Ms Ardern has done more to save the lives of thousands of New Zealanders during the past two years than anyone else. You might think there would be universal thanks and praise for those efforts.
But it’s a sign of the rifts in our society that even such a no-brainer fails to resonate with those who can’t distinguish lies from the truth.
Although not a leftist by identity I agree that editorial is appropriately framed and articulated. The only bone I found to pick at was a philosophical assertion:
Truth is logical, because it is the way things actually are in the real world.
This antique view has been recycled since it achieved hegemony well over a century ago – despite Nobel-prizewinning physicists invalidating it's basis in reality a century ago. Postmodernists extended the relativity of truth view into the social sciences more than 30 years ago. Yet still ignorant opinion-leaders cling onto the myth.
"New Zealand has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic better than most countries in terms of health, fiscal, and economic outcomes," the agency said in a report.
In the context of the manipulated 'magic show' what does it mean?
After the GFC EVERY main ratings agency ,fell back on …'it's just an…opinion'!
The factors identified by the PSI as the primary causes of the GFC are … In the end, over 90% of the AAAratings given to mortgage-backed securities in 2006 and 2007 were downgraded to junk status'
Using liberal-speak, a top US liberal explains how sanctions can be made to seem tough without actually being tough:
On Thursday’s broadcast of “CBS Evening News,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question on whether the United States will cut off purchases of oil and gas from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine by stating that we’re trying to ensure “that we inflict maximum pain on Russia” while at the same time, “minimizing any of the pain to us.”
Host Norah O’Donnell asked, “Russia’s economy’s fueled by gas, and the U.S. is a consumer. So, would the U.S. consider cutting off oil and gas purchases from Russia?”
Blinken responded, “Well, what we’re doing, Norah, across the board, is making sure that we inflict maximum pain on Russia for what President Putin has done, while minimizing any of the pain to us.”
He also stated, “We’re in full coordination with other countries, both consumers and producers alike, to minimize any impact that this may have on energy prices and on gasoline.”
An important part of US foreign policy is to create a semblance of opposing foreign invaders without actually cutting off your trade with them. Liberals know that appeasing domestic consumers is way more important – so if that means also appeasing Putin, Biden & co will do so and hope nobody notices. Hypocrisy is a basic element of geopolitical stagecraft when you're a liberal.
Labour's lunge for total control and insitutionalisation of a second class of citizens (those coerced out of their jobs) has suffered a serious set-back. The High Court has fired a shot across Labour's bow.
In a judgment released on Friday, Justice Cooke concluded "the order does not involve a reasonable limit on the applicants' rights that can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society, and that is unlawful".
"The order… was imposed to ensure continuity of the public services, and to promote public confidence in those services, rather than stop the spread of Covid-19. I am not satisfied that continuity of these services is materially advanced by the order."
Unvaccinated police officers and NZDF staff who faced losing their jobs on March 1 after the Government determined staff needed to be vaccinated challenged the order in the High Court. One-hundred and sixty-four police staff and 115 from the NZDF were affected.
Labour could take the case to the Supreme Court but I bet they don't. Perception of Labour's intent to create a dual-class citizenry structure would snowball. Labour's poll rating would immediately head south.
There is a discussion on Convoy Protest 25/22/22 starting from 8.1 on (earlier comment 7.1.1.2.2) that discusses this limited ruling in greater depth and with knowledge of the implications for the 279 concerned of 31162 employees from Police and Defence….(from Health Act and BORA)
The decision has a specific fact situation in relation to their existing employment terms and conditions and I think it would be hard to envision other workers in NZ having this same fact situation.
I don't think that creating a second class of citizen is the government's intent, though of course that may be an unwanted side effect. One needs to focus on the main purpose before passing judgment.
The ODT editorial is overdue and very warranted. New Zealanders should be extremely grateful they live here and not in some other countries which we all know about.
There are times I am ashamed of the vitriol which gets flung at our PM. She does not deserve that.
I am not defending the repugnant end of Ardern's critics. Vitriol and criticism are hand in hand, or two sides of the same coin, with the adulation and lording she receives.
They only solution they can conceive is to put cyclists on a dedicated lane, despite it being a radically unsafe concept and done nowhere else in the country.
GreaterAuckland sometimes need to actually get behind something and stop the petulant whining.
I used to commute on my bike from the Birkenhead wharf for about 3 years on the old bow loading Blue Boats. Very chill way to start the day; shame the technocrats never tried it.
Incidentally the rain is still falling here in Brisbane and the SEQ Water system is full, and the big Wivenhoe dam on the Brisbane River is now at a nominal 100% full. Despite the control gates being opened last night it has risen 13% since 6am this morning.
Technically I think there is another 10% of headroom left before it starts uncontrolled overflow and with the amount of rain still on the radar its going to be a close run.
If you were in Birkenhead, rather than Brisbane – you could still commute with your bike on the ferry.
There are number limits (because they have a limited amount of space for cycles in the bow – without affecting the safe operations) – but it's rare for anyone to be left waiting. Almost all the cyclists are 'locals' (i.e. live within 5 minutes or so cycling distance); rather than the GA vision of people cycling for 30 minutes to get to the bridge (or ferry, in this case).
There have been a couple of instances of (I think) the Bayswater ferry, not being able to take all the cyclists in one trip. My suspicion is that these were orchestrated by GA – because they seemed to be one-offs for newspaper consumption.
