit of stuffing things up .. you;d think Winz might fairly know this ? Yeah ? Nah. Not under this regime.
“In adopting such an approach, Key was seeking to go over the heads of the media and talk directly to New Zealanders about the reasons why such a deployment is necessary without his rationale being analysed and criticised before the public had actually heard that rationale.”
The media think that they need to be told first so they can then tell the plebs (sorry people of NZ) what to think
Yes, Field was corrupt. Gaining benefit from his role as an MP. He was stood down when the charges were made, and thoroughly investigated and prosecuted by the police.
As opposed to, say, using his role as an MP to ask questions that directly pertained to a significant share investment.
Are you saying that National MP’s just cost more to buy?
Or that they do not need bribes while in power as they have lucrative retirement plans, in figurehead directors jobs.
Funding by their US corporate pay masters, when they leave Parliament.
” ‘access to minsters’ via the Cabinet Club. $25,000 entry fee”
That is the declared open amount. God knows how much more is given under the table, hidden and unaccounted. I won’t be surprised knowing the way the rich crooks and the corrupt politicians work around many corrupt countries.
thanks for that saveNZ, a better illustration of The Fear would be hard to find.
from the comments in the linked article
“I think that this art installation has accomplished something by uncovering the fact that just seeing something that they don’t understand is sending many into a xenophobic panic.”
I feel so incensed about the whole Dong Liu donations saga and the spin about Labour and Liu, that I contacted the Press Council last night and asked them to re-consider Frank Mac’s submission to them about the Herald’s claims that Dong Liu donated $$$$ to Labour. The complaint from Frank wasn’t upheld, because the Herald maintained there was “more to come” about Liu and Labour. And of course nothing has come about Labour and Liu, but indeed we find out it was National receiving donations.
Last night I re-submitted Frank’s complaint to the Press Council, copied a link about National’s donations and asked them to re-consider Frank’s complaint. (hope that’s o.k. Frank???? didn’t know how to contact you to get your permission);
Much to my surprize I had an email this morning saying it would be re-presented to the council.
Thanks Adam, I will contact him to make sure he is o.k. about it. Should have done so first, but feeling very cross, so just went ahead and assumed he would be o.k.
Autralians (Tarn Yabbit and Joe Joe) just announcing changes to foreign ownership of houses and farms.
… a register
… a $5k application fee for houses under 1 mill
… a 10k application fee over 1 mill
… breaking the rules, $25k fine with the potential for confiscation
… a claim that the rules will be strictly enforced
probably the latter but the potential for confiscation might be a deterrent. We’ll see just how strictly the rules are enforced. I was just interested to see on Planet Key the Prime Munster still appears to be ‘comfortable’ by comparison
In some areas fierce fights break out when a person is wearing the wrong colours which denote a rival gang. Pretty awful that a PM indulges in gang colour sneers.
” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week.
“Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit,” Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein.”
What a cheek coming from an awful chap who is so backed by the republicans. Hypocrisy?
At least 10 banks, including Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG, are being probed by the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.
Precious metals have come under scrutiny as authorities around the world investigate allegations that other financial benchmarks have been rigged. While the Justice Department’s probe is in its early stages, the Swiss finance regulator included the issue in a November settlement with UBS Group AG over currency-rate manipulation. Switzerland’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday that it opened a preliminary probe into the possibility of price fixing in the precious-metals market.
Great news that once again a person endangering lives has been stopped – this person was under the influence of ‘foreign’ and weaving all over his lies – concerned citizens confiscated Mr Key and handed him over to the police. “No comet” was the only comment Mr Key could make as he sat dejectedly in his mobile awaiting orders.
I have no reason to question the charges but Carmel did the right thing by immediately telling Little’s CoS and by agreeing to stand down and Little has done the right thing by standing her down. The charges relate to her mother and she had no idea they existed until she was asked about them today. Note no attempt to hide or suppress the information unlike other cases. And it will be interesting to see how the right spin this.
AND it would be interesting to find out how TV one found out …
paula bennet minster for welfare, & opposit of carmel sepuloni at parlement & elections. hope this is not extra special utu from bennet for carmel. can be or not, I think yes.
A wahine Maori politician links Kellie-Jay Keen, or Posie Parker, and the Labor Party’s upset victory in an Australian by-election. No, not Marama Davidson. We speak of Moira Deeming, who is mentioned in – An article which Posie Parker has written for The Spectator; and Media analyses of the ...
by Mark White Reprinted from the left free speech site Plebity Speech is not violence One of the hallmarks of today’s woke left is to conflate speech with violence. Fearful of the ‘harm’ that might be experienced from hearing certain words, the woke left has become widely confused about the issue of ...
Let’s say it’s the 18th century and let’s say you’re a pirate, and let’s say you’re about to set sail. How do you prepare? Repair to a tavern with many barrels of ale? Find a comely wench? Get on your knees and pray? Maybe all those things. But also there will be ...
On a clear autumn afternoon, at the monolithic MediaWorks office overlooking the city, people are showing their invitations and entering. Finding places to sit at long tables with refreshments, loudly moving chairs across the polished concrete floor.The Minister for Broadcasting, Willie Jackson, a collection of marginal celebrities, and news media, ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 26, 2023 thru Sat, Apr 1, 2023. Story of the Week AI Can Spread Climate Misinformation ‘Much Cheaper and Faster,’ Study WarnsA new study suggests developers of artificial intelligence are failing ...
New Zealand has its general election scheduled this October. This means the various parties are currently selecting their candidates, and as of yesterday, we now know the two major party candidates for the seat where I live (Taieri) – Ingrid Leary (Labour) and Stephen Jack (National). Leary’s ...
..By now, Kelly-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka, Posie Parker) has come and gone. Her mission - to amplify a particularly pernicious form of transphobia (under the cloak of “women’s rights”) - an abject failure. As a marketing exercise to peddle her wares, it went well.A self-style "woman’s rights activist" Keen-Minshull/Parker has strident ...
Buzz from the Beehive We haven’t exhaustively put this proposition to the test, but we suspect there’s just one thing Nanaia Mahuta has mentioned more often than “sanctions” in her press statements. That would be “three waters”. Mahuta has popped up in the latest batch of Beehive press statements to ...
The UK activist has changed the election-year dynamic. Graham Adams writes – Chris Hipkins’ initial success as Labour’s fresh Messiah after Jacinda Ardern’s resignation in January has largely rested on the promise that his party’s focus henceforth would be on “bread-and-butter” issues such as the cost of ...
As the Stuart Nash email brouhaha has unfolded this week, and we’ve learnt more about how an email to donors was withheld from public view, I’ve kept being reminded of the classic example of faulty logic. You know the one: "All dogs have four legs, all dogs are animals, therefore ...
This week Simplicity CEO Sam Stubbs joined us to talk about Simplicity Living’s big house building plans, starting in Auckland, and banks receiving billions of subsidies from the Government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and Aotearoa’s political economy covered on The Kākā for paying ...
The NZ Herald reports: Leaked emails between senior officials at Auckland Light Rail, Waka Kotahi and Auckland Transport have revealed a surprising twist in the long-running saga of the Auckland Light Rail project. A stack of emails between Auckland Light Rail and an unnamed senior official at Waka Kotahi, who ...
Hi,I go between excitement about AI — and absolute terror. I’m terrified it will take our jobs — and also kill us. Not kill us on purpose… more in a gray-goo kinda way.And as I wrote about over two years ago, I’m excited it might be the only thing to ...
Completed reads for March: The Monk, by Matthew Lewis Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis The Golden Ass, by Lucius Apuleius The Castle, by Franz Kafka A Slip of the Tongue in Salutation, by Lucian of Samosata The Necrophiliac, by Gabrielle Wittkop The Song of Hiawatha (poem), ...
Photo by Aziz Acharki on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests: from ...
Image Credit: Nord Stream operator decries ‘unprecedented’ damage to three pipelines The recent vote on the draft Security Council resolution seeking to establish an independent UN inquiry into the sabotage of the Russian-European-owned natural gas line, Nord Stream I and II, disappointed many observers. ...
