David Scott said the council was trying to force him to resign over the incident because he was the lone voice of dissent around the council table, which included voting against a pay rise for the chief executive.
There’s a lot worse happening in the work place – and I would not place it in the criminal sphere, more a warning level about workplace conduct and a training about workplace harassment. It does seem very suspicious that investigation happened after voting against pay rises for the CEO!
I saw the headline and didn’t bother reading it at first. Now that you point it out it does sound very odd.
Predatory men in my experience wait until the victim has no witnesses to support her story, and then defend themselves by accusing the victim of behavior that caused them to react. There is also a history of similar behavior even if it goes unreported.
Good comment and yes it does look odd.
The article says “was recently sent a letter from the council, which is understood to outline more complaints about his behaviour from multiple people who came forward after the morning tea incident”
Implying that there was a pattern of behaviour suddenly come to light. The Mayor goes “and I am concerned about the [female] staff”.
But really how much time do Councillors actually spend with the staff of an organisation like the council in their offices or workspace? I would have though that they would go to “public type events” like the council meetings and otherwise work through the CEO not be roaming the offices at will.
It seems the other complaints are from the same event (thus is not past history, hence doesn’t imply a pattern of behaviour) and relate to compliments he made.
He claims he has never had similar complaints made against him in his life.
That seems to compute even less.
There are no past history complaints? but all of a sudden at this one public function he allegedly runs amok? so to speak and has all sorts of people complaining about his behaviour to them? or are they suddenly all complaining on behalf of someone else?? ( which experience suggests doesn’t usually happen?)
But I see the mayor has advised him to get a good lawyer (which is going to hurt financially I imagine) while all other legal costs get paid by whom?? the council?- ratepayers??
The other complaints seem to be trivial (arising from a number of compliments he made) but there sudden reporting can also be seen as conveniently timed (helping to bolster the initial complaint) especially if political forces are gunning for him as he claims.
The initial accusation can have serious ramifications and is said to be under investigation, thus recommending he lawyers up is to be expected. I suspect he would be liable for his own legal costs.
Perhaps this is a veiled threat to anyone else who goes against council policy. A form of bullying to toe the line, or else.
Bit strange all the same, particularly if the alleged incident took place in a crowded area, which as you say doesn’t quite fit in with usual predatory behaviour.
This is a bog standard way of getting rid of people that are not liked by people in power who have indifferent standards of ethics. It usually occurs when the accused has stood up for something they believe is right but that doesn’t sit well with the people in power for their own, usually not very ethical reasons. It is very nasty and very effective because there is no real means of combatting it in a way that reinstates your situation.
I’d be interested to know if a woman/women has complained about they way he treated her/them, or if it’s other guys complaining about what they have seen or heard?
No indication in the article, although it gives the impression it’s other guys making the compliant.
@TC – once the government get their neoliberal agenda into the CEO structure of councils and treating them as businesses (only the are not businesses because there is no choice and you have to keep paying them when they screw up), the rest is history.
Look at the super city foisted onto Auckland ! Now major social, housing and transport problems in Auckland. Yep centralising power and making private profit more important than people (for some sort of fantasy trickle down) and it all being run by a handful of ‘expert’ economists, lawyers, management consultants and engineers suffering from asperger’s is not a good idea!
Now our councils are turning into Natz Bots, crony capitalists, corporate welfare to their mates, idiot ideologs and of course pay rises in keeping with ‘overseas’ models.
Do everything possible to avoid a living wage for all though, cos low wage economy keeps us efficient and we can’t afford real wages or even workers for that matter, mowing the lawns on minimum wages.
Yep centralising power and making private profit more important than people (for some sort of fantasy trickle down) and it all being run by a handful of ‘expert’ economists, lawyers, management consultants and engineers suffering from asperger’s is not a good idea!
If they had Asperger’s then they wouldn’t continue making the same fuckups as they’d actually learn from their mistakes.
The problem is the profit motive and that’s driven by the psychopaths.
Now our councils are turning into Natz Bots, crony capitalists, corporate welfare to their mates, idiot ideologs and of course pay rises in keeping with ‘overseas’ models.
8 million to Singapore Airlines in Wellington city council , millions to Westfield mall developers, never ending CEO and consultant fees escalating out of control, billion dolllar stadiums and convention enters and then the councils are crying poor and making library workers redundant and telling rate payers to pay more and mow their own berms while the are at it!
Here’s a thought, instead of further increasing rates, why not find ways to cut back on expenditure?
And how many important aspects of society are then going to be cut?
Instead of finding ways to cut rates again how about finding ways to ensure that people have a reasonable living standard and that our society isn’t cut out from under us?
I agree we should strive to ensure people have a reasonable living standard. But currently, a number don’t. Hence, forcing a rate increase upon them due to pipes being revalued isn’t going to improve their living standards. Moreover, nor are rate increases well above the rate of inflation.
Councils have to live within their means. I’m not calling for rates to be cut, but the rate of increases generally has to slow down.
Additionally, it’s a relatively small amount for council to absorb, hence cuts to important services wouldn’t necessarily be required.
Surely, there will be some extravagant expenditure that could withstand a small cut or savings from wasteful expenditure could be found.
But currently, a number don’t. Hence, forcing a rate increase upon them due to pipes being revalued isn’t going to improve their living standards. Moreover, nor are rate increases well above the rate of inflation.
I agree that once pipes are in the ground that they shouldn’t be revalued. Their value once in place is the service that they provide. but they still need to be maintained and replaced and if what’s required to do that is going up at rates greater than the rate of inflation, as they are, then rates will also need to go up faster than the reported rate of inflation.
Councils have to live within their means.
That’s a ridiculous thing to say. A councils means are equal to the total means of the people and resources in that area. In other words, they have the means but the people don’t want to pay for the services that they use.
Additionally, it’s a relatively small amount for council to absorb, hence cuts to important services wouldn’t necessarily be required.
But cuts will be required. This is the problem as all the services that a council provides are essential.
Surely, there will be some extravagant expenditure that could withstand a small cut or savings from wasteful expenditure could be found.
Wages of the high paid CEOs. CFOs etcetera are about it. Of course, I’ve been calling for public service jobs to have a maximum pay rate of $100k.
Sure, pipes required to be maintained and replaced but the cost for that doesn’t necessarily have to result in a rate increase, further eroding living standards.
As stated above, it’s a relatively small amount for council to absorb and surely there will be some extravagant expenditure that could withstand a small cut.
Not all council spending goes towards essential services. And high paid CEOs, CFOs etc aren’t the only extravagance. You’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard/seen the reports over the years – i.e. excessive amounts being spent on the commissioning and purchasing of sculptures, throwing parties, Sky TV subscriptions (see links below). Therefore, if one looked hard at Kapiti’s expenditure, I’m confident they’d find similar extravagance that could be cut.
Sure, pipes required to be maintained and replaced but the cost for that doesn’t necessarily have to result in a rate increase, further eroding living standards.
Except for the fact that it does because of the new developments and higher than inflation price rises for the stuff that needed to do it.
As stated above, it’s a relatively small amount for council to absorb and surely there will be some extravagant expenditure that could withstand a small cut.
You’re assuming that there’s room for the council to absorb it.
You’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard/seen the reports over the years – i.e. excessive amounts being spent on the commissioning and purchasing of sculptures, throwing parties, Sky TV subscriptions (see links below).
I don’t think that sculptures are excessive as we don’t have enough art and culture in our cities as is. Could they be cheaper? Probably not because of the way that artists aren’t supported in this country.
The party wasn’t really the problem. The problem was that it wasn’t held in a council events centre and it cost $30,000 for one night from a private establishment. I may have some issues with celebrating such a business arrangement but I don’t really have an issue with the council putting such events on.
The Sky subscriptions should be a no go.
Resources and incomes are limited, thus it’s not ridiculous to expect councils to live within their means.
And there you go pulling BS line out again. The problem isn’t that they’re not living within their means but that people are complaining about how much it costs to maintain a city with no understanding of those costs.
No. That is incorrect. It’s also possible to defer or cut back on other expenditure.
“You’re assuming that there’s room for the council to absorb it”
Yes. Considering councils are known for extravagant and wasteful spending, I’m confident savings could be found and expenditure could be better prioritised.
For instance, art may be nice to have if one can afford it but it’s not a must have. Thus, can be deferred.
Parties are also nice to have, but partying like they have money to burn (while telling ratepayers rate increases are required) is a no no.
Resources and incomes are limited, thus it’s not BS.
Considering councils are known for extravagant and wasteful spending, I’m confident savings could be found and expenditure could be better prioritised.
There is some wasteful spending, no doubt, but I doubt that it would save enough to cover the amount that you insisting that the councils cut from their income.
For instance, art may be nice to have if one can afford it but it’s not a must have.
If you want to live in a drab and lifeless city then it’s a nice to have. But if not then it’s a must have. I tend towards the latter.
Parties are also nice to have, but partying like they have money to burn (while telling ratepayers rate increases are required) is a no no.
Actually, parties are a must have as they promote the social connections that are necessary for a society to connect to another. The reason why that one you linked to cost so much was because they had to go private for the venue.
Resources and incomes are limited, thus it’s not BS.
Yes and no. People can afford to pay more and they should be paying more to maintain and improve their cities. They should be ashamed to pay only minimum wage to those who work for them for starters.
And, because they’re government, councils should be creating the money that they use.
Yes, elderly and young people have lower incomes. But that should only show that rates should be a percentage of income and not that rates shouldn’t go up.
5 to 6% savings on total expenditure is a small amount to find. Moreover, non priority expenditure could also be deferred, thus my confidence you’re incorrect.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do a line by line analysis of Kapiti’s expenditure. However, in his defence of the rate increase, it was interesting the Mayor didn’t even imply they considered looking at deferring projects or investigating if expenditure savings could be found.
While you may favour rate increases for city art projects, deferring a small number of art projects won’t result in a totally drab and lifeless city. It’s not as if I’m calling for a total ban on future art projects, nor am I calling to sell off all the city’s current art work.
“The reason why that one you linked to cost so much was because they had to go private for the venue”
No, they didn’t’ “have” too. They “chose” too. As if they had money to burn.
People are already paying for the running of their cities. It’s rate increases well above the rate of inflation that is the problem. Some people (those currently struggling, a number of pensioners and other low income earners) can’t afford to continually pay more and more.
Sounds like you’re advocating for councils to price the poor out of their regions.
Unfortunately, rates aren’t currently priced at a percentage of income. And councils don’t currently create their own money supply. Thus, largely invaliding your position in this matter. While we can work towards change, until change eventuates, we have to deal with problems in their current settings.
20% of people can’t change a lightbulb. Surprisingly high number can’t make a meal on the fly, clean their clothes after spilling food on it, or change a tyre either.
AsleepWhileWalking
About people who ‘can’t change a lightbulb’. In the link it shows the question asked and it would lead people to give an uncertain response, not saying that they could not do the various tasks ie Task Percentage who feel confident doing this task.
And these are the percentages and questions below.. Wouldn’t anybody be likely to give these answers? There are lots of things I do, but have to think about to remember, or look up info before I feel confident how to do it. Read a map? It takes me a while to remember that maps are printed with north at top. Do you remember if going south then all the side roads as you travel will be opposite to what is on the map? Change a light bulb? The answer probably reflects that people are uncertain about LEDs, or the latest green version, compared to the old, simpler incandescents.
This is a good example of how supposed facts can be skewed because they don’t represent the actual truth, or they have been misreported for some reason, and then passed on – chinese whispers-style so later people are being told crap facts.
Task Percentage who feel confident doing this task.
Boil an egg 81%
Change a light bulb 79%
Cook a complete meal without using a recipe 69%
Read a map 66%
Sew on a button 65%
Unblock a sink 62%
Remove a stain from a carpet or clothing 59%
Change a baby’s nappy 57%
Wire a plug 57%
‘Bleed’ a radiator 53%
Check oil levels in a car 53%
Put up a shelf 47%
Put up wallpaper 39%
Change a flat tyre 37%
Change a washer on a tap 30%
Fit tiles 22%
Interesting link to Scientific American. Great that Paleoclimatology can give us so much insight.
“What’s really incomprehensible,” Bujak said, “is that the previous process of our planet cooling and CO2 dropping took 50 million years to unfold. Now, we may be reversing this process in a matter of centuries.”
Or are you going to use this opportunity to display your stupidity some more?
What’s the stupidity infused is displaying? Atmospheric CO2 levels are about 2ppm above where they were this time last year. So that’s pointing to something like 402ppm as an average for the year.
If it was suggested that an increase in the atmospheric airborne fraction of methane emissions in the 21st century was in part caused by a decrease in methane emissions,what would your understanding be?
If it was suggested that an increase in the atmospheric airborne fraction of methane emissions in the 21st century was during a period of a significant decrease in methane emissions,what would your understanding be?
