Open mike 27/01/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 27th, 2025 - 79 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

79 comments on “Open mike 27/01/2025 ”

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  1. SPC 1
    27 January 2025 at 7:36 am

    Attitudes toward same-sex couple parents: A decade of change.

    Find increases in support for samesex parents, and most of the covariates were related to attitudes about same-sex parents in a similar manner in 2012 as 2022

    Findings suggest growth in support for both male and female same-sex parents. Underlying value orientations (politics and religiosity) appear to still drive differentials in public opinion

    https://bsky.app/profile/drcompton.bsky.social/post/3lgnw5xt7ks2j

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jomf.13065

  2. SPC 2
    27 January 2025 at 8:03 am

    Economists look at a very limited and rather banal concept of what going for economic growth in the 21st C looks like (that could have been written 100 years earlier).

    Have more foreigners invest in owning more stuff (and paying less tax at the same time) and continue with top of the ground and under the ground business activity, and some tourism and have a lower cost (downgrade from late to early century 20th C – one primitive in concept and capability) research infrastructure.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/540030/economists-challenge-details-of-luxon-s-new-growth-plan

    • newsense 2.1
      27 January 2025 at 11:52 am

      “There hasn’t really been any austerity yet,” he said.
      *threatened

      and also what?

      and *confusion* is Simeon Brown their best minister or an enormous ideologue and electoral liability?

      ‘He also said it would be much better to reform the transport funding system so it was based on a cost-benefit analysis rather than pushing ahead with the Roads of National Significance.’

  4. Sanctuary 4
    27 January 2025 at 9:23 am

    if you watch any podcast today, make it this one. The diagnosis is as scary as the projections, but a thoughtful can work out what to do from conversatrions like this.

  5. Dennis Frank 5
    27 January 2025 at 9:56 am

    I'm so relieved to be able to share this good news…

    Trump has said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has done a "very good job thus far" and that the pair have a "very good relationship". Asked by the BBC on board Air Force One about his relationship with Sir Keir, Trump added that they would be having a call "over the next 24 hours".

    "I get along with him well. I like him a lot," Trump said of Sir Keir. "He's liberal, which is a bit different from me, but I think he's a very good person…

    Could he say the same for the British ambassador though?

    There have been further questions raised about whether Trump will accept Sir Keir's nomination of former Labour minister Lord Peter Mandelson as the British ambassador to Washington. Last month, Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of Trump's election campaign, called Lord Mandelson "an absolute moron" and said he "should stay home".

    Trump's first secretary of state called him a moron too, so they will be able to share common ground – though Trump may not be absolute like Mandelson. Time will tell.

    LaCivita's view that morons ought to be confined to home seems cruel. Dogs need a run around the park regularly – the analogous need for morons to do politics seems obvious.

    A free & frank exchange of views is normal & can make a lively political meal:

    Foreign Secretary David Lammy… described Trump as a "tyrant" and "a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath" but the foreign secretary has since had dinner with him alongside the prime minister. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjvyyn7k99o

  6. Muttonbird 6
    27 January 2025 at 10:20 am

    The circus has started in Wellington. The notorious Garry Judd KC spent his time attacking the integrity of the courts, judges, and lawyers. Not very lawyer-like to attack members of his own profession with highly subjective evidence:

    "The bahaviour of some of our senior judges suggests they think they are entitled to make law, to ignore Parliament's laws, or to twist them into a shape they find more congenial."

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360560255/nz-politics-live-david-seymour-kicks-first-day-treaty-bill-submissions

  7. Incognito 7
    27 January 2025 at 10:36 am

    Some people look and do still see despite the smoke and mirrors. David Farrier is one of them.

    If It Looks Like a Nazi & Quacks Like a Nazi… [from the Feeds section]

    Somehow we’ve actively chosen to disregard reality — and celebrate everything that isn’t.

    The contemporary and twisted (of course!) version of Godwin’s Law is that likelihood of online communication (not: conversation, let alone discussion) involving Trump (or Musk) is getting higher by the day.

    • weka 7.1
      27 January 2025 at 11:11 am

      I'd be willing to entertain the possibility that Musk is an idiot or is fomenting mischief, or both, except for his speech to the far right political party in Germany.

      One of the things I'm finding hardest at the moment is watching Amercians I know online responding to what is happening as if their democracy isn't about to fail. It's still focused on ridiculing Trump. A few I know have an analysis of how fascism comes about, but most still seem to think that Trump can simply be voted out next time.

      Close behind that, is that NZ seems to be doing the same. If we want to stop fascism, here, now is the time to act, not when we are in the situation that Americans are in.