Greater Auckland are totally invested in finding fault with *any* proposal other than a dedicated cycle-only lane.
They are perfectly well aware that *if* one is implemented, it will either work (and remove a large part of their demand base), or fail (and make people think the demand was never there).
The concept of 'perfect being the enemy of good' has no credence in their playbook.
And whinging about cost! I mean, really. They don't pay for cars, or petrol (and petrol tax), or road user charges. But they think they, somehow, qualify for free transport, when bus users don't….
Brisbane is laced with parks, bike lanes and paths.
My daily cycle commute at the moment consists of a 3km ride through deep bushland, 2km past and over a mangrove creek, and to a rail station. Max wait is 15min, then 20 min journey to a station nearer the city – then 10 min along a wide road with a substantial and safe bike path, one major intersection with lights and a ped phase, then another 2 km along a dedicated bike path alongside the Gateway Bridge (very similar to the AHB), then slip off to more parkland under the bridge itself and arrive at work. Total distance would be about 20km and barely 50m of it would I consider unfriendly to cyclists.
There are mornings when I literally ride in a state of astonishment at how fortunate all this is.
A while ago Weka asked if anyone was doing something about the economic and social costs of covid-19. There is a team at Victoria University doing a study on it at the moment. They want to hear from anyone who has had covid-19 – from those who are asymptomatic (why is that?) to those who have been severely effected in any way. The website talking about the study is here: https://covidaotearoa.com/
The writers' only point is that the mandates will end.
The Prime Minister has not set out clear conditions on when that will be.
Or even the conditions in which Cabinet will meet to set out the timetable for that decisions.
Is it: after Omicron peaks? After the next variant? When hospitals are full? When 80% of under-12's are two-shotted? Once she's decided to set a wedding date? When the experts agree? When she's polling into the 20s? When the government has decided the wage subsidy is too high?
There is now an extremely high chance that this government will lose the next election.
Ardern says words like "we're all over it', by really few actions to show it.
"The Prime Minister has not set out clear conditions on when that will be."
Bollocks. She has made it clear that once the peak of this Omicron outbreak has passed and the trend is tracking downwards the mandates will be removed. I suppose you expect her to know exactly when that is going to happen. Well, she is no more clairvoyant than the rest of us, and can't give an actual date but believes "it is not as far away as many people think."
She made this statement on the AM show sometime this week and repeated it this morning on TV3's The Nation. No doubt she has said it elsewhere. You can check it out for yourself.
Why do you make what are essentially false claims. You set yourself up as a strong supporter of the Labour Government and then spend most of your time slagging them off. If this is a game you like to play then grow up.
Second time Kim Hill has interviewed him. She seems to appreciate his insights. Clarifies the political motives & agenda of key forces, very informative.
Listened to it this morning. Really well-informed and credible source, who made it clear that the whole situation is complex – and there are no angels on either side; while also making it crystal clear that Russia is the aggressor, here.
He's also just released a book about the War in the Donbas – bringing together a group of experts. "The War in Ukraine's Donbas : Origins, Contexts, and the Future"
It's ridiculously expensive (small press, from Europe) – but possible that with the flurry of interest, there may be a main-stream pbk. edition released.
I find John Mearsheimer very interesting on the Russia and Ukraine.
According to Wikipedia he ‘ an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He has been described as the most influential realist of his generation.’
I highly recommend people listen to this interview, which was recorded on Tuesday 15th February – before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Mearsheimer is critical towards basic western assumptions with regard to Ukraine.
Thanks for that Ed. Tough call @ 80 mins duration but I like the way he intros it so I'll hang in there. I was scanning the books on the shelves behind him & his young interviewer & they each produced a single stand-out title that impacted. His was Commanche Empire.
Anyway he starts by saying don't blame Putin, this crisis was caused by the west. There are good guys & bad guys, we're the good guys (so the prevalent narrative goes) but
the United States and its allies are responsible for this crisis
Then he explains that by saying since 2008 the west has been trying to make Ukraine part of it and that policy has three dimensions. I know a triad when I hear one, so I know the next bit where he delineates the three parts of the framing is crucial…
3. Color revolution (orange) to turn Ukraine into a liberal democracy.
So at the conclusion of the following April summit the world was told that Georgia & Ukraine "would become part of NATO". He then explained that "Russia had swallowed the two prior NATO expansions" (1999 & 2004) but decided to oppose this third expansion. So in August 2008 Russia went to war against Georgia.
Then 8 years ago (Feb 22 2014) there was a coup in Ukraine: a pro-Russian leader got replaced by a pro-American leader, and "the US was involved in that coup." Expansion strategy apparently successful? Russia then took Crimea back from Ukraine. It couldn't let the US get control of the Sevastopol naval base therein.
The civil war ongoing in eastern Ukraine since that coup became a lever for Putin to use to prevent the US achieving control.
I found his comments about 2008 fascinating. This was when NATO membership was offered to Georgia and Ukraine. It was a turning point in Russian foreign policy as they were never going to accept that.
After 25 mins he went to questions & started to fill in gaps in his narrative with details & nuances. For instance, he explained that France & Germany were adamant that NATO ought not to expand to include Ukraine. He reckons that's due to their awareness that it would threaten Russia too much.
The declaration that it would was due to the USA acting unilaterally in defiance of the two, apparently. I suspect it had UK support though.
He said the UN was useless. Still quite rare for establishment opinion leaders to tell the truth about the UN like that. They want to keep the Security Council veto to retain the sham. They believe sufficient morons of the left & right still exist to make the sham remain viable.
