Good quality info from Chris Martenson on the Coronavirus…time to be alert and aware and start making basic preps (collect any prescription meds you may need, add a bit of extra rice/tuna/long term vege type things/seeds to sprouts to the shopping(. To understand that please watch this video where Chris breaks down what is actually happening.
Most importantly note the 5 day latency period…so those boarder checks for high temperatures are pointless….those who have contracted it are already contagious but will not show any symptoms.
Who is Martenson and why should we trust him? I'm asking because I'm researching for a post on nCoV and seeing a massive amount of information that is imo untrustworthy. Social media at its worst.
Conclusion: The mean estimate of R0 for the 2019-nCoV ranges from 3.30 (95%CI: 2.73-3.96) to 5.47 (95%CI: 4.16-7.10), and significantly larger than 1. Our findings indicate the potential of 2019-nCoV to cause outbreaks.
It has a fat tail,hence as more data and mortality becomes apparent the infection rate increases. This is an increase on the model used yesterday but both are dynamic.The obvious apparent problem would be downplaying of statistics by PRC.
All the world needed right now is for Trump to get extraordinarily lucky.
A major disease outbreak is about as good an extended metaphor as one could wish for to explain the rise of Donald Trump against the Democrats.
The U.S. Constitution is supposed to be the built-in hygiene mechanism that controls the level of filth that rise through democratic contest. The Democrats have faithfully used the United States Constitution to hold this damaging President to account. They assemble all the evidence into a good case, orchestrate the media into a fully focused antiseptic froth, get ready to take a few further points off his popularity and electability …
.. and then there's a massive disease outbreak in China that obliterates the careful media messaging. Donald Trump is given a most massive gift by fate.
He told us China was the enemy. He told us we had to put up barriers against them. He told us that even against China he would Make America Great Again … because this foreign eastern behemoth was a disease to protect us from.
Whether true or not, the Chinese government can be framed up as lying, corrupt, incompetent, and unable to control the infectious idea of Being Chinese. They've got perhaps just the next 24 hours to prove him wrong.
Trump will come out of this not only unbowed and unpunished, but vindicated.
It won't win him the election, but it will underline that he was right all along: globalism and multiculturalism are disease vectors of cultural, ethnic, and economic weakness. They shall not pass.
The effects of this Chinese infection will both blunt and reverse the Democratic effort to hold him to account through Constitutional means. It may even help re-elect him.
It is the biggest piece of luck I've seen in modern political history.
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen-neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations.
Or put in simple terms, countries where there is a high disease and parasite load push the population toward more conservative, closed attitudes. It's an entirely legitimate survival strategy. Disgust sensitivity is tied into this as well. (Interestingly the Nazi's are well understood to have exploited this in their imagery, describing Jews in pathological or parasitic terms.)
But in essence you are right, disease is our ancient enemy and it evokes strong emotions that won't make for rational politics.
Well, somebody has to cut the Gordian knot to end the gridlock. Whether this creates a precedent (i.e. opens the proverbial can of worms) remains to be seen. Future Governments have no real (legal) obligation AFAIK to follow in the footsteps of the current Government.
attacking the messenger – not the story. How typical.
How about trying to discuss the point. Like $45million of taxpayer money going to fletchers – and jacinda opening up the issue of maori claims on private land
If that is your solution, then it shows you are probably unaware of the back history to this land. Including recent promises by Manukau District Council that were supposed to be part of the legacy package to Auckland Council. Also, the use of SHA legislation to bypass any reference to historical or tangata whenua concerns.
What has happened is a foreseeable and rational response to the failures of authorities at both local and national levels to follow procedures set in place to avoid this kind of conflict. (The land has significantly increased in value because of the SHA zoning to residential. A benefit gained solely by the landowner, by a designation change from council and not shared in any way by the community. A failure to implement a capital-uplift tax by Auckland Council.)
Good post Molly. In the current environment of pretty poor reporting it has been lost that the SHAs set up by Nick Smith overrode many concerns about the development of that land.
Particularly dense people who look to Duncan Garner for their opinions will actively ignore the recent and not so recent history of the place if it serves to bash Maori protestors.
The same people are incapable of realising the historical value of such areas, largely because it is not white historical value.
To me, the current government buying the land off Feltchers is the price to pay for the last government’s naked recolonisation of Ihumatao.
I would Have had the protesters moved off the land legally sold to fletchers.
if they didn’t go – arrest them.
That'll work! That'll really work! After all, who remembers Parihaka or Bastion Point these days? Hardly anyone who isn't Māori, right? If only the current government's leadership had James' wisdom and previous governments' disdain for Māori, this could all have been sorted very easily…
Attacking the messenger??? More like a disingenuous message that needs to be dispelled. How about the line that Fletcher's had the taxpayers over a barrel and did what predators do? It would have been more helpful if the history, reasons and motivations behind the Ihumatao resolution had been explored buy someone with investigative and reporting skills. This would have been more appropriate than a political hit-job by a foam-mouthed, self-opinionated lightweight.
I am just glad that we have a government with the ethics and courage to right this wrong. Talk of 'taxpayers money' is very immature – the government is buying back what it stole. Not only did it steal the land it sold it to private interests so the debt is theirs to repay. Fletchers seem to have behaved with integrity and have probably spent a lot negotiating this issue. Add that to the increase in the value of the land over the 4 years that they have owned it and what they are being offered is probably fair.
Personally I think this settlement was a reasonable compromise in this specific case. But the word 'stole' could have a very flexible meaning; there are plenty of people who'd cheerfully stretch it out to cover the whole of NZ.
Not all – some land was sold and some given. This agreement does open up new possibilities for negotiation and having now the possibilities of a 'case by case' scenario is going to make it a lot more complicated but fairer.
If the messenger's an ignorant, racist blowhard peddling misinformation with a poisonous agenda, attacking the messenger sounds entirely reasonable. More to the point would be, how much of a sucker would someone have to be to lend credence to Duncan Garner's messages.
Certainly not, especially while overlooking the fact that his contemplation of this (oh shit, I looked it up again and he actually called it "a nightmarish glimpse into our future") took place in an aussie-owned store with a US brand.
After all, he explicitly said that nothing in his column was intended to be racist. So that's alright, then.
A minority of the Press Council only thought his expressed views had an "unpleasant "dogwhistle" odour" but were not racist in a way that broke the rules, so yes you must be right.
Too many assumptions there, numpty. Actually had a great luncheon with friends. And Jimmy's comment was at 5 pm. Your day on the water started then, did it? Try harder.
[It was just a matter of time before someone would cross the line and resort to stupid insults aimed at James. Like it or leave it, James is free to comment here as long as he adheres to the site’s policy and rules. Please don’t do this (again) or next time you throw insults at him for no direct reason you will be receiving gardening leave – Incognito]
As it turns out, you also have a bit of history here with flaming and insults. Coincidentally, your last ban (last year, 3 days only) was for insulting James!
As I said, like it or leave it, but please stop wasting my time. Thanks in advance.
The one you mentioned which was in fact because of impudence shown towards a moderator (trivialising Weka's authority rather than insulting James), and another by Weka for directly questioning James' sincerity on the case of the man who set himself on fire before parliament.
I guess the price of having a forum that is not an echo chamber is the moderators must protect stirrers in your words, or trolls in mine.
[please correct the error in your user handle; it has happened twice now. Thanks]
You have had more than two bans here and quite a few moderator warnings.
Given your recalcitrant behaviour, I think that is low.
I am calling you out on your insulting behaviour and I am not protecting anybody. Moderators are not bodyguards but more like cleaners who clear up the mess made and left behind by others on this site.
Like it or leave it; this is my final word on this and I kindly suggest taking heed.
Take it up with the SYSOP. Most seem to manage here most of the time but the mistake you made is quite common and often goes unnoticed for a (little) while, which wastes Moderator time.
You have had more than two bans here and quite a few moderator warnings.
Given your recalcitrant behaviour, I think that is low.
I am calling you out on your insulting behaviour and I am not protecting anybody. Moderators are not bodyguards but more like cleaners who clear up the mess made and left behind by others on this site.
Like it or leave it; this is my final word on this and I kindly suggest taking heed.
I think I've had two bans.
So I have a problem with authority. What is a simple activist to do? Lie down and take it, I suppose? Where on earth would that end, George Orwell?
You can either accept my contribution to The Standard, or not. I think I make a decent effort in most of my comments but am called out on a few and that seems to define me according to yourself and Weka.