      • Incognito 7.1.1
        27 January 2025 at 11:47 am

        I agree. For example, many New Zealanders seem to think that National and NZFirst not supporting the Treaty Principles Bill past its first reading and ruling out a referendum is the end of it and a major victory. It isn’t (and David Seymour and ACT know it full well).

        The Coalition is trigger-happy to open NZ’s doors to overseas investment and wholesale of assets such as land. This will speed up the growing influence of elitists with their fascist beliefs and approaches because they allegedly represent the only way to an economic nirvana of growth & prosperity and thus of wellbeing.

        • francesca 7.1.1.1
          27 January 2025 at 1:29 pm

          I agree

          Why load the Waitangi tribunal with your own stooges if you're just humouring ACT?

          And we should never have opened our doors to seriously dangerous people like Peter Thiel with his nutty post apocalyptic ideas

          • Incognito 7.1.1.1.1
            27 January 2025 at 2:43 pm

            More precisely, we’re opening our doors to foreign capital, which inevitably attracts certain people with ‘foreign’ ideas but not all of those people are ‘dangerous’ as such. The problem is that quasi-corrupt neo-authoritarian governments have a habit of being highly selective in what they allow & encourage and what they reject/repeal & discourage – the Fast-track Approvals Bill is just one example of such selective and non-transparent process.

      • Anne 7.1.2
        27 January 2025 at 11:49 am

        What I fear more than anything is that the leaders of the so-called "Free World" which includes NZ will behave like ostriches and stick their heads in the sand pretending everything is normal. That is what Britain and Europe did in the 1930s and it led to WW2. In its simplest form that is what happened anyway. We have already seen Starmer playing up to Trump and he has been rewarded with a good report from The Fuhrer No. 2.

        I could not agree more that this is a disastrous response. The more he gets away with, the more he will do, until a time comes when the world is plunged into a nuclear war with cataclysmic consequences for all of us. I don't believe that is too drastic a prediction given the nature of the monster we are dealing with.

      • Paul Huggett 7.1.3
        27 January 2025 at 2:59 pm

        "I'd be willing to entertain the possibility that Musk is an idiot or is fomenting mischief, or both, except for his speech to the far right political party in Germany."

        Rest assured (or maybe not – rest anxiously maybe, Musk is not only an idiot, but also a Ray Shist; self-appointed Master of the Universe with very average competency of coding ability, taking credit for the successful achievements of His underlings whilst blaming them for any failures; with an ego the size of a bus and a total lack of humility, and generally someone with quite an ergly disposition.

        Should really have gone without saying.

        There's a lot of it about however. Having spent the last August, September and October in San Fran and the Bay Area, I came across a number of His ilk and followers – most of whom had done their 'research' within their various bubbles.

        Some of them even included encounters with our gorgeous Prime Munsters, including the current one with His squeeze Amanda and their gorgeous little offspring clones in their pyjama uniforms.

        Seriously @ Weka: Musk is not very clever and nor is Trump and quite a few on SCOTUS.

        On the positive side of the ledger, I did manage to see quite a bit of legit research into things like Cancer (at centres south of San Fran with links to 'lil 'ole NuZulln that punches above its weight); catch up with people formerly from Cupertino who assisted with the introduction of EFTPOS and Videotex in NuZulln based around Tandem Non-Stop II computers, and others of an artistic bent – former NZSO violinists now plucking strings in Santa Cruz and Modesto orchestra, and a shitload of other stuff.

        Elon Musk doesn't have too much ahead of Him if He carries on in His current trajectory (The truth is, in that space, going forward, in the fullness of time, I'd start to pivot if I had the misfortune to inhabit His persona)

        Oh, AND technically, He's probably an illegal immigrant if Stanford applied the same rules as they do to others.

    • Muttonbird 7.2
      27 January 2025 at 11:35 am

      I wonder if the president of the New Zealand Jewish Council can see? Nope:

      Auckland lawyer and Zionist Juliet Moses has defended Elon Musk's fascist salute. She claims he's just misunderstood…

      I'd say Musk is misunderstood. By her.

      https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2025/01/zionist-juliet-moses-defends-fascism.html?m=1

      • Subliminal 7.2.1
        27 January 2025 at 4:11 pm

        Zionism has no problem with fascism. One of their axioms is that antisemitism is the natural state for all non Jews.

        This natural state requires that all Jews should accept the necessity of a Jewish State which, as such, must remain under the control of a Zionist leadership.

        This also explains why Zionists continually claim antisemitism against any and all types of criticism. Its a self reinforcing feedback loop.

        It also explains why Israel is happy to engage with countries of the far right that may also have a lot of antisemirism. Both believe in nations of racial and ideolgic purity. Israel for the Jews and Germany for the Germans

        It also explains why Musk can make Nazi salutes and the Israeli leadership can try to trivialise it.