Why did the crisis happen now, after 8 years? He explains that Biden is continuing Trump's policy of arming Ukraine. Obama had not done that.
He says "the Turks gave the Ukrainians drones". No surprise Putin saw this double-whammy as a threat, huh? If Ukraine's army got sufficiently strong to regain control in the east, Putin's lever would evaporate. Deferred entry into NATO then seems feasible.
Britain & America both arming Ukraine, both training their army, treating them as a de-facto ally. He said the Brits sent a destroyer into Russia's maritime zone last June, then the yanks sent a bomber into Russian air-space. Such provocative military adventuring sends a signal. Putin gets angrier.
Meanwhile, this squeeze has tanked the Ukrainian economy. He reckons the solution is for Ukraine to become a neutral state but acknowledges it lacks political feasibility at present.
Around 35 mins he's complaining that US foreign policy remains locked into NATO expansionism. Foolish, he calls that. Because "it's driving Russia into the arms of China".
The best framing for this is incompetent triangulation. Since Biden gets his strategic thinking from advisers who one would expect to have either been members of the CFR, or been briefed by CFR geopolitical analysis & strategic advisory documents, this appears to be grounds for suspecting the CFR haven't learnt how to triangulate yet. Too sophisticated for them?
This interview was done on Feb 15 before the invasion and he explains why he doesn't believe Putin will invade (costs too great). Yet Biden had been predicting the invasion for months – evidence that the CFR got that bit right. He says the unipolar thinking from 2008 no longer applies. "We now live in a multipolar world. There are two other great powers."
This is the Russian space chief, and it appears he is threatening to let the International Space Station crash into US or other countries if sanctions proceed.
For me, this is an illustration of something that is very wrong with our current justice system. If 'all' the probable perpetrators just refuse to comment, the courts can do little, except charge them with perverting the course of justice (with a minimal sentence). The criminals are manipulating the justice system for their benefit.
I'd like to see a radical change. If all of the probable perpetrators are silent, then the courts try the crime (was this man assaulted and beaten to within an inch of his life; can the police prove these people were present) – and then convict and sentence them as a group for the crime. The whole lot can go to jail for GBH.
And, it's not only (or even predominantly) gangs. We see this, time and again, in child assault and murder cases. The family clams up, and prefers the welfare of the criminal adult to the care and protection of the child. The Kahui case is an instance in point.
This news item about good invasive trees – perhaps every time a wilding pine is removed, another suitable tree replaces. Or perhaps the established roots could be left and a less flammable and shade providing type could be grafted? Shame to waste roots if they can be utilised for good. What do you think Robert Guyton?
Anyway this is a bit of farmer good news. Now to get rid of industrial farming in disgusting conditions run from comfortable temperature -controlled electronic management of unhealthy, prophylactic dairy-lactic farm slums.
…He says about 14,000 of the invasive trees have found the sweet spot on his property. "The riverbed freezes and the sunlight never reaches it during the winter so it stays frozen and then as a result, all of these cherry pips germinate."
Cherry trees have been in the area for more than 100 years, Nigel says. "A local character who owned Birch Hill Station brought some specimen trees back and planted them in his garden and the birds just went nuts. So that's how they all got here, they're spread by wild birds."
According to Nigel, it's not only the small, intensely sweet cherries that people are after, it's also the cherry wood.
"It's fantastic for furniture-making, if you're into bodgery*, the green stick style, and for barbeques as smoking wood. It's the best for smoked pork, fish or chicken or whatever," he says.
The Wilson family runs a herd of deer at the farm with 300 breeding hinds and a mixture of Wapiti and Elk stags.
Nigel also runs a timber framing and woodwork business from the former shearing shed. His most recent job was building a Viking drinking hall in Rangiora for a craft-beer fillery.
"'I do that 80 percent of the time and I farm 20 percent of the time when my Dad calls on me…It's a really good mix," he says.
*Bodgery: Bungling, botched work. Probably related to botch. The OED calls bodgery “obsolete,” and gives only one citation for the word, from the playwright Thomas Nashe, who used it in the late 16th century.6/01/2014
I expected to see headlines like "Protestors take Bridge" but the Herald seems to have struggled to bring themselves to say it straight about protestors wanting to walk over the bridge simply doing so. Or protestors wanting to walk over the bridge and authorities being powerless to stop it.
Which begs questions. Like, can I get a group of mates up and go for a walk over the bridge next Saturday? Do we have to be protesting about something? Is the focus of the protest important? Is there a certain number there have to be to bring the 'can't stop them' clause into play? (Almost said 'triggers a response' !)
Is having god on one's side a factor in allowing a walk? Does calling it a 'hikoi' have significance in the exercise being challenged?
How about doing in a Friday morning? We might prefer that day as it fits our schedule better.
Leo Molloy wants Aucklanders to vote for him for Auckland mayor. I would think a self entitled blowhard big mouth is that last thing Auckland needs. One of his campaign ads "Sort this bloody Shambles out". Would have thought he would first practise what he preaches sorting out the shambles outside Parliament which he is part of. Another says he "demands higher standards from Wellington". Obviously not from the protestors outside parliament he is involved in organising. How about first sort out the shambles and demand higher standards of the protest movement you have organised and promoted Leo.
