There’s “a whole lot of new rules designed to get rid of the assholes. A wide range of article topics – like 1080, vaccinations and the disputed region of Kashmir – just won’t have the comments open anymore. Along with that, they plan to be a lot tougher on where the line that cannot be crossed is. And – in what might seem like an unrealistically utopian development – they even plan to have an ‘editor’s pick’ function to highlight the best, most enlightening comments.”
Carrot as well as stick. A traditional formula, usually works fairly well. “We asked Stuff’s editor in chief Patrick Crewdson why he was shutting down free speech. Why are you shutting down free speech? Because I’ve been ordered to by the World Government.”
“Toldya so!” will probably be the most frequent response from WhaleOil commenters.
“We’ve always had rules for comments, and before today we were rejecting around a third of the 7000 comments we receive daily. So this isn’t about the era of free speech coming to an end. It’s about our community standards, and drawing the boundary in a different place.”
Cool, let’s have more fluid boundaries. Fixed boundaries are boring. “One of the other stipulations is that comments will be rejected if they “just generally aren’t very nice.” Hypothetically, say you had an article about The Spinoff on your site. What would be an example of a not very nice comment that would be rejected?”
“I feel you’re trying to trick me into being mean to you.” Trickster is good, very valuable social archetype, pan-cultural too, let’s have more of that…
Yeah well it’s about bloody time. Corporations have a social responsibility too. Just what a shame it takes a tragedy to give them the proverbial boot they need.
Stuff have been extremely complicit- and encouraging- of beneficiary bashing which of course reached it’s zenith under the last regieme. By republishing the Natz press releases verbatim with no proper journalism to check the validity, then by opening the comments for the inevitably vile to be spewed. If they let what they did be published I hate to think what they rejected… A lot of what went though met the criteria for breaches of the Human Rights Act. So nice to see they won’t be opening comments for articles related to beneficiaries anymore, but proof in pudding and all that.
As I said in an OM post a few days ago, this is hate speech and words can kill.
Even our resident tabloid had the decency to quit with the comments years ago. If these coordinated (and probably paid) haters can’t handle the fact they’ve lost a large platform, tough shit.
“drawing the boundary in a different place.”
Cool, let’s have more fluid boundaries. Fixed boundaries are boring.
It is possible to reset fixed boundaries every now and then. That does not make them ‘fluid’. It is how organisations and organisms adapt to environmental change.
If I were a media owner, I’d be looking at it from a cost perspective. Do I want to pay employees to spend all day moderating comments?
Being Green, I also see it from an ecosystem perspective. Toxic commentators are like the worst weeds: those that grow fast & often. One must be a busy gardener to extract them.
Greywarshark – yes it would, but the Chinese government simply would not allow that. The Uighurs are seen as a threat to the communist party, and effectively isolated from the wider Chinese Empire.
Falun Gong pose a very real threat to the government of China, as they are openly anti China in their publications. The communist government can not and will not tolerate any organised group, regardless of their views. Says just how insecure they are.
I think the Chinese Empire will go the way of the USSR, and break apart. Nei Mongolia. Sichuan. Xinjiang. Xizhang. Take those away and China will be a rump of its current size. Will happen without a doubt.
Censorship usa style …. supporting the peacful BDS movement …. Or mention the HUGE influence the AIPAC israel lobby has on usa policy …. then your either breaking the law ……or your supporting anti semitisim , under the new ( and perverted) definition of it
I was reading the wiki page of Maajid Nawaz the other day after both David Farrar and Bryce Edwards had linked to an article of his post Christchurch (and if you want an idea of Edwards’ political leanings these days then there it is).
The wiki page had a featured quote:
It’s not Islamophobic to scrutinise Islam just as it’s not Christianophobic to scrutinise Christianity.
Maajid Nawaz The Big Questions (BBC show)
I wondered if his supposition would hold for Judaism?
And while we’re on the subject of lateral thinking, why not apply it to the Waiho Bridge? Instead of spending all that money replacing it every time climate change washes it away, just put a big hinge on the side of the damn thing!
Then either incorporate auto-opening with red lights to stop traffic every time the river gets high enough, or a trigger-release that gets activated when the river almost reaches the road. After the flood, get a truck and chain to pull it closed again.
If the bridge has been washed away many times before, it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
They anticipate this by building a bailey bridge (basically a short term military bridge used when existing bridges have been blown up).
They could actually build a decent bridge, which could be future proofed against climate change. Probably would cost $30 million or so, but in the long run would seem better than a rickety old bailey bridge.
Was amused to hear the Westland mayor saying it was unusual for a “100 year event” on the Ciast to be so geographically widespread.
He didn’t sound older than about 55.
They need a bridge which spans the entire river, and at least 50 metres of the bank, in one leap. No piles in the shifting and unstable bed to get undermined.
… it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
Yes, but it probably started out to be a one in 20 year flood, then it dropped to a one in 10 year flood and so on… now its happening frequently enough due to CC that it has weakened the bridge’s structure and the stability of the river bed.
It is working OK now though as they have shaved a little off it. That bridge works of course because the hinged bit is only wide enough to let a boat through. The Waiho Bridge is obviously too long for this to work. There is also hugely more water going under it.