I'll work hard to conform to your definition of “smart-arse reply” which you seem to accept, and stick to that.
This grovelling approach works for some – I might try it! 😀
Your “grovelling approach works” but only just because it’s a lovely morning and I had a decent sleep last night.
You’ve had more than two bans but this is not important (I can provide the links, with time-stamps for your personal archive or trophy cabinet, but why waste more time on this?).
You have an occasional problem with your attitude and language when you resort to flaming and insulting, which has led to moderation and a few (>2) bans.
You also seem to have a problem with listening, simple explanations, simple instructions, and following clear and simple rules. I’d use a different word for that than “activist” and “recalcitrant” was possibly too mild.
Whether you continue making valuable contributions here or smart arse replies is neither here nor there for me. It’s up to commenters to make this a better site or turn it into sandpit full of petulant smart arses or foul-mouthed morons. The choice is yours; like it or leave it.
It's a WordPress thing I think where a mistake in the username is repeated ad infinitum.
A few months back I had a plugin in FF that screwed with any website that needed a form, even though it did what it was supposed to do (text substitution).
Additionally some browsers on some operating systems can be tempramental.
Newer browsers often have a "safe" mode, where all plugins or add-ons are disabled. Try TS in safe mode, and if it works then some plugin is arguing with your browser.
The initial comment @ 4 was about a potentially imminent breakthrough in the Ihumātao dispute.
I think it is worth noting that many comments in this thread did not discuss the topic at all but were diversions about Duncan Garner being an alleged racist, about James, about the flag referendum and other unrelated and thus irrelevant things.
Inevitably, it ended up with blatant insults with no constructive content whatsoever and almost led to a ban 🙁
Somehow I can't get terribly worked up about that virus outbreak. Its place of origin is one that winks at the sort of unhygenic practices around rearing animals, and selling them or their products, that we outlawed decades ago. They're reaping what they've sown. Yes, there might be a few deaths here to begin with, but we'll contain the spread all right.
Orwell wrote his best-known novel in 1948. Thirty-six years later, That Date actually arrived, but seemingly not its accompanying dystopia. The seeds, however, were already being sown. On by a similar length of time, and we arrive at the present day, where those seeds have germinated and are growing fast.
It's my wild-arsed guess there is a 90% chance this new bug will mutate into something less dangerous fairly quickly. However there is a small but non-zero chance it could go badly pear shaped like the 1918 Spanish Flu.
It's the Chinese Medical authorities, WHO and CDC who will do all the heavy lifting here. If Angola can contain Ebola, there is every chance China will get on top of this.
But in a weeks time we'll know more about this virus, it's incubation time, it's infectivity and it's lethality. In the meantime don't get worked up, but don't ignore basic precautions either.
Hope so. In 1918 we didn't have gene sequencing to identify exactly where it came from, either the Krait or Chinese Cobra apparently,and effective isolation and containment systems and back then it was some months before they even knew there was a problem.
A mate who has visited the sort of food market to the Wuhan one has said the bloody places are unbelievable, they have no place in the 21st century.
here is a list of ecoli break outs in the western world due to lax business rules – i.e. self certifying. Just in case you like your romaine and lettuce and ground beef.
Funnily enough, i have always eaten in food courts in asia when i travel and i never even had as much as a stomach bugling, however friends of mine who insisted in MacDo and the likes often came down with the runs. Go figure.
Funny that. I reckon it sometimes may be just a change in the ecology in the gut, or something similar. About a month ago I spent time both in Japan and Thailand. In Thailand I ate from street vendors, in dirt floor restaurants with no running water, and other meals from questionable sources. Not a problem except for tender tushie from all the chili-laced meals I scarfed.
Japan was great, but I did have one afternoon with a case of runny bum.
The point is that even in ultra-hygeinic locations one can get a tummy rumbler. Although, to be honest getting a case of the Aztec Two-step is more likely in the less developed more free wheeling regions. Sometimes it's just luck.
If I understood the news correctly this morning, the Chinese have warned that the infectious period starts 2 weeks before any symptoms show in the infectious person.
If this is true, I think it is the first time we have struck such a virus, and with two weeks before the infectious person can be detected, we have absolutely no hope of stopping the spread.
But – the second part is better: the virus causes fewer deaths proportionately than SARS did, and as viruses get better at spreading they tend to get milder in effect.
So a pandemic will mean quite a lot of us will recover from an annoying mild pneumonia, but there will not be billions of dead.
But did I hear that news correctly, and is the report true?
Not to mention it got called "Spanish Flu" because the Spaniards were neutral and none of the warring nations wanted to disclose how many of their troops were ill.
So they knew they had a problem, but it was a military secret and then everyone got shipped home around the world…
and then there is the sars research at the wuhan bio research facility.
But worries surround the Chinese lab, too. The SARS virus has escaped from high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting in Damascus, Maryland, says that an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. “Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,” he says.
Yes I've witnessed that extreme authoritarian hierarchy in action in the workplace. It's quite spooky when you first see it, for a few moments I felt I'd been transported to a Nazi concentration camp movie.
Maybe that's why I'm so much less sanguine about the CCP's regime than Ad is.
Some background on Bernie Sanders and what he has achieved in Burlington Vermont.
" One of his main goals was to rein in real estate speculation and gentrification, to keep the tenants in their homes. In 1984, he established the Burlington Community Land Trust, which started buying and renovating rundown rental properties on the Old North End. The model was to rent them at fixed rates or sell them at low prices, while retaining ownership of the land and sharing in any value appreciation. Now called the Champlain Housing Trust, it is the largest such nonprofit in the nation and has 8% of the city’s housing units "
Not afraid too confront the issues in his home town.
"While he brought free public concerts to Battery Park on the bluff, Sanders also went on a campaign to stop noisy late-night college parties, even accompanying police to dress down the revelers "
Wait a minute, we are supposed to give this guy Presidential credibility because a trust he started three decades ago has been doing up a few houses in a town about the same size and global importance as Gisborne?
Donald Trump and his dad were doing that for about the same time and instead of a few hundred houses, have turned it into a world-conquering hotel and resort brand.
Seriously if real estate is touted as the killer move for Sanders, someone needs a strategy refresh.
Now called the Champlain Housing Trust, it is the largest such nonprofit in the nation and has 8% of the city’s housing units "
1. Burlington, Vermont Population 2019. Burlington, Vermont's estimated population is 42,899
2.The ethnic composition of the population of Burlington, VT is composed of 35.1k White Alone residents (82.7%), 2.65k Asian Alone residents (6.25%), 2.32k Black or African American Alone residents (5.47%), 1.21k Hispanic or Latino residents (2.86%), 964 Two or More Races residents (2.27%), 109 American Indian & Alaska
3. The Champlain Housing Trust, founded in 1984, is the largest community land trust in the country. Throughout Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, CHT manages 2,300 apartments, stewards 620 owner-occupied homes in its signature shared-equity program, offers homebuyer education and financial fitness counseling, provides services to five housing cooperatives, and offers affordable energy efficiency and rehab loans. In 2008, CHT won the prestigious United Nations World Habitat Award, recognizing its innovative, sustainable programs.
While a nice thing for the residence of the City of Burlington Vermont, its a sad indictment of the state of USA's housing policies.
At some point we're going to have to clear away this film-flam of the always-never-made-its and get to the main guy: What will Joe Biden Do as President?
it shows that a tiny wee little town has the largest housing charity.
that is the sadness about it all.
I don't know what Jo biden will do as president. Kidnap babies at the frontiers and then loose them in the system to god knows whom? Install a global gag rule on abortion, birth controll, and such to please forced birther crowd? Remove any and all regulations on the environment to drill baby drill and mine mine mine? Play golf every third day on the tax payers dime? Start world war three?
Honestly i have no fucking idea what Jo Biden would do, nor do i care.
But if this is an example of Bernie Sanders will do, then he will have put his name to a charity that has 2300 apartments under its umbrella and it stewards som 630 occupied owner houses, in a town of 43.000 people. And the sad thing about this charity is that it is the "Largest Charity of its kind in the US of A'. Go figure.