        Jews that arent comitted to the idea of Israel are no use to Israel. Any nation that can ramp up its antisemitism and thereby increase the flow of Jews to Israel is to be supported, especially given the current non appeal of Israel as a place to live.

        I would finish by saying that the vast majority of Jews outside of Israel have no interest in Zionism and the majority are apalled at what Israel is doing

        • Macro 7.2.1.1
          27 January 2025 at 4:38 pm

          ^^^^

          This – And has been so for at least 3 thousand years.

          One wonders if it will ever stop.

          • Subliminal 7.2.1.1.1
            27 January 2025 at 5:37 pm

            Zionism is a relatively recent phenomenon.

            On the other hand, antisemitism is ancient, real and something to take seriously.

            Its easy to spot because it is hatred against Jews as people rather than being against an oppressive State (Israel) or the ideology that is both rascist and the enactment of which requires apartheid at a minimum (Zionism)

            • SPC 7.2.1.1.1.1
              27 January 2025 at 10:08 pm

              The Likud version of Zionism does.

            • Macro 7.2.1.1.1.2
              28 January 2025 at 8:17 am

              It's not just the relatively modern embodiment of religious right in Zionist ideology. The brutal treatment of their neighbors by the Israelites in King David's time is well documented in the OT books eg 2 Samuel 8:2

              David also defeated the Moabites. He made them lie down on the ground and measured them off with a length of cord. Every two lengths of them were put to death, and the third length was allowed to live. So the Moabites became subject to David and brought him tribute.

              • Subliminal …
                28 January 2025 at 9:07 am

                I didn't realise the old testament was quite so brutal.

                It goes to show the evolutionary traps that "immutable" laws fall into.

                What doesn't change must die

                • SPC …
                  28 January 2025 at 9:21 am

                  Many of the claims – such as a military conquest of Canaan were not true.

                  It merely reflected the c1200BCE border of Egypt and Gaza of the Philistines, meant the exercise of Egyptian power within Canaan was over. It is then merely a mix of Canaanite walled cities and those of the land.

  8. tWig 8
    27 January 2025 at 11:03 am

    George Monbiot at the Guardian explores myths about UK property.

    "there is a massive housing surplus in this country. We have a higher ratio of bedrooms to population than ever before. The problem is that it’s woefully maldistributed: prosperous couples and single people knock around in mansions while families are crammed into tiny flats. Most of the expansion of housing supply in the UK since the 1980s has created extra space for wealthy people".

    The bedroom-to-population ratio is a metric I haven't seen before.

  9. Dennis Frank 9
    27 January 2025 at 11:06 am

    Marxism yields to realpolitik: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colombian-leader-quickly-caves-after-trump-threats-offers-presidential-plane-deportation-flights

    This weekend, American officials sent two flights of Colombian illegal aliens as part of Trump's ongoing deportation program. Petro rejected the flights, writing that the U.S. cannot "treat Colombian migrants as criminals."

    "I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory," Petro said. "The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them."

    In response, Trump unleashed a slew of punishments, including ordering a 25% tariff on all goods coming into the U.S. from Colombia.

    "Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States, so I have directed my Administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures."

    The tariff would rise to 50% after one week, Trump said. The president also ordered a travel ban and visa revocations for all Colombian government officials, plus "allies and supporters."

    A former member of the M-19, a Marxist guerilla terrorist group that killed hundreds, Petro caved-in to Trump's demands with remarkable speed.

    His lightning u-turn proves he's a marxist who can spin on a dime – possibly the only one in history so far, since marxists are usually conspicuous in adhering to doctrine. Trump ought to point him to William James, the famous advocate of the philosophy of pragmatism, late 19th century. Petro's innate feel for how to do it needs cultivating.

    • tWig 9.1
      27 January 2025 at 5:27 pm

      Interesting you pick fox news as a source. The Guardian give a bit more background than 'satanic marxist'.

      After Trump's repatriation flights to Brazil were a shambles, with reported beatings, looks like the non-US americas have put their heads together for a common response to bad behaviour by Trump's enforcers.

      Seems highly reasonable to me. They're OK with repatriation, if they are informed, and if those repatriated are treated decently.

      • Dennis Frank 9.1.1
        27 January 2025 at 5:57 pm

        Hm. “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” Petro said. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-and-colombias-president-clash-over-deportation-flights-raising-tariffs-in-retribution

        Yet the deportees are illegal immigrants in the USA, right? Therefore, by definition, law-breakers. Anyone who entered knowing they were doing so illegally are morally in the wrong, so will be seen by the American public as offenders. Petro is flying his kite on the basis that lack of court conviction equals lack of criminality, seems to me.