Microwave weapons are not the only ones protestors have to be concerned about these days.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) have confirmed the use of a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD)—often regarded as a sonic weapon—at the massive protest against vaccine mandates in Canberra on Feb. 12, despite the AFP commissioner describing the crowd as “well behaved.”
“ACT Policing has deployed several types of loudspeakers and amplification devices to quickly and effectively convey voice messages to large, and often loud, crowds of people during the recent protest activity in Canberra,” an ACT Policingsperson spoke in a statement to The Epoch Times on Feb. sixteen.
“The [LRADs] were only used to convey spoken-word messages. The ‘alert’ function was not used.”
LRADs, also known as acoustic weapons or sound cannons, are used to project very loud sounds over long distances. While the voice function can be helpful to communicate in loud settings, the device’s most dangerous setting, the alert function, can cause brain damage, permanent hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), dizziness, and disorientation.
The LRADs work by using hundreds of transducers to create a highly concentrated and amplified sound that can be narrowed to focus on specific targeted areas.
Photos and videos circulating on social media show the LRADs positioned at the front of Parliament House facing towards the location of tens of thousands of protesters
"For decades, London has been the most important place not only for Russia’s criminal elite to launder its money, but also for it to stash its wealth. We have been the Kremlin’s bankers, and provided its elite with the financial skills it lacks. Its kleptocracy could not exist without our assistance. The best time to do something about this was 30 years ago – but the second best time is right now."
"The committee heard evidence from senior law enforcement and security officials. It laid out detailed, careful suggestions for what Britain should do to limit the damage Putin has already done to our society. Instead of learning from the report and implementing its proposals, Boris Johnson delayed its publication until after the general election and then, when further delay became impossible, dismissed those who took its sober analysis seriously as “Islingtonian remainers” seeking to delegitimise Brexit."
There is a nice outline of the history of the Uk/Russia banking marriage,which was setup by the brits and russians to circumvent the US monopoly on US$ trades.
That meant that, if you had dollars, you kept them in the United States, where they were subject to the scrutiny of the Federal Reserve. But Soviet officials worried that, if Cold War tensions became more tense, and if their dollars were in New York, the US government might seize them, thus cutting Moscow off from international markets.
The City of London had a problem too, albeit a very different one. Britain was broke, with a huge hangover of debt left from funding its war effort. The capital flows that had sustained financiers’ incomes had shrivelled, and sterling had lost its role as the world’s leading currency. Banks were moribund, and ambitious young Brits preferred to work in academia, industry, or government.
The solution to the two powers’ problems came thanks to two banks: the Moscow Narodny (MNB), which was Soviet-owned but London-based, and the Midland, a scrappy challenger unable to attract the deposits it needed to compete with its more established rivals. MNB lent its dollars to the Midland, which used them to buy pounds, with which it could grow its UK business.
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Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
NZPF called for a slowdown of the curriculum change, asking for one subject at a time, so that teachers and principals could be fully trained and feel confident and competent to implement the changes, New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) President ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Indonesia’s TVOne launched an AI news presenter in 2023.T.J. Thomson Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken off at lightning speed in the past couple of years, creating disruption in ...
Many of the young vapers interviewed by a team of public health researchers said they felt unable to resist the pro-vaping environment that surrounded them. New Zealand’s smokefree law was hailed around the world for creating a smokefree generation that would have lifelong protection from smoking’s harms. The smokefree ...
Analysis: While most Wellingtonians enjoyed a rare but unbeatable sunny day on Saturday, some New Zealand diplomats will have been briefly shocked by a screenshot making the rounds on social media showing US President Donald Trump calling us a “third world country”.The image, it appears, was a fake – certainly a ...
ActionStation Director, Kassie Hartendorp says that the Treaty Principles Bill has galvanised the biggest movement in support of Te Tiriti in modern history. ...
While it is in the interests of Wellington ratepayers to sell off this subsidy for the rich, it is unfortunate that it has come to this point. The council should have never spent a penny on this programme, and the $3.4 million spent is a flagrant abuse ...
A search for the person behind a social media account ridiculing Māori.Last week, while scrolling Facebook, I came across a post shared to the New Zealand Centre for Political Research group. The post began, “From Matua Kahurangi on X”, before pasting his critique of iwi leadership – particularly Ngāpuhi ...
On the heels of The White Lotus season three, Tara Ward travels to Koh Samui, Thailand, to live her best life as a five-star wannabe. I’ve never been one for luxury travel. Despite religiously watching TV shows like Luxury Escapes: World’s Best Holidays and harbouring grand dreams of one day ...
The Treaty Principles Bill submission hearings continue at Parliament today with a range of submitters expected including councils, iwi, community organisations and individuals. ...
It’s become of one of Christchurch’s most famous landmarks online, but why? Alex Casey steps through the portal of the brutalist Timezone. Ask anyone what Christchurch’s most iconic building is and you might expect to hear some of the dusty old classics like the Cathedral, or the Town Hall, or ...
New Zealand’s alignment with the White House is further underscored by its refusal to oppose Trump’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is a serious blow to the soft power of the United States and disastrous for many poor countries ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Hoek, Professor in Public Health, University of Otago Shutterstock/Aliaksandr Barouski New Zealand’s smokefree law was hailed around the world for creating a smokefree generation that would have lifelong protection from smoking’s harms. The smokefree generation would have ended sales of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Disney, Research Fellow, Social Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne Edwin Tan/Getty Images When the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was established in 2013, one of its driving aims was to make disability services and support systems fairer. However, our new ...