Meanwhile Here is what one editor of The Nation has to say on Elizabeth Warren:
Her opposition to Wall Street’s endless predations has also been consistent, courageous, and persuasive—and tied directly to her recognition that 40 years of growing income and wealth inequality won’t be reversed without the reregulation of finance. She has taken on not just bankers but also fellow Democrats, including Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, and, by implication, President Obama himself when he prioritized saving too-big-to-fail banks rather than stopping foreclosures on the homes of 10 million families. She played public and behind-the-scenes roles in crafting the still-unused powers of the Dodd-Frank Act to tame Wall Street and in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Washington’s first new (and under the Democrats, demonstrably effective) regulator since the New Deal.
In her skill and dedication campaigning for other candidates; in doggedly shepherding tough, controversial bills through Congress; and in constructing a significant federal agency from scratch, Warren has demonstrated her ability to both win elections and govern.
“This poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Jan. 20–23 among a random national sample of 1,004 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points”:
Seems to depend how they ask the question: "The Suffolk poll showed nearly a quarter of Democratic primary voters, 24 percent, are undecided. But the WBUR survey, which included so-called “leaners” — voters who initially say they are undecided but, when asked, say they are leaning toward one candidate — pegged the “undecided” number at just 5 percent." https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/23/sanders-polls-2020-103084
Definite age variation happening, and it's big: "Age has become one of the defining cleavages of the 2020 Democratic race. In the CNN/SSRS national poll — in which Sanders has a slim, 3-point lead over Biden overall — Sanders is the top choice of 39 percent of Democrats under the age of 45. That’s 21 points ahead of the next closest Democrat, Warren,another septuagenarian who appeals to younger voters."
"On the other side of the ledger, Sanders is the first choice of only 16 percent of Democrats 45 and older. His strength halves again, to 8 percent, among those 65 and older. Biden, meanwhile, wins 33 percent of 45-and-older Democrats, and 37 percent of the 65-plus set."
Those with a memory of how socialism operated tend to be biased against it. Those who like the aspirations in the mix tend to go for it…
Five-percent (5%) Biden supporters say they will not vote for someone else as the Democratic nominee, while 9% say it would depend on who the nominee is.
Among Sanders supporters, 16% will not vote for the nominee if Sanders doesn’t win, while 30% say it depends on the nominee.
No Warren supporters say they will definitely not vote for the nominee if she does not win the nomination, but 10% say it will depend on who the nominee is.
Forty-two percent (42%) of Yang supporters say they will not vote for anyone else as the Democratic nominee, while 9% say it depends on the nominee.
oh well. Its gonna be a shit show anyways. Why not start flinging it early?
Seems to be a link between perceptions a candidate is (or has been) discriminated against in the primary and support for an unknown candidate put forward by the democrats.
If these polls are indicative of couse than the rational choice is Bernie due to his supporters relative obstinance. Though I doubt US centrist pundits can draw the obvious conclusion.
19% of Bernie supporters stating that they will NOT support the democratic nominee is ……….(insert what ever suits you).
vs, no one from the warren supporters saying that they will NOT support the democratic nominee should she not get the tick.
should be real easy for bernie to pick up warren supporters should he get the tick, but should it not be bernie we can expect 19% of his supporters to vote for the incumbent or humpty dumpty.
Its gonna be a delightful shitshow just like the last time around. And we all know who won. So yeah, they better give it to bernie or else…..:)
It's revolting how some people treat animals. National MP barbara kuriger should be ashamed of her husband and her son. If she did nothing to prevent them from treating animals so cruelly, she should also be ashamed of herself. And to think she is their spokesperson for Rural Communities. Taranaki-King Country deserves better.
May the full arm of the law come down on them.
In total, 74 cows were treated for lameness and 25 were euthanised.
Infections in some cows were so severe they had spread to the joints, causing chronic septic arthritis.
Gibson estimated the cows were lame for up to two months before receiving treatment, but others could have been injured longer.
Veterinarians handed the Kurigers a plan to stop the injured cows from being milked. But, despite their injuries, many were still forced to endure the arduous walk to the dairy shed to be milked each day.
“They were supposed to be in the paddock where… grass is softer. All this is unnecessary pain the animal has to go through.”
According to court documents, when approached by officials, Tony Kuriger declined to be interviewed. Louis did not respond to requests for comment.
treating these cows would cut into the profit. And yes, she is the spokes person for 'rural communities' and it says a lot about The NoMates Party that would nominate someone like her to be a spokesperson for rural communities.
Hope the rural communties will wake up and tell her to get a job elsewhere.
I recall one of his amusing anecdotes from his early journalistic days. He was approached by the SIS who "wanted to talk to him". Curious to know what they wanted to talk to him about, he agreed to meet them. He was told to go to a Wellington hotel and knock on the door of Room 60. (I've forgotten the number so 60 will do.) He found Room 60 and knocked on the door. No reply. He was about to leave when a voice from behind said "come in". He swung around and a man was standing in the open door of the room on the opposite side.
I wondered how he managed to open the door and check it was McLaughlan without making a sound. Maybe there was a secret peep-hole in the door that only the SIS knew about. 👿 Whatever, McLauchlan wouldn't do what they wanted him to do.
Well, artifacts are constantly left and repeated in the username section which is, for some reason, not independent from the comments section.
Because I wanted the site to be as open as possible and because I didn't want to spend time endlessly fixing logins or dealing with robots, I disabled them back in about 2009. Instead I put in a system to allow anyone to leave comments and maintained the logins for authors, moderators and the lucky few who already had them.
However that meant that with every comment, the non-login author had to put put in their details on each comment – which slowed the commenting process. So I used cookies. Once you leave a comment on a particular browser on a particular system, I told your browser to remember those details on your client machine login, and to fill in the fields for you on that browser and machine whenever a comment was presented to fill in.
Works well until the details get mucked up at the client side. Typically when pasting into the wrong field, which causes the mistake to reproduced.
The issue seems to be that, of late, occasionally when I am merrily typing away in the comment box the cursor will flip to the name box without warning. I continue to type until I need to look at the screen again and find no words added to the comment box, but they have been added to the name box which I didn't think to check.
I then re-type what got 'lost' in the comment box and hit 'Submit Comment'. The comment then goes out with extra words added to my username in the name box.
Is it one of those laptops with a touchpad below the keyboard? I always switch that off if I have a corded mouse – my hands hovering over the touch pad sometimes tap it and send the cursor funny places.
ALTHOUGH:
a good trick in a shared office is to put a cordless mouse usb in the back of a colleagues machine. Then as they're typing away just randomly point and click from your desk. drives 'em crazy if you do it subtly enough 😉
McFlock is probably right. Mousepads are a nuisance when you're typing. Mine is turned off whenever I have a external keyboard/mouse talking to it. Which is most of the time.
I usually do have a wireless K750 keyboard + a MX Anywhere in my pack or where I work. I have 3 of them – work, home, and pack. Solar powered keyboards are *thin* – sneak in the pack very nicely.
Try the right side of the mouse pad. That is usually where they have the scroller option turned on. The option is often set to move fields when you use it vertically.
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The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing that unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%. There are now 99,000 people unemployed - 24,000 fewer than when Labour took office. So, I guess the Reserve Bank's plan to throw people out of work to stop wage rises "inflation", and ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular reforms in water and DHB centralisation ...
Completed reads for January Lilith, by George MacDonald The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, by Anonymous The Lay of Kraka (poem), by Anonymous 1066 and All That, by W.C. Sellar and R.J. ...
Pity the poor Brits. They just can’t catch a break. After years of reporting of lying Boris Johnson, a change to a less colourful PM in Rishi Sunak has resulted in a smooth media pivot to an end-of-empire narrative. The New York Times, no less, amplifies suggestions that Blighty ...
On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth.Genesis 6:11-12THE TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS that dumped a record-breaking amount of rain on Auckland this anniversary weekend will reoccur with ever-increasing frequency. The planet’s atmosphere is ...
Buzz from the Beehive There has been plenty to keep the relevant Ministers busy in flood-stricken Auckland over the past day or two. But New Zealand, last time we looked, extends north of Auckland into Northland and south of the Bombay Hills all the way to the bottom of the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters When early settlers came to the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers before the California Gold Rush, Indigenous people warned them that the Sacramento Valley could become an inland sea when great winter rains came. The storytellers described water filling the ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins ...
Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins has changed everything, and Labour is back ...
Over the last few years, it’s seemed like city after city around the world has become subject to extreme flooding events that have been made worse by impacts from climate change. We’ve highlighted many of them in our Weekly Roundup series. Sadly, over the last few days it’s been Auckland’s ...