Buzz from the Beehive The big bread-and-butter issue of pay packets and weekly incomes was at the core of three ministerial statements since Point of Order’s previous monitoring of the Beehive website. Andrew Little was earning his keep, meanwhile, by delivering a speech in which he discussed co-governance. He was ...
After yesterday's news that Stuart Nash deliberately and knowingly breached the OIA to cover up his corrupt disclosure of Cabinet information to his donors, the media now is focusing on the wider point: Nash's behaviour isn't isolated, but a symptom of the rot which has eaten away at transparency under ...
There was great disappointment following the just released poverty figures for the year ended to June 2022. Whatever your take, we are not facing up to the real child poverty problems.Some say the poverty figures show no significant change, some say there was a small improvement. Some say that the ...
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Ele Ludemann writes – Have you noticed the media’s propensity to label people and groups in a way that shows negative bias? People speaking up for women’s right to their own spaces and fairness in sport aren’t feminists or women’s rights activists, they’re anti-trans or transphobic. The Taxpayers’ Union is often prefaced with the label right ...
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Lindsay Mitchell writes: Green’s co-leader Marama Davidson just keeps digging the hole she is in deeper. First she showed her bitter antipathy towards white CIS (same gender as birth) men. Then she walked it back to all men. On Tuesday night on TV1 News she said, “…overwhelmingly it ...
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Wow, it’s the end of March already. Here are a few of the smaller items that caught our attention over the last week. We need better trucks Newsroom reported on a Ministry of Transport report showing just how dirty our current truck fleet is. A heavy diesel truck costs ...
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I cracked open a fortune cookie with a family group after dinner. My loved ones got warm, inspiring messages such as my son’s: ‘You will be successful in business and society’. Nice. I got this one: “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.” By coincidence, I had already drafted a ...
THOMAS CRANWELL: When ideology turns violent – the political and media backing behind the Posie Parker mob Thomas Cranwell writes – ——————————– Similar to other countries, the transgender movement in New Zealand is not a grassroots organisation but instead is an increasingly ...
It is a lovely autumn morning.The sun is shining. The birds in Kōwhai park are twittering.There is music playing on Today FM.You can hardly tell that the children at Kia Kaha primary school are being greenhouse gassed.It is not just happening at Kia Kaha Primary School.It is happening to all ...
Poor old Mike Hosking! In today’s Herald, such is his visceral antipathy to our current government, that he is reduced to wrestling with himself in trying to understand how it is that despite its many failings – in his eyes at least – the Labour government is somehow ahead in ...
Air pollution kills, and dirty diesel vehicles are a major source of it. Cleaning them up has enormous social benefits in avoided deaths and hospitalisations. How much? Billions of dollars: A report quietly released by the Ministry of Transport in July shows tighter regulation of vehicle imports for air ...
Via one of my lovely Twitter sources, the sardonic and interesting @johubris … the following ‘poll question’ has been recently distributed: “Thinking about your life and your country now, what is the most important issue that you want to see the New Zealand Government addressing?” This qualifies as push-polling, which ...
On Tuesday night, former Forestry Minister Stuart Nash was sacked for corruption, after the Prime Minister discovered he had disclosed confidential cabinet discussions to his donors. Its since emerged that Jacinda Ardern's office knew of this disclosure, but didn't act on the obvious breach of the Cabinet manual, and didn't ...
Buzz from the Beehive Whoa, there – we can’t keep up! Suddenly, the PM’s ministerial team has unleashed a slew of press statements. Sixteen announcements have been posted on the Beehive website since our last check. This burst of activity (we wondered) might be the result of them responding positively ...
Big transport news today with the government beginning public engagement on options for the Waitemata Harbour Connections project. This project has had an incredibly long history, with previous versions somehow managing to be incredibly expensive, detrimental to most of the transport outcomes we are trying to achieve in Auckland, and ...
If ever there was an example of complacency about corruption and integrity in New Zealand politics it’s the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office knew back in 2021 that Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was feeding privileged Cabinet information to business donors but did nothing about it. This is one of ...
Open access notables "Despite the potential for positive methane–climate feedbacks from global wetlands, most Earth System Models (ESMs) and Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) that informed the last Assessment Report of the IPCC do not directly incorporate this process."Publishing in Nature Climate Change, Zheng et al. unpack the implications of this ...
Among its ‘go slow’ on climate measures, the Government chose to delay tighter regulation of vehicle imports for air pollution for six years because it would have increased vehicle purchase costs. Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government continues to backtrack on moves to reduce emissions, with three news items ...
Stuart Nash’s downfall appears to have had its beginnings with one of the players from the “Dirty Politics” scandals of 2014. Simon Lusk, a close associate of Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater, one of the key figures in Nicky Hagar’s “Dirty Politics” expose, has been associated with Stuart Nash. Lusk has ...
Worried if this election will be shellacked by “the culture war”? That arrived ages ago. And, one side is definitely in panic mode, even if that’s not being admitted right now. Because of that, they’re reverting yet again to straight up… culture wars. Yes, fellow traveler, the Party who ...
All About Climate is a Youtube channel dedicated to communicating climate science and combating misinformation about global warming. It is run by Roshan Salgado D'Arcy - or 'Rosh' for short. He is a geology graduate with an MSc in climate change and is currently reading for a PhD in the communication of ...
ChatGPT is an interesting little beastie. I have only really started experimenting with it recently – not because I have any interest in using it for my own writing projects, but because I enjoy pushing and prodding the AI in strange directions. I have spent an inordinate amount of ...
The science of climate change is clear: we need to stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and we cannot burn even a fraction of those already discovered. So naturally, Labour is offering oil companies more exploration permits: The Government is offering companies another opportunity to search for ...
There are two keyboards in my office. I hammer at one a lot more than the other.But some days — today, for instance, after a few days of steeping myself in toxicity —that other keyboard can really come into its own.I learned to play the piano as a kid, went ...
Is the government imploding? Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had to sack one of his more effective (and likeable) ministers, while another (from the Green Party) has insulted many of the adult population. For his part, Hipkins had appeared to be shaping up well since he took over the ...
Mobbed! As Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s (Posie Parker’s) opponents surged forward, her only protecters were a handful of burly security guards who surrounded their client and began forcing a path through what was now a howling mob. At least one video recording shows the diminutive Keen-Minshull, a terrified rag-doll, eyes dulled by ...
Buzz from the Beehive It looks like Marama Davidson must revile white sis males – or some other group of our population – three more times before she gets the heave-ho as one of Chris Hipkins’ ministers. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from the PM’s treatment of Stuart Nash, ...
For a serial offender like Stuart Nash, it was inevitable that another skeleton would emerge from his closet, and end his ministerial career. This one though, was a whopper. Previously, Nash had tried to tell the Police how to do their job. He had also tried to tell the courts ...
Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was sacked last night for violating Cabinet Collective Responsibility rules, when it was revealed he disclosed sensitive Government information to business supporters who had donated money to him. The breach of the Cabinet Manual was enough to land him in trouble, but the fact that it ...
Some good news last week with the Council confirming that Te Hā Noa – Victoria St Linear Park will go ahead and with construction starting on 11 April – though with a few fishhooks. Te Hā Noa, a renewed Victoria Street, is the next big project in Auckland Council’s Midtown ...
Stuart Nash’s assurances to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that there were no further examples of him breaching the Cabinet Manual became meaningless with the release of emails from Nash sharing Cabinet discussions with business people. The Prime Minister had no choice but to sack Nash as a Minister with immediate ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update after yesterday’s newsletter, How Michael Organ Weaponised the Family Court... and Sean Plunket. First up — wow. Thanks for all the support, and to all those who shared their own personal stories in the comments. And welcome to any new Webworm readers.I just wanted ...
Let that sink in for a moment - Christopher Luxon, who has spent the last year demonising Māori, wants Marama Davidson to apologise to white men.You will likely have seen the video, or read about it. Marama Davidson rushing along Princes St on Saturday evening, the road that runs between ...
Stuart Nash, the great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, has lost his political career. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Stuart Nash was sacked for telling donors what happened in Cabinet. Wellington’s City and Regional Councils are going cold on light rail plans. Wayne Brown is under ...