The resignation of the director general of health is the latest departure in what Labour is calling a ‘purge’ of health leadership. Another day, another health resignation It’s a dangerous time to be a top health executive. On Friday, Dr Diana Sarfati announced her resignation as director general of health ...
Labour and the Greens say the government should focus spending on tourism infrastructure like tracks, toilets and protection of nature instead of more advertising. ...
Hundreds of people called the former prime minister vile and dehumanising things online. Internet safety agencies did nothing - then called in the lawyers. ...
Hundreds of people called the former prime minister vile and dehumanising things online. Internet safety agencies did nothing - then called in the lawyers. ...
After a morning spent calf marking, Flock Hill Station manager Richard Hill headed up Bridge Hill – about 100km from Christchurch on the way to the West Coast – to check on a fire near the station’s boundary.It was December 5 last year, and the Craigieburn area had experienced three ...
It can’t be much of a surprise that a relatively inexperienced Act MP, handed the workplace relations portfolio, doesn’t want to entertain the country’s biggest union in her office.But it still astonishes the head of that union, the CTU’s president, Richard Wagstaff.After all, he’s met regularly with ministers of all ...
Late 21st century Christchurch will be unrecognisable when compared with Christchurch today.Flooding will prompt retreat from all eastern and many northern suburbs. These areas, together with land near the Heathcote and Avon Rivers, are in a fifty-year flood zone. Fifty-year floods can happen more than once every fifty years; there ...
Is humanising a mountain the path to real transformation, or does it signal the need for a cultural paradigm shift in the operating system? Recently, a family member shared their delight at the news of Taranaki Maunga becoming a legal person.Of course, I was pleased for the eight Taranaki ...
Why New Zealanders donate money and who they give it to – and how tools like Givealittle are changing the giving landscape.Is New Zealand really a generous country? It’s difficult to quantify. Giving to registered charities can be counted through tax returns, but giving to overseas causes, giving money ...
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As the four Findlay siblings run out on the hockey turf, dressed in black with the silver fern, they take the drive and determination of their late mum with them.Emma Findlay is a Black Stick defender, on her way to Chile on Monday to play for the New Zealand women ...
COMMENTARY:By Paul G Buchanan Here is a scenario, but first a broad brush-painted historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With the unembarrassed audacity parties show as an election nears, the government has stolen the opposition’s policy to ban foreign investors buying established homes. Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil have announced ...
The Jewish Council’s proposals are divisive, contrary to New Zealand’s human rights framework, and ignore the rights of other ethnic minorities in Aotearoa. ...
"This is shocking, and astounding," says Augusta Macassey-Pickard, spokesperson for the group. "We knew that this process was rushed, and flawed, but this is another level of compromised." ...
https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/editorial/who-wants-be-pm
Absolutely. Jacinda…you have my admiration. And Vote !
Am coming to the conclusion people don't want to be saved.
Yes I think so too, happy to take the gamble now that God has offered us Omicron.
Although not a leftist by identity I agree that editorial is appropriately framed and articulated. The only bone I found to pick at was a philosophical assertion:
This antique view has been recycled since it achieved hegemony well over a century ago – despite Nobel-prizewinning physicists invalidating it's basis in reality a century ago. Postmodernists extended the relativity of truth view into the social sciences more than 30 years ago. Yet still ignorant opinion-leaders cling onto the myth.
S&P reaffirms AA+ rating.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/462303/s-and-p-global-ratings-reaffirms-new-zealand-s-aa-rating
@ Matiri (2) … some positive news for a change in a very unsettled world
Now let's see what the 7 houses man Luxon and Seymour have to say about this. Better not hold my breath too long.
How wonderful!
In the context of the manipulated 'magic show' what does it mean?
After the GFC EVERY main ratings agency ,fell back on …'it's just an…opinion'!
The factors identified by the PSI as the primary causes of the GFC are … In the end, over 90% of the AAA ratings given to mortgage-backed securities in 2006 and 2007 were downgraded to junk status'
Using liberal-speak, a top US liberal explains how sanctions can be made to seem tough without actually being tough:
An important part of US foreign policy is to create a semblance of opposing foreign invaders without actually cutting off your trade with them. Liberals know that appeasing domestic consumers is way more important – so if that means also appeasing Putin, Biden & co will do so and hope nobody notices. Hypocrisy is a basic element of geopolitical stagecraft when you're a liberal.
Follow the money, it's not about politics. We are screwed.
Labour's lunge for total control and insitutionalisation of a second class of citizens (those coerced out of their jobs) has suffered a serious set-back. The High Court has fired a shot across Labour's bow.
Labour could take the case to the Supreme Court but I bet they don't. Perception of Labour's intent to create a dual-class citizenry structure would snowball. Labour's poll rating would immediately head south.
There is a discussion on Convoy Protest 25/22/22 starting from 8.1 on (earlier comment 7.1.1.2.2) that discusses this limited ruling in greater depth and with knowledge of the implications for the 279 concerned of 31162 employees from Police and Defence….(from Health Act and BORA)
8.1
25 February 2022 at 2:49 pm
The decision has a specific fact situation in relation to their existing employment terms and conditions and I think it would be hard to envision other workers in NZ having this same fact situation.
I don't think that creating a second class of citizen is the government's intent, though of course that may be an unwanted side effect. One needs to focus on the main purpose before passing judgment.
Unless, of course, you are one of the newly minted second class ctizens.