        Perhaps the marxist ought to have studied theology, where the number of angels capable of dancing on the head of a pin simultaneous has long been seen as of critical importance. That said, dignity of anyone does deserve respect even if only as an elementary courtesy (serial killers & cannibals excepted).

        • tWig 9.1.1.1
          27 January 2025 at 9:45 pm

          Looks like the crux was Trump's threatened shutdown of US visa processing for Columbians. Outside of trade wars and into fuck-you diplomatic strong-arming. Shows Trump will make any immediate threat, no matter how outside established diplomatic mores, to get what he wants.

        • SPC 9.1.1.2
          27 January 2025 at 10:44 pm

          That said, dignity of anyone does deserve respect even if only as an elementary courtesy

          Colombia objected to the use of military planes. Trump decided on the mass transit, using such means, to grandstand for political purposes.

          Or as any left winger would note – demonstrate force and power/power and force. Classic authoritarianism, impolitely called a normal move for someone of a fascist tendency disposition. And or wanting to be seen as such to appeal to their populist base, which they manipulate via American nationalism vs other.

  10. Ad 10
    27 January 2025 at 11:30 am

    Trump is meeting with the Egyptian President today on how to relocate all Gazans.

    The question is the number on the cheque.

    • Muttonbird 10.1
      27 January 2025 at 11:46 am

      I don't think there is a number big enough. Egypt and Jordan won't participate in Israel's expansionist ambitions.

    • Muttonbird 10.2
      27 January 2025 at 3:43 pm

      Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority condemned the idea. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told journalists that his country’s rejection of the proposed transfer of Palestinians was “firm and unwavering”.

      The temporary or long-term transfer of Palestinians “risks expanding the conflict in the region and undermines prospects of peace and coexistence among its people,” Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

      Egypt and Jordan fiercely rejected the idea of accepting Gaza refugees early in the war, when it was floated by some Israeli officials.

      Both countries have made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. They fear that the permanent displacement of Gaza's population could make that impossible.

      Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has also warned of the security implications of transferring large numbers of Palestinians to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, bordering Gaza.

      It's not going to happen. It's also ethnic cleasning which is a form or genocide:

      “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump said.

      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing partners have long advocated what they describe as the voluntary emigration of large numbers of Palestinians and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is now a crucial member of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, called Trump’s proposal a “great idea”.

      Human rights groups have already accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, which United Nations experts have defined as a policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove the civilian population of another group from certain areas “by violent and terror-inspiring means."

      Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said Trump’s proposal, if implemented, “would amount to an alarming escalation in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and exponentially increase their suffering”.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360560775/donald-trump-wants-clean-out-gaza-heres-why-idea-rejected

      • Ad 10.2.1
        27 January 2025 at 3:46 pm

        Not that I would ever agree with that lot you are quoting, but Trump's full ethnic cleansing discussion coming on Holocaust Memorial Day is frankly disgusting.

        • Muttonbird 10.2.1.1
          27 January 2025 at 3:57 pm

          This is something you might respect:

          Egypt has previously warned against any “forced displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai desert, which el-Sisi said could jeopardise the peace treaty Egypt signed with Israel in 1979.

          Not so trivial now, is it?

          https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/26/ethnic-cleansing-feared-as-trump-asks-jordan-egypt-to-take-gaza-residents

          • Ad 10.2.1.1.1
            27 January 2025 at 4:28 pm

            We're a bit beyond fear of ethnic cleansing.

            Nothing Egypt or Jordan says right now can be relied upon. It's total flux.

            The only thing holding is the ceasefire. One day at a time.

            • Muttonbird 10.2.1.1.1.1
              27 January 2025 at 6:40 pm

              Clearly you are beyond it.

              As always, I'm trying to get to the bottom of your commenting, and as always it's a total mystery.

              • Jenny …
                28 January 2025 at 7:38 am

                '

                "We are the people, We are returning, Soon, soon, soon, soon"

                [Protest chant by Palestinian and Arab community contingent at Auckland vigil for Palestine, in Britomart Square, Queen Street.]

                Whatever Trump and the US client states and Israel conspire to do, doesn't matter.

                Tens of thousands are making good on that promise to return, and have marched on foot back to Gaza's capital. 'Gaza City', and surrounding towns in the north.

                They will not be removed again. No matter what Trump thinks.

                The cease-fire took effect on Jan. 19, The Rafah crossing illegally occupied and closed by Israel has been reopened. 600 to 900 truckloads of aid have been arriving in Gaza each day since.

                Netanyahu says he has the support of Trump to restart the war, "even stronger".

                If they restart the war Israel will try to retake the Rafah Crossing, as well as restart the genocidal bombing campaign. Both actions will lead to blood letting on an even bigger scale than before, live streamed to the world.