NZ First Leader Winston Peters is sympathising with Stuart Nash and defending him but dodging questions on whether he would be welcome in New Zealand First. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins last night sacked Nash from the Cabinet after an email he had sent to two of his campaign donors ...
So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked: Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed ...
Nearly 25% of mortgages in Auckland are deemed at risk in a 1-in-100 year flood event. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Once a year, every year, from now on, in our not-so-slow-cooking climate crisis, there will be a moment when the most important number in Aotearoa’s own personal, national ...
Item One: About a confected crisis Please bear with me for a moment, readers outside Auckland, I wish to sound the klaxon. Auckland, we have until 11pm today to have our say. About what? About this, as copied and pasted from Pippa Coom’s Facebook page:The "austerity" budget is built on ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet again, the statement we were looking for could not be found on the Beehive website. Nor was it on the Scoop or Green Party websites. But – come to think of it – we are probably wasting our time by searching. Our quest is for the ...
The following is from a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Swedish Academy on March 22, 2023, at a conference called Thought and Truth Under Pressure and reprinted from Literary Hub. I thank the Swedish Academy for inviting me to speak at this conference and for affording me the privilege ...
After almost two decades of racism, Australia is finally getting off its "stop the boats" bullshit. But don't worry, racists - Michael Wood has your back!The Government wants to increase the time it can detain without a warrant people seeking asylum en masse from four days to 28 ...
Last year, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended that the government legislate for pay transparency to prevent employers from secretly discriminating. This ought to be a bread and butter issue for Labour - discrimination sees women (and particularly Māori and Pasifika women) paid significantly less than men. But since then ...
Thomas Cranmer writes – ———— An unruly mob in Albert Park has catapulted New Zealand into the global headlines with ugly images that may become iconic in the debate about the dangers of transgenderism. ———— Bravo Kellie-Jay Keen. She did the job that needed to be done. For all the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather — even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is ...
Hot on the heels of the demotion of former police Minister Stuart Nash for breaching the Cabinet Manual, Radio New Zealand has revealed the close links between lobbyists and politicians- an area of New Zealand politics that is completely unregulated. The evidence in Guyon Espiner’s series Mate, Comrade, Brother, the ...
Over a million New Zealanders will receive a little extra to help with the cost of living as a result of our 1 April changes. Around the world, inflation is causing costs to rise and we’re feeling it here at home. In tough times, we need to support those who ...
With benefit changes coming into effect tomorrow, the Green Party is calling on the Government to lift benefits to liveable levels to make sure everyone has what they need to thrive. ...
Following decades of work by the Green Party alongside the organics sector, people will finally be able to be confident that products labelled organic have met standards. ...
The Green Party supports immediate Government action to close the pay gap as called for in an open letter released today by the Human Rights Commission and 50 other organisations. ...
The Green Party is today welcoming the release of the Government’s waste strategy, but says it has a big gap without action on the container return scheme for beverage containers. ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
“This is it; 2023 will be the last opportunity New Zealand has to get a government that will confront the climate emergency with the urgency it demands,” says the Green Party’s co-leader and climate change spokesperson, James Shaw. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, departs for Europe today, where she will attend a session of the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels and make a short bilateral visit to Sweden. “NATO is a long-standing and likeminded partner for Aotearoa New Zealand. It is valuable to join a session of ...
A secure facility that will house protected information for a broad range of government agencies is being constructed at RNZAF Base Auckland (Whenuapai), Public Service, Defence and GCSB Minister Andrew Little says. The facility will consolidate and expand the government’s current secure storage capacity and capability for at least another ...
From today, 1.8 million flu vaccines are available to help protect New Zealanders from winter illness, Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Vaccination against flu is safe and will be a first line of defence against severe illness this winter,” Dr Verrall said. “We can all play a part ...
Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Willow-Jean Prime has congratulated Professor Rangi Mātāmua (Ngāi Tūhoe) who was last night named the prestigious Te Pou Whakarae o Aotearoa New Zealander of the Year. Professor Mātāmua, who is the government's Chief Adviser Mātauranga Matariki, was the winner of the New Zealander ...
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has announced further sanctions on political and military figures from Russia and Belarus as part of the ongoing response to the war in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova ...
A new public housing development planned for Whangārei will provide 95 warm and dry, modern homes for people in need, Housing Minister Megan Woods says. The Kauika Road development will replace a motel complex in the Avenues with 89 three-level walk up apartments, alongside six homes. “Whangārei has a rapidly ...
New Zealand welcomes the substantial conclusion of negotiations on the United Kingdom’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Continuing to grow our export returns is a priority for the Government and part of our plan to ...
Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown initial Taranaki Maunga collective redress deed Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown have today initialled the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Deed, named Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little says. “I am pleased to be here for this ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds has announced the 2023 Pacific Language week series, highlighting the need to revitalise and sustain languages for future generations. “Pacific languages are a cornerstone of our health, wellbeing and identity as Pacific peoples. When our languages are spoken, heard and celebrated, our communities thrive,” ...
880,000 pensioners to get a boost to Super, including 5000 veterans 52,000 students to see a bump in allowance or loan living costs Approximately 223,000 workers to receive a wage rise as a result of the minimum wage increasing to $22.70 8,000 community nurses to receive pay increase of up ...
Over 8000 community nurses will start receiving well-deserved pay rises of up to 15 percent over the next month as a Government initiative worth $200 million a year kicks in, says Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. “The Government is committed to ensuring nurses are paid fairly and will receive ...
Tākiri mai ana te ata Ki runga o ngākau mārohirohi Kōrihi ana te manu kaupapa Ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea Tihei mauri ora Let the dawn break On the hearts and minds of those who stand resolute As the bird of action sings, it welcomes the dawn of a ...
The Government is introducing a scheme which will lift incomes for artists, support them beyond the current spike in cost of living and ensure they are properly recognised for their contribution to New Zealand’s economy and culture. “In line with New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with the UK, last ...
New Zealand is welcoming a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to consider countries’ international legal obligations on climate change. The United Nations has voted unanimously to adopt a resolution led by Vanuatu to ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion on ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 59 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. “The graduation for recruit wing 364 was my first since becoming Police Minister last week,” Ginny Andersen said. “It was a real honour. I want to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met with Vanuatu Foreign Minister Jotham Napat in Port Vila, today, signing a new Statement of Partnership — Aotearoa New Zealand’s first with Vanuatu. “The Mauri Statement of Partnership is a joint expression of the values, priorities and principles that will guide the Aotearoa New Zealand–Vanuatu relationship into ...
The Government has passed new legislation amending the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) levy regime, ensuring the best balance between a fair and cost effective funding model. The Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Levy) Amendment Bill makes changes to the existing law to: charge the levy on contracts of ...
The Government has passed the Organic Products and Production Bill through its third reading today in Parliament helping New Zealand’s organic sector to grow and lift export revenue. “The Organic Products and Production Bill will introduce robust and practical regulation to give businesses the certainty they need to continue to ...
The Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill, which will make it easier for New Zealanders to safely prove who they are digitally has passed its third and final reading today. “We know New Zealanders want control over their identity information and how it’s used by the companies and services they ...
The full Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce has met formally for the first time as work continues to help the regions recover and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle. The Taskforce, which includes representatives from business, local government, iwi and unions, covers all regions affected by the January and February floods and cyclone. ...
Changes have been made to legislation to give subcontractors the confidence they will be paid the retention money they are owed should the head contractor’s business fail, Minister for Building and Construction Megan Woods announced today. “These changes passed in the Construction Contracts (Retention Money) Amendment Act safeguard subcontractors who ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has unveiled five scenarios for one of the most significant city-shaping projects for Tāmaki Makaurau in coming decades, the additional Waitematā Harbour crossing. “Aucklanders and businesses have made it clear that the biggest barriers to the success of Auckland is persistent congestion and after years of ...
The Government has passed new legislation that ensures New Zealand’s civil aviation rules are fit for purpose in the 21st century, Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan says. The Civil Aviation Bill repeals and replaces the Civil Aviation Act 1990 and the Airport Authorities Act 1966 with a single modern law ...