I kind of wouldn’t have any immediate understanding. It reads as a contradiction.
But if I am to make sense of it, I’d guess it might mean that other emissions dropped off faster than methane emissions.
Do I get a chocolate fish or not? 🙂
edit – you changed the bloody question! Hang on brb
Okay assuming the fraction is the ratio between airborne and elsewhere, and that only human emissions are being measured, I’d assume that other emissions not directly attributable to human activity – indirect ones, were increasing – eg, via melting permafrost
Then, back to the first answer. If methane as a fraction increased, then (some or all) other emissions must have been decreasing faster than methane ones.
what happened 3 million years ago to cause CO2 levels to be higher than they are today?
The answer starts out by saying:
…a lot happened 3 Ma, during that period the Earth transitioned from a “greenhouse” earth to an “ice house” Earth as the Northern hemisphere glaciated.
An “ice house” Earth during a period when CO2 levels were higher than today. Can you see where the stupid is yet?
Nope. The person I quoted is well-informed and goes into much more detail of exactly how the above scenario occurred, which is why I mentioned Paleoclimatology.
I also mentioned my belief that Infused’s intention is to display some stupidity, ergo, the display hasn’t fully developed yet.
My assumption is based on Infused’s comments history. That’s as much added explanation as you’re getting.
John Deere has turned itself into the poster-child for the DMCA, fighting farmers who say they want to fix their own tractors and access their data by saying that doing so violates the 1998 law’s prohibition on bypassing copyright locks.
Deere’s just reiterated that position to a US Copyright Office inquiry on the future of the law, joined by auto manufacturers (but not Tesla) and many other giant corporations, all of them arguing that since the gadgets you buy have software, and since that software is licensed, not sold, you don’t really own any of that stuff. You are a licensee, and you have to use the gadget according to the license terms, which spell out where you have to buy your service, parts, consumables, apps, and so on.
And the the monopolization of our lives by the corporations continues.
I have been watching this one with interest for a while. What is at stake is the wish of John Deere (and other farm equipment manufacturers) to ‘own’ the franchising of the repairs and maintenance plus the data about their systems and to take a cut of it. The way that they are doing that is to hold the software that allows access into the systems. Of course being the US it has now gone legislative and will wind up in the courts.
What is at stake is the wish of John Deere (and other farm equipment manufacturers) to ‘own’ the franchising of the repairs and maintenance plus the data about their systems and to take a cut of it.
That’s what i figured after reading that article. They’re looking to lock everyone in to using the services that they provide so that they can charge more. It’s typical rentier capitalism.
And naturally you can get hacked versions
And eventually you’ll get people doing their own software replacement, i.e, Linux. But still, what they’re trying, should not be allowed.
They need to look at how that went down in the software community originally. About the only retail company that tries to do it these days is Apple. Which is why I don’t buy any of their gear (and when I have done it tends to get bootcamped into a usable OS).
It is just asking for hacking. You control the use of software by defining a clear and relatively open API. That way you specify what is allowable and what is not. Then developers will generally stay at that level.
If you try to lock it down, then they will hack the entrance holes and exploits into it anyway.
Or they believe that by doing so they can provide a better service, or so they can lock customers in for longer, which will increase revenue whether or not they charge more.
There’s a rationale for everyone there. The more we hit these roadblocks, the more I think (from outside the industry) that open source everything is the best solution.
Or they believe that by doing so they can provide a better service, or so they can lock customers in for longer, which will increase revenue whether or not they charge more.
It’s the latter. If they simply provided good service then they wouldn’t need to lock people in to paying them for the service.
For those of you who have commented about statcounter slowing down the site earlier this year.
Well it has been doing more than that. It has been significantly under reporting the page views on the site for the last 3-4 months compared to the google analytics and the underlying logs.
Last month for instance showed page views of 366k, while google analytics showed 439k (and the rougher analysis of the logs showed 448k).
I can’t see why. It looks like some kind of fault back at the server side or client side browsers blocking it’s script. So I’m shutting it down.
The only real consequence is that we won’t continue to update Open Parachute’s blog ranks because he picks up from open stats. Since that was the only reason for putting statcounter in, and it isn’t being reasonably accurate – no loss. I will try to find some time to talk to Ken about getting from semi-public access to analytics.
Watching a half hour video and then having to research whether the interviewee is who they say s/he is, do extensive research to see whether the issue they choose to raise at this time is a systemic vs rare occurrence, look for several different sources because we sure as fuck can’t trust RT, ruminate upon their agenda for raising this issue now, speculate as to whether it’s simply in the category of “sowing alarm and despondency”,and then try to figure out whether the report adds anything new or useful to my existence.
So, yeah, thinking isn’t the issue, but the rest of it is a fucking ‘mare.
Yup. That’s why I’ll only watch Aunty Beeb. Best of blinking British that’s ‘100% honesty and impartiality guaranteed’ and all coming wrapped up in a pleasant fug of gentlemanly cricket and jolly hockey sticks. 🙂
That’s part of the ongoing communication divide, folks who read “RT is a fucking useless fake news site that has a purely coincidental relationship with the truth” as “The BBC is 100% honest and impartial”.
In reality, the beeb has a compromised relationship in the truth as the truth’s proximity with british interests increases. Same with most actual news outlets and their owners.
Unlike RT, which just seems to have the objective of overloading the media dialogue with random shit and contributing to the “my ignorant opinion is equal to your informed knowledge” cancer that’s reversing any trend towards democracy that the internet offered.
So I find that Chris Hedges can be informative because ‘confirmation bias’? What about when i disagree with what he’s saying?
And are you suggesting that if someone like Chomsky is interviewed on RT, that the interview is dismissable, whereas if the very same interview aired on Al Jazeera, it would be worthwhile, even though Al Jazeera has been caught with its pants well and truly down (lost 16 or 17 reporters over it) generating false protest footage for propaganda purposes?
Or maybe a Chomsky interview would only be worth watching if it was on the Beeb, because the Beeb have only been pinged doctoring spoken statements from interviewees – and that’s just such small fry.
They’re all much of a muchness OAB. The nice thing is that depending on the topic, the bias of one can be exposed by watching one of the others. Which is valuable.
Nope, that isn’t what I’m saying. I’m saying that you – like the rest of us – cleave to narratives that suit your existing beliefs, and that this may have led you to lend more weight to the Kremlin’s mouthpiece than is good for you.
Watching a half hour video and then having to research whether the interviewee is who they say s/he is, do extensive research to see whether the issue they choose to raise at this time is a systemic vs rare occurrence, look for several different sources because we sure as fuck can’t trust RT…
a former Organised [sic] crime investigator from the FBI
Oh, the FBI is your source. Trustworthy with a capital ‘t’ they are. 😆
Watching a half hour video and then having to research whether the interviewee is who they say s/he is, do extensive research to see whether the issue they choose to raise at this time is a systemic vs rare occurrence, look for several different sources because we sure as fuck can’t trust RT, ruminate upon their agenda for raising this issue now, speculate as to whether it’s simply in the category of “sowing alarm and despondency”,and then try to figure out whether the report adds anything new or useful to my existence.
So, yeah, thinking isn’t the issue, but the rest of it is a fucking ‘mare.
When all you had to do was make your own point so I could decide whether to launch myself on that particular joyous journey of education and edification.
But no, you just plopped out a link and implied that anyone who didn’t waste half an hour of their life at the very minimum was afraid of thinking.
Whereas you’re too much of a coward to state a point in your own words. Any positive value from this thread happened despite you, not because of you.
irony1
ˈʌɪrəni/
noun
the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
“‘Don’t go overboard with the gratitude,’ he rejoined with heavy irony”
synonyms: sarcasm, sardonicism, dryness, causticity, sharpness, acerbity, acid, bitterness, trenchancy, mordancy, cynicism; More
a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often wryly amusing as a result.
plural noun: ironies
“the irony is that I thought he could help me”
synonyms: paradox, paradoxical nature, incongruity, incongruousness, peculiarity
“the irony of the situation hit her”
a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions is clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.
noun: dramatic irony; plural noun: tragic irony
You probably just need to dig a bit deeper before you pass judgement on the credibility of RT. For instance where else would you get a scoop on BP and Shell oil execs giving up a $1 billion tax cut! Was a turning point for me.
OK, let’s assume that this link is 100% accurate, impartial, and breaks the lid off a major world event.
It comes right from the same source that had half a dozen nutbar theories about mh17, a whole bunch of bullshit about the US election, and all sorts of other shit. That’s my point. We’re now up to 40minutes of video time in one subthread because it’s easier to link to a video than it is to form your own argument and link to specific parts.
I’m a cynical bastard so I suspect that’s their objective: when some idiot can’t form a coherent argument without contradicting themselves (like “non-sarin” spikeboy), just link to a video which has a vibe you agree with, and you don’t have to do anything more.
RT provides building blocks for folks who can only manage the Courtier’s reply. I have read a load of their links, and there’s no discernable measure that you can take into account when judging normal bias – when something involves russian interests, they just produce more stories, any one of which might be accurate. The problem is that most seem to be levels of bullshit, so it’s impossible to separate the wheat from the huge quantity of chaff.
With most media, you can get some picture by guesstimating their bias and angle – not so much fox and RT. Too much bullshit.
edit: what probability do you place on the four items either side of that link being reliable and reasonable?
A whole bunch of bullshit about the US election – “It was the Russians, the Russians!!” – CNN, MSNBC, CBNC, ABC and all the rest of the alphabet spaghetti US networks.
And all sorts of other shit – The white helmets are heroes!, People in eastern Aleppo will be massacred en masse!, Iran is the biggest funder of international terror, Gadaffi’s troops are on viagra! and of course – it’s the Russians, the Russians!!
But, western msm is seemingly to be judged by a completely different standard. Why’s that?
And if RT are solely a propaganda outlet for ‘The Kremlin’ (you any idea how many competing interests vie with one another in the Kremlin?), then wouldn’t their line be consistent (as OAB claims it to be)?
where I disagree with you, oab, is that RT doesn’t even have a bias in the details of what it spreads – especially obvious in mh17. They put out arguments that the ukrainians did it by sam, by air, the yanks did it, radar tracks said X Y and Z, the yanks are covering up radar tracks, etc etc etc.
And regular propaganda campaign would have just built a fabricated case against the ukrainians and rammed it home to provide enough deniability to the russians.
All media should be judged by the same standard. That’s why I said “With most media, you can get some picture by guesstimating their bias and angle – not so much fox and RT”.
And congratulations – you’re discovering the difference between fake news and propaganda.
Fake news is a fog of information. Some is correct, much is bullshit.
Propaganda is trying to skew your perspective.
The only consistent line fake news needs is to create more dense fog the closer things get to the interests of the paymaster.
Propaganda needs to be consistent to be persuasive. Fake news needs to be diverse in nature, so people falling for confirmation bias argue with each other when they should be on the same side.
Propaganda needs to be consistent to be persuasive…
Depends what the goal is. If the goal is to undermine faith in institutions, or strangle the government in the bathtub, or other gaslight type strategies, it’s pretty good for purpose.
And congratulations – you’re discovering the difference between fake news and propaganda.
“Fake News” is a convenient construct that liberals are using these days to dismiss anything that they might find uncomfortable or inconvenient. It’s lazy and it’s dishonest and pretty soon, it’ll be slipping over into outright censorship (facebook already ran a limited trial on their platform)
You of late, have made it into a bit of a nasty habit – attacking any and all sources as “fake”, or slyly as “alt” (scribd, znet, truthdig) among others, when you simply don’t want to contemplate ‘uncomfortable’ info, or news, or analysis.
If you’re consistent, you’ll be cheering on that censorship when it comes, because right now, you’re acting as a noble foot-soldier ‘for the cause” and could (if you did) only hypocritically speak out against facebook’s trial run at censorship.
Again, not “any and all sources”. I think the number of fake news services I’ve labelled as such is two: RT and fox.
As for the alt media crowd, whatever. If it’s “sly” to refer to them as such, whatevs. It seemed to denote the list of members reasonably enough for you, even though I’m not familiar with some of those names.
Bear in mind that scridb is just a document dump service, isn’t it? Literally no editorial oversight or external assessment. It’s not a news service, AFAIK. I have found some good documents there, but also some unreliable stuff from what I recall.
Given the use of the term ‘alt right’, I think it’s reasonable to take the term ‘alt’ as being being loaded and derogatory, no?
The MiT professors document was placed on scridb by RT. That he’d had to go to RT in the first place speaks quite a bit to the impartiality and openess of western msm. Seems intelligent people or in depth analyses get bugger all air time these days – just sound bite muppets and commissars.
Facebook took a story on slavery (it was a piece of shite trying to compare Irish Americans to African Americans) and had (I think) three windows pop up dissuading people from sharing it and then putting a marker on it when it was shared.