                Mass protests will erupt all around the world, not least in the Middle East.
                The fall of Syria shows that the Arab Spring is not dead.
                If the military regime in Egypt lets Israel retake the Rafah Crossing without a fight, the Sisi regime will also fall, followed by Jordan

    • Subliminal 10.3
      27 January 2025 at 4:25 pm

      Egypt catergorically rejects any plan to relocate Palestinians.

      In its statement on Sunday evening, the Egyptian foreign ministry warned that delays in resolving the conflict, ending the Israeli occupation, and restoring the Palestinian people's legitimate rights are the root causes of instability in the region.

      Cairo also reaffirmed its unwavering support for the resilience of the Palestinian people on their land and their commitment to their inalienable rights under international law and humanitarian law.

      The foreign ministry underscored its categorical rejection of any actions that undermine these rights, including settlement expansion, annexation of land, or the displacement of Palestinians—whether through temporary or permanent means.

      The foreign ministry added that such measures would threaten regional stability, risk further escalation of the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence.

      The statement stressed that Egypt calls on the international community to take concrete steps toward implementing the two-state solution.

      https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/1234/539276/Egypt/Foreign-Affairs/Egypt-categorically-rejects-any-displacement-of-Pa.aspx

  11. Georgecom 11
    27 January 2025 at 12:11 pm

    According to an article on stuff today only 3% of applications to the COCs fund to underwrite housing development has been approved. 50% of applications have been declined. It closed down HNZ building new homes and replaced it with a fund that has a 3% success rate. Seems the only thing saving nz from a huge spike in homelessness is the record number of kiwis moving to aussie, the one export Nicola Willis is massively overachieving

    • tWig 11.1
      27 January 2025 at 5:33 pm

      Read it better. That was about the first 13 subnissions. 14 remain to be evaluated. Can't see this article at stuff site, but skimmed it in the physical paper today.

  12. Ed1 12
    27 January 2025 at 12:12 pm

    I'm currently listening to the Justice Select Committee:

    https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/scl/justice/news-archive/watch-public-meetings-of-the-justice-committee/

    Some are impressive – other sadly much less so.

  13. PsyclingLeft.Always 13
    27 January 2025 at 12:15 pm

    The State of it. Act's Seymour lays out his Vision for NZ's Future…IE the update/continuation of sir Roger Douglas and cronies plans…

    He targets the usual….Health, Education, Housing, Assets, etc. with attacks on woke..and a new one, NZ's 2 tribes ?

    New Zealand needs to get past the "squeamishness about privatisation", David Seymour has argued in his first major speech of the year.

    Seymour said he believed the nation "is dominated by two invisible tribes".

    One he called 'Change Makers', people who "act out the pioneering spirit that built our country every day."

    "Change makers load up their mortgage to start a business and give other people jobs. They work the land to feed the world. They save up and buy a home that they maintain for someone else to live in."

    He cast "ACT people" – its members and voters – as those change makers, saying "we carry the pioneering spirit in our hearts".

    The other tribe, he said, was people building a "majority for mediocrity".

    Seymour said a "bad housing market" and a "woke education system" combined were a "production line for left-wing voters".

    In a stopped clock moment, he does call out….

    He pointed to a "sunny" short-term outlook, "only because Labour was so bad."

    "The truth is, though, it's easy to do a better job of Labour over 12 months. It's much harder to muster the courage to keep making difficult decisions over several years, even if they're not immediately popular."

    He claimed New Zealand was in a "century of decline" and just stopping one government's "stupid stuff" and waiting for a "cyclical recovery" won't change the long-term trend.

    "We need to act like a country at risk of reaching a tipping point and losing its first world status. We are facing some tough times, and tough times require tough choices to be made."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/539854/watch-david-seymour-delivers-state-of-the-nation-speech

    Labour..we on the Left are looking at you ! Who are you? What do you stand for ? sir Roger Douglas/cronies were wrong. Say it ! And make a Plan worth voting for you!

  14. Dennis Frank 14
    27 January 2025 at 1:28 pm

    Democracy often features racist conspiracist haters. Best if you continue to avoid the reason why, so don't read this blog: http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2025/01/we-deserve-to-know-who-chose-this.html

    each party will be able to pick 25 submitters each… we deserve to know who

    If the system won't tell us which parties chose which screwballs, that's the prerogative of the privileged elites which prop up the system. I agree it would be nice to know how our traditional patronage system selects nutters, but Labour and National will always defend privacy law – they usually use it to prevent transparency being incorporated into the system of democracy. There's a slim chance TMP & the Greens could support NRT and demand the nutter/party affiliation is exposed – but I bet they won't…

  15. Muttonbird 15
    27 January 2025 at 1:37 pm

    Nicola Witless loudly drops the axing of WFH rights…for foreigners. Now, they don't need to work from home, they don’t even need to work in their own country:

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/540059/watch-live-visa-rules-for-digital-nomads-to-be-loosened-nicola-willis-announces

    Because she has no idea what to do in her new role as growth minister (or her old role as finance minister), this appears to be a recycled policy adopted by some other countries…

    …Third world countries.