A Bill aimed at helping to reduce delays in the coronial jurisdiction passed its third reading today. The Coroners Amendment Bill, amongst other things, will establish new coronial positions, known as Associate Coroners, who will be able to perform most of the functions, powers, and duties of Coroners. The new ...
The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to conduct a review into communications between Stuart Nash and his donors. The review will take place over the next two months. The review will look at whether there have been any other breaches of cabinet collective responsibility or confidentiality, or whether ...
The new Recovery Visa to help bring in additional migrant workers to support cyclone and flooding recovery has attracted over 600 successful applicants within its first month. “The Government is moving quickly to support businesses bring in the workers needed to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods,” Michael ...
Bills to ensure non-teaching employees and contractors at schools, and unlicensed childcare services like mall crèches are vetted by police, and provide safeguards for school board appointments have passed their first reading today. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 3) and the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill have now ...
Wānanga will gain increased flexibility and autonomy that recognises the unique role they fill in the tertiary education sector, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No.3), that had its first reading today, proposes a new Wānanga enabling framework for the three current ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to Vanuatu today, announcing that Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further relief and recovery assistance there, following the recent destruction caused by Cyclones Judy and Kevin. While in Vanuatu, Minister Mahuta will meet with Vanuatu Acting Prime Minister Sato Kilman, Foreign Minister Jotham ...
The Government is backing Police and making communities safer with the roll-out of state-of-the-art tools and training to frontline staff, Police Minister Ginny Andersen said today. “Frontline staff face high-risk situations daily as they increasingly respond to sophisticated organised crime, gang-violence and the availability of illegal firearms,” Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government has provided Police with more tools to crack down on gang offending with the passing of new legislation today which will further improve public safety, Justice Minister Kiri Allan says. The Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill amends existing law to: create new targeted warrant and additional search powers ...
The Government today announced far-reaching changes to the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of waste, ushering in a new era for New Zealand’s waste system. The changes will ensure that where waste is recycled, for instance by households at the kerbside, it is less likely to be contaminated ...
New legislation passed by the Government today will make it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially from crime that causes considerable harm in our communities, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan says. Since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 came into effect police have been highly successful in ...
This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered. In ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi Highly respected and convivial Koroi Hawkins has become RNZ Pacific’s first Melanesian editor after arriving in New Zealand in 2010 and says he is “truly humbled” after nearly a decade at RNZ. “It is a great honour. I am a Pacific journalist from the school of hardknocks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joey Moloney, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Shutterstock Australia’s A$3.3 trillion superannuation system is supposed to boost people’s retirement incomes. The government says as much in its proposed leglislated objective for superannuation. The system is supported by billions of dollars of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton and his demoralised team, shocked beyond belief by their Aston drubbing, say the party has to “rebuild”. But there are no obvious foundation stones for this mammoth task. Ideally, the party ...
Tea drinkers of Aotearoa, your new favourite dunking bikkie is here. There are several things I love about this recipe. The first is that they make a delicious dunking biscuit, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea shared with friends. The second is that the recipe is ...
Part two of writer Marty Smith’s reporting from her flood-damaged home.Read part one here. Sunday 12 March, 21 days after the floods.Google Maps shows a pale blue line for the flat-lined bridge between Taradale and Waiohiki and sends you instead over the Expressway to Merge Like A Zip, ...
Bard Billot on the booted out broadcasterSpartans, prepare for glory! The hardy army of Today FM Spartans Camps out on the harsh lands of talk radio. The long months of the campaign Have worn down their resolve, For though they have loyally broadcast Their snappy banter and hot ...
The danger of National's policy is that it undoes much of an informal pact with Labour to depoliticise education at a time of real struggleOpinion: The National Party’s recently released education policy narrowly channels nearly every tired and cliched right-wing approach to schooling. If you have been in education for ...
A refurbished, expanded and more earthquake-proof building is a still few years away. Can it live up to the impeccable postmodernist vibes of its predecessor?A long time ago, my non-Wellington then-boyfriend was visiting the windy city and asked the barber what he recommended in town. “Dunno mate,” the barber ...
Doing the cryptic crossword isn’t simply a hobby. It’s a way of life, a love affair – even a full-blown obsession. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Illustrations by Asia Martusia King. Clue: Mafia boss consumed first dish free of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The rout of the Liberals in Aston is a disaster for Peter Dutton. The party has defied history – in the worst possible way. This is the first time in more than a century ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Morgan Hancock/AAP With 44% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Aston federal byelection, the ABC has Labor expected to win ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Morgan Hancock/AAP With 44% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Aston federal byelection, the ABC has Labor expected to win ...
Analysis - When is a cabinet minister not a cabinet minister? The faulty logic of Stuart Nash has landed him and Labour in a heap of trouble but opened the door to serious reform of the Official Information Act, Tim Watkin writes. ...
Jubi News in Jayapura Indonesia’s Papua police chief Inspector-General Mathius D Fakhiri has called for action to ensure that “security disturbances” in the Puncak Jaya highlands do not widen in the face of escalating attacks by pro-independence militants. “For Puncak, we will take immediate action,” he said. According to General ...
What are you going to be watching this month? We round up everything coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ+. The biggies Party Down (all seasons on TVNZ+ from April 1) Thirteen years is a long time between drinks and ...
Ginny Andersen has landed a hot-potato portfolio and has been in Cabinet less than two months - the opposition will be eager to test her mettle this election year. ...
The executive producer of Modern Family has issued an incendiary claim about New Zealanders cheering and clapping in public. Hayden Donnell gets to the bottom of things.The sitcom Modern Family is remembered as a “warm-hearted story about the unbreakable bonds of family”; a tale of radically different people overcoming ...
As rain kept falling across January, February and into March, all band members cold do was sit at home cancelling festivals and posting sad Facebook messages to fans. The first post landed on January 3. As wild weather began hitting the country, campers around Northland packed up their tents ...
Because pro-social behaviour emerges so often after disaster, community empowerment should be central to disaster mitigation and recoveryOpinion: Cyclone Gabrielle caused major damage across the North Island. This unprecedented climate event created great uncertainty. People are wondering if, or when, they can return to their homes, the extent to ...
"We, women, loving you; you, men, finding new women to love": a Francophile love story in NZ Louis woke up and found out Marine was not lying next to him in bed. He checked his phone – 5:30am. The aurora shone a bright gold on the windows of the detached ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at how co-governance really works, Labour's record on climate action, what the new AUKUS nuclear submarine deal means for New Zealand, Posie Parker's visit to Auckland and the free speech debate, and the damage processed foods are ...
The radio workers were caught by the unexpected speed of the decline of NZ's consumer economy, since Christmas – and they won't be the last. Jonathan Milne reports. When broadcaster Tova O’Brien uttered the resounding words, "they’ve f***ed us", they resonated beyond the 1 percent audience share of a small talk radio operation ...
A New Zealand Battery Project centred on Lake Onslow in Central Otago is up against a cheaper North Island alternative Studies into whether a massive pumped-hydro scheme at Lake Onslow is New Zealand’s best bet for a secure energy future may have only four more months to run. While the ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend. This week, it's Jungle Warfare, written by Ellen Rykers and published in New Zealand Geographic's March/April 2023 edition. You can find the full article, with photos by Adrian Malloch, here. Hundreds of pest plant species—many of them garden escapees—run rampant in ...
The Red, White & Brass star talks spectacle, honouring family sacrifices and his debut lead role over a Tongan lunch in Otāhuhu.Name a creative pursuit and 28-year-old Tongan New Zealander John-Paul Foliaki will give it a go. That is, if he hasn’t already. Foliaki plays the lead role, Maka, ...
To mark 100 years since the great short story writer’s death, books editor Claire Mabey marathonned her collected works – these are the top 20.Reader, I did it. I read all of Katherine Mansfield’s short stories. Confession: I haven’t always been a fan. I have tedious memories of ...