Big problem was that they’d used snopes among others as authoritative voices on why the stuff was ‘fake’, but they themselves (snopes) peddled a ‘fake’ takedown – essentially redefining what “real” slavery was and airbrushing bits of history.
Given the use of the term ‘alt right’, I think it’s reasonable to take the term ‘alt’ as being being loaded and derogatory, no?
Oh, shit no I didn’t mean that. Just hippies and weirdos alternative media.
The MiT professors document was placed on scridb by RT. That he’d had to go to RT in the first place speaks quite a bit to the impartiality and openess of western msm. Seems intelligent people or in depth analyses get bugger all air time these days – just sound bite muppets and commissars.
So the actual source was RT. We’re back where we started.
As to why he only gets coverage with them, maybe he’s got a talking head contract with them and not others. Maybe other news orgs had their own experts take a look at his paperwork, and his report wasn’t overly persuasive to them? Maybe he’s just a dick who alienated everyone, or maybe nobody can touch him because some general is still pissed about the missile systems being exposed. Could be anything.
FB: oh interesting – I’d heard they were trying to create some sort of distinction between outright bullshit and actually true stuff. Dunno how I feel about three boxes to work through, but I actually like the labelling idea. Obviously they have some issues to work through, but it should make my feed a bit easier to deal with. Every time I block one antivax link my hippy friends find another to share with their friend list lol.
Mcflock your hippie hatred deserves the strongest response – hippies are cool again. Trump and his alt right fake news believers and peddlers ain’t cool thus they AREN’T hippies.
Bill – alt is a descriptive term to differentiate – the fact that it is describing certain belief systems and actions is not the descriptors fault. Alt right is derogatory because of what it describes and I have to say the alt right seem to be comfortable and embrraced the term – some seem proud of the term. This is understandable because alt right is also a euphemism used by alt right to hide the real aspects of their disgusting views.
Plus wake up man rt is NOT worth arguing for – ffs you seem to have decided to be cv2 – I miss the bill I used to read and learn from.
The term ‘alt-right’ also, and unfortunately, lends an air of respect to the right – cause you know, they ain’t like those crazy ‘alt-right’ types. And I’ve seen it used as an attempt to discredit or dismiss left wing thoughts – ‘alt-left’.
And I’m not ‘defending’ RT so much as pointing out that it’s damned stupid to wholesale and instantly dismiss something on the basis of who has picked up on it.
All these peeps so eager to have RT demarcated as some unacceptable news source do, I presume, get some info from The Herald in spite of it being a pre-stained shit rag.
@ Mcflock. If you seriously think that western msm do not systematically block and suppress info that doesn't 'fit', and people who don't 'fit', then you….actually, nothing – I'm left speechless by the degree of naivety.
@ Mcflock. If you seriously think that western msm do not systematically block and suppress info that doesn’t ‘fit’, and people who don’t ‘fit’, then you….actually, nothing – I’m left speechless by the degree of naivety.
Did I say that? No. I don’t think I did.
And crystalhealing FBIreadmythoughts DopeCausesGenius websites aren’t going to do a damned thing to solve that bias. Every “suppressed” story genuinely exposed is treated with the same validity as the hundred fluoride chemtrail lizardqueen bullshit stories either side of it.
Here’s the thing: “bias” skews facts and endorses lies consistently. “Bullshit” is beyond fact/lie, it’s just about creating an ocean of shit. There is no equivalence between the two.
You gave a list of reasons as to why Postol and his demolition of the White House Report might not have featured on western msm outlets, and all of those reasons revolved (yet again) around discrediting him or his findings.
You avoided the most obvious reason.
But moving on.
Liberals like to think there’s this thing called the fourth estate that holds power to account. If that was the case, then Postol’s analysis, given who he is and the expertise he has, would have been picked up and a response demanded from those who (by Postol’s analysis) bombed a foreign country off the back of flawed, or even deliberately dishonest information.
I’m going to point out yet again that (as far as I can find) in the field of expertise Postol’s coming from, no-one has questioned or contradicted his analysis. That on its own suggests it’s solid.
Meanwhile, there are multiple questions being asked from multiple quarters about the whole story we’ve been sold that was used as a pretext to bomb another country. Some of those questions are pertinent. None have been answered.
But throw all that aside – maybe a news network has its own experts who found Postol’s report wanting. Sure. And that’s why they neither reported on its deficiencies nor gave him the time of day. Makes sense.
OK, let’s look a systemic effort to suppress and ignore Postol’s complete exposure of the sarin faked attack:
every news editor has received an instruction to ignore his work, yet this instruction has been kept completely secret even from the sites that report postol’s work.
That’s not hugely likely.
Liberals like to think there’s this thing called the fourth estate that holds power to account. If that was the case, then Postol’s analysis, given who he is and the expertise he has, would have been picked up and a response demanded from those who (by Postol’s analysis) bombed a foreign country off the back of flawed, or even deliberately dishonest information.
What, just because he’s one of literally hundreds of security and explosives experts they can go to?
Maybe he’s being ignored because the margin for error in his analysis is (or should be) so wide that it really doesn’tadd any new information to the discussion. Being ignored doesn’t give anyone credibility. It just means that they don’t matter. Maybe he should change the world with a 45minute youtube video.
Where did he say it was a fake attack McFlock? He has never said that.
What he has said is that the White House Report is fraudulent. And he has used their very own info/evidence to demonstrate that.
But since you dismiss anything that comes from a source you disapprove of and walk away after ‘dispatching the messenger’ as it were, I guess you can be excused for not having the foggiest.
And, oh look – the rest of your comment is promoting and excusing some mythical benign liberal establishment thing and shooting the messenger again. Utter twattery.
Oh come on, he’s arguing that the evidence they based the WH report was fraudulent. The evidence came from the people in the area – or at least nobody on the receiving end has contradicted it. Which apparently now counts as some sort of validation.
But since you dismiss anything that comes from a source you disapprove of and walk away after ‘dispatching the messenger’ as it were, I guess you can be excused for not having the foggiest.
Anything that comes from a messenger who has proved incredibly unreliable in the past is, by its nature, suspect. And a messenger who lies about international relations so frequently probably should be shot. At the very least, everything from that messenger should be thrown in the bin as being likely compromised or fabricated.
And RT is that messenger. Alongside fox news. That’s pretty much it in my book, apart from one or two commenters here.
The evidence came from known terrorists. That’s not incidental.
As for your take on media and their lying – that puts all networks against the wall.
And on Syria, it’s somewhat curious (to say the least) that every single independent journalist who goes (all the ones I can find anyway, and I do search far and wide on this topic) reports back the same thing – that we’re being lied to. And when members of Congress have gone, they too have reported back the same (eg – Tulsi Gabbard).
edit – I should add (in case you’ve missed it) that western msm are generally reporting on what terrorists say and filing reports from outside of Syria.
The evidence came from known terrorists. That’s not incidental.
That’s as maybe. The fact remains that when Postol suggests that the sarin might have been planted on the ground, and argues about dirt covering in still photos, and people on the ground say it was an airstrike, yes he’s arguing that the attack was faked to look like an airstrike.
As for your take on media and their lying – that puts all networks against the wall.
Nope. Mostly just RT and fox. There goes your false equivalence again.
And on Syria, it’s somewhat curious (to say the least) that every single independent journalist who goes (all the ones I can find anyway, and I do search far and wide on this topic) reports back the same thing – that we’re being lied to. And when members of Congress have gone, they too have reported back the same (eg – Tulsi Gabbard).
Well, John McCain doesn’t seem to have come back with the same opinion as Gabbard, for one.
Who was John McCain meeting up with again McFlock? Ordinary people or…oh, that’s right – known fucking kidnappers in 2013 and US troops in February of this year.
Not exactly mixing it with, y’know, every day people on the streets of Syria.
On lies about foreign policy, which is apparently a reason to single out RT…
The BBC on Iraq. Were they honest? What about their reporting on Venezuela? Or Indonesia? Or the Philippines? Yugoslavia? The Ukraine? Libya?…
You seem to be suggesting that an endless ream of lies from some networks is not to see them regarded in the same vein as other networks who trundle out reams of lies. In you’re world it’s as though you see honest lies and dishonest lies…trustworthy falsehoods and untrustworthy falsehoods.
And so you cleave to Papa Bear and add your wee growl of supportive disapproval towards whatever or who-ever Papa Bear says should be subject to disapproval.
Which is fine. You’re a liberal and you have a myth of western liberalism to protect and uphold.
And Gabbard was meeting with Assad. Probably found him really polite and nice, too.
As for RT vs the rest, are you seriously telling me that the BBC or CNN lies, as in reports outright and blatant untruths, just as often as RT? Seriously?!
‘Met with’ or ‘went to meet with’? There’s a huge difference between those in terms of motive or potential motive. Who else did she meet and mingle with?
So now we agree that CNN and the BBC and Rt and whatever other of the spaghetti alphabet brigade lie. For me, it doesn’t matter a toss how often they lie – I treat them all – their stories or reports – with the suspicion due a liar.
So now we agree that CNN and the BBC and Rt and whatever other of the spaghetti alphabet brigade lie.
We always did. You just interpreted criticism of RT as approval for BBC.
For me, it doesn’t matter a toss how often they lie – I treat them all – their stories or reports – with the suspicion due a liar.
Yeah, that’s your false equivalence. Any lie, told by anyone in the past, apparently means they should be treated like a compulsive liar / bullshitter. And the amount of effort you’ve put into defending material sourced from RT suggests that for some reason you don’t treat all liars with equal suspicion.
As soon as one recognises veracity is not a binary condition for an organisation that claims to disseminate news, compared to most other sources RT looks like a nactoid “swimmable” waterway: full of shit.
Just to reiterate. You do know I can’t access RT from this IP address, yes? That means they are not the first port of call for my curiousity. Same as for the BBC. I can’t access their video or programming and don’t have a TV anyway.
So maybe I’m getting accidentally pre-filtered and only accessing those youtube posts that people think are worthwhile.
Regardless, if I’m curious about something, I search down relevant info and news reports across a range and number of sources and critically evaluate and compare the info they have (I have the time).
Sometimes that leads to something worthwhile from RT…or Al Jazeera…or the BBC… or whoever (it really depends on the issue or topic as to which of the alphabets will have the more informative report…and sure, as OAB said, confirmation bias comes into it).
Seems your point of access is the the networks though – so if you see something reported on RT (or hear of it being reported on RT) you just instantly decide it’s not worth while and that it is probably (to use your term) fake. And once you’ve done that, you almost have to dismiss any other source that is reporting that same info…like you’ve done with Postol’s analysis of the White House Report on chemical weapons use.
Your bias would be somewhat crippling if you had curiosity and a desire to have better understanding.
Seems your point of access is the the networks though –
actually, as I said elsewhere my main point of access for international stuff isn’t the networks.
so if you see something reported on RT (or hear of it being reported on RT) you just instantly decide it’s not worth while and that it is probably (to use your term) fake.
No, I view any relationship it has with the truth is purely coincidental.
And once you’ve done that, you almost have to dismiss any other source that is reporting that same info…like you’ve done with Postol’s analysis of the White House Report on chemical weapons use.
Thing is, Postol’s work is interesting. But it’s only half the story. Is it accurate? Who knows? He makes quite a few assumptions and calculations – how reasonable are they? Maybe I could trawl through the internet looking for someone suitably qualified who bothered to respond to it, but that involves filtering out every nutbar site from the left right and wherever. If RT were a news agency rather than fake news, they would have mentioned doing some of that work themselves.
Your bias would be somewhat crippling if you had curiosity and a desire to have better understanding.
The fact is, I’ve been bitten by RT far too many times to form an opinion based on anything they release. I’ve found it’s actually quicker and more effective to just ignore it and fox and just wait for it to turn up on other, more credible sources. And no, I don’t just mean CNN.
I was kind of stirring, apologies. The link I provided has 0% accuracy in a sense with it involving two comedians . But in another sense it’s quite revealing of RT, a major tv network does a comedic item on how a moral oil company might behave. I’m not sure if other major US networks would do the same and expose the moral bankruptancy of corporations, and nothing instantly springs to mind. That’s what I find makes RT so interesting is that there’s a wide range of issues discussed and often they’re getting at the truth on a regular basis by going where the mainstream networks won’t go, looking at banking, the economy, geopolitics, environment. There’s a good reason the US establishment (politicians) have been so publicly critical of RT and the so called “propaganda” that it puts out. Its seen as an information threat alright.
The link I provided has 0% accuracy in a sense with it involving two comedians . But in another sense it’s quite revealing of RT, a major tv network does a comedic item on how a moral oil company might behave. I’m not sure if other major US networks would do the same and expose the moral bankruptancy of corporations, and nothing instantly springs to mind.
As far as I can tell that is the best thing that RT does.