A ‘small target’ strategy is not going to cut it anymore if National want to win the upcoming election. The game has changed and the game plan needs to change as well. Jacinda Ardern’s abrupt departure from the 9th floor has the potential to derail what looked to be an ...
When Grant Robertson talks about how the economy might change post-covid, one of the things he talks about is what he calls an unsung but interesting white paper on science. “It’s really important,” he says. The Minister in charge of the White Paper — Te Ara Paerangi, Future Pathways ...
The news media were at one ceremony by the looks of things. The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and his deputy were at another. The news media were at a swearing-in ceremony. The country’s leaders were at an appointment ceremony. The New Zealand Gazette record of what transpired says: Appointment of ...
I n some alternative universe, Auckland mayor Efeso Collins readily grasped the scale of Friday’s deluge, and quickly made the emergency declaration that enabled central government to immediately throw its resources behind the rescue and remediation effort. As Friday evening became night, Mayor Collins seemed to be everywhere: talking with ...
They called it an “atmospheric river”, the weather bombardment which hit NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a terrible toll on metropolitan Auckland and the rest of the region. Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was ...
I know, that is a pretty corny title but given the circumstances here in the Auckland region, I just had to say it. The more oblique reference embedded in the title is to the leadership failures exhibited by Mayor Wayne Brown and his so-called leadership team when confronted by the ...
How much confidence should the public have in authorities managing natural disasters? Not much, judging by the farcical way in which the civil defence emergence in Auckland has played out. The way authorities dealt with Auckland’s extreme weather on Friday illustrated how hit-and-miss our civil defence emergency system is. In ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The recent leadership change in the governing Labour party resulted in a very strange response from National’s (current) leader, Christopher Luxon. Mr Luxon berated Labour for it’s change of leader, citing no actual change.As ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 22, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 28, 2023. Story of the Week New Study Reveals Arctic Ice, Tracked Both Above and Below, Is Freezing LaterClimate change is affecting the timing of both ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It was another ‘SHOCK! HORROR!’ headline from a media increasingly venturing into tabloid-style journalism:Andrea Vance’s article seemed to focus on the "million dollar sums from the Government as the country grapples with a housing ...
Dr Brian Easton writes: It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some ...
What Was the Prime Minister Reading in the Runup to Election Year?It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. ...
In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
Airstrikes ordered against civilian targets, destruction of thousands of buildings, millions displaced, nearly 3000 civilians murdered, more than 13,000 jailed, the country’s independent media banished, and the country locked in a deadly nationwide civil war. Myanmar civilians now ask what else must happen before they receive international support in line ...
By Nick Young of Greenpeace My family and I are lucky to have come through it unscathed, but my neighbourhood in Titirangi has been ravaged. Many people here and around the wider region have lost their homes altogether. I’ve seen people’s belongings out on the streets in piles ruined beyond ...
By Jonty Dine, RNZ News reporter While Auckland residents enjoy a brief reprieve from the rain, the rubbish continues to pile up as the full cost of the New Zealand flash floods continues to be counted. Some streets in Auckland are littered with items damaged and discarded from Friday’s freak ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Former Fijian Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was paid $224,792 in bonuses during his term at FBC which began in 2008, the new board chair has claimed. He was due for a $30,000 bonus this year. FBC chair Ajai Bhai Amrit also revealed Sayed-Khaiyum, ...
In additon to the MetService severe thunderstorm warning issued earlier this afternoon for Auckland, Coromandel and the Waikato, the MetService has issued a further update saying it is “ideal thunderstorm weather” in Auckland. Auckland is experiencing very high humidity and MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths says “Today and tomorrow brings us ...
The Green Party co-leader joins Grant Robertson and Nicola Willis in opting not to contest the seat.Just six days after five-term Wellington Central MP and finance minister Grant Robertson announced he would not be contesting the Wellington Central seat and would go list-only at this year’s election, James Shaw ...
The decision turns Wellington into a 2023 battleground, with three brand new faces set to contest the electorate - and Shaw has already thrown his support behind Tamatha Paul. ...
The Wellington Central electorate is set to be a wide-open race, with Greens co-leader James Shaw joining Labour incumbent Grant Robertson in opting against a run for the seat later this year Green Party co-leader James Shaw will not run for the Wellington Central seat at this year’s election, instead ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zahid Shahab Ahmed, Senior research fellow, Deakin University Muhammad Sajjad/AP Earlier this week, a suicide blast ruptured the relative calm that had returned to Pakistan in recent years. The attack at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed ...
Between midnight February 3 and 8pm on February 10, rare photographs of New Zealand writers will be up for auction on the Fairfax Archives website. Books editor Claire Mabey explains.So, what is this auction?As of midnight on February 3 you can bid on pieces of literary history. The ...
The sun might be out, but Aucklanders are being warned another deluge could hit the city as soon as tonight. The city has been in a state of emergency since late Friday evening which is not due to expire until later this week. But while the weather has improved dramatically ...
When the streets flood, contaminated water gets everywhere – including into your clothes and shoes. Here’s why that matters and what to do next. Bernard Hickey, journalist and host of podcast When the Facts Change was “rubbernecking” around Auckland on Friday night. There were puddles everywhere. “They certainly didn’t look ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Nordberg, Senior Lecturer (Applied Ecology and Landscape Management), University of New England Shutterstock Australia’s renewable energy transition has prompted the construction of dozens of large-scale solar farms. The boom helps reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels, but requires large ...
It has, to put it mildly, been a wet one. After record rainfall caused major flooding events and stormwater issues, Auckland is in crisis. Roads, suburbs, parks and homes have been overwhelmed with floodwater, much of which is “blackwater,” meaning it contains faecal matter and other sewage contaminants. So here’s ...
The government has unlocked an additional $700,000 in flood relief for regions most badly hit by recent bad weather. That includes Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland and the Bay of Plenty, with most of the money going toward providing unskilled and semi-skilled jobs for local people who can support the clean-up ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Helps, Research fellow, Monash University Shutterstock Identifying perpetrators of domestic and family violence is critical to ending violence against women. Practitioners across different sectors, including mental health, alcohol and drug services, have a vital opportunity to “screen” clients to ...
Age Concern New Zealand would like to extend a warm welcome to new Minister for Seniors, Ginny Andersen, who takes up the Seniors portfolio from the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall. Karen Billings-Jensen, Chief Executive Age Concern New Zealand, says “We ...
Continuing fuel subsidies despite official and expert advice urging otherwise is focused on helping New Zealanders in the here and now, the finance minister says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University As we enter the fourth year of living with COVID, we are all asking the predictable question: when will the pandemic be over? To answer this question, it’s worth reminding ourselves that a pandemic involves ...
The twitter account for the mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, has posted and deleted an image showing the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, pointing at Brown, who stares back in a tableau that at first glance appears combative. The tweet, which came with a caption describing a meeting between the two ...
The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand later this month, taking in the sights of Palmerston North. Prime minister Chris Hipkins announced the royal will attend the 100th anniversary celebrations for the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief. These ...
PM Anthony Albanese has announced changes to help protect New Zealand-born residents of Australia from deportation, following years of outcry about the toll on so-called ‘501s’. Don Rowe looks at why the policy is so widely reviled. A major shift in Australian immigration policy means the government will now consider ...
King Charles has sent a message to New Zealand following the floods that hit the top of the North Island over the past few days. In a letter shared via the governor general, the monarch said he had been following the news with the “deepest concern” and wanted to pass ...
Dunedin – Following news that the Scottish city of Edinburgh has become Europe’s first capital to sign the Plant Based Treaty, animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent a letter to the mayor of Edinburgh’s ...
New figures reveal just how much living costs increased for households in 2022. Last year was dominated politically by the cost of living crisis, which has carried over into 2023 with inflation sky high and a looming recession on the horizon. According to Stats NZ, the cost of living for ...
Ramari Jackson-Paniora is the daughter of one of the main faces of the 1972 Māori Language Petition – but her relationship with te reo Māori is more complicated than people may assume.My whānau’s journey with reo Māori is typical of many Māori whānau across Aotearoa. Looking at my parents’ ...
After Monday night, the accepted narrative around rugby, sexuality and masculinity will never be quite the same, writes Sam Brooks. If you tuned into Seven Sharp on Monday night, you probably did so unaware that you were about to watch a history-making interview. After a wholesome segment with two ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has apologised for his “drongo” comment about journalists, but defended his decision to stop other councillors speaking out on the night of the devastating floods. In an interview with Newshub’s AM this morning, Brown admitted he shouldn’t have called the media drongos, adding that he will ...