In her first season as an ANZ Premiership captain, Ameliaranne Ekenasio was nervous about filling the shoes of the legendary Magic captains before her. But, as Merryn Anderson writes, the quiet leader has the full respect of the side who voted her in. When the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic created history ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Ordway, Associate Professor Sport Management and Sport Integrity Lead, University of Canberra Lawyers for Australian 800-metre star Peter Bol say allegations the runner engaged in doping should be dropped after two independent labs found no evidence he used a banned substance. ...
Vanuatu’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Trading Post Ltd, the owner of the VanuatuDaily Post newspaper, BUZZ FM96 and other media outlets, in a case against the government’s refusal to renew the company’s former media director’s work permit. Dan McGarry, who served as a director of the ...
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Key couldn’t remember what he was doing in the early 1980s.
He was possibly thumbing through his “Battler Britain” comics.
Seems now he might also have been captured by the Falklands and is now
hoping for his own “Thatcher” moment.
We have a rogue government that does not ask its people or parliament whether it should go to war or not.
hi paul, ref a rogue government: perhaps we do, however till the sheeple wake up to this, nothing changes.
to raise awareness perhaps a day of action akin to the anti tppa protests coming up early march?
If the NZ role is just training, then why not bring the trainees here to New Zealand and teach them all the tactics they need in a non-war zone, peaceful environment.
Because then our “force protection” troops could not help to secure a Forward Operating Base in Iraq from which assault operations on ISIS will be launched from.
Was Key channeling Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men for his performance in parliament yesterday?
Once again key simply does not ring true.Little is a true leader, calm, capable and cogent.
Mr Little was in very good form on tv3 this morning he gave solid reasoned views on Iraq.
Paddy giving not a bad breakdown of the cost of keys announcement in his eyes its when not if we get a retaliation from I S.
To an extent. But he said it doesn’t take guts to sit in Wellington making tough decisions. I think he’s wrong about that.
If he believes what he said then I don’t think he’s ready to step up to Prime Ministerial level, which is a very tough job involving many tough decisions.
so is NZ a dictatorship now Pete?
Nowhere near that les. I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.
If it had come to the crunch would Labour have voted against it? There’s no way of knowing now, but as this is at the request of Iraq it’s arguably more legitimate than decisions made by the Clark Government and Parliament at the time.
‘at the request of Iraq’…really…is it a legitimate,democratic ‘Iraq’ that made the request?
Seeing as Labour and the Greens both put forward a motion for a vote – which National objected to both times – your “no way of knowing” is as empty as Key’s credibility.
“at the request of Iraq ”
ha ha that is the funniest thing heard in a long time. Well actually not that long as it has been heard quite a lot lately. Not surprised you fall for it Pete.
at the request of Iraq
ha ha ha
at the request of Iraq
Pete:
“I think Key should have sought Parliamentary support, but it wasn’t a democratic requirement.”
Nope. It wasn’t a legal requirement to be democratic, so he chose not to be democratic.
+1
Yeah, actually, it was. We don’t get democracy by having a few people in cabinet making executive decisions. Going to war is a major policy and really should have been put to referendum even if the nation that we’d be fighting for requested it.
The normal right wing excuses for their latest antisocial, cruel and sadistic actions.
“It is legal”.
“Some one else would have done it (And creamed off the money) if I hadn’t”.
“Eastasia or Westasia this week?
yeah.
Many of them genuinely seem to think that if they got away with it (so far), it can’t be wrong.
A similar but lighter example is an opinion piece in Stuff today that argued the underarm ball incident was not actually wrong: it was legal, it might have been possible to still hit a six and tie the game, even if it wasn’t possible then the bowler could have bowled a perfect ball that was impossible to hit for six, or that the aussie team could have turned into the keystone cops and allowed NZ to get six runs via fielding errors.
There’s a basic inability to recognise a dick move when it’s there. That winning a game of athletic skill via bureaucratic oversight is preferable to getting a draw. That exploiting a tax loophole to pay less than your fair share is fine because it’s temporarily legal. That taking the ability the Executive has to use the armed forces speedily to react to threats and using it to avoid gaining parliament’s permission for a contentious, planned, long term deployment is not an abuse of the very democracy that parliament is there to exercise.
And the signature of a dick is to not know or care that it’s a dick. That’s why key shrugs his shoulders so often.
Imagine the cast of Hot Fuzz intoning “The letter of the law, the letter of the law…”
National Party values.
actually it’s more like Timothy Dalton’s character thinking that pronouncing it “super marshay” is a cool thing to do, rather than mildly greasy and irritating. 🙂
What tough decisions? A tough decision would be to kick all pedophiles out of the NAct party, or to up the top tax rate, or to chase after corporate fraudsters. Sending our kids to war, or selling state houses are not tough decisions. They come naturally to Tory scum.
Boy, Pete, you know how to twist words.
“When we’re talking about guts, I think I’ll reserve that for the soldiers who we’re sending up there,” Mr Little responded on Firstline this morning.
“This is one of the most dangerous conflict zones in the world – you don’t need much guts to sit on a leather couch in Wellington and send people off to do your bidding for you, so let’s get that in perspective.”
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/little-doesnt-take-guts-to-boss-troops-around-2015022509#ixzz3Si1IYSLK
Andrew Little was contrasting the amount of guts shown by Key sitting on his couch and the guts shown by the soldiers sent by John Key.
Sorry chaps. Forgot the rules. DNFTT. Starting at A.
The aardvark (/ˈɑrd.vɑrk/ ard-vark; Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlike New World edentates such as the giant anteater, it has a long pig-like snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over most of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, avoiding mainly rocky areas. A nocturnal feeder, it subsists on ants and termites, which it will dig out of their hills using its sharp claws and powerful legs. It also will utilize its digging ability to create burrows in which to live and rear its young.
Yep key went for the oscar – simplistic messages delivered as if he believed them – his non-thinking minions will lap it up – pg 101
As it turns out I didn’t like Key’s second speech, I don’t think that was appropriate. But there was an unusual amount of emotion expressed so fair enough for Key to say what he thought.
And the Green faithful will have lapped up Norman’s naivety and contradictions.
attack the Greens, attack the Greens – maintain low tones – attack the Greens, attack the Greens…
Chard and the other beets are chenopods, a group which is either its own family Chenopodiaceae or a subfamily within the Amaranthaceae. Although the leaves of chard are eaten, it is in the same species as beetroot (garden beet), which is grown primarily for its edible roots. Both are cultivated descendants of the sea beet, Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, but they were selected for different characteristics.
Chard is also known by its many common names such as Swiss chard,[7] silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, bright lights, seakale beet, and mangold.[8] In South Africa, it is simply called spinach.[9]
😀
or
lol!!!
pete wants to beet his green – all of the day and all of the night
As predictable as the sun coming up each day is old petey.
“emotion” ? or a loss of composure, due to stress grown from insincere motives
“emotion ? or a loss of composure..”.
I thought it was an act. ShonKey using some false “emotion” to try to show sheeples that he really does believe this tripe about needing to go to war.
The guy is an actor. A puppet. Whose strings are pulled from afar, and who has never shown his real self to NZers.
+1 Jenny and freedom.
Key’s performance yesterday was Oscar worthy. He has to make an effort to convince NZer’s he’s made the right decision. And I agree with freedom, he is under stress and losing his composure.
Bullshitting to save your arse can be really stressful, and add all that acting effort, it’s no wonder he’s looking a bit undone.
I remember Peter Sellers on The Muppet Show, where he said, “There isn’t a me, I’ve had it surgically removed!”
E. lecontei adults are smaller than most terrestrial weevils, measuring only 3 mm in length. This weevil is generally dark-colored with a pattern of dark brown/black and yellowish stripes on the dorsal half, fading to a lighter, yellow-beige underbelly. However, some weevil individuals vary in color from almost completely tan to beige.
O, vole mio !!
“From observing your pet every day, you’ll have noticed that your cat has a pattern that it follows quite religiously. For example, your adult indoor cat might spend the mornings lying in a pool of sunshine in the corner of the dining room. Later, he watches you as you go about your household chores, and then his rigorous day winds down with a patient vigil by the kitchen door waiting for his children – otherwise known as your children – to come home. Your feline has developed these routines to protect his territory and frequently your pet’s definition of “territory” includes his human family members.