But you find exactly the same techniques being used by John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Noah, whatwashisname Corbon? etc. Especially Oliver whose team appears to do a massive research effort on most of the long-form satires he runs.
For that matter John Clarke did it in this part of the world for a long time.
But the question is – is that what you need to do the analysis yourself? Because ultimately humans apart from our parrot analogues winds up making their own decisions based on the information that they have available. RT tends to provide entertainment for the mindless – it isn’t particularly useful for anything else because it is so one-eyed. It is alarmingly like Fox News who they seem to have cloned their style from verbatim
I take your point on John Oliver and John Clarke, although I haven’t seen enough of Oliver’s work to see how far he goes to criticise. John Clarke I think had the benefit of a publicly funded broadcaster too, he was on ABC I think… I’m not sure if he would have had the same license from the likes of Channel 7 or 9.
I’ve got a poor attention span so getting information from somewhere like RT is reasonably quick and entertaining at the same time. It’s critical of the west or willing to analyse what’s going on in the west so I find that a good starting point to form a reality based view. I don’t find it’s packed full of conspiracy theories and the commentary is usually pretty rational, with the exception of some commentators who you can give a wide berth. I realise a few commenters here disagree with that assessment of RT, oh well, I doubt its going to be resolved anytime soon.
I’ve got a poor attention span so getting information from somewhere like RT is reasonably quick and entertaining at the same time.
I have the exact opposite issue. Once it gets into long term memory I tend to remember everything in both a slow release detail and fast summary, think strategically all of time (ie whatifs) to churn it into memory, and absolutely hate anything that I can figure out the punchline in the first couple of minutes.
Since I read a couple of books per day and watch a lot of media when I’m sick, this tends to diminish my interest in entertaining material. It turns out that there simply aren’t that many plots and storylines.
I realise a few commenters here disagree with that assessment of RT, oh well, I doubt its going to be resolved anytime soon.
This is the net – it never is. What is important is that it gets discussed and mulled over.
But what tends to get me annoyed on the net (or media) are two things. One is whenever anyone asserts anything without good sources or links to a source without managing to say why I should look at it. The other is when I wind up having to dig out the same references for different people when they come up with the same old crap for the 20th time in a decade.
The classic for the latter at present appears to be a few climate change deniers on email who keep coming up with the ‘CO2 after the glaciation’ without bothering to look it up (currently number 12 on the sceptical science list if anyone is interested). You’d think that deluded fools would just look it up on google so at least they understood the crucial difference between correlation and causality – – so I don’t have to take time to explain it yet again!
Anyway, my issue is the opposite. I have to manually hold my mind open and actually read the links if they provide any. But I do get annoyed when I find that there is NOTHING substantive apart from insinuations and vapoury conjecture. If I wanted that I could have spent less time and just looked at any TV news or just made it up myself.
Unfortunately RT in my view tend to be like climate change deniers. The only linkages they provide are self-referential and make some staggering presumptions. As McFlock also points out, for a given topic, the same individuals there will give five different explanations for the same event – all of which are straight assertions without any real checkable links. Basically they are, in my view, completely untrustworthy as a source for information.
I tend to notice crap like that. I can’t see any real difference between RT and those fuckwits at Fox…
Oh, some links from here, you know, the people who express a point and include a relevant link in support.
TV and newspaper for local/national events mostly.
International news is more difficult: a couple of email bulletins from foreign policy magazines (like Foreign Policy magazine), warisboring.com is pretty good, vice.com seems to be really interesting but only read that for a few weeks so far, gwynn dyer, a few others.
Most of the fb links I get turn out to be bunk.
edit: btw, I think you’re just a jerk with more arrogance than intellect, but whatever.
Same with most actual news outlets and their owners.
Which is why I limit myself to taking media that I know what the bias levels are like. The Economist comes to mind – I know that they are always going to prefer a liberal (in the economic sense), but that they will usually point to the alternate arguments while dismissing them.
Unlike RT, which just seems to have the objective of overloading the media dialogue with random shit…
I’ve watched a reasonable amount of RT. When you’re around hotel rooms in Europe it is one of the few English language channels. Their app is also on my TV (along with a large numbers of others).
I treat it as being only useful for entertainment value only, just like Fox News and for exactly the same reasons). When I have investigated stories from there that sounded interesting, you usually run into the issue that they seem to have carefully left out all of the bits of debate that don’t fit their preferred narrative.
But it is broadcast media – which is pretty useless at doing anything apart from expressing opinions. Their ‘facts’ usually just depend on what footage they captured, or the talking heads that they corralled for the day.
Basically it is like reading Bomber or Cameron Slater or Paddy Gower or the complete dork Hoskings.
They expect me to follow their story lead with a drooling tongue without bothering to check the presented facts or consulting my brain. It infuriates me is that they often present their opinion as being hard facts – usually in time frames that clearly make it impossible to be certain of anything. Faced with alternate scenarios, like Fox or Bomber, they seize on any microscopic discrepancy and try to build a mountain of discord off it. I guess that is easier than actually thinking about it.
Basically just trash entertainment level only. Give me clearly biased media outlets that aren’t so interested in avoiding dispute and dissension in their presentation of fuzzy facts. That are less interested in avoiding displaying their underlying ignorance.
So the only value in RT is to see why they are pushing a particular meta-narrative. But it is like watching game or reality shows – it usually only takes a couple of minutes to see where they are trying to push drama buttons.
BTW: I have a pretty simple basis for evaluating the obvious deficiencies. Just look at the quality of links to source materials and to alternate opinions. If they haven’t just pulled their story out of their arse, then they researched it at least a bit.
I agree with that to. BBC world is better in print than on the box. The box is an exercise in untangling unspoken presumptions. The print is a more up to date version of wikipedia – a page written by committee.
For you McFlock when it comes to international issues, thinking is a real issue. I’ve never seen you not parrot the official line. Not once that I can think of, if you can prove me wrong, I’d be happy to apologies.
P.S.
I know you did not watch it – which begs the question why comment. Feeling touchy about not being a socialist? Why do I know, because you missed the second part of the show – irony is a funny thing.
Simply put, what is your definition of propaganda? And why do you not use a filter or source checking with absolutely everything you read? I do, filter that is – absolutely everything. And I fact check the lot. No point in singling out one source or other as bias, start with premises all are bais, and take out what is good.
Nothing I put up here is truth with a capital T. Not a damn thing. I do have a problem with the hate people have for RT. Which I find silly and just a little sad, filter it, like you should with everything else.
Video has it’s place, when you are doing other things, and/or have a pile of other reading to do.
It’s why the narrative approach of documentaries can be good, good ones generating a good pace, and keeping you engaged. But they have many of the same issues of bias.
couldn’t be bothered wasting half an hour of my life watching a link from a nutbar. It takes concentration to watch videos, whereas I can keep the telly or music on for reading and writing.
As for my opinions, you’re welcome to criticise them. Just try to use your own words, yes? It’s good for one’s brain.
so people in a group aren’t people? Good to know. /sarc
It is still attacking the people in that group – those who chose not to risk wasting their time with your link.
You might want to debate the latin semantics of verb conjugation, but that’s just like pleading that you’re guilty of a massacre but not the murder of a named individual who was killed in that massacre.
Theresa May would fire Britain’s nuclear weapons as a ‘first strike’ if necessary, the Defence Secretary has said.
Michael Fallon said the Prime Minister was prepared to launch Trident in “the most extreme circumstances”, even if Britain itself was not under nuclear attack.
While I was and am convinced that Hillary Clinton was the superior candidate, just looking at Macron’s rise from pretty much political nothing to likely President of France there’s a democratic lesson for me as much as anything:
Much and all as Wikileaks, the CIA, and the Russians all had their effect, Hillary wasn’t the fresh, bold charismatic star that the Democrats needed. I sure ain’t saying Sanders or Corbyn was any of that either. All destined to be wrong, wrong, wrong.
Now I look at Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macon, Alexander Van Der Bellen in Austria and I find people of substance, excellent training and experience, yet not tainted by being part of some stale elite. It’s a good reason Theresa May is surprising the UK: how can someone new yet experienced appear out of the woodwork and be a competent leader?
Answer: appear both fresh and competent, and not spooky-scale radical, and the public will reward you.
Macron is an investment banker cut of the same cloth as the Smiling Assassin.
As for your “answer” Ad, you know as well as anyone that private equity-owned media define who is “spooky” and who is “fresh and capable” these days. Theresa “I’m not going to call a snap election” May is night and day different to Macron. All they share is their pandering to financial elites who reward those leaders whose policies will align with their investors’ interests.
Nicola Sturgeon: The Tory vision should be ringing alarm bells loudly and clearly… Because make no mistake… the hard-liners have taken over the Tory Party. And now, those Tory hard-liners want to take over the country as well… It’s no surprise that UKIP, right now, is losing support to the Tories. Because the Tories are now threatening to take the UK in a direction that, a few years ago, UKIP could only have dreamed about.
It sure looks that way. Thanks for the heads up BG.
Theresa May should probably be glad that the SNP doesn’t campaign south of the border. I suspect that there are some demographics in the younger voters (ie <45 yo) in the urban parts of the south of England would put aside their accents and start speaking with a burr.
well it is a reasonable line to investigate
Did the NZ police know they were breaking the law when they broke it?
Did the FBI know they were breaking NZ law when they broke it?
Putting James Comey on record over this and requireing him to seek answers from further down the food chain could very possibly bring out an answer to these questions.
That isn’t likely to happen . However I suspect it can consume a court hearing. Which means he gets another one. That makes it worth while for him.
The daft thing about this case, which has been dragging on fruitlessly since Jan 2012, is that there simply isn’t a case to answer under NZ law – which is why after 5 years it has shifted from copyright to fraud. It is highly questionable if there is a case to answer under the US laws specified (like ‘racketeering’ – a politicians nonexistent and non-provable offence if I ever heard one). However I guess that keeping DotCom in court has now become and end in itself. He has now has a hell of a civil case against the NZ and US governments.
Surely some senior idiot lawyer (even Findlayson) is eventually going to realise that ratcheting this stupid cockup is just going to make things worse for them in the long term. And it isn’t like the film industry are going to put their hand out to help.
All in all, the DotCom case provides a perfect example about why NZ shouldn’t get involved in the daft cesspit that Americans call law and why we shouldn’t accept anything like the last drafts of the TPPA before Obama got booted.
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Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
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David Scott said the council was trying to force him to resign over the incident because he was the lone voice of dissent around the council table, which included voting against a pay rise for the chief executive.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/91880052/kapiti-councillor-under-investigation-for-allegedly-pressing-himself-against-female-staffer
There’s a lot worse happening in the work place – and I would not place it in the criminal sphere, more a warning level about workplace conduct and a training about workplace harassment. It does seem very suspicious that investigation happened after voting against pay rises for the CEO!
It does make one wonder if the incident is being exploited as a means to silence dissent.
I saw the headline and didn’t bother reading it at first. Now that you point it out it does sound very odd.
Predatory men in my experience wait until the victim has no witnesses to support her story, and then defend themselves by accusing the victim of behavior that caused them to react. There is also a history of similar behavior even if it goes unreported.
What really happened here?
Good comment and yes it does look odd.
The article says “was recently sent a letter from the council, which is understood to outline more complaints about his behaviour from multiple people who came forward after the morning tea incident”
Implying that there was a pattern of behaviour suddenly come to light. The Mayor goes “and I am concerned about the [female] staff”.
But really how much time do Councillors actually spend with the staff of an organisation like the council in their offices or workspace? I would have though that they would go to “public type events” like the council meetings and otherwise work through the CEO not be roaming the offices at will.
It seems the other complaints are from the same event (thus is not past history, hence doesn’t imply a pattern of behaviour) and relate to compliments he made.
He claims he has never had similar complaints made against him in his life.
That seems to compute even less.
There are no past history complaints? but all of a sudden at this one public function he allegedly runs amok? so to speak and has all sorts of people complaining about his behaviour to them? or are they suddenly all complaining on behalf of someone else?? ( which experience suggests doesn’t usually happen?)
But I see the mayor has advised him to get a good lawyer (which is going to hurt financially I imagine) while all other legal costs get paid by whom?? the council?- ratepayers??
The other complaints seem to be trivial (arising from a number of compliments he made) but there sudden reporting can also be seen as conveniently timed (helping to bolster the initial complaint) especially if political forces are gunning for him as he claims.
The initial accusation can have serious ramifications and is said to be under investigation, thus recommending he lawyers up is to be expected. I suspect he would be liable for his own legal costs.
@ AsleepWhileWalking (1.2) … Absolutely agree.
Perhaps this is a veiled threat to anyone else who goes against council policy. A form of bullying to toe the line, or else.
Bit strange all the same, particularly if the alleged incident took place in a crowded area, which as you say doesn’t quite fit in with usual predatory behaviour.
A case now of wait and see how this one unfolds.