Buller Electricity (BEL), the community owned lines network company that supplies the majority of electricity consumers in the Buller district on the South Island’s West Coast, has lodged a formal legal challenge opposing a 427% price increase in ...
Chris Hipkins says Aotearoa has "some tough calls to make as a country" regarding the future of communities in places vulnerable to extreme weather events. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pii-Tuulia Nikula, Principal Academic, Eastern Institute of Technology GettyImages An increasing number of businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand are changing how they operate to reduce their overall climate impact. These measures, which include reducing carbon emissions, are largely voluntary outside of ...
Increasing prices continued to affect all household groups in the 12 months to December 2022, Stats NZ said today. The cost of living for the average household (as measured by the household living-costs price indexes) increased by 8.2 percent in the 12 months ...
“The recent flooding in Auckland, Northland and the Bay of Plenty has caused chaos and has put people, homes and businesses at risk. It has also decimated huge crops of fruit and vegetables at a time when we are already paying significantly more than ...
The devastating deluge has highlighted the need for urgent climate action – but how likely is that under our current mayor?As a proud, unashamed JAFA, the recent floods literally hit home. Sirens blared nonstop all night Friday and all morning Saturday as a mighty torrent raged outside my window. ...
ANZ has said it will drop home loan interest rates by up to 55 basis points. It comes after yesterday’s employment data was released which showed that unemployment rose to 3.4% in the December, and pay did not rise as much as some economists had expected. Bank economists now expect the official cash rate ...
It’s a popular policy – and we are in an election year after all – but the government’s decision to extend the fuel tax cuts until the end of June has provoked a fair amount of criticism since being announced. Greenpeace told Today FM that while the government had good ...
Likely it be most expensive non-earthquake disaster in New Zealand, a picture is beginning to form about the long term implications of the flooding that will impact the entire country, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Birger Rasmussen, Adjunct Professor, The University of Western Australia Saul Shepstein, Author provided The Pilbara region of Western Australia is home to one of the most ancient surviving pieces of Earth’s crust, which has been geologically unchanged since its creation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Dickie, PhD Candidate in Public Health Nutrition, Deakin University Shutterstock For years, the term “junk food” has been used to refer to foods considered bad for you, and not very nutritious. But junk can mean different things to different ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Daniel, Tutor / Lecturer in Film and Media Studies, Western Sydney University Columbia Pictures “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” ...
Empathetic leadership is not some magical superpower – it’s a necessary skill in a time of crisis.It’s more ironic than rain on your wedding day that we’re having to contemplate the qualities of good leadership two weeks after the formal resignation of Jacinda Ardern. In assessments of the former ...
An international human rights group has called on NZ to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14. Don Rowe explains what’s going on.What’s all this then? The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has criticised the New Zealand government for failing to raise ...
Books editor Claire Mabey and poetry consultant Louise Wallace analyse this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards long (really quite long) list.Here are the books longlisted for the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards (for books published between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2022). We’ve listed them all ...
Ockham longlist announced Once again the dear old Ockhams are the shockhams. The longlist of the 2023 Ockham New Zealand national book awards was announced this morning and much of it is quite crazy, which is to say adventurous and unusual, as well as showing a commitment to deeply boring ...
Wayne Brown's repeated defences of the radio silence from council offices on Friday night miss the point that communications is a fundamental part of an emergency response. ...
Lisa Cross' life has had many twists and turns in her almost 40 years. Now the mum of two says she's never felt better running at the world cross country champs for the first time. When Lisa Cross was an apprentice jockey, she became attuned to the puffs and blows of the ...
The humble egg is in short supply - The Detail looks at the reasons why it's so hard to get your hands on a carton Online auctions for chickens have attracted double the usual number of clicks in recent weeks, amid a nationwide egg shortage. Supermarket shelves have been empty and ...
'Where once the Karepiro chenier hosted dotterel and oystercatcher nests there could soon be sandcastles, and how many cats?' Pat Baskett looks at our ongoing contribution to the Sixth Extinction. It’s tempting to describe this breeding season of the tūturiwhatu (NZ dotterel) at Karepiro Bay on Auckland’s North Shore as a ...
We need to reduce our energy consumption and embrace 'degrowth’, in which we redesign the economy to put human and environmental wellbeing at its centreOpinion: In years gone by, you may have heard the words ‘peak oil’, often intoned with a sense of foreboding, warning us that before long oil ...
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Good quality info from Chris Martenson on the Coronavirus…time to be alert and aware and start making basic preps (collect any prescription meds you may need, add a bit of extra rice/tuna/long term vege type things/seeds to sprouts to the shopping(. To understand that please watch this video where Chris breaks down what is actually happening.
Most importantly note the 5 day latency period…so those boarder checks for high temperatures are pointless….those who have contracted it are already contagious but will not show any symptoms.
Who is Martenson and why should we trust him? I'm asking because I'm researching for a post on nCoV and seeing a massive amount of information that is imo untrustworthy. Social media at its worst.
Conclusion: The mean estimate of R0 for the 2019-nCoV ranges from 3.30 (95%CI: 2.73-3.96) to 5.47 (95%CI: 4.16-7.10), and significantly larger than 1. Our findings indicate the potential of 2019-nCoV to cause outbreaks.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.23.916395v1
In simplistic words it has an infection rate 4-5x that of influenza.
How does that compare to your eyes with the scientific source reported in media yesterday (did not catch name) downgrading R0 to 2.5?
Trawling through this:
https://twitter.com/search?q=2019-nCov%20R0&src=typeahead_click
It has a fat tail,hence as more data and mortality becomes apparent the infection rate increases. This is an increase on the model used yesterday but both are dynamic.The obvious apparent problem would be downplaying of statistics by PRC.
Mortality rate seems untrustworthy, for sure.
Ah, here's what I saw:
https://twitter.com/JonRead15/status/1220749549318430721
Here is a paper on the risks associated with fat tails (on cv) and how standard decision making needs a little paranoia.
https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1221486205847646208/photo/1
Thank you.
All the world needed right now is for Trump to get extraordinarily lucky.
A major disease outbreak is about as good an extended metaphor as one could wish for to explain the rise of Donald Trump against the Democrats.
The U.S. Constitution is supposed to be the built-in hygiene mechanism that controls the level of filth that rise through democratic contest. The Democrats have faithfully used the United States Constitution to hold this damaging President to account. They assemble all the evidence into a good case, orchestrate the media into a fully focused antiseptic froth, get ready to take a few further points off his popularity and electability …
.. and then there's a massive disease outbreak in China that obliterates the careful media messaging. Donald Trump is given a most massive gift by fate.
He told us China was the enemy. He told us we had to put up barriers against them. He told us that even against China he would Make America Great Again … because this foreign eastern behemoth was a disease to protect us from.
Whether true or not, the Chinese government can be framed up as lying, corrupt, incompetent, and unable to control the infectious idea of Being Chinese. They've got perhaps just the next 24 hours to prove him wrong.
Trump will come out of this not only unbowed and unpunished, but vindicated.
It won't win him the election, but it will underline that he was right all along: globalism and multiculturalism are disease vectors of cultural, ethnic, and economic weakness. They shall not pass.
The effects of this Chinese infection will both blunt and reverse the Democratic effort to hold him to account through Constitutional means. It may even help re-elect him.
It is the biggest piece of luck I've seen in modern political history.
@ Ad
More work along the same theme from PNAS:
Or put in simple terms, countries where there is a high disease and parasite load push the population toward more conservative, closed attitudes. It's an entirely legitimate survival strategy. Disgust sensitivity is tied into this as well. (Interestingly the Nazi's are well understood to have exploited this in their imagery, describing Jews in pathological or parasitic terms.)
But in essence you are right, disease is our ancient enemy and it evokes strong emotions that won't make for rational politics.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/01/duncan-garner-ihumatao-deal-to-be-struck-this-week-sources.html
if this is the ihumatao deal – labour will pay for it in the polls.
Jacinda is opened a Pandora’s box with taxpayers money on this one.
Well, somebody has to cut the Gordian knot to end the gridlock. Whether this creates a precedent (i.e. opens the proverbial can of worms) remains to be seen. Future Governments have no real (legal) obligation AFAIK to follow in the footsteps of the current Government.
If they can get it past Winston it will make for an impressive Waitangi Day speech.