  16. joe90 16
    27 January 2025 at 1:45 pm

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro responds to Trump.

    Trump, I don't really like travelling to the US, it's a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things. I like going to the black neighbourhoods of Washington, where I saw an entire fight in the US capital between blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together.

    I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller

    I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who have my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I follow them. They were murdered by labor leaders with the electric chair, the fascists who are within the USA as well as within my country

    I don't like your oil, Trump, you're going to wipe out the human species because of greed. Maybe one day, over a glass of whiskey, which I accept, despite my gastritis, we can talk frankly about this, but it's difficult because you consider me an inferior race and I'm not, nor is any Colombian.

    So if you know someone who is stubborn, that's me, period. You can try to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance, like they did with Allende. But I will die in my law, I resisted torture and I resist you. I don't want slavers next to Colombia, we already had many and we freed ourselves. What I want next to Colombia are lovers of freedom. If you can't accompany me, I'll go elsewhere. Colombia is the heart of the world and you didn't understand that, this is the land of the yellow butterflies, of the beauty of Remedios, but also of the colonels Aureliano Buendía, of which I am one, perhaps the last.

    You will kill me, but I will survive in my people, which is before yours, in the Americas. We are peoples of the winds, the mountains, the Caribbean Sea and of freedom.

    You don't like our freedom, okay. I don't shake hands with white slavers. I shake hands with the white libertarian heirs of Lincoln and the black and white farm boys of the USA, at whose graves I cried and prayed on a battlefield, which I reached after walking the mountains of Italian Tuscany and after being saved from Covid.

    They are the United States and before them I kneel, before no one else.

    Overthrow me, President, and the Americas and humanity will respond.

    Colombia now stops looking north, looks at the world, our blood comes from the blood of the Caliphate of Cordoba, the civilization of that time, of the Roman Latins of the Mediterranean, the civilization of that time, who founded the republic, democracy in Athens; our blood has the black resistance fighters turned into slaves by you. In Colombia is the first free territory of America, before Washington, of all America, there I take refuge in its African songs.

    My land is made up of goldsmiths who worked in the time of the Egyptian pharaohs and of the first artists in the world in Chiribiquete.

    You will never rule us. The warrior who rode our lands, shouting freedom, who is called Bolívar, opposes us.

    Our people are somewhat fearful, somewhat timid, they are naive and kind, loving, but they will know how to win the Panama Canal, which you took from us with violence. Two hundred heroes from all of Latin America lie in Bocas del Toro, today's Panama, formerly Colombia, which you murdered.

    I raise a flag and as Gaitán said, even if it remains alone, it will continue to be raised with the Latin American dignity that is the dignity of America, which your great-grandfather did not know, and mine did, Mr. President, an immigrant in the USA,

    Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world. I know that you love beauty as I do, do not disrespect it and you will give it your sweetness.

    FROM TODAY ON, COLOMBIA IS OPEN TO THE ENTIRE WORLD, WITH OPEN ARMS, WE ARE BUILDERS OF FREEDOM, LIFE AND HUMANITY.

    I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same.

    Let our people plant corn that was discovered in Colombia and feed the world

    https://xcancel.com/petrogustavo/status/1883624818811236502

  17. Jenny 17
    27 January 2025 at 2:30 pm

    Arrogance of the occupier

    Their homes and businesses may be reduced to rubble, but since most left with only what they could carry, most of their family possessions, documents and even valuables still remain behind under that rubble. The ceasefire agreement stipulated that displaced Palestinians would be allowed to return to their homes in the North. Palestinians being prevented from entering the North, interviewed by local Al Jazeera journalists, said that they wanted to return to find the remains of their lost loved ones to give them a decent burial. Others said they needed to escape what they described as the torture of existing while trying to care for their families in cold damp tents amidst disease and filth.

    In a breach of the ceasefire agreement, dramatic drone aerial footage from Gaza shows tens of thousands of Palestinians being prevented by the IDF from returning to their homes and property in North of Gaza which includes the capital, Gaza City. Video on the ground show IDF snipers shooting at civilians trying to return to the North.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Palestinians will not be allowed to enter the North until Hamas releases Israeli captive Arbel Yehud. Hamas have cited "technical reasons" for the delay in releasing Arbel Yehud.