Yet that is exactly what Ms Ardern conceded she has done with the restrictions on unvaccinated people-
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/editors-picks/new-zealand-jacinda-ardern-coronavirus-vaccines-ve5572e26?amp
The ODT editorial is overdue and very warranted. New Zealanders should be extremely grateful they live here and not in some other countries which we all know about.
There are times I am ashamed of the vitriol which gets flung at our PM. She does not deserve that.
I agree about the vitriol being flung at the PM. She doesn't deserve that.
I am not defending the repugnant end of Ardern's critics. Vitriol and criticism are hand in hand, or two sides of the same coin, with the adulation and lording she receives.
@ Reality (5)
The team over at GreaterAuckland are simply never satisfied.
They weren't happy with the original cycleway bridge. So they helped kill that.
Then when NZTA took over the idea they hated that. So they helped kill that.
Now after killing the cycle bridge, an alternative cycling ferry is also disliked. So they will help kill that.
A Ferry Impractical Idea – Greater Auckland
They only solution they can conceive is to put cyclists on a dedicated lane, despite it being a radically unsafe concept and done nowhere else in the country.
GreaterAuckland sometimes need to actually get behind something and stop the petulant whining.
I used to commute on my bike from the Birkenhead wharf for about 3 years on the old bow loading Blue Boats. Very chill way to start the day; shame the technocrats never tried it.
Incidentally the rain is still falling here in Brisbane and the SEQ Water system is full, and the big Wivenhoe dam on the Brisbane River is now at a nominal 100% full. Despite the control gates being opened last night it has risen 13% since 6am this morning.
Technically I think there is another 10% of headroom left before it starts uncontrolled overflow and with the amount of rain still on the radar its going to be a close run.
If you were in Birkenhead, rather than Brisbane – you could still commute with your bike on the ferry.
There are number limits (because they have a limited amount of space for cycles in the bow – without affecting the safe operations) – but it's rare for anyone to be left waiting. Almost all the cyclists are 'locals' (i.e. live within 5 minutes or so cycling distance); rather than the GA vision of people cycling for 30 minutes to get to the bridge (or ferry, in this case).
There have been a couple of instances of (I think) the Bayswater ferry, not being able to take all the cyclists in one trip. My suspicion is that these were orchestrated by GA – because they seemed to be one-offs for newspaper consumption.
Greater Auckland are totally invested in finding fault with *any* proposal other than a dedicated cycle-only lane.
They are perfectly well aware that *if* one is implemented, it will either work (and remove a large part of their demand base), or fail (and make people think the demand was never there).
The concept of 'perfect being the enemy of good' has no credence in their playbook.
And whinging about cost! I mean, really. They don't pay for cars, or petrol (and petrol tax), or road user charges. But they think they, somehow, qualify for free transport, when bus users don't….
Brisbane is laced with parks, bike lanes and paths.
My daily cycle commute at the moment consists of a 3km ride through deep bushland, 2km past and over a mangrove creek, and to a rail station. Max wait is 15min, then 20 min journey to a station nearer the city – then 10 min along a wide road with a substantial and safe bike path, one major intersection with lights and a ped phase, then another 2 km along a dedicated bike path alongside the Gateway Bridge (very similar to the AHB), then slip off to more parkland under the bridge itself and arrive at work. Total distance would be about 20km and barely 50m of it would I consider unfriendly to cyclists.
There are mornings when I literally ride in a state of astonishment at how fortunate all this is.
A while ago Weka asked if anyone was doing something about the economic and social costs of covid-19. There is a team at Victoria University doing a study on it at the moment. They want to hear from anyone who has had covid-19 – from those who are asymptomatic (why is that?) to those who have been severely effected in any way. The website talking about the study is here: https://covidaotearoa.com/
A J Hendy writes:
https://whenlambsaresilent.wordpress.com/2022/02/23/to-my-friends-the-peaceful-protestors-in-convoy22-a-j-hendry/
The writers' only point is that the mandates will end.
The Prime Minister has not set out clear conditions on when that will be.
Or even the conditions in which Cabinet will meet to set out the timetable for that decisions.
Is it: after Omicron peaks? After the next variant? When hospitals are full? When 80% of under-12's are two-shotted? Once she's decided to set a wedding date? When the experts agree? When she's polling into the 20s? When the government has decided the wage subsidy is too high?
There is now an extremely high chance that this government will lose the next election.
Ardern says words like "we're all over it', by really few actions to show it.
What planet are you living in Ad? Labour and the Greens are an odds on coalition after the next election.
Haven't you heard the great blatherer Luxon? Clueless.
The comment about her wedding, which has been delayed twice, says more about your perceptions than reality. Just a needlessly nasty poke.
This kind of rant is a dressed up "Are we there yet?"
She has long since worn out her social license and she's admitted it.
"The Prime Minister has not set out clear conditions on when that will be."
Bollocks. She has made it clear that once the peak of this Omicron outbreak has passed and the trend is tracking downwards the mandates will be removed. I suppose you expect her to know exactly when that is going to happen. Well, she is no more clairvoyant than the rest of us, and can't give an actual date but believes "it is not as far away as many people think."
She made this statement on the AM show sometime this week and repeated it this morning on TV3's The Nation. No doubt she has said it elsewhere. You can check it out for yourself.
Why do you make what are essentially false claims. You set yourself up as a strong supporter of the Labour Government and then spend most of your time slagging them off. If this is a game you like to play then grow up.