I wonder if Duncan ever takes a break to clear the foam from around his mouth.
attacking the messenger – not the story. How typical.
How about trying to discuss the point. Like $45million of taxpayer money going to fletchers – and jacinda opening up the issue of maori claims on private land
OK James. How would you resolve this particular issue bearing in mind the factors peculiar to this case?
I would Have had the protesters moved off the land legally sold to fletchers.
if they didn’t go – arrest them.
🙄
yeah that sounds like it would solve a lot.
Would win all those votes from the right! Hang on, they'll vote Nat won't they?
Yep! And piss off all those who actually wanted a fair settlement. But James and his mates would be happy – so that's alright then.
If that is your solution, then it shows you are probably unaware of the back history to this land. Including recent promises by Manukau District Council that were supposed to be part of the legacy package to Auckland Council. Also, the use of SHA legislation to bypass any reference to historical or tangata whenua concerns.
What has happened is a foreseeable and rational response to the failures of authorities at both local and national levels to follow procedures set in place to avoid this kind of conflict. (The land has significantly increased in value because of the SHA zoning to residential. A benefit gained solely by the landowner, by a designation change from council and not shared in any way by the community. A failure to implement a capital-uplift tax by Auckland Council.)
Good post Molly. In the current environment of pretty poor reporting it has been lost that the SHAs set up by Nick Smith overrode many concerns about the development of that land.
Particularly dense people who look to Duncan Garner for their opinions will actively ignore the recent and not so recent history of the place if it serves to bash Maori protestors.
The same people are incapable of realising the historical value of such areas, largely because it is not white historical value.
To me, the current government buying the land off Feltchers is the price to pay for the last government’s naked recolonisation of Ihumatao.
I would Have had the protesters moved off the land legally sold to fletchers.
if they didn’t go – arrest them.
That'll work! That'll really work! After all, who remembers Parihaka or Bastion Point these days? Hardly anyone who isn't Māori, right? If only the current government's leadership had James' wisdom and previous governments' disdain for Māori, this could all have been sorted very easily…
Attacking the messenger??? More like a disingenuous message that needs to be dispelled. How about the line that Fletcher's had the taxpayers over a barrel and did what predators do? It would have been more helpful if the history, reasons and motivations behind the Ihumatao resolution had been explored buy someone with investigative and reporting skills. This would have been more appropriate than a political hit-job by a foam-mouthed, self-opinionated lightweight.
I am just glad that we have a government with the ethics and courage to right this wrong. Talk of 'taxpayers money' is very immature – the government is buying back what it stole. Not only did it steal the land it sold it to private interests so the debt is theirs to repay. Fletchers seem to have behaved with integrity and have probably spent a lot negotiating this issue. Add that to the increase in the value of the land over the 4 years that they have owned it and what they are being offered is probably fair.
Personally I think this settlement was a reasonable compromise in this specific case. But the word 'stole' could have a very flexible meaning; there are plenty of people who'd cheerfully stretch it out to cover the whole of NZ.
Not all – some land was sold and some given. This agreement does open up new possibilities for negotiation and having now the possibilities of a 'case by case' scenario is going to make it a lot more complicated but fairer.
We wasted $30 million on a referendum only one person wanted.
I think this is good value for money.
That can easily be disproven.
The referendum or the money?
Go on then, James, disprove it!
I wanted the flag referendum also. So that was at least two of us.
This sounds like a wild goose chasing a red herring down the garden path about a false flag operation.
I'm picking you voted Black and Blue tea-towel and Black and Blue tea-towel just like John Key.
Just imagine if it had won. A dingy, dull black and blue. So much for "the brighter future" Key was promising.
Incredible a flag of such poor design was voted for by so many dense RWNJs who did so simply because they adored the corrupt John Key.
Lucky for New Zealand they were beaten in the end.
"attacking the messenger – not the story. How typical."
Hilarious, James!
Haven't you just attacked the messenger?
James made a valid point even though it might be hard to swallow for some …
Yep. And some messengers come with EXCEPTIONALLY large egos.
(I just broke a New Year's resolution. I'm now going to go flog myself)
attacking the messenger – not the story.
If the messenger's an ignorant, racist blowhard peddling misinformation with a poisonous agenda, attacking the messenger sounds entirely reasonable. More to the point would be, how much of a sucker would someone have to be to lend credence to Duncan Garner's messages.
Along Garner racist just shows how stupid and I’ll informed you are.
just because you disagree with him – doesn’t make him racist.
Isn't Garner the dude who went to kmart for undies and got contemplative about the "changing face of New Zealand"?
Yep, that's the guy. Nothing racist about bemoaning all the coloured people you have to hang out with, right?
Certainly not, especially while overlooking the fact that his contemplation of this (oh shit, I looked it up again and he actually called it "a nightmarish glimpse into our future") took place in an aussie-owned store with a US brand.
After all, he explicitly said that nothing in his column was intended to be racist. So that's alright, then.
A minority of the Press Council only thought his expressed views had an "unpleasant "dogwhistle" odour" but were not racist in a way that broke the rules, so yes you must be right.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/99998249/majority-of-press-council-rules-duncan-garner-column-in-breach
(ie the majority of the Council thought his views were "gratuitous racism")
ooo I either missed or forgot that ending to the story.
That'll be on his permanent record.
What makes Garner racist?
2 hours after you commented Jimmy, and now your question is answered before you asked it, if one just runs down the thread… Tricky business, isn't it?
Might be a shock for people like you – but some of us had better things to do today than sit online waiting for replies.
Beautiful day on the water today. Pity you missed it.
Too many assumptions there, numpty. Actually had a great luncheon with friends. And Jimmy's comment was at 5 pm. Your day on the water started then, did it? Try harder.
James left school at 15 so is not too clever.
[It was just a matter of time before someone would cross the line and resort to stupid insults aimed at James. Like it or leave it, James is free to comment here as long as he adheres to the site’s policy and rules. Please don’t do this (again) or next time you throw insults at him for no direct reason you will be receiving gardening leave – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 10:17 PM.
He can comment. I'm not the one who bans him…
No, you were the one who insults him …
And? He does the same with his soft trolling of In Vino at 5.1.6.2.1.1
James freely offered his unlikely past in a series of posts on 21 January 2018 when he was trying to railroad Ed off the board.
You are defending the wrong people I think.
You are conflating two things here: me warning you about making insults and James giving a smart arse reply.
James has a reputation of being a stirrer and he has form. In fact, I left James a long comment about that yesterday, which you might want to read too (https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-24-01-2020/#comment-1681008).
As it turns out, you also have a bit of history here with flaming and insults. Coincidentally, your last ban (last year, 3 days only) was for insulting James!
As I said, like it or leave it, but please stop wasting my time. Thanks in advance.
I've had two bans here.
The one you mentioned which was in fact because of impudence shown towards a moderator (trivialising Weka's authority rather than insulting James), and another by Weka for directly questioning James' sincerity on the case of the man who set himself on fire before parliament.
I guess the price of having a forum that is not an echo chamber is the moderators must protect stirrers in your words, or trolls in mine.
[please correct the error in your user handle; it has happened twice now. Thanks]
You have had more than two bans here and quite a few moderator warnings.
Given your recalcitrant behaviour, I think that is low.
I am calling you out on your insulting behaviour and I am not protecting anybody. Moderators are not bodyguards but more like cleaners who clear up the mess made and left behind by others on this site.
Like it or leave it; this is my final word on this and I kindly suggest taking heed.
I have corrected the error which was at your end.
It's a glitchy site.
Uhuh
Well, artifacts are constantly left and repeated in the username section which is, for some reason, not independent from the comments section.
But what do I know?
Take it up with the SYSOP. Most seem to manage here most of the time but the mistake you made is quite common and often goes unnoticed for a (little) while, which wastes Moderator time.
I know what this forum is run on…
You might like to correct system caused username mistakes without fanfare in future.
Volunteers
Talk to the SYSOP
Me too.
Seems to work fine with firefox. What browser are you using, Muttonbird?
Thanks McFlock. It's a WordPress thing I think where a mistake in the username is repeated ad infinitum.
@ Incognito's oddly timestamped comment:
I think I've had two bans.
So I have a problem with authority. What is a simple activist to do? Lie down and take it, I suppose? Where on earth would that end, George Orwell?
You can either accept my contribution to The Standard, or not. I think I make a decent effort in most of my comments but am called out on a few and that seems to define me according to yourself and Weka.