    Arbel Yehud is being held by Islamic Jihad, not Hamas. Israel has agreed to release 50 Palestinians for every soldier released by Hamas and 30 Palestinians for every Israeli civilian, Netanyahu claims that Arbel Yehud is a civilian, Islamic Jihad claim that Arbel Yehud is a soldier. Despite this disagreement, Islamic Jihad have agreed to release Yehud, separately before the 6 Israeli captives due to be released in the next handover. No details of the numbers of Palestinians to be released in exchange for Arbel Yehud have been released.

    • Jenny 17.1
      27 January 2025 at 3:09 pm

      Arrogance of the occupier II

      Israel has detained more Palestinians than they have released.

      From Al Jazeera:

      Israel has arrested more Palestinians than it has released as a result of its ceasefire deal with Hamas.

      By Mat Nashed Published On 24 Jan 202524 Jan 2025

      https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/1/24/less-than-slaves-the-palestinians-detained-by-israel-despite-ceasefire

      ……the next day – January 16, three days before the ceasefire took effect – Israeli soldiers raided Alyeean’s home in Bethlehem and abducted his 22-year-old son, Adam, who was supposed to sit university exams in the coming days.

      “They took him for no reason,” Alyeean, 60, told Al Jazeera over the phone. “There was no way to defend him or my family.

      “We are not saboteurs,” he said, meaning they were not resisting or causing unrest.

      Since the announcement of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel has arrested at least 95 Palestinians in raids and at checkpoints for no clear reasons across the West Bank,….

      …… Israel has arrested and rearrested hundreds of people in the West Bank since it struck a captive deal with Hamas during a temporary ceasefire between the two warring parties in November 2023….

      …..Mohamed Amro, a 55-year-old father of seven who lives in Hebron, said he was finally reunited with his 23-year-old daughter, Janin, who had been abducted in the middle of the night from the family’s home during an Israeli raid on December 3, 2023 – less than two months after the start of the war on Gaza.

      He still recalls the events of that harrowing night, which have become a common experience for many Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank.

      “The occupation soldiers broke down the door and stormed in and then abducted her from her bed,” Amro told Al Jazeera……

      Amro said his daughter still does not know of any charges brought against her….

      ……The prisoners were supposed to be released around 4pm (14:00 GMT) in the late afternoon on January 19, but this was delayed until 2am (00:00 GMT) the next morning.

      The next day, Israeli soldiers banged on Amro’s door and warned him not to have a party or celebrate Janin’s release, or else they would arrest her again.

      He promised he wouldn’t, but he remains terrified that Israeli soldiers will raid his home again to arrest Janin or one of his other children.

      Part of living under occupation, he explained, is realising that your loved ones can be arrested at any time for no obvious reason…..

    • Muttonbird 17.2
      27 January 2025 at 3:23 pm

      It highlights there's no good definition of an Israeli civilian since they have compulsory military service and so all Israelis are either serving or have served for the Israeli military apparatus.

      It also highlights the huge imbalance that one Israeli is worth between 30 to 50 Palestinians depending on the ambiguousness of that definition.

  18. Tony Veitch 18
    27 January 2025 at 4:26 pm

    I was reading Bryan Bruce's substack posting about growth in the economy:

    https://bryanbruce.substack.com/p/the-sunday-long-read-growth-for-what?r=pr9pu

    and was struck by a question he would like to have been asked of the new Economic Growth minister.

    So, Nicola Willis has been appointed as the new Minister for Economic Growth and her number one solution is to encourage more tourism.

    One question I was waiting for a journalist to ask her at the announcement was :

    “Minister, what kind of increased Ferry capacity are you planning to deal with the flood of tourists you would like to see travelling between our islands?”

    One wonders how she would answer? Perhaps, that's now Winston's problem?

    • Mike the Lefty 18.1
      27 January 2025 at 6:43 pm

      Willis cheerfully evaded the questions put to her on this matter on Morning Report this morning. Seems to me the government is going to have to uncharacteristically put its hand in its pocket if it wants to see the kind of infrastructure to support this extra tourism actually built.

      Otherwise it will just be another broken National Party promise to add to the growing list of the same.

  19. Muttonbird 19
    27 January 2025 at 7:14 pm

    Anyone want to comment on this?

    • Obtrectator 19.1
      27 January 2025 at 7:55 pm

      I recognise the subject of the lower picture, and the place it was taken, but why is it there?

      As for the upper picture: I recognise the subject, and assume it’s a Select Committee hearing – but again, why is it there?