As your cat grows older, he becomes less capable of adapting to changes in his environment. Your pet gets particular about even the smallest detail of his surroundings and will notice changes in food (brand or type), the consistency of his litter and even in your schedule or in the schedules of other family members. Abrupt or drastic changes in your cat’s routine and environment can produce a great deal of stress, which can result in a variety of stress-induced behaviors – including litter box problems, aggression, self-mutilation or general despondency.
The best possible way to keep your cat stress free is to try to maintain your daily routine and to keep changes to a minimum. When changes are necessary, try introducing them to your cat gradually while leaving every other aspect of the routine in place. Limit exposure to new people and new foods, etc., on the first day and increase the exposure to newness over a seven-day period. If you have houseguests or other situations where the household is materially changed, remember to give your cat as much extra attention as you can.”
lol thank you !
what with: spying in tangimoana on behalf of the us,
rounding up that pesky german,
altering nz labour law,
offering tax breaks to american film companies,
sending kiwi soldiers to help clean up another us war,
and being a golf buddy to the pousa.
i am reminded of a the the song, heartland.
youtube.com/watch?v=1osdqwaiu08
” The ammunition’s being passed and the lords been praised
But the wars on the televisions will never be explained
All the bankers gettin’ sweaty beneath their white collars
As the pound in our pocket turns into a dollar
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
This is the 51st state of the U.S.A.
this may give an insight to what our dear leader wants our new flag to look like.
song on my mind
“Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence.
Who are we mistaken?…”
zombie indeeds
The 51st state is the great state of Saudi Israelia
Last year there we not going to be boots on the ground this year….
Tough decision HA
The tough decision would be Not to go
And it is not his kids that he is putting in danger.
my problem is I find it difficult to trust anything Key says.
Key says we are sending Army ‘trainers’ to Iraq in order to keep us Kiwis safe. You cannot be serious!
…and his announcement has just made Kiwis less safe!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/66608944/brace-for-is-threats-analyst-warns
a reply given in a discussion of what children should be taught in schools..
“What about: a history of morals, ethics and decency – self realisation and why being a dick gets you no where”
brilliant!!
Key makes even more of a joke of himself when he yells like a show-off schoolboy.
He has no gravitas, no mana. He is just an empty hollow man and his yelling speech yesterday evidenced this yet again.
Yes vto you are dead right , Empty wine glasses make the loudest noise.
Meanwhile, in one of the great cities of our friend the USA, the rule of law is ? ? ?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/chicago-police-operating-cia-style-black-site-for-domestic-interrogations-report
“..Pot is 114 Times Safer Than Booze – Says Study..
..New research finds pot is the least deadly among recreational drugs –
– by far..”
(cont..)
http://www.alternet.org/pot-114-times-safer-booze-says-study
But isn’t it better, healthier and safer to live without either of those?
And Oh, also by boycotting and without visiting our casinos ever again for good measure?
ideally..i guess..
(but that is really up there with ‘wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had a pony?’..
..as in..it isn’t going to happen..)
..and the facts of the matter are that young people (esp.) of most cultures like to take intoxicants of some form..
..(it is/always has been – thus..and not only for ‘the young’..)
..so we have the intoxicant safest by ‘114 times’..being prohibited..
..and the intoxicant ‘114’ times more dangerous..
..the killer-drug alcohol..
..is advertised/encouraged..
True, true.
Like the rum or the coke dilemma. ‘Which is more harmful?’
Alcohol is not so much the elephant in the room – It’s were is the room, because I can’t see anything but the elephant.
As long as we keep up prohibition – people suffer, people dying suffer, families suffer, criminals are made for no reason, racist cops have laws which enable them to be racists, and we can’t tell children not to smoke pot in a public debate.
Clemgeopin, live pure – like that going to happen. I’d rather we had open debate around drugs and drug use rather than it being hidden.
Hell I dream of the day we can have adds on TV which say.
“Don’t smoke pot and drink alcohol together – why? Because – it really does make you into an arsehole”
or
“Smoking pot under the age of 21 is like drinking under 21 – a licence to make you stupid and compliant. Wait till your 21 ah.”
Making marijuana medically available and also an R21 drug has merits worth considering.
I think we need to put alcohol back to R21.
I have no issue with it going to R21 retail.
alcohol and cannabis aren’t the problem. Why some people use in unhealthy ways is where to look if we want to see the problem. Take away the drugs, what are those people going to do?
“Clemgeopin, live pure”
I didn’t say I don’t enjoy a drink.
“But isn’t it better, healthier and safer to live without either of those?”
What did you mean by that? I took that to mean you support complete abstinence as ideal.
What Weka said
No, no, I do enjoy a drink or three.
Don’t do drugs and will most certainly NEVER visit a NZ casino EVER AGAIN after the recent fiasco and the disgraceful dodgy nexus between the two evils : The nasty Nats and the gambling Casino goons.
Cripes phillip u can you stay off pot for a week? I am not talking about what happens at your place just give us a break here. Make that a month would you. I and some others would be grateful to not have that subject for a good while.
legalise it and i’ll shut up…
..’till then…
…and regulate and tax it heavily.
(You always seem to miss that crucial part)
not really…
..legalise..regulate..tax is/has been the/my basic argument all along..
..i just don’t necessarily restate the pillars in every story/link..
..and as for txing..
..didyaknow that colorado has taken so much income from tax from legal pot..
….it breaches some sort of government-greed stricture..
..and that excess tax will be distributed back to the citizens of colorado..
..legal pot..and a tax-refund..?
..only a true curmudgeon wd sneer @ that..
“…and regulate and tax it heavily”
Regulating it is fine but taxing it ‘heavily’ is not so much because, as is always the case, be it tobacco, dope, or GST, it will hit the poorest the most…and in the case of dope, I think it will be the gangs that will rub their hands with joy and heartily support ‘heavy’ taxes!
Even after heavy taxation the price is going to be cheaper than today’s black market prices.
I was wondering how long it would take you to reference that red herring of a study.
They simply compared the lethal dose 50 of alcohol to the lethal dose 50 of marijuana.
The LD50 of alcohol is significantly lower than marijuana. That’s it. That’s all the study found.
It doesn’t mention anything about societal use or injuries / damage caused by the drugs, it’s purely looking at the dose it would take to kill you.
You might notice, that very few people actually die of alcohol poisoning. Virtually no one dies of marijuana poisoning.
These findings are not news nor surprising to anyone who understands what the study is *actually* about. Unfortunately, as usual, the media have boiled it down to the lowest-common-denominator and written a headline and article that distorts the study to a huge degree and presents it as if it is some great new finding and is somehow relevant to the marijuana vs alcohol debate, when really it warrants nothing more than a passing interest.
oh..!..ok..lath..
..how about you link us to yr research that shows how cannabis is a far more dangerous drug than alcohol..
..u r dancing around the edges..
..deliberately missing the point..
..is it only 95 times worse than alcohol..not 114..?
..50 times..?
..and factcheck…unless a bale of it falls on yr head..
..there is no ‘lethal-dose’ of pot..
..booze however..?
Who needs a link? The damage is obvious every time you post, Phil.
correlation != causation 🙂
waiting for the body-bags..?..war-monger..?
..will you still be such an armchair-warrior when that happens..eh..?
..you fucken unthinking-fool..
..trp..supporting/handwringing-around cia propaganda-campaigns..
.. since at least..gadfaffi..
Change down man, find your neutral space …
war-mongering/unthinking clowns piss me off..
..i have no ‘neutral-space’ for fools such as that..
(and i can roll joints like that..)
who said americans as a nation are warmongering psycopathic-bastards..?
..is it because in the 237 yrs since the foundation of america -america has largely been at war..?
– guess how many years of those 237 america was not at war with someone..?
..21 yrs…
.21 out of 237..
..that means that since its’ founding..
..america has been in a state of war for 93% of the fucken time..
..deserving of a ‘whoar!’..?..surely..?
You’ve completely missed my point, of course.
How about we compare the boiling points of THC and ethanol and use that guide us as to whether the drugs should be illegal or not?
That would only be slightly less relevant that what the study is talking about.
no..u miss the point..