I'll work hard to conform to your definition of “smart-arse reply” which you seem to accept, and stick to that.
This grovelling approach works for some – I might try it! 😀
Your “grovelling approach works” but only just because it’s a lovely morning and I had a decent sleep last night.
You’ve had more than two bans but this is not important (I can provide the links, with time-stamps for your personal archive or trophy cabinet, but why waste more time on this?).
You have an occasional problem with your attitude and language when you resort to flaming and insulting, which has led to moderation and a few (>2) bans.
You also seem to have a problem with listening, simple explanations, simple instructions, and following clear and simple rules. I’d use a different word for that than “activist” and “recalcitrant” was possibly too mild.
Whether you continue making valuable contributions here or smart arse replies is neither here nor there for me. It’s up to commenters to make this a better site or turn it into sandpit full of petulant smart arses or foul-mouthed morons. The choice is yours; like it or leave it.
A few months back I had a plugin in FF that screwed with any website that needed a form, even though it did what it was supposed to do (text substitution).
Additionally some browsers on some operating systems can be tempramental.
Newer browsers often have a "safe" mode, where all plugins or add-ons are disabled. Try TS in safe mode, and if it works then some plugin is arguing with your browser.
Forms all work ok on other websites?
I don't think Garner is racist. Wasn't his partner(s) a part Maori woman?
No idea on whomever he shags.
But the media council sure thought he'd expressed a racist opinion. Many people have their reckons, not many people have their reckons determined to be "gratuitous racism" by an independent panel that oversees their industry.
The only other one who comes to mind for that sort of thing is David Irving.
unless he is foaming at the mouth he ain't gonna get paid.
so yeah, he be foaming.
Unless he’s lathering up generously in the shower and eating or licking the soap, he’ll be frothing at the mouth, not foaming.
Who knows what that guy has swallowed, really.
So it's about 50/50 on foaming vs frothing?
Probably a cake of Grandma Lye Soap..
The initial comment @ 4 was about a potentially imminent breakthrough in the Ihumātao dispute.
I think it is worth noting that many comments in this thread did not discuss the topic at all but were diversions about Duncan Garner being an alleged racist, about James, about the flag referendum and other unrelated and thus irrelevant things.
Inevitably, it ended up with blatant insults with no constructive content whatsoever and almost led to a ban 🙁
Somehow I can't get terribly worked up about that virus outbreak. Its place of origin is one that winks at the sort of unhygenic practices around rearing animals, and selling them or their products, that we outlawed decades ago. They're reaping what they've sown. Yes, there might be a few deaths here to begin with, but we'll contain the spread all right.
Personally, I find this more disturbing:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/25/trump-legacy-end-of-trust-in-democracy-simon-tisdall
Orwell wrote his best-known novel in 1948. Thirty-six years later, That Date actually arrived, but seemingly not its accompanying dystopia. The seeds, however, were already being sown. On by a similar length of time, and we arrive at the present day, where those seeds have germinated and are growing fast.
It's my wild-arsed guess there is a 90% chance this new bug will mutate into something less dangerous fairly quickly. However there is a small but non-zero chance it could go badly pear shaped like the 1918 Spanish Flu.
It's the Chinese Medical authorities, WHO and CDC who will do all the heavy lifting here. If Angola can contain Ebola, there is every chance China will get on top of this.
But in a weeks time we'll know more about this virus, it's incubation time, it's infectivity and it's lethality. In the meantime don't get worked up, but don't ignore basic precautions either.
Hope so. In 1918 we didn't have gene sequencing to identify exactly where it came from, either the Krait or Chinese Cobra apparently,and effective isolation and containment systems and back then it was some months before they even knew there was a problem.
A mate who has visited the sort of food market to the Wuhan one has said the bloody places are unbelievable, they have no place in the 21st century.
just for some balance
here is a list of ecoli break outs in the western world due to lax business rules – i.e. self certifying. Just in case you like your romaine and lettuce and ground beef.
https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/outbreaks.html
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/5/5/99-0502_article
Funnily enough, i have always eaten in food courts in asia when i travel and i never even had as much as a stomach bugling, however friends of mine who insisted in MacDo and the likes often came down with the runs. Go figure.
Funny that. I reckon it sometimes may be just a change in the ecology in the gut, or something similar. About a month ago I spent time both in Japan and Thailand. In Thailand I ate from street vendors, in dirt floor restaurants with no running water, and other meals from questionable sources. Not a problem except for tender tushie from all the chili-laced meals I scarfed.
Japan was great, but I did have one afternoon with a case of runny bum.
The point is that even in ultra-hygeinic locations one can get a tummy rumbler. Although, to be honest getting a case of the Aztec Two-step is more likely in the less developed more free wheeling regions. Sometimes it's just luck.
If I understood the news correctly this morning, the Chinese have warned that the infectious period starts 2 weeks before any symptoms show in the infectious person.
If this is true, I think it is the first time we have struck such a virus, and with two weeks before the infectious person can be detected, we have absolutely no hope of stopping the spread.
But – the second part is better: the virus causes fewer deaths proportionately than SARS did, and as viruses get better at spreading they tend to get milder in effect.
So a pandemic will mean quite a lot of us will recover from an annoying mild pneumonia, but there will not be billions of dead.
But did I hear that news correctly, and is the report true?
Not to mention it got called "Spanish Flu" because the Spaniards were neutral and none of the warring nations wanted to disclose how many of their troops were ill.
So they knew they had a problem, but it was a military secret and then everyone got shipped home around the world…
Yes, and people in Spain called it the Russian flu. Maybe we can call it that from here on in and everyone will be like totally impressed at how woke we are eh?
and then there is the sars research at the wuhan bio research facility.
But worries surround the Chinese lab, too. The SARS virus has escaped from high-level containment facilities in Beijing multiple times, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting in Damascus, Maryland, says that an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and he questions how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy. “Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,” he says.
https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to-study-world-s-most-dangerous-pathogens-1.21487
Yes I've witnessed that extreme authoritarian hierarchy in action in the workplace. It's quite spooky when you first see it, for a few moments I felt I'd been transported to a Nazi concentration camp movie.
Maybe that's why I'm so much less sanguine about the CCP's regime than Ad is.
If only they lived like us.
Cos west is the best, eh.
/
Some background on Bernie Sanders and what he has achieved in Burlington Vermont.
" One of his main goals was to rein in real estate speculation and gentrification, to keep the tenants in their homes. In 1984, he established the Burlington Community Land Trust, which started buying and renovating rundown rental properties on the Old North End. The model was to rent them at fixed rates or sell them at low prices, while retaining ownership of the land and sharing in any value appreciation. Now called the Champlain Housing Trust, it is the largest such nonprofit in the nation and has 8% of the city’s housing units "
Not afraid too confront the issues in his home town.
"While he brought free public concerts to Battery Park on the bluff, Sanders also went on a campaign to stop noisy late-night college parties, even accompanying police to dress down the revelers "
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-01-26/presidential-candidate-bernie-sanders-burlington-vermont-hometown
Wait a minute, we are supposed to give this guy Presidential credibility because a trust he started three decades ago has been doing up a few houses in a town about the same size and global importance as Gisborne?
Donald Trump and his dad were doing that for about the same time and instead of a few hundred houses, have turned it into a world-conquering hotel and resort brand.
Seriously if real estate is touted as the killer move for Sanders, someone needs a strategy refresh.
leave all that aside and take in this
1. Burlington, Vermont Population 2019. Burlington, Vermont's estimated population is 42,899
2.The ethnic composition of the population of Burlington, VT is composed of 35.1k White Alone residents (82.7%), 2.65k Asian Alone residents (6.25%), 2.32k Black or African American Alone residents (5.47%), 1.21k Hispanic or Latino residents (2.86%), 964 Two or More Races residents (2.27%), 109 American Indian & Alaska
3. The Champlain Housing Trust, founded in 1984, is the largest community land trust in the country. Throughout Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, CHT manages 2,300 apartments, stewards 620 owner-occupied homes in its signature shared-equity program, offers homebuyer education and financial fitness counseling, provides services to five housing cooperatives, and offers affordable energy efficiency and rehab loans. In 2008, CHT won the prestigious United Nations World Habitat Award, recognizing its innovative, sustainable programs.
While a nice thing for the residence of the City of Burlington Vermont, its a sad indictment of the state of USA's housing policies.
I'm not sure how it indicts anything.