      • Muttonbird 19.1.1
        27 January 2025 at 8:19 pm

        The first picture is David Farrar submitting to the Treaty Principles Bill select committee, today, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

        The second picture is Golriz Gharaman, former Greens MP showing support for Palestinian causes with her attire, in the NZ parliament.

        • Dennis Frank 19.1.1.1
          27 January 2025 at 8:31 pm

          I get it; the common factor is genocide. I suppose, if one took a performative view, one could argue that Farrar is adopting a rebel stance on the issue. He has chosen not to wear a tie! Nor iron his shirt!

          Note also his carefully-presented round-shoulder look – sure to induce solidarity amongst accountants. Posture is everything when it comes to the biological signalling of primates.

          • Muttonbird 19.1.1.1.1
            27 January 2025 at 8:36 pm

            It reminds me of MAGAs and the NZ Jewish Council protesting that Elon Musk is not a really a Nazi, just autistic.

            Farrar may have made a similar deliberate gaff to wind up the lefties. He does that a lot.

            Short of going out and buying a Palestine keffiyeh, this is the closest thing he could have pulled out of his wardrobe to it…

            …on Remembrance Day.

    • SPC 19.2
      27 January 2025 at 11:01 pm

      The right of the coloniser to silence resistance to

      1.the Treaty (in legislation)(diminishing the reach of the Tribunal) and indigenous peoples rights (UNDRIP) of Maori. So we are more like Oz by 2040, if not before

      2.occupation of land designated for a Palestinian state.

      The line up of Australia Day, Holocaust Memorial Day and the beginning of submissions on (majority)(military) power being the determination of right for a "democratic" state.

      The denial of a specific group, its rights, is just the beginning of the sell out of the nation state citizenship sovereignty to international capital or the restoration of the hegemony of power over peoples and nations.

      Class war by the oligarchy on the people is the internationale threat of this century.

      The enemies within work with foreign oligarchs against the people, and they call that appeasement, our security alliance obligation.

      The big lie is their legislation before parliament to criminalise resistance.

  20. adam 20
    27 January 2025 at 7:15 pm

    Most people have got the musk outed himself as a far right scum bag.

    Great image in the link "Heil Tesla"

    https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/heil-tesla-controversial-image-of-elon-musk-displayed-on-tesla-factory-in-germany-7548717

  21. Muttonbird 21
    27 January 2025 at 7:24 pm

    It seems Hobon's Pledge, because they are used to special privilege, want special privilege at the select committee:

    Ahead of its submission, Hobson's Pledge emailed supporters alleging it had not been given a slot to speak on the bill, and had been forbidden from swapping its slot with another group, Democracy Action.

    Ikilei raised it again at the start of the submission, saying Democracy Action had given up its slot so Hobson's Pledge could speak.

    Committee chair James Meager told Ikilei this was not the case.

    "Hobson's Pledge was invited in the first emails that went out to make a submission, and unfortunately they weren't able to respond by the deadline, and so those slots were filled up by those who did respond in time," he said.

    In a follow-up statement to RNZ, however, Meager clarified "Hobson's Pledge did respond before the deadline, but by then all of the available slots had been allocated.

    So they were emailed like everyone else about the process but didn't respond in time to be heard on the first day. First in first served is what they want for NZ but they grizzle like babies when it doesn't go their way. They want special treatment.

    Lol.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/540018/select-committee-treaty-principles-bill-submissions-hearings-begin

    • adam 21.1
      27 January 2025 at 9:35 pm

      Funny how the agree crowd are moaning, because if it was fair and equatable like they say, they would have been drowned out by the no voices from day one. Some time later they would have been heard – but like always, they push their way to the front like entitled assholes they eat.

  22. Jenny 22
    27 January 2025 at 8:16 pm

    HIKOI: Thousands of Palestinians return to Northern Gaza Associated Press
    Videophone live feed variable reception.

  23. Muttonbird 23
    27 January 2025 at 9:24 pm

    The last visit by a NZ foreign minister to Kiribati was Winston Peters in 2019. They cannot have been impressed because the Kiribati President and foreign minister has made himself unavailable for a repeat visit/junket by the NZF leader this time.

    Peters of course has gone full Trump v Columbia on this and threatened to withhold aid to Kiribati because of this slight.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/540085/new-zealand-s-aid-for-kiribati-under-review-after-meeting-cancelled-with-winston-peters

    Oh, remember how we all laughed at Nanaia Mahuta for not travelling in a one in one hundred year pandemic? Well, at least she didn’t abandon Kiribati.

  24. tWig 24
    27 January 2025 at 10:05 pm

    The deputy leader of Australia's Libs, in a badly-judged Australia Day speech, compared the arrival of British colonisers in the First Fleet (primarly convict ships) to Elon Musk's aim to colonise Mars. She's got some stick for it.