This turned out to be an excellent overview of the situation in Ukraine by someone who has done plenty of research: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018832118/prof-david-marples-putin-s-true-motives-for-invading-ukraine
Second time Kim Hill has interviewed him. She seems to appreciate his insights. Clarifies the political motives & agenda of key forces, very informative.
Yes excellent detail in there cheers.
Listened to it this morning. Really well-informed and credible source, who made it clear that the whole situation is complex – and there are no angels on either side; while also making it crystal clear that Russia is the aggressor, here.
He's also just released a book about the War in the Donbas – bringing together a group of experts. "The War in Ukraine's Donbas : Origins, Contexts, and the Future"
It's ridiculously expensive (small press, from Europe) – but possible that with the flurry of interest, there may be a main-stream pbk. edition released.
I've asked my local library to buy a copy 😉
I find John Mearsheimer very interesting on the Russia and Ukraine.
According to Wikipedia he ‘ an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He has been described as the most influential realist of his generation.’
I highly recommend people listen to this interview, which was recorded on Tuesday 15th February – before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Mearsheimer is critical towards basic western assumptions with regard to Ukraine.
Thanks for that Ed. Tough call @ 80 mins duration but I like the way he intros it so I'll hang in there. I was scanning the books on the shelves behind him & his young interviewer & they each produced a single stand-out title that impacted. His was Commanche Empire.
Anyway he starts by saying don't blame Putin, this crisis was caused by the west. There are good guys & bad guys, we're the good guys (so the prevalent narrative goes) but
Then he explains that by saying since 2008 the west has been trying to make Ukraine part of it and that policy has three dimensions. I know a triad when I hear one, so I know the next bit where he delineates the three parts of the framing is crucial…
Okay so the triad makes perfect sense:
1. NATO expansion eastward to include Ukraine.
2. EU ditto.
3. Color revolution (orange) to turn Ukraine into a liberal democracy.
So at the conclusion of the following April summit the world was told that Georgia & Ukraine "would become part of NATO". He then explained that "Russia had swallowed the two prior NATO expansions" (1999 & 2004) but decided to oppose this third expansion. So in August 2008 Russia went to war against Georgia.
Then 8 years ago (Feb 22 2014) there was a coup in Ukraine: a pro-Russian leader got replaced by a pro-American leader, and "the US was involved in that coup." Expansion strategy apparently successful? Russia then took Crimea back from Ukraine. It couldn't let the US get control of the Sevastopol naval base therein.
The civil war ongoing in eastern Ukraine since that coup became a lever for Putin to use to prevent the US achieving control.
I found his comments about 2008 fascinating. This was when NATO membership was offered to Georgia and Ukraine. It was a turning point in Russian foreign policy as they were never going to accept that.
After 25 mins he went to questions & started to fill in gaps in his narrative with details & nuances. For instance, he explained that France & Germany were adamant that NATO ought not to expand to include Ukraine. He reckons that's due to their awareness that it would threaten Russia too much.
The declaration that it would was due to the USA acting unilaterally in defiance of the two, apparently. I suspect it had UK support though.
He said the UN was useless. Still quite rare for establishment opinion leaders to tell the truth about the UN like that. They want to keep the Security Council veto to retain the sham. They believe sufficient morons of the left & right still exist to make the sham remain viable.
Why did the crisis happen now, after 8 years? He explains that Biden is continuing Trump's policy of arming Ukraine. Obama had not done that.
He says "the Turks gave the Ukrainians drones". No surprise Putin saw this double-whammy as a threat, huh? If Ukraine's army got sufficiently strong to regain control in the east, Putin's lever would evaporate. Deferred entry into NATO then seems feasible.
Britain & America both arming Ukraine, both training their army, treating them as a de-facto ally. He said the Brits sent a destroyer into Russia's maritime zone last June, then the yanks sent a bomber into Russian air-space. Such provocative military adventuring sends a signal. Putin gets angrier.
Meanwhile, this squeeze has tanked the Ukrainian economy. He reckons the solution is for Ukraine to become a neutral state but acknowledges it lacks political feasibility at present.
Around 35 mins he's complaining that US foreign policy remains locked into NATO expansionism. Foolish, he calls that. Because "it's driving Russia into the arms of China".
The best framing for this is incompetent triangulation. Since Biden gets his strategic thinking from advisers who one would expect to have either been members of the CFR, or been briefed by CFR geopolitical analysis & strategic advisory documents, this appears to be grounds for suspecting the CFR haven't learnt how to triangulate yet. Too sophisticated for them?
This interview was done on Feb 15 before the invasion and he explains why he doesn't believe Putin will invade (costs too great). Yet Biden had been predicting the invasion for months – evidence that the CFR got that bit right. He says the unipolar thinking from 2008 no longer applies. "We now live in a multipolar world. There are two other great powers."
Is this a creditable threat?
This is the Russian space chief, and it appears he is threatening to let the International Space Station crash into US or other countries if sanctions proceed.
Why has no one made a direct link between the protesters and the unruly tourists? SSDD right?
For me, this is an illustration of something that is very wrong with our current justice system. If 'all' the probable perpetrators just refuse to comment, the courts can do little, except charge them with perverting the course of justice (with a minimal sentence). The criminals are manipulating the justice system for their benefit.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/judge-slams-hells-angels-gang-code-of-silence-after-violent-beating-in-whanganui/7VVRWNAAZZDJPCNVRLWAHCAF2Q/?c_id=1&objectid=12507129&ref=rss
I'd like to see a radical change. If all of the probable perpetrators are silent, then the courts try the crime (was this man assaulted and beaten to within an inch of his life; can the police prove these people were present) – and then convict and sentence them as a group for the crime. The whole lot can go to jail for GBH.