At some point we're going to have to clear away this film-flam of the always-never-made-its and get to the main guy: What will Joe Biden Do as President?
it shows that a tiny wee little town has the largest housing charity.
that is the sadness about it all.
I don't know what Jo biden will do as president. Kidnap babies at the frontiers and then loose them in the system to god knows whom? Install a global gag rule on abortion, birth controll, and such to please forced birther crowd? Remove any and all regulations on the environment to drill baby drill and mine mine mine? Play golf every third day on the tax payers dime? Start world war three?
Honestly i have no fucking idea what Jo Biden would do, nor do i care.
But if this is an example of Bernie Sanders will do, then he will have put his name to a charity that has 2300 apartments under its umbrella and it stewards som 630 occupied owner houses, in a town of 43.000 people. And the sad thing about this charity is that it is the "Largest Charity of its kind in the US of A'. Go figure.
Meanwhile Here is what one editor of The Nation has to say on Elizabeth Warren:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/warren-president-endorsement-2020/
"Nine days before the Iowa caucuses, Elizabeth Warren’s support among polled Democrats has declined from 21% to 11% since an ABC News/WashPost poll in October." https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-poll-biden-warren-7dce6f94-7d30-4a5c-bab1-32dd15b8e09b.html
“This poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone Jan. 20–23 among a random national sample of 1,004 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points”:
I always liked the brainy chick. Sigh.
Brokered convention anyone?
Focusing: "Ahead of the Iowa caucuses eight days from now, the NY Times says Sen. Bernie Sanders is "consolidating support from liberals and benefiting from divisions among more moderate" candidates, per the Times/Siena College poll." https://www.axios.com/2020-presidential-election-bernie-sanders-iowa-3a4357fb-5bae-4669-b885-6141e576823b.html
"Why it matters: Sanders gained 6 points since the last Times-Siena survey in late October and now has 25% of the vote in Iowa."
By the numbers:
What's the percent of undecideds? Still around 2/3?
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/11/21057416/iowa-and-new-hampshire-voters-undecided-2020-election
Seems to depend how they ask the question: "The Suffolk poll showed nearly a quarter of Democratic primary voters, 24 percent, are undecided. But the WBUR survey, which included so-called “leaners” — voters who initially say they are undecided but, when asked, say they are leaning toward one candidate — pegged the “undecided” number at just 5 percent." https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/23/sanders-polls-2020-103084
Definite age variation happening, and it's big: "Age has become one of the defining cleavages of the 2020 Democratic race. In the CNN/SSRS national poll — in which Sanders has a slim, 3-point lead over Biden overall — Sanders is the top choice of 39 percent of Democrats under the age of 45. That’s 21 points ahead of the next closest Democrat, Warren, another septuagenarian who appeals to younger voters."
"On the other side of the ledger, Sanders is the first choice of only 16 percent of Democrats 45 and older. His strength halves again, to 8 percent, among those 65 and older. Biden, meanwhile, wins 33 percent of 45-and-older Democrats, and 37 percent of the 65-plus set."
Those with a memory of how socialism operated tend to be biased against it. Those who like the aspirations in the mix tend to go for it…
Bit of a shame but lets hope Bernie picks up Warrens 11%
i don't think that the Warrens supporters are the issue in supporting whomever is the democractic nominee.
How ever the same can not be said about Sanders supporters
https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-poll-warren-biden-2020-nominee-emerson-college-1483831
poll to be found here
https://emersonpolling.reportablenews.com/pr/national-2020-biden-and-sanders-battle-in-two-way-race-for-democratic-nomination
oh well. Its gonna be a shit show anyways. Why not start flinging it early?
Seems to be a link between perceptions a candidate is (or has been) discriminated against in the primary and support for an unknown candidate put forward by the democrats.
If these polls are indicative of couse than the rational choice is Bernie due to his supporters relative obstinance. Though I doubt US centrist pundits can draw the obvious conclusion.
yeah,
19% of Bernie supporters stating that they will NOT support the democratic nominee is ……….(insert what ever suits you).
vs, no one from the warren supporters saying that they will NOT support the democratic nominee should she not get the tick.
should be real easy for bernie to pick up warren supporters should he get the tick, but should it not be bernie we can expect 19% of his supporters to vote for the incumbent or humpty dumpty.
Its gonna be a delightful shitshow just like the last time around. And we all know who won. So yeah, they better give it to bernie or else…..:)
At least if Biden wins the nomination, you cannot blame the Democrats for moving too fast to the left.
Yeah. It'll be Democrats being pragmatic. A vote of confidence in the liberal establishment. Biden the grinner, face of BAU.
Katyusha rockets have hit the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad causing multiple casualties.
Astounding, wealthy, intelligent, privileged people can treat animals like this, the National Party link is neither here or there (other than a horrendous irony), & read how many chances the vets gave these guys!!! https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/119011628/national-mps-husband-son-face-trial-for-alleged-animal-cruelty-against-cows
It's revolting how some people treat animals. National MP barbara kuriger should be ashamed of her husband and her son. If she did nothing to prevent them from treating animals so cruelly, she should also be ashamed of herself. And to think she is their spokesperson for Rural Communities. Taranaki-King Country deserves better.
May the full arm of the law come down on them.
treating these cows would cut into the profit. And yes, she is the spokes person for 'rural communities' and it says a lot about The NoMates Party that would nominate someone like her to be a spokesperson for rural communities.
Hope the rural communties will wake up and tell her to get a job elsewhere.
You may want to re-read the link in I Feel Love’s comment 😉
His defence for the alleged crime is pretty weak IMHO. Will await the verdict with great interest.
Virus update by NZ scientist: https://sciblogs.co.nz/infectious-thoughts/2020/01/27/the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-china-what-a-difference-a-week-makes/
The inimitable Gordon McLaughlan has died.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/author-and-media-personality-gordon-mclaughlan-dies-aged-89
I recall one of his amusing anecdotes from his early journalistic days. He was approached by the SIS who "wanted to talk to him". Curious to know what they wanted to talk to him about, he agreed to meet them. He was told to go to a Wellington hotel and knock on the door of Room 60. (I've forgotten the number so 60 will do.) He found Room 60 and knocked on the door. No reply. He was about to leave when a voice from behind said "come in". He swung around and a man was standing in the open door of the room on the opposite side.
I wondered how he managed to open the door and check it was McLaughlan without making a sound. Maybe there was a secret peep-hole in the door that only the SIS knew about. 👿 Whatever, McLauchlan wouldn't do what they wanted him to do.
Muttonbird said…
Because I wanted the site to be as open as possible and because I didn't want to spend time endlessly fixing logins or dealing with robots, I disabled them back in about 2009. Instead I put in a system to allow anyone to leave comments and maintained the logins for authors, moderators and the lucky few who already had them.
However that meant that with every comment, the non-login author had to put put in their details on each comment – which slowed the commenting process. So I used cookies. Once you leave a comment on a particular browser on a particular system, I told your browser to remember those details on your client machine login, and to fill in the fields for you on that browser and machine whenever a comment was presented to fill in.
Works well until the details get mucked up at the client side. Typically when pasting into the wrong field, which causes the mistake to reproduced.
Thanks for that explanation.
The issue seems to be that, of late, occasionally when I am merrily typing away in the comment box the cursor will flip to the name box without warning. I continue to type until I need to look at the screen again and find no words added to the comment box, but they have been added to the name box which I didn't think to check.
I then re-type what got 'lost' in the comment box and hit 'Submit Comment'. The comment then goes out with extra words added to my username in the name box.
Not sure if it's an issue with my machine.
Is it one of those laptops with a touchpad below the keyboard? I always switch that off if I have a corded mouse – my hands hovering over the touch pad sometimes tap it and send the cursor funny places.
ALTHOUGH:
a good trick in a shared office is to put a cordless mouse usb in the back of a colleagues machine. Then as they're typing away just randomly point and click from your desk. drives 'em crazy if you do it subtly enough 😉
Yes, but the mousepad requires a definite push.
I've not been able to repeat the fault today – it's random.
McFlock is probably right. Mousepads are a nuisance when you're typing. Mine is turned off whenever I have a external keyboard/mouse talking to it. Which is most of the time.
I usually do have a wireless K750 keyboard + a MX Anywhere in my pack or where I work. I have 3 of them – work, home, and pack. Solar powered keyboards are *thin* – sneak in the pack very nicely.
Try the right side of the mouse pad. That is usually where they have the scroller option turned on. The option is often set to move fields when you use it vertically.