This is a bog standard way of getting rid of people that are not liked by people in power who have indifferent standards of ethics. It usually occurs when the accused has stood up for something they believe is right but that doesn’t sit well with the people in power for their own, usually not very ethical reasons. It is very nasty and very effective because there is no real means of combatting it in a way that reinstates your situation.
Indeed, JanM. Once accused, it’s a hard tarring to remove.
I’d be interested to know if a woman/women has complained about they way he treated her/them, or if it’s other guys complaining about what they have seen or heard?
No indication in the article, although it gives the impression it’s other guys making the compliant.
Canada’s state of Ontario trialling a 4,000 person $150m Universal Basic Income regime:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/24/canada-basic-income-trial-ontario-summer
Kapiti has a high pensioner demographic, yet Kapiti’s mayor has defended a proposed rate increase that tops the Wellington region.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/91648268/rate-hikes-defended-as-kapiti-coast-mayor-says-to-region-youre-eating-your-future
Here’s a thought, instead of further increasing rates, why not find ways to cut back on expenditure?
Agree. Who wants another Kaipara. I know it’s not a sewerage scheme but council spending has gotten well out of hand.
Its not just central govt the hollowmen have managed to spread their gospel to.
@TC – once the government get their neoliberal agenda into the CEO structure of councils and treating them as businesses (only the are not businesses because there is no choice and you have to keep paying them when they screw up), the rest is history.
Look at the super city foisted onto Auckland ! Now major social, housing and transport problems in Auckland. Yep centralising power and making private profit more important than people (for some sort of fantasy trickle down) and it all being run by a handful of ‘expert’ economists, lawyers, management consultants and engineers suffering from asperger’s is not a good idea!
Now our councils are turning into Natz Bots, crony capitalists, corporate welfare to their mates, idiot ideologs and of course pay rises in keeping with ‘overseas’ models.
Do everything possible to avoid a living wage for all though, cos low wage economy keeps us efficient and we can’t afford real wages or even workers for that matter, mowing the lawns on minimum wages.
If they had Asperger’s then they wouldn’t continue making the same fuckups as they’d actually learn from their mistakes.
The problem is the profit motive and that’s driven by the psychopaths.
Yeah, the psychopaths.
“Now major social, housing and transport problems in Auckland. ”
which are all within the control of central govt, not councils.
“suffering from asperger’s”
please don’t say stuff like that.
I don’t suffer from Asperger’s, I suffer from ennui reading the ramblings of bigoted idiots.
+111
8 million to Singapore Airlines in Wellington city council , millions to Westfield mall developers, never ending CEO and consultant fees escalating out of control, billion dolllar stadiums and convention enters and then the councils are crying poor and making library workers redundant and telling rate payers to pay more and mow their own berms while the are at it!
And how many important aspects of society are then going to be cut?
Instead of finding ways to cut rates again how about finding ways to ensure that people have a reasonable living standard and that our society isn’t cut out from under us?
I agree we should strive to ensure people have a reasonable living standard. But currently, a number don’t. Hence, forcing a rate increase upon them due to pipes being revalued isn’t going to improve their living standards. Moreover, nor are rate increases well above the rate of inflation.
Councils have to live within their means. I’m not calling for rates to be cut, but the rate of increases generally has to slow down.
Additionally, it’s a relatively small amount for council to absorb, hence cuts to important services wouldn’t necessarily be required.
Surely, there will be some extravagant expenditure that could withstand a small cut or savings from wasteful expenditure could be found.
I agree that once pipes are in the ground that they shouldn’t be revalued. Their value once in place is the service that they provide. but they still need to be maintained and replaced and if what’s required to do that is going up at rates greater than the rate of inflation, as they are, then rates will also need to go up faster than the reported rate of inflation.
That’s a ridiculous thing to say. A councils means are equal to the total means of the people and resources in that area. In other words, they have the means but the people don’t want to pay for the services that they use.
But cuts will be required. This is the problem as all the services that a council provides are essential.
Wages of the high paid CEOs. CFOs etcetera are about it. Of course, I’ve been calling for public service jobs to have a maximum pay rate of $100k.
Sure, pipes required to be maintained and replaced but the cost for that doesn’t necessarily have to result in a rate increase, further eroding living standards.
As stated above, it’s a relatively small amount for council to absorb and surely there will be some extravagant expenditure that could withstand a small cut.
Not all council spending goes towards essential services. And high paid CEOs, CFOs etc aren’t the only extravagance. You’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard/seen the reports over the years – i.e. excessive amounts being spent on the commissioning and purchasing of sculptures, throwing parties, Sky TV subscriptions (see links below). Therefore, if one looked hard at Kapiti’s expenditure, I’m confident they’d find similar extravagance that could be cut.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11397385
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/85428572/wellington-city-council-spends-51000–on-celebration–just-dont-call-it-a-party
http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/pay_per_view
Resources and incomes are limited, thus it’s not ridiculous to expect councils to live within their means.
Except for the fact that it does because of the new developments and higher than inflation price rises for the stuff that needed to do it.
You’re assuming that there’s room for the council to absorb it.
I don’t think that sculptures are excessive as we don’t have enough art and culture in our cities as is. Could they be cheaper? Probably not because of the way that artists aren’t supported in this country.
The party wasn’t really the problem. The problem was that it wasn’t held in a council events centre and it cost $30,000 for one night from a private establishment. I may have some issues with celebrating such a business arrangement but I don’t really have an issue with the council putting such events on.
The Sky subscriptions should be a no go.
And there you go pulling BS line out again. The problem isn’t that they’re not living within their means but that people are complaining about how much it costs to maintain a city with no understanding of those costs.
“Except for the fact that it does “
No. That is incorrect. It’s also possible to defer or cut back on other expenditure.
“You’re assuming that there’s room for the council to absorb it”
Yes. Considering councils are known for extravagant and wasteful spending, I’m confident savings could be found and expenditure could be better prioritised.
For instance, art may be nice to have if one can afford it but it’s not a must have. Thus, can be deferred.
Parties are also nice to have, but partying like they have money to burn (while telling ratepayers rate increases are required) is a no no.
Resources and incomes are limited, thus it’s not BS.
There is some wasteful spending, no doubt, but I doubt that it would save enough to cover the amount that you insisting that the councils cut from their income.
If you want to live in a drab and lifeless city then it’s a nice to have. But if not then it’s a must have. I tend towards the latter.
Actually, parties are a must have as they promote the social connections that are necessary for a society to connect to another. The reason why that one you linked to cost so much was because they had to go private for the venue.
Yes and no. People can afford to pay more and they should be paying more to maintain and improve their cities. They should be ashamed to pay only minimum wage to those who work for them for starters.
And, because they’re government, councils should be creating the money that they use.
Yes, elderly and young people have lower incomes. But that should only show that rates should be a percentage of income and not that rates shouldn’t go up.
5 to 6% savings on total expenditure is a small amount to find. Moreover, non priority expenditure could also be deferred, thus my confidence you’re incorrect.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do a line by line analysis of Kapiti’s expenditure. However, in his defence of the rate increase, it was interesting the Mayor didn’t even imply they considered looking at deferring projects or investigating if expenditure savings could be found.
While you may favour rate increases for city art projects, deferring a small number of art projects won’t result in a totally drab and lifeless city. It’s not as if I’m calling for a total ban on future art projects, nor am I calling to sell off all the city’s current art work.
“The reason why that one you linked to cost so much was because they had to go private for the venue”
No, they didn’t’ “have” too. They “chose” too. As if they had money to burn.
People are already paying for the running of their cities. It’s rate increases well above the rate of inflation that is the problem. Some people (those currently struggling, a number of pensioners and other low income earners) can’t afford to continually pay more and more.
Sounds like you’re advocating for councils to price the poor out of their regions.
Unfortunately, rates aren’t currently priced at a percentage of income. And councils don’t currently create their own money supply. Thus, largely invaliding your position in this matter. While we can work towards change, until change eventuates, we have to deal with problems in their current settings.
And, of cojurse, this: The great ‘living within our means’ con: Why you’re more in debt than ever
I’m talking about cutting money from crony capitalism not public services!
Sure but how much would that actually be per household?
20% of people can’t change a lightbulb. Surprisingly high number can’t make a meal on the fly, clean their clothes after spilling food on it, or change a tyre either.
https://www.studyfinds.org/change-lightbulb-household-chores-study/
AsleepWhileWalking
About people who ‘can’t change a lightbulb’. In the link it shows the question asked and it would lead people to give an uncertain response, not saying that they could not do the various tasks ie Task Percentage who feel confident doing this task.
And these are the percentages and questions below.. Wouldn’t anybody be likely to give these answers? There are lots of things I do, but have to think about to remember, or look up info before I feel confident how to do it. Read a map? It takes me a while to remember that maps are printed with north at top. Do you remember if going south then all the side roads as you travel will be opposite to what is on the map? Change a light bulb? The answer probably reflects that people are uncertain about LEDs, or the latest green version, compared to the old, simpler incandescents.
This is a good example of how supposed facts can be skewed because they don’t represent the actual truth, or they have been misreported for some reason, and then passed on – chinese whispers-style so later people are being told crap facts.
Task Percentage who feel confident doing this task.
Boil an egg 81%
Change a light bulb 79%
Cook a complete meal without using a recipe 69%
Read a map 66%
Sew on a button 65%
Unblock a sink 62%
Remove a stain from a carpet or clothing 59%
Change a baby’s nappy 57%
Wire a plug 57%
‘Bleed’ a radiator 53%
Check oil levels in a car 53%
Put up a shelf 47%
Put up wallpaper 39%
Change a flat tyre 37%
Change a washer on a tap 30%
Fit tiles 22%
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/6792ez/so_atmospheric_co2_levels_just_reached_410_ppm/
Interesting link to Scientific American. Great that Paleoclimatology can give us so much insight.
“What’s really incomprehensible,” Bujak said, “is that the previous process of our planet cooling and CO2 dropping took 50 million years to unfold. Now, we may be reversing this process in a matter of centuries.”
Or are you going to use this opportunity to display your stupidity some more?
What’s the stupidity infused is displaying? Atmospheric CO2 levels are about 2ppm above where they were this time last year. So that’s pointing to something like 402ppm as an average for the year.
Sometimes things are not what they seem.
If it was suggested that an increase in the atmospheric airborne fraction of methane emissions in the 21st century was in part caused by a decrease in methane emissions,what would your understanding be?
Edit.
Rephrase the problem.
If it was suggested that an increase in the atmospheric airborne fraction of methane emissions in the 21st century was during a period of a significant decrease in methane emissions,what would your understanding be?
I kind of wouldn’t have any immediate understanding. It reads as a contradiction.
But if I am to make sense of it, I’d guess it might mean that other emissions dropped off faster than methane emissions.
Do I get a chocolate fish or not? 🙂
edit – you changed the bloody question! Hang on brb
Okay assuming the fraction is the ratio between airborne and elsewhere, and that only human emissions are being measured, I’d assume that other emissions not directly attributable to human activity – indirect ones, were increasing – eg, via melting permafrost
No total emissions decreased,and the atmospheric fraction increased.
Then, back to the first answer. If methane as a fraction increased, then (some or all) other emissions must have been decreasing faster than methane ones.
not a decrease in other emissions per se,but a decrease in radicals.
The question asked in Infused’s link is:
The answer starts out by saying:
An “ice house” Earth during a period when CO2 levels were higher than today. Can you see where the stupid is yet?
So ‘the stupid’ isn’t infused’s then, but someone who made a comment beneath a linked piece about a very high CO2 ‘count’.
Nope. The person I quoted is well-informed and goes into much more detail of exactly how the above scenario occurred, which is why I mentioned Paleoclimatology.
I also mentioned my belief that Infused’s intention is to display some stupidity, ergo, the display hasn’t fully developed yet.
My assumption is based on Infused’s comments history. That’s as much added explanation as you’re getting.
ohn Deere just told the copyright office that only corporations can own property, humans can only license it
And the the monopolization of our lives by the corporations continues.
Where there’s a will…..
“What you’ve got is technicians running around here with cracked Ukrainian John Deere software that they bought off the black market,” he added.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware
I have been watching this one with interest for a while. What is at stake is the wish of John Deere (and other farm equipment manufacturers) to ‘own’ the franchising of the repairs and maintenance plus the data about their systems and to take a cut of it. The way that they are doing that is to hold the software that allows access into the systems. Of course being the US it has now gone legislative and will wind up in the courts.
See:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska-farmers-right-to-repair-john-deere-apple
And naturally you can get hacked versions
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/246314-farmers-pirating-john-deere-tractor-software-stick-man
That’s what i figured after reading that article. They’re looking to lock everyone in to using the services that they provide so that they can charge more. It’s typical rentier capitalism.
And eventually you’ll get people doing their own software replacement, i.e, Linux. But still, what they’re trying, should not be allowed.