And, it's not only (or even predominantly) gangs. We see this, time and again, in child assault and murder cases. The family clams up, and prefers the welfare of the criminal adult to the care and protection of the child. The Kahui case is an instance in point.
This news item about good invasive trees – perhaps every time a wilding pine is removed, another suitable tree replaces. Or perhaps the established roots could be left and a less flammable and shade providing type could be grafted? Shame to waste roots if they can be utilised for good. What do you think Robert Guyton?
Anyway this is a bit of farmer good news. Now to get rid of industrial farming in disgusting conditions run from comfortable temperature -controlled electronic management of unhealthy, prophylactic dairy-lactic farm slums.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018832031/wild-cherry-trees-give-farmer-the-pip
…He says about 14,000 of the invasive trees have found the sweet spot on his property. "The riverbed freezes and the sunlight never reaches it during the winter so it stays frozen and then as a result, all of these cherry pips germinate."
Cherry trees have been in the area for more than 100 years, Nigel says. "A local character who owned Birch Hill Station brought some specimen trees back and planted them in his garden and the birds just went nuts. So that's how they all got here, they're spread by wild birds."
According to Nigel, it's not only the small, intensely sweet cherries that people are after, it's also the cherry wood.
"It's fantastic for furniture-making, if you're into bodgery*, the green stick style, and for barbeques as smoking wood. It's the best for smoked pork, fish or chicken or whatever," he says.
The Wilson family runs a herd of deer at the farm with 300 breeding hinds and a mixture of Wapiti and Elk stags.
Nigel also runs a timber framing and woodwork business from the former shearing shed. His most recent job was building a Viking drinking hall in Rangiora for a craft-beer fillery.
"'I do that 80 percent of the time and I farm 20 percent of the time when my Dad calls on me…It's a really good mix," he says.
*Bodgery: Bungling, botched work. Probably related to botch. The OED calls bodgery “obsolete,” and gives only one citation for the word, from the playwright Thomas Nashe, who used it in the late 16th century.6/01/2014
Word of the Week: Bodgery – Fritinancy
Gotta be careful with cherry orchards. They can cause depression, I've heard…
Seriously, though, cherry wood is pretty good to work with, I hear. Would love to play with some for my little projects.
I have plum trees, but the problem with plum (as I discovered) is that it seems incredibly prone to splitting radially, which is a bother.
Apricot is beautiful – but a bit splitty.
Banishment from the Financial System: the War on Dissent
Glenn Greenwald
A case study – WikiLeaks.
I expected to see headlines like "Protestors take Bridge" but the Herald seems to have struggled to bring themselves to say it straight about protestors wanting to walk over the bridge simply doing so. Or protestors wanting to walk over the bridge and authorities being powerless to stop it.
Which begs questions. Like, can I get a group of mates up and go for a walk over the bridge next Saturday? Do we have to be protesting about something? Is the focus of the protest important? Is there a certain number there have to be to bring the 'can't stop them' clause into play? (Almost said 'triggers a response' !)
Is having god on one's side a factor in allowing a walk? Does calling it a 'hikoi' have significance in the exercise being challenged?
How about doing in a Friday morning? We might prefer that day as it fits our schedule better.
Hey where's that commenter who used to come on in every morning and talk about ducks?
Gezza and their Pukeko. Haven't seen them for ages.
He was very ill.
Leo Molloy wants Aucklanders to vote for him for Auckland mayor. I would think a self entitled blowhard big mouth is that last thing Auckland needs. One of his campaign ads "Sort this bloody Shambles out". Would have thought he would first practise what he preaches sorting out the shambles outside Parliament which he is part of. Another says he "demands higher standards from Wellington". Obviously not from the protestors outside parliament he is involved in organising. How about first sort out the shambles and demand higher standards of the protest movement you have organised and promoted Leo.
I'd be tempted to move to Auckland to vote against Leo Malloy.
Microwave weapons are not the only ones protestors have to be concerned about these days.
https://worldnationnews.com/australian-police-confirm-use-of-lrad-sonic-weapon-at-protest-against-covid-19-vaccine-mandates/
"For decades, London has been the most important place not only for Russia’s criminal elite to launder its money, but also for it to stash its wealth. We have been the Kremlin’s bankers, and provided its elite with the financial skills it lacks. Its kleptocracy could not exist without our assistance. The best time to do something about this was 30 years ago – but the second best time is right now."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/25/boris-johnson-russian-money-britain-mafia-state-security
"The committee heard evidence from senior law enforcement and security officials. It laid out detailed, careful suggestions for what Britain should do to limit the damage Putin has already done to our society. Instead of learning from the report and implementing its proposals, Boris Johnson delayed its publication until after the general election and then, when further delay became impossible, dismissed those who took its sober analysis seriously as “Islingtonian remainers” seeking to delegitimise Brexit."
No surprises there
Kasparov knows what needs to be done.
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1496846542589902852
Certainly wouldnt do any harm….but there is a distinct lack of will and has been for years
There is a nice outline of the history of the Uk/Russia banking marriage,which was setup by the brits and russians to circumvent the US monopoly on US$ trades.
https://unherd.com/2022/02/how-britain-became-putins-playground/