..that alcohol is far more dangerous than cannabis..
..r u arguing against that proposition..?
..legalise..!..regulate..!..tax..!
No, I’m not arguing against that proposition. Alcohol is obviously much more damaging to society and individuals than marijuana is.
I’m saying *this* article doesn’t offer any new insight to anyone who would be making legislative decisions about this. Anyone trumpeting this as some sort of grand new evidence is misguided.
In simple terms: this study is telling us what we already knew and what was already obvious.
so why isn’t it legal..?
..if it is so fucken ‘obvious’..?
..and i thought the article/information was useful..
..emphasising how dangerous alcohol is..
..and how not dangerous cannabis is..
You’re either wilfully ignoring what I’m saying, or incapable of understanding it.
Heavy recreational dope use might make him wilfully incapable 🙂
Just a couple of pieces to remind people that rabid right wing have no morals. They love money not people and are only interested in “the bottom line”. The sooner we stand up against this greed mentality – the better for humanity and an increased chance for it’s survival, as we approach the end of the golden weather.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/02/20/16796/hsbcs-political-committee-goes-dark-days-swiss-leaks-scandal
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/02/24/16809/mitt-romney-rand-paul-and-porno-spoof
Anybody notice that Thea Muldoon passed away? It’s on Stuff. Given his turbulent political career I can only hope she enjoyed a peaceful widowhood.
Barry Gustafson I think was on Radionz – came to know her well. She was very supportive of old Fartface and was a true blue lady herself. She probably enjoyed a relationship with Margaret Thatcher. I think she had a pretty good time of it all.
Cf Margaret Thorn’s life. Now that was a staunch and beautiful woman to admire. Does anyone remember her?
Thanks for that greywarshark. Just read a short piece about her on Te Ara website. Sounds like an interesting and admirable woman, and the experience of her and her husband is a timely one to read regarding the ISIS discussion.
As for the title of her last book: “Stick out, and keep left”. Pretty much sums it up.
Yes Molly I had the book in the back of my mind for yonks but couldn’t get the name right and I think Ennui or one of the stalwarts here gave me the steer.
And the difference between now and how politics used to be! At one stage she and her husband filled a major political role, can’t remember the exact position and she visited an organisation in her elevated capacity. Then they were out of government, her husband got sick, and she was back at that organisation as a cook working flat out in the kitchens. Real Cinderella stuff. A very hard worker. Both of the Thorns were.
Thea Muldoon was a genuine conservative lady – one of the old fashioned
Conservatives who believed in following and supporting her husband at all cost. I met her once after her husband had died and realised she was a kind and genuine person. She was a product of her conservative upbringing, but I came to admire her for her loyalty and decency.
RIP Thea Muldoon.
Grey – Best not to compare and contrast these very different women in this manner.
Would you do the same if a man you disliked passed away (find a ‘worthy’ man with whom to compare him)?
I agree with Anne’s sentiments; nicely put.
Massive methane gas blowholes opening up in SIberia
Seems like Russian scientists think that the “clatharate gun” has gone off. That 2 degree C target is history, methinks, and with it, hundreds of millions of human lives.
http://rt.com/news/235219-craters-siberia-yamal-lake/
thanks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis
https://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/awakening-the-horrors-of-the-ancient-hothouse-hydrogen-sulfide-in-the-worlds-warming-oceans/
Might be of interest to some along with the other links.
H2s was the thing that scared me most when I worked on oil rigs.
I have been expecting that to start showing up in the far north. They’re still estimating how much is stored there on land, but it looks like a lot.
Fortunately there is less of a tundra land mass in the south. It looks like the WAIS has been burnt off several times for shortish periods in the last 25 million years anyway which means that it probably has little methane stored.
US Police now using Stasi secret police tactics on protestors
Chicago’s “Homan Square” police facility where protestors can get disappeared to and chained up without access to lawyers, phone calls, or contact with the outside world. Detainees are not officially charged.
This is what the gradual evolution of a totalitarian security state looks like, people.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site
More.
America, rotten to the core.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/18/american-police-brutality-chicago-guantanamo
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/19/chicago-police-richard-zuley-abuse-innocent-man
I agree, this story cannot be linked to often enough 😉
CRIPES!!
Can I add, one of the Anarchy-capitalist I talk to sometimes. He’s always good for a argument. Got pulled into something similar to this. Luckily he was missed, and his friends/family knew/guessed it was the cops – so eventually got a lawyer – after 3 days from memory.
So if you think it’s only us on the left they are targeting – think again.
With their new systems they are targetting anyone who is identified as a potential dissenter to the current systems of privilege and power. That’s why they’ll target lefty protestors, Tea Party members, whistle blowers and journalists.
This more than anything else, signals how the Left/Right paradigm is breaking down. Now it is about the Inner Circle (and their professional enablers/hangers ons) and Everybody else.
The PTB want you to think the left/right paradigm is breaking down. It’s actually the monopolist right versus everyone else as we head into peak capitalism.
Pretty sure peak capitalism was reached by the early 80’s. Crony capitalism and financialisation began to take over then.
Pretty sure it’s well gone.
Snowden and Assange? Hitler and Stalin?
Which ones are left and which ones are right? Which ones a penchant for authoritarianism and which ones not?
Answering that gives a far clearer picture of potential political friends and enemies 😉
Is it a trick question, Bill!?
Don’t know about Snowden’s politics, but he is currently sheltering in an authoritarian country and Assange is a fan of surprise sex, so probably a wee bit of the do as I say style bastard about him, too. Hitler right, Stalin left, as we know. I think Snowden is probably the only one who might conceivably be ‘left’ but Assange is clearly some sort of libertarian, and, as most of them do when opportunity arises, likes taking an authoritarian line. Though of course it’s not just opportunity that arises with Jules, if you get my drift.
The point is that Marx is still entirely correct about the class divide and the inevitable tendency of capital to coalesce around itself, sort of a black hole of money, sucking in everything of value including the light of understanding. Unless the working class and its allies recognise that their class interests are not shared by their masters, then we will not have control of our destiny. The bollocks about the left/right paradigm is defeatist and ignorant. But, that’s the way the 1% want it.
It wasn’t a trick question.
Snowden is a right wing libertarian, while Assange is a left wing libertarian.
Hitler was right wing authoritarian and Stalin a left wing authoritarian.
I guess then (and it is only a guess) that you’d have been among the millions lauding Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin et al last century even as they sent non-authoritarian leftists to the gulags and worse. (Right wing libertarianism didn’t exist back then as a political field of thought as far as I’m aware.)
And Marx had only a partial insight to class divisions. He missed the co-ordinators – the managers if you prefer – those with a penchant for authoritarianism (wielders of, and/or faithful adherents to) who breath life into the hierarchies of our systems of production and distribution and who, on a 9 – 5 basis, help ‘teach’ workers that ‘this (servility to authority) is the way’.
Apart from the fact that self labelled ‘right wing libertarians’ are under the delusion that markets are neutral, they exhibit far more understanding of, and appetite for, such basic ‘leftist’ values as liberty, freedom etc than many a supposed left wing liberal…and waaay more than any apologist (many still around!) for what what flowed from Lenin and the Bolsheviks’ successful defeat of the Russian Revolution.
Another jurisdiction does the right thing.
Smoking, growing and owning small amounts of marijuana became legal in Alaska on Tuesday as a growing decriminalization movement reached the United States’ northwest frontier.
Alaska, which narrowly passed the measure in November, followed Colorado and Washington among states allowing recreational use, reflecting a rapidly shifting legal landscape for the drug.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/24/us-usa-alaska-marijuana-idUSKBN0LS0ZH20150224
To think we were once the envy of the world for our compassionate social justice and welfare …
Paula Bennett and Key are cruel beyond belief … read and weep …
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/66578463/housing-shortage-hits-young-mum-hard
One aspect of that article niggles me bones. The article fails to say why rent has not been paid since October. That seems too obvious a question for the journalist – or the editor – to ignore. Call me a cynic, but could it be they want it to grow negative suspicions in the minds of the reader as to why it has not been paid?
it seems to be the date her mother was removed to hospital … then her mother’s death .. fear of winz and generally overwhelmed … who knows ? but the cynic in me agrees with the cynic in you …
and that must have been her home for her whole life .. imagine the hurt and horror of it …
Nope, 15 years but she’s only 26 so most of her life.