Agreed.
They need to look at how that went down in the software community originally. About the only retail company that tries to do it these days is Apple. Which is why I don’t buy any of their gear (and when I have done it tends to get bootcamped into a usable OS).
It is just asking for hacking. You control the use of software by defining a clear and relatively open API. That way you specify what is allowable and what is not. Then developers will generally stay at that level.
If you try to lock it down, then they will hack the entrance holes and exploits into it anyway.
so that they can charge more
Or they believe that by doing so they can provide a better service, or so they can lock customers in for longer, which will increase revenue whether or not they charge more.
There’s a rationale for everyone there. The more we hit these roadblocks, the more I think (from outside the industry) that open source everything is the best solution.
It’s the latter. If they simply provided good service then they wouldn’t need to lock people in to paying them for the service.
For those of you who have commented about statcounter slowing down the site earlier this year.
Well it has been doing more than that. It has been significantly under reporting the page views on the site for the last 3-4 months compared to the google analytics and the underlying logs.
Last month for instance showed page views of 366k, while google analytics showed 439k (and the rougher analysis of the logs showed 448k).
I can’t see why. It looks like some kind of fault back at the server side or client side browsers blocking it’s script. So I’m shutting it down.
The only real consequence is that we won’t continue to update Open Parachute’s blog ranks because he picks up from open stats. Since that was the only reason for putting statcounter in, and it isn’t being reasonably accurate – no loss. I will try to find some time to talk to Ken about getting from semi-public access to analytics.
Macron versus Le Pen
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/french-elections-macron-le-pen-eu/
The final two.
The first part of this is amazing. Talking about sick building syndrome, a interview with a former Organised crime investigator from the FBI.
Yes from RT America so all the liberals might want to avoid, I mean sheesh you might have to think, can’t have that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNVnz_c3ZEY
lol thinking’s not the issue.
Watching a half hour video and then having to research whether the interviewee is who they say s/he is, do extensive research to see whether the issue they choose to raise at this time is a systemic vs rare occurrence, look for several different sources because we sure as fuck can’t trust RT, ruminate upon their agenda for raising this issue now, speculate as to whether it’s simply in the category of “sowing alarm and despondency”,and then try to figure out whether the report adds anything new or useful to my existence.
So, yeah, thinking isn’t the issue, but the rest of it is a fucking ‘mare.
Yup. That’s why I’ll only watch Aunty Beeb. Best of blinking British that’s ‘100% honesty and impartiality guaranteed’ and all coming wrapped up in a pleasant fug of gentlemanly cricket and jolly hockey sticks. 🙂
ahahahahahaha
That’s part of the ongoing communication divide, folks who read “RT is a fucking useless fake news site that has a purely coincidental relationship with the truth” as “The BBC is 100% honest and impartial”.
In reality, the beeb has a compromised relationship in the truth as the truth’s proximity with british interests increases. Same with most actual news outlets and their owners.
Unlike RT, which just seems to have the objective of overloading the media dialogue with random shit and contributing to the “my ignorant opinion is equal to your informed knowledge” cancer that’s reversing any trend towards democracy that the internet offered.
I’ve no idea how much RT you must have watched to come to that pretty jaundiced conclusion McFlock. A fair bit, I guess. Or then again….maybe not.
All I can say is that RT carries some useful stuff…or I’m just an idiot who can’t recognise chaff from grain.
Given the caliber of some of their hosts and interviewees…oh, of course! All chaff. 🙄
Occam’s Razor suggests that confirmation bias, as opposed to idiocy, is a far more likely explanation for your opinion of RT.
So I find that Chris Hedges can be informative because ‘confirmation bias’? What about when i disagree with what he’s saying?
And are you suggesting that if someone like Chomsky is interviewed on RT, that the interview is dismissable, whereas if the very same interview aired on Al Jazeera, it would be worthwhile, even though Al Jazeera has been caught with its pants well and truly down (lost 16 or 17 reporters over it) generating false protest footage for propaganda purposes?
Or maybe a Chomsky interview would only be worth watching if it was on the Beeb, because the Beeb have only been pinged doctoring spoken statements from interviewees – and that’s just such small fry.
They’re all much of a muchness OAB. The nice thing is that depending on the topic, the bias of one can be exposed by watching one of the others. Which is valuable.
dismissable
Nope, that isn’t what I’m saying. I’m saying that you – like the rest of us – cleave to narratives that suit your existing beliefs, and that this may have led you to lend more weight to the Kremlin’s mouthpiece than is good for you.
Nope. It hasn’t led me to lend undue weight to RT. Rest easy.
Whereas I think McFlock’s narrative rings true.
a former Organised [sic] crime investigator from the FBI
Oh, the FBI is your source. Trustworthy with a capital ‘t’ they are. 😆
Really you happy to just buy the corporate media line. Truly odd position there One Anonymous Bloke.
Yeah, that’s totes what I am. Utterly and completely defeated by your persuasive argument, that’s me.
🙄
Oh goodies, a smug put down by One Anonymous Bloke, then later in post complains about ad hominions. Funny, silly, or just rude?
longer reply below, but the basic issue is that there are massive amounts of chaff with no systematic way to find the wheat.
Hope this helps – the source material from the interviews.
http://alanbell.me/index.php/about/
http://projectcensored.org/
So you count Chris Hedges and Larry King as complete write offs?
sigh. See? now you expect me to read entire websites.
And seeing as I never bothered clicking on the link, I still have no idea what point you are trying to make, if anything at all.
Grow up and learn to fucking express your own ideas rather than lazily using clickverts as a mental crutch.
Poor Mcflock, asks questions and does not like the answers. Or were you just spewing venom to feel better?
You said “the basic issue is that there are massive amounts of chaff with no systematic way to find the wheat.”
I gave you links around your assumed chaff. You chose to ignore it, that fine. But pot kettle calling – is a bit daft from you, me thinks.
and I also wrote
When all you had to do was make your own point so I could decide whether to launch myself on that particular joyous journey of education and edification.
But no, you just plopped out a link and implied that anyone who didn’t waste half an hour of their life at the very minimum was afraid of thinking.
Whereas you’re too much of a coward to state a point in your own words. Any positive value from this thread happened despite you, not because of you.
irony1
ˈʌɪrəni/
noun
the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
“‘Don’t go overboard with the gratitude,’ he rejoined with heavy irony”
synonyms: sarcasm, sardonicism, dryness, causticity, sharpness, acerbity, acid, bitterness, trenchancy, mordancy, cynicism; More
a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often wryly amusing as a result.
plural noun: ironies
“the irony is that I thought he could help me”
synonyms: paradox, paradoxical nature, incongruity, incongruousness, peculiarity
“the irony of the situation hit her”
a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions is clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.
noun: dramatic irony; plural noun: tragic irony
Yeah right…
was that you trying to make a point? 🙄
When you link to RT, the likelihood of chaff multiplies
You probably just need to dig a bit deeper before you pass judgement on the credibility of RT. For instance where else would you get a scoop on BP and Shell oil execs giving up a $1 billion tax cut! Was a turning point for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGPUr0Iaz80
OK, let’s assume that this link is 100% accurate, impartial, and breaks the lid off a major world event.
It comes right from the same source that had half a dozen nutbar theories about mh17, a whole bunch of bullshit about the US election, and all sorts of other shit. That’s my point. We’re now up to 40minutes of video time in one subthread because it’s easier to link to a video than it is to form your own argument and link to specific parts.
I’m a cynical bastard so I suspect that’s their objective: when some idiot can’t form a coherent argument without contradicting themselves (like “non-sarin” spikeboy), just link to a video which has a vibe you agree with, and you don’t have to do anything more.
RT provides building blocks for folks who can only manage the Courtier’s reply. I have read a load of their links, and there’s no discernable measure that you can take into account when judging normal bias – when something involves russian interests, they just produce more stories, any one of which might be accurate. The problem is that most seem to be levels of bullshit, so it’s impossible to separate the wheat from the huge quantity of chaff.
With most media, you can get some picture by guesstimating their bias and angle – not so much fox and RT. Too much bullshit.
edit: what probability do you place on the four items either side of that link being reliable and reasonable?
Duane Gish with money to burn.
A whole bunch of bullshit about the US election – “It was the Russians, the Russians!!” – CNN, MSNBC, CBNC, ABC and all the rest of the alphabet spaghetti US networks.
And all sorts of other shit – The white helmets are heroes!, People in eastern Aleppo will be massacred en masse!, Iran is the biggest funder of international terror, Gadaffi’s troops are on viagra! and of course – it’s the Russians, the Russians!!
But, western msm is seemingly to be judged by a completely different standard. Why’s that?
And if RT are solely a propaganda outlet for ‘The Kremlin’ (you any idea how many competing interests vie with one another in the Kremlin?), then wouldn’t their line be consistent (as OAB claims it to be)?
Overly consistent, yes, in a particular context.
In the wider context they are at least consistently untrustworthy, even adept at dezinformatsiya, and so-on.
Bias is inevitable. Deliberate bias (such as displayed by eg: Exxon or Rothmans or Cameron Slater or RT) is another thing entirely.
where I disagree with you, oab, is that RT doesn’t even have a bias in the details of what it spreads – especially obvious in mh17. They put out arguments that the ukrainians did it by sam, by air, the yanks did it, radar tracks said X Y and Z, the yanks are covering up radar tracks, etc etc etc.
And regular propaganda campaign would have just built a fabricated case against the ukrainians and rammed it home to provide enough deniability to the russians.
regular propaganda campaign
Regular according to what measure? The value of a Gish Gallop isn’t consistency, it’s confusion – putting out fires.
“If your enemy is exhausted, tire him out.” Sun Tzu.
The “enemy” in this case is public opinion.
regular in being the same as the usual.
And the objective isn’t to tire the enemy, it’s to sow discord in the enemy army so it fights itself.
In that case, confusion is still a better servant than consistency.
well, the usual choice is to try to get the opposition to desert, but horses for courses I guess.
All media should be judged by the same standard. That’s why I said “With most media, you can get some picture by guesstimating their bias and angle – not so much fox and RT”.
And congratulations – you’re discovering the difference between fake news and propaganda.
Fake news is a fog of information. Some is correct, much is bullshit.
Propaganda is trying to skew your perspective.
The only consistent line fake news needs is to create more dense fog the closer things get to the interests of the paymaster.
Propaganda needs to be consistent to be persuasive. Fake news needs to be diverse in nature, so people falling for confirmation bias argue with each other when they should be on the same side.
Propaganda needs to be consistent to be persuasive…
Depends what the goal is. If the goal is to undermine faith in institutions, or strangle the government in the bathtub, or other gaslight type strategies, it’s pretty good for purpose.
Trump fires first shot in war with Canada
https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/856657779674816512
And congratulations – you’re discovering the difference between fake news and propaganda.
“Fake News” is a convenient construct that liberals are using these days to dismiss anything that they might find uncomfortable or inconvenient. It’s lazy and it’s dishonest and pretty soon, it’ll be slipping over into outright censorship (facebook already ran a limited trial on their platform)
You of late, have made it into a bit of a nasty habit – attacking any and all sources as “fake”, or slyly as “alt” (scribd, znet, truthdig) among others, when you simply don’t want to contemplate ‘uncomfortable’ info, or news, or analysis.
If you’re consistent, you’ll be cheering on that censorship when it comes, because right now, you’re acting as a noble foot-soldier ‘for the cause” and could (if you did) only hypocritically speak out against facebook’s trial run at censorship.
Again, not “any and all sources”. I think the number of fake news services I’ve labelled as such is two: RT and fox.
As for the alt media crowd, whatever. If it’s “sly” to refer to them as such, whatevs. It seemed to denote the list of members reasonably enough for you, even though I’m not familiar with some of those names.
Bear in mind that scridb is just a document dump service, isn’t it? Literally no editorial oversight or external assessment. It’s not a news service, AFAIK. I have found some good documents there, but also some unreliable stuff from what I recall.
What’s FB up to now?
Given the use of the term ‘alt right’, I think it’s reasonable to take the term ‘alt’ as being being loaded and derogatory, no?
The MiT professors document was placed on scridb by RT. That he’d had to go to RT in the first place speaks quite a bit to the impartiality and openess of western msm. Seems intelligent people or in depth analyses get bugger all air time these days – just sound bite muppets and commissars.
Facebook took a story on slavery (it was a piece of shite trying to compare Irish Americans to African Americans) and had (I think) three windows pop up dissuading people from sharing it and then putting a marker on it when it was shared.
Big problem was that they’d used snopes among others as authoritative voices on why the stuff was ‘fake’, but they themselves (snopes) peddled a ‘fake’ takedown – essentially redefining what “real” slavery was and airbrushing bits of history.
Oh, shit no I didn’t mean that. Just hippies and weirdos alternative media.
So the actual source was RT. We’re back where we started.
As to why he only gets coverage with them, maybe he’s got a talking head contract with them and not others. Maybe other news orgs had their own experts take a look at his paperwork, and his report wasn’t overly persuasive to them? Maybe he’s just a dick who alienated everyone, or maybe nobody can touch him because some general is still pissed about the missile systems being exposed. Could be anything.
FB: oh interesting – I’d heard they were trying to create some sort of distinction between outright bullshit and actually true stuff. Dunno how I feel about three boxes to work through, but I actually like the labelling idea. Obviously they have some issues to work through, but it should make my feed a bit easier to deal with. Every time I block one antivax link my hippy friends find another to share with their friend list lol.
Mcflock your hippie hatred deserves the strongest response – hippies are cool again. Trump and his alt right fake news believers and peddlers ain’t cool thus they AREN’T hippies.
Bill – alt is a descriptive term to differentiate – the fact that it is describing certain belief systems and actions is not the descriptors fault. Alt right is derogatory because of what it describes and I have to say the alt right seem to be comfortable and embrraced the term – some seem proud of the term. This is understandable because alt right is also a euphemism used by alt right to hide the real aspects of their disgusting views.
Plus wake up man rt is NOT worth arguing for – ffs you seem to have decided to be cv2 – I miss the bill I used to read and learn from.
The term ‘alt-right’ also, and unfortunately, lends an air of respect to the right – cause you know, they ain’t like those crazy ‘alt-right’ types. And I’ve seen it used as an attempt to discredit or dismiss left wing thoughts – ‘alt-left’.
And I’m not ‘defending’ RT so much as pointing out that it’s damned stupid to wholesale and instantly dismiss something on the basis of who has picked up on it.
All these peeps so eager to have RT demarcated as some unacceptable news source do, I presume, get some info from The Herald in spite of it being a pre-stained shit rag.
@ Mcflock. If you seriously think that western msm do not systematically block and suppress info that doesn't 'fit', and people who don't 'fit', then you….actually, nothing – I'm left speechless by the degree of naivety.
Did I say that? No. I don’t think I did.
And crystalhealing FBIreadmythoughts DopeCausesGenius websites aren’t going to do a damned thing to solve that bias. Every “suppressed” story genuinely exposed is treated with the same validity as the hundred fluoride chemtrail lizardqueen bullshit stories either side of it.
Here’s the thing: “bias” skews facts and endorses lies consistently. “Bullshit” is beyond fact/lie, it’s just about creating an ocean of shit. There is no equivalence between the two.
You gave a list of reasons as to why Postol and his demolition of the White House Report might not have featured on western msm outlets, and all of those reasons revolved (yet again) around discrediting him or his findings.
You avoided the most obvious reason.
But moving on.
Liberals like to think there’s this thing called the fourth estate that holds power to account. If that was the case, then Postol’s analysis, given who he is and the expertise he has, would have been picked up and a response demanded from those who (by Postol’s analysis) bombed a foreign country off the back of flawed, or even deliberately dishonest information.
I’m going to point out yet again that (as far as I can find) in the field of expertise Postol’s coming from, no-one has questioned or contradicted his analysis. That on its own suggests it’s solid.
Meanwhile, there are multiple questions being asked from multiple quarters about the whole story we’ve been sold that was used as a pretext to bomb another country. Some of those questions are pertinent. None have been answered.
But throw all that aside – maybe a news network has its own experts who found Postol’s report wanting. Sure. And that’s why they neither reported on its deficiencies nor gave him the time of day. Makes sense.
OK, let’s look a systemic effort to suppress and ignore Postol’s complete exposure of the sarin faked attack:
every news editor has received an instruction to ignore his work, yet this instruction has been kept completely secret even from the sites that report postol’s work.
That’s not hugely likely.
What, just because he’s one of literally hundreds of security and explosives experts they can go to?
Maybe he’s being ignored because the margin for error in his analysis is (or should be) so wide that it really doesn’tadd any new information to the discussion. Being ignored doesn’t give anyone credibility. It just means that they don’t matter. Maybe he should change the world with a 45minute youtube video.
Where did he say it was a fake attack McFlock? He has never said that.
What he has said is that the White House Report is fraudulent. And he has used their very own info/evidence to demonstrate that.
But since you dismiss anything that comes from a source you disapprove of and walk away after ‘dispatching the messenger’ as it were, I guess you can be excused for not having the foggiest.
And, oh look – the rest of your comment is promoting and excusing some mythical benign liberal establishment thing and shooting the messenger again. Utter twattery.
Oh come on, he’s arguing that the evidence they based the WH report was fraudulent. The evidence came from the people in the area – or at least nobody on the receiving end has contradicted it. Which apparently now counts as some sort of validation.
Anything that comes from a messenger who has proved incredibly unreliable in the past is, by its nature, suspect. And a messenger who lies about international relations so frequently probably should be shot. At the very least, everything from that messenger should be thrown in the bin as being likely compromised or fabricated.
And RT is that messenger. Alongside fox news. That’s pretty much it in my book, apart from one or two commenters here.
The evidence came from known terrorists. That’s not incidental.
As for your take on media and their lying – that puts all networks against the wall.
And on Syria, it’s somewhat curious (to say the least) that every single independent journalist who goes (all the ones I can find anyway, and I do search far and wide on this topic) reports back the same thing – that we’re being lied to. And when members of Congress have gone, they too have reported back the same (eg – Tulsi Gabbard).
edit – I should add (in case you’ve missed it) that western msm are generally reporting on what terrorists say and filing reports from outside of Syria.
That’s as maybe. The fact remains that when Postol suggests that the sarin might have been planted on the ground, and argues about dirt covering in still photos, and people on the ground say it was an airstrike, yes he’s arguing that the attack was faked to look like an airstrike.
Nope. Mostly just RT and fox. There goes your false equivalence again.
Well, John McCain doesn’t seem to have come back with the same opinion as Gabbard, for one.
But yes, “curious”.
Who was John McCain meeting up with again McFlock? Ordinary people or…oh, that’s right – known fucking kidnappers in 2013 and US troops in February of this year.
Not exactly mixing it with, y’know, every day people on the streets of Syria.
On lies about foreign policy, which is apparently a reason to single out RT…
The BBC on Iraq. Were they honest? What about their reporting on Venezuela? Or Indonesia? Or the Philippines? Yugoslavia? The Ukraine? Libya?…
You seem to be suggesting that an endless ream of lies from some networks is not to see them regarded in the same vein as other networks who trundle out reams of lies. In you’re world it’s as though you see honest lies and dishonest lies…trustworthy falsehoods and untrustworthy falsehoods.
And so you cleave to Papa Bear and add your wee growl of supportive disapproval towards whatever or who-ever Papa Bear says should be subject to disapproval.
Which is fine. You’re a liberal and you have a myth of western liberalism to protect and uphold.
And Gabbard was meeting with Assad. Probably found him really polite and nice, too.
As for RT vs the rest, are you seriously telling me that the BBC or CNN lies, as in reports outright and blatant untruths, just as often as RT? Seriously?!
‘Met with’ or ‘went to meet with’? There’s a huge difference between those in terms of motive or potential motive. Who else did she meet and mingle with?
So now we agree that CNN and the BBC and Rt and whatever other of the spaghetti alphabet brigade lie. For me, it doesn’t matter a toss how often they lie – I treat them all – their stories or reports – with the suspicion due a liar.
well who did mccain meet and mingle with?
We always did. You just interpreted criticism of RT as approval for BBC.
Yeah, that’s your false equivalence. Any lie, told by anyone in the past, apparently means they should be treated like a compulsive liar / bullshitter. And the amount of effort you’ve put into defending material sourced from RT suggests that for some reason you don’t treat all liars with equal suspicion.
As soon as one recognises veracity is not a binary condition for an organisation that claims to disseminate news, compared to most other sources RT looks like a nactoid “swimmable” waterway: full of shit.
I’ve obviously a more jaundiced view than you.
Just to reiterate. You do know I can’t access RT from this IP address, yes? That means they are not the first port of call for my curiousity. Same as for the BBC. I can’t access their video or programming and don’t have a TV anyway.
So maybe I’m getting accidentally pre-filtered and only accessing those youtube posts that people think are worthwhile.
Regardless, if I’m curious about something, I search down relevant info and news reports across a range and number of sources and critically evaluate and compare the info they have (I have the time).
Sometimes that leads to something worthwhile from RT…or Al Jazeera…or the BBC… or whoever (it really depends on the issue or topic as to which of the alphabets will have the more informative report…and sure, as OAB said, confirmation bias comes into it).
Seems your point of access is the the networks though – so if you see something reported on RT (or hear of it being reported on RT) you just instantly decide it’s not worth while and that it is probably (to use your term) fake. And once you’ve done that, you almost have to dismiss any other source that is reporting that same info…like you’ve done with Postol’s analysis of the White House Report on chemical weapons use.
Your bias would be somewhat crippling if you had curiosity and a desire to have better understanding.
actually, as I said elsewhere my main point of access for international stuff isn’t the networks.
No, I view any relationship it has with the truth is purely coincidental.
Thing is, Postol’s work is interesting. But it’s only half the story. Is it accurate? Who knows? He makes quite a few assumptions and calculations – how reasonable are they? Maybe I could trawl through the internet looking for someone suitably qualified who bothered to respond to it, but that involves filtering out every nutbar site from the left right and wherever. If RT were a news agency rather than fake news, they would have mentioned doing some of that work themselves.
The fact is, I’ve been bitten by RT far too many times to form an opinion based on anything they release. I’ve found it’s actually quicker and more effective to just ignore it and fox and just wait for it to turn up on other, more credible sources. And no, I don’t just mean CNN.
The Courtier’s Reply
Thanks for that McFlock. It has a name! 🙂
a name – and a link I screwed up originally 🙂
I suggest that on these comments threads it should be referred to as The Morrissey’s reply.
I was kind of stirring, apologies. The link I provided has 0% accuracy in a sense with it involving two comedians . But in another sense it’s quite revealing of RT, a major tv network does a comedic item on how a moral oil company might behave. I’m not sure if other major US networks would do the same and expose the moral bankruptancy of corporations, and nothing instantly springs to mind. That’s what I find makes RT so interesting is that there’s a wide range of issues discussed and often they’re getting at the truth on a regular basis by going where the mainstream networks won’t go, looking at banking, the economy, geopolitics, environment. There’s a good reason the US establishment (politicians) have been so publicly critical of RT and the so called “propaganda” that it puts out. Its seen as an information threat alright.
The link I provided has 0% accuracy in a sense with it involving two comedians . But in another sense it’s quite revealing of RT, a major tv network does a comedic item on how a moral oil company might behave. I’m not sure if other major US networks would do the same and expose the moral bankruptancy of corporations, and nothing instantly springs to mind.
As far as I can tell that is the best thing that RT does.
But you find exactly the same techniques being used by John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Noah, whatwashisname Corbon? etc. Especially Oliver whose team appears to do a massive research effort on most of the long-form satires he runs.
For that matter John Clarke did it in this part of the world for a long time.
But the question is – is that what you need to do the analysis yourself? Because ultimately humans apart from our parrot analogues winds up making their own decisions based on the information that they have available. RT tends to provide entertainment for the mindless – it isn’t particularly useful for anything else because it is so one-eyed. It is alarmingly like Fox News who they seem to have cloned their style from verbatim
I take your point on John Oliver and John Clarke, although I haven’t seen enough of Oliver’s work to see how far he goes to criticise. John Clarke I think had the benefit of a publicly funded broadcaster too, he was on ABC I think… I’m not sure if he would have had the same license from the likes of Channel 7 or 9.
I’ve got a poor attention span so getting information from somewhere like RT is reasonably quick and entertaining at the same time. It’s critical of the west or willing to analyse what’s going on in the west so I find that a good starting point to form a reality based view. I don’t find it’s packed full of conspiracy theories and the commentary is usually pretty rational, with the exception of some commentators who you can give a wide berth. I realise a few commenters here disagree with that assessment of RT, oh well, I doubt its going to be resolved anytime soon.
I’ve got a poor attention span so getting information from somewhere like RT is reasonably quick and entertaining at the same time.
I have the exact opposite issue. Once it gets into long term memory I tend to remember everything in both a slow release detail and fast summary, think strategically all of time (ie whatifs) to churn it into memory, and absolutely hate anything that I can figure out the punchline in the first couple of minutes.
Since I read a couple of books per day and watch a lot of media when I’m sick, this tends to diminish my interest in entertaining material. It turns out that there simply aren’t that many plots and storylines.
I realise a few commenters here disagree with that assessment of RT, oh well, I doubt its going to be resolved anytime soon.
This is the net – it never is. What is important is that it gets discussed and mulled over.