Yeah, that was what I was thinking. I suspect that it has something to do with the house being in her mother’s name and with her mother moving into a rest home and then dying has stuffed things up. She’s probably been trying to get things sorted but that’s not mentioned in the article.
did you see the picture of her belongings under what looks like cardboard at the back of the house ? Shame on the Winz enforcers treating a young mother and two children like this. THERE ARE NO HOUSES ! and yes, dying has a habit of stuffing things up .. you;d think Winz might fairly know this ? Yeah ? Nah. Not under this regime.
This is funny though
“In adopting such an approach, Key was seeking to go over the heads of the media and talk directly to New Zealanders about the reasons why such a deployment is necessary without his rationale being analysed and criticised before the public had actually heard that rationale.”
The media think that they need to be told first so they can then tell the plebs (sorry people of NZ) what to think
is it funny ?? like really ha ha funny, or just too twisted for words funny ? what did you mean ?
O, vole mio and all that.
How do you envisage the plebs knowing about what the Govt is deciding without the media? Examples?
When Key says “talk directly to nzers” he doesn’t mean all of them of course.
Just the important ones.
You still have it wrong Felix, just the ones who voted for him
Voted? With their cheque books?
With cheque books it’s called ‘access to minsters’ via the Cabinet Club. $25,000 entry fee. Saves having to vote, knowing that.
Its about value for money, I mean access to a Labour mp would be a packet of biscuits at the most
PR
Systematic corruption is indeed not so entrenched in the Labour caucus as in NAct’s.
Well lets talk MPs that have been convicted of corruption then
I’ll start with Labour and Phillip Field, your turn
corruption? You mean like fraud, identity theft, of filing false returns?
stupid mistakes, nothing to compare to out and out corruption
Sabin.
“The NBR understands that the party has known since before the 2011 election…”
lolright. Stupid mistakes 🙄
Yes, Field was corrupt. Gaining benefit from his role as an MP. He was stood down when the charges were made, and thoroughly investigated and prosecuted by the police.
As opposed to, say, using his role as an MP to ask questions that directly pertained to a significant share investment.
or stealing a dead babies identity. Even accepting garrets claim of doing it for a joke its way worse than a stupid mistake
Are you saying that National MP’s just cost more to buy?
Or that they do not need bribes while in power as they have lucrative retirement plans, in figurehead directors jobs.
Funding by their US corporate pay masters, when they leave Parliament.
He seems to saying the National MPs understand the Golden Rule: He with the gold, rules.
” ‘access to minsters’ via the Cabinet Club. $25,000 entry fee”
That is the declared open amount. God knows how much more is given under the table, hidden and unaccounted. I won’t be surprised knowing the way the rich crooks and the corrupt politicians work around many corrupt countries.
Billboard Art Project Sets Off Terrorism Scare Near US/Mexico Border
http://hyperallergic.com/183852/billboard-art-project-sets-off-terrorism-scare-near-usmexico-border/
thanks for that saveNZ, a better illustration of The Fear would be hard to find.
from the comments in the linked article
21st birthday celebration balloons gets read as “IS” – cops called
http://rt.com/news/235135-21-birthday-balloons-isis/
Hi everyone,
I feel so incensed about the whole Dong Liu donations saga and the spin about Labour and Liu, that I contacted the Press Council last night and asked them to re-consider Frank Mac’s submission to them about the Herald’s claims that Dong Liu donated $$$$ to Labour. The complaint from Frank wasn’t upheld, because the Herald maintained there was “more to come” about Liu and Labour. And of course nothing has come about Labour and Liu, but indeed we find out it was National receiving donations.
Last night I re-submitted Frank’s complaint to the Press Council, copied a link about National’s donations and asked them to re-consider Frank’s complaint. (hope that’s o.k. Frank???? didn’t know how to contact you to get your permission);
Much to my surprize I had an email this morning saying it would be re-presented to the council.
I will keep you updated!
brilliant action — awesome awesomeness!
ripples are the promises the waves make to the flood 😀
Great idea. Do keep us in the loop
+3 thanks anker!
+1
That is 4 pluses, anke-raw-shark!….Well done! Now you are on to the boot camp and hopefully get to boot the bastards.
Frank runs his own blog
https://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/author/fmacskasy/
Thanks Adam, I will contact him to make sure he is o.k. about it. Should have done so first, but feeling very cross, so just went ahead and assumed he would be o.k.
That’s very cool, great work!
He’s got away with it, again.
http://bluenationreview.com/breaking-zimmerman-cleared-federal-charges/
Autralians (Tarn Yabbit and Joe Joe) just announcing changes to foreign ownership of houses and farms.
… a register
… a $5k application fee for houses under 1 mill
… a 10k application fee over 1 mill
… breaking the rules, $25k fine with the potential for confiscation
… a claim that the rules will be strictly enforced
(Sky News)
will 25k be a detterent or merely seen as a business cost?
probably the latter but the potential for confiscation might be a deterrent. We’ll see just how strictly the rules are enforced. I was just interested to see on Planet Key the Prime Munster still appears to be ‘comfortable’ by comparison
Correction:
That fine is ‘… up to 25 PERCENT of the value of the property ….’
Reasons why National don’t stand in the Maori seats, No94:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/266807/blue-t-shirt-sales-stopped-after-pm%27s-comments
In some areas fierce fights break out when a person is wearing the wrong colours which denote a rival gang. Pretty awful that a PM indulges in gang colour sneers.
” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an invitation to meet with US Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week.
“Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit,” Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein.”
What a cheek coming from an awful chap who is so backed by the republicans. Hypocrisy?
(meh..!..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/new-zealand-parliament-list-of-questions-for-oral-answer-wednesday-25-february-2015/
Another day, another rort.
( heh, gold buggers can’t quite get it right)
At least 10 banks, including Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG, are being probed by the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential.
Precious metals have come under scrutiny as authorities around the world investigate allegations that other financial benchmarks have been rigged. While the Justice Department’s probe is in its early stages, the Swiss finance regulator included the issue in a November settlement with UBS Group AG over currency-rate manipulation. Switzerland’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday that it opened a preliminary probe into the possibility of price fixing in the precious-metals market.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-24/banks-said-to-face-u-s-manipulation-probe-over-metals-pricing?
Big Barbie is watching….
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/02/23/the-internet-of-things-meet-the-wifi-connected-barbie-doll-that-talks-to-your-children-and-records-them/
News I’d like to hear
Great news that once again a person endangering lives has been stopped – this person was under the influence of ‘foreign’ and weaving all over his lies – concerned citizens confiscated Mr Key and handed him over to the police. “No comet” was the only comment Mr Key could make as he sat dejectedly in his mobile awaiting orders.
“I wasnt driving – it was my office”
“I am a different Mr Key. Can’t you see my different hat?”
2015: Mr Key is adamant that NZ will be in Iraq for no more than 2 years. Adamant! Repeated and adamant.
2017: Mr Key says his statement about 2 years was misunderstood. He really meant that 2 years meant about 2 years and maybe as much as 10 years.
Journalists accepted his word and applauded his resoluteness.
That was very convenient.
Wonder if the charges were timed to distract from any criticism of Key the warmonger.
Dirty Politics again.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11407862
Yes timing very interesting.
I have no reason to question the charges but Carmel did the right thing by immediately telling Little’s CoS and by agreeing to stand down and Little has done the right thing by standing her down. The charges relate to her mother and she had no idea they existed until she was asked about them today. Note no attempt to hide or suppress the information unlike other cases. And it will be interesting to see how the right spin this.
AND it would be interesting to find out how TV one found out …
paula bennet minster for welfare, & opposit of carmel sepuloni at parlement & elections. hope this is not extra special utu from bennet for carmel. can be or not, I think yes.
Some contemporary kiwiland commentary from Tourettes, and it’s only a dollar
https://tourettesone.bandcamp.com/track/john-keys-sons-a-dj