But what tends to get me annoyed on the net (or media) are two things. One is whenever anyone asserts anything without good sources or links to a source without managing to say why I should look at it. The other is when I wind up having to dig out the same references for different people when they come up with the same old crap for the 20th time in a decade.
The classic for the latter at present appears to be a few climate change deniers on email who keep coming up with the ‘CO2 after the glaciation’ without bothering to look it up (currently number 12 on the sceptical science list if anyone is interested). You’d think that deluded fools would just look it up on google so at least they understood the crucial difference between correlation and causality – – so I don’t have to take time to explain it yet again!
Anyway, my issue is the opposite. I have to manually hold my mind open and actually read the links if they provide any. But I do get annoyed when I find that there is NOTHING substantive apart from insinuations and vapoury conjecture. If I wanted that I could have spent less time and just looked at any TV news or just made it up myself.
Unfortunately RT in my view tend to be like climate change deniers. The only linkages they provide are self-referential and make some staggering presumptions. As McFlock also points out, for a given topic, the same individuals there will give five different explanations for the same event – all of which are straight assertions without any real checkable links. Basically they are, in my view, completely untrustworthy as a source for information.
I tend to notice crap like that. I can’t see any real difference between RT and those fuckwits at Fox…
So you don’t watch fox news, what is wrong with you? Can’t handle actually finding out what the right think?
oh, I reckon I pick up enough of that bile from other sources.
Name names please. Because at this point I’m thinking you are in a echo chamber.
Oh, some links from here, you know, the people who express a point and include a relevant link in support.
TV and newspaper for local/national events mostly.
International news is more difficult: a couple of email bulletins from foreign policy magazines (like Foreign Policy magazine), warisboring.com is pretty good, vice.com seems to be really interesting but only read that for a few weeks so far, gwynn dyer, a few others.
Most of the fb links I get turn out to be bunk.
edit: btw, I think you’re just a jerk with more arrogance than intellect, but whatever.
Sounds kinda like an echo chamber.
How delightful, I think of you as a smug know it all McFlock. So not too much of a difference of opinion there then.
congratulations, you actually managed to make two points of your very own in a single comment.
I note you were too chickenshit to subject yourself to the same examination, but it’s a start.
Let the anger flow through you McFlock – it almost lets you get to a comedic place. But not quite – maybe a bit more rage!
Jandals and handles is it.
Oh dear McFlock, you seemed to have missed, that I’m not tethered to having to be right. Fine if I’m proved right, but I don’t have to be.
Right, schmight – what would be nice is seeing you actually making an argument for once.
[All three of you – draw a line under this childish nonsense now. Thank you.] – Bill
bold words for someone who took how many comments to make even a basic point? And I’m sure you’re right about what your opinion of me is.
[See above. Enough.] – Bill
Same with most actual news outlets and their owners.
Which is why I limit myself to taking media that I know what the bias levels are like. The Economist comes to mind – I know that they are always going to prefer a liberal (in the economic sense), but that they will usually point to the alternate arguments while dismissing them.
Unlike RT, which just seems to have the objective of overloading the media dialogue with random shit…
I’ve watched a reasonable amount of RT. When you’re around hotel rooms in Europe it is one of the few English language channels. Their app is also on my TV (along with a large numbers of others).
I treat it as being only useful for entertainment value only, just like Fox News and for exactly the same reasons). When I have investigated stories from there that sounded interesting, you usually run into the issue that they seem to have carefully left out all of the bits of debate that don’t fit their preferred narrative.
But it is broadcast media – which is pretty useless at doing anything apart from expressing opinions. Their ‘facts’ usually just depend on what footage they captured, or the talking heads that they corralled for the day.
Basically it is like reading Bomber or Cameron Slater or Paddy Gower or the complete dork Hoskings.
They expect me to follow their story lead with a drooling tongue without bothering to check the presented facts or consulting my brain. It infuriates me is that they often present their opinion as being hard facts – usually in time frames that clearly make it impossible to be certain of anything. Faced with alternate scenarios, like Fox or Bomber, they seize on any microscopic discrepancy and try to build a mountain of discord off it. I guess that is easier than actually thinking about it.
Basically just trash entertainment level only. Give me clearly biased media outlets that aren’t so interested in avoiding dispute and dissension in their presentation of fuzzy facts. That are less interested in avoiding displaying their underlying ignorance.
So the only value in RT is to see why they are pushing a particular meta-narrative. But it is like watching game or reality shows – it usually only takes a couple of minutes to see where they are trying to push drama buttons.
BTW: I have a pretty simple basis for evaluating the obvious deficiencies. Just look at the quality of links to source materials and to alternate opinions. If they haven’t just pulled their story out of their arse, then they researched it at least a bit.
the only value in RT is to see why they are pushing a particular meta-narrative.
…and the only real value in that is to better predict their next move, which is a dull, reactive pursuit at the best of times.
“He hit me, so I hit him first”. Knowing your opponents moves is good defence, for sure, but it doesn’t leave much time for growth.
finding out WHO your opponents are would be really useful.
https://twitter.com/Geostrat_ME/status/856619948852088832
…and all coming wrapped up in a pleasant fug of gentlemanly cricket and jolly hockey sticks.
Couldn’t be better put…🙂
I agree with that to. BBC world is better in print than on the box. The box is an exercise in untangling unspoken presumptions. The print is a more up to date version of wikipedia – a page written by committee.
For you McFlock when it comes to international issues, thinking is a real issue. I’ve never seen you not parrot the official line. Not once that I can think of, if you can prove me wrong, I’d be happy to apologies.
P.S.
I know you did not watch it – which begs the question why comment. Feeling touchy about not being a socialist? Why do I know, because you missed the second part of the show – irony is a funny thing.
Do you have anything substantive to bring to the discussion or are you just going to wave the ad hominem white flag some more?
Yes, I going to ask, do you read any right wing press?
Of course I do. Mostly it’s dull and irritating and I wonder why I bothered: their rhetoric is so derivative and predictable.
As for videos, however, I prefer to read transcripts: much easier to separate the wheat from the chaff that way.
So the right wing press you read is not propaganda? Nor the corporate media?
Sorry, not playing this “twenty-questions” game. State your purpose. I’ll read it tomorrow.
Simply put, what is your definition of propaganda? And why do you not use a filter or source checking with absolutely everything you read? I do, filter that is – absolutely everything. And I fact check the lot. No point in singling out one source or other as bias, start with premises all are bais, and take out what is good.
Nothing I put up here is truth with a capital T. Not a damn thing. I do have a problem with the hate people have for RT. Which I find silly and just a little sad, filter it, like you should with everything else.
protip: asking two questions is not stating a purpose.
Almost a squib.
A – for effort.
A lot faster as well. Video is goddamn slow.
Video has it’s place, when you are doing other things, and/or have a pile of other reading to do.
It’s why the narrative approach of documentaries can be good, good ones generating a good pace, and keeping you engaged. But they have many of the same issues of bias.
couldn’t be bothered wasting half an hour of my life watching a link from a nutbar. It takes concentration to watch videos, whereas I can keep the telly or music on for reading and writing.
As for my opinions, you’re welcome to criticise them. Just try to use your own words, yes? It’s good for one’s brain.
So I’m a nutbar now. Such a please having that personal attack McFlock. You are such a joy to talk with, well no more.
p.s. if I’m a nutbar why all the blue screen from you, and the response in the first place?
you utter hypocrite. You accompanied your link with an ad hom, and get pissy when people do that to you.
The response was because you had misrepresented the issues with looking at an RT post. I’m intrigued you haven’t yet worked that out.
My first comment was not a ad hom directed at an individual. If you took it as such – sorry for you.
lol nice – it’s somehow less of an ad hom if it’s aimed at a group of people, rather than a specific individual? You’re still a hypocrite.
Funny I always though ad hominem was directed at an individual.
As the Latin was “to the person”
But like everything, please just change the real world to suit you McFlock.
so people in a group aren’t people? Good to know. /sarc
It is still attacking the people in that group – those who chose not to risk wasting their time with your link.
You might want to debate the latin semantics of verb conjugation, but that’s just like pleading that you’re guilty of a massacre but not the murder of a named individual who was killed in that massacre.
Edit: Fair enough Bill.
just saw bill’s order.
Thankyou. Disagree as vehemently as you like, but when it all goes down the toilet of personal vitriol…yeah, ‘ts’ isn’t a message board, aye?
Charming.
Theresa May would fire Britain’s nuclear weapons as a ‘first strike’ if necessary, the Defence Secretary has said.
Michael Fallon said the Prime Minister was prepared to launch Trident in “the most extreme circumstances”, even if Britain itself was not under nuclear attack.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-nuclear-weapons-first-strike-michael-fallon-general-election-jeremy-corbyn-trident-a7698621.html
edit: video
http://crooksandliars.com/2017/04/charles-krauthammer-preemptive-nuclear
joe90
I suspect that the only circumstance where this would happen is if there was a nuclear attack on a NATO member.
Otherwise it is virtually impossible to imagine the circumstances where this would happen (other than the UK being subject to a nuclear attack).
While I was and am convinced that Hillary Clinton was the superior candidate, just looking at Macron’s rise from pretty much political nothing to likely President of France there’s a democratic lesson for me as much as anything:
Much and all as Wikileaks, the CIA, and the Russians all had their effect, Hillary wasn’t the fresh, bold charismatic star that the Democrats needed. I sure ain’t saying Sanders or Corbyn was any of that either. All destined to be wrong, wrong, wrong.
Now I look at Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macon, Alexander Van Der Bellen in Austria and I find people of substance, excellent training and experience, yet not tainted by being part of some stale elite. It’s a good reason Theresa May is surprising the UK: how can someone new yet experienced appear out of the woodwork and be a competent leader?
Answer: appear both fresh and competent, and not spooky-scale radical, and the public will reward you.
Macron is an investment banker cut of the same cloth as the Smiling Assassin.
As for your “answer” Ad, you know as well as anyone that private equity-owned media define who is “spooky” and who is “fresh and capable” these days. Theresa “I’m not going to call a snap election” May is night and day different to Macron. All they share is their pandering to financial elites who reward those leaders whose policies will align with their investors’ interests.
“All they share is their pandering to financial elites” is a fair bit to share.
While May is a Euroskeptic of course, her economic and social politics look pretty similar to both Merkel and Macron.
The centrists, more and more, are looking like the remaining grownups.
Too bad they all support privatisation, deregulation and the paring back of social services.
Nicola Sturgeon is growing in stature all the time by daring to call it as it is.
https://www.thecanary.co/2017/04/24/nicola-sturgeon-just-said-no-one-else-dared-tories-video/
Nicola Sturgeon: The Tory vision should be ringing alarm bells loudly and clearly… Because make no mistake… the hard-liners have taken over the Tory Party. And now, those Tory hard-liners want to take over the country as well… It’s no surprise that UKIP, right now, is losing support to the Tories. Because the Tories are now threatening to take the UK in a direction that, a few years ago, UKIP could only have dreamed about.
It sure looks that way. Thanks for the heads up BG.
Theresa May should probably be glad that the SNP doesn’t campaign south of the border. I suspect that there are some demographics in the younger voters (ie <45 yo) in the urban parts of the south of England would put aside their accents and start speaking with a burr.
http://www.ibtimes.com/kim-dotcom-wants-fbi-director-james-comey-be-questioned-new-zealand-police-2529975
Kim wants NZ police to question FBI head
This has a certain appeal!
well it is a reasonable line to investigate
Did the NZ police know they were breaking the law when they broke it?
Did the FBI know they were breaking NZ law when they broke it?
Putting James Comey on record over this and requireing him to seek answers from further down the food chain could very possibly bring out an answer to these questions.
That isn’t likely to happen . However I suspect it can consume a court hearing. Which means he gets another one. That makes it worth while for him.
The daft thing about this case, which has been dragging on fruitlessly since Jan 2012, is that there simply isn’t a case to answer under NZ law – which is why after 5 years it has shifted from copyright to fraud. It is highly questionable if there is a case to answer under the US laws specified (like ‘racketeering’ – a politicians nonexistent and non-provable offence if I ever heard one). However I guess that keeping DotCom in court has now become and end in itself. He has now has a hell of a civil case against the NZ and US governments.
Surely some senior idiot lawyer (even Findlayson) is eventually going to realise that ratcheting this stupid cockup is just going to make things worse for them in the long term. And it isn’t like the film industry are going to put their hand out to help.
All in all, the DotCom case provides a perfect example about why NZ shouldn’t get involved in the daft cesspit that Americans call law and why we shouldn’t accept anything like the last drafts of the TPPA before Obama got booted.
Comey has fled to hawaii
https://planefinder.net/flight/N616RK/time/2017-04-25T22:25:00%20UTC
You’re off the list, Travis.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/technology/travis-kalanick-pushes-uber-and-himself-to-the-precipice.html
https://techcrunch.com/2006/07/05/use-red-swoosh-to-serve-files-for-free/