There is a HUGE movement of gravel washing down the Waiho and raising the riverbed. Only a handful of years ago that Waiho bridge was raised about 3m or so due to the riverbed lifting to the underside of the bridge. In that handful of years the riverbed has lifted again.
This is a common occurence with all bridges in NZ. They constrain the river being bridged, which results in the gravel building up and up and up as it cannot spill out the side. It happens everywhere, but is more noticeable on the coast due to the extent of rainfall and one of the world’s highest mountain erosion rates. These rivers need digging out frequently.
The Waiho in particular has this HUGE gravel bulge coming down the river (due to glacier retreat). It has many years to go yet. Franz is in trouble. Everyone knows it. That is why that bridge has been a bailey-type bridge – easier to repair/replace every few decades.
Building a more permanent bridge would require more work to each end than actually building the bridge, such is the geography of the site.
The other point – much of NZ’s roading infrastrcture was built around 50-70 years ago. It is at the end-of-life point, in two main ways. One, all the roads were cut into hillsides and they are now eroding from above to an unpreventable level (e.g. Manawatu Gorge). Two, the constrained rivers are full to bursting, and are bursting.
Thank you, I was busy typing out a similar response but far less informed. Temporary bridges aren’t all bad, they have speed and weight limits and are a bit inconvenient, but from an engineering perspective make a great deal of sense in this sort of highly unstable environment.
And then of course there’s the Alpine Fault, (running through the township of Franz Joseph), that is due to go any day now ….
The Alpine Fault is one of the world’s major plate boundaries and New Zealand’s most hazardous earthquake-generating fault. It runs for 650 kilometres along the spine of New Zealand’s South Island and we know that it ruptures on average every 300 years, producing an earthquake of about magnitude 8.
The last time the Alpine Fault went was in 1717, when it shunted land horizontally by eight metres and uplifted the mountains a couple of metres.
Would need to be very well hinged! (As opposed to unhinged …)
NZ roads were never designed to carry 60 tonne trucks either.
*As they built the roads and the under base to carry a laden weight of only 20 tonnes or less,- then, as vehicles back then trucks were an average of 9 tonnes and rail carried 90% of our freight.
*But now that whole picture has reversed.
* Now 60+ tonne trucks are now 8 times heavier and carry 90% of our freight.
* Rail only carries 6% of our freight.
So vto; – common sense says “something had to give”.
Our problems are that the road transport industry is far to powerful and has far to much control and heavy influence over our politicians today and rail needs to now take at least half the freight.
Unless the government does change this, – this problem we will never fix the problem.
Uhh, yeah, railways are really relevant to a thread about a bridge failure hundreds of kilometres from the nearest railway, and is hundreds of kilometres from anywhere 60+ tonne trucks are allowed by the HPMV regulations.
You wanna start lobbying for a brand new railway line down the West Coast?
Not according to Jewish people who are not affiliated to Aipac or extreme zionisim Bewildered … these honest people think the false anti semite smear …. like you just dishonestly used ….. are the real threat to Israel …. and the rise of real anti Semitic feelings worldwide .
Your Blatant nasty dishonesty is ugly …. it’s so obvious ….and reflects very poorly upon honest Jewish people …. who would never spread your lies …. Bewildered.
Your a disgrace …. tainting others with your filth
But back to the good people …. like this Jewish man …. a brother to those seeking justice and truth
Previously Stuart Nash was against tighter gun controls. Today he has revised his opinion. It’s a pity that people in national or local government are governing by opinion which is limited by their own ignorance and lack of desire to obtain and understand the facts of the situation.
Teachable moment. Took my son and his friend to school today both aged 11. Raining here. They bought up climate change and we discussed increased energy and wilder extremes of weather. Had just helped homework with the boy around the difference between heat and temperature. They said that we (olders) weren’t doing enough and leaving them to deal with it. I said yep that is happening and we must continue to do all we can do including creating sustainability and resilience and community. I learnt so much from those young boys.
Given recent times, the chances of mistaken identities with our NZ PM must be next to nil, as Jacinda goes to embark on a whirlwind international diplomacy trip to meet the China heads of state.
Being able to do such whirlwind foreign engagements though, even amidst the ongoing backdrop of the past week or so, then beyond trade numbers and volumes, it would surely be very valuable to NZ if culturally more of an eye starts to be kept out for any headline get togethers as involves Ivanka Trump to gender equality promotions with leadership/corporate decision making structures.
Ivanka is very well known around the world in different places, including China, and there are far worse ideas of reference for a place in often chaotic world traffic than a layperson stickability like Ivanka, Jacinda, Gender Equality, New Zealand, to be understood with.
As I predicted a couple of months ago, Pentagon gets Trump’s wall started by shifting $1b of internal funds, unilaterally. Armed Forces Committee may complain, but DoD is its own kingdom with plenty of discretion.
Trump will now go to the electorate with tax reform, corruption scandals behind him, and wall started.
Dems are such a long way from a single candidate that they may simply run out of time to take Trump out.
It’s a point well made and worth repeating; our political landscape seems as much shaped by sullen incompetence on the left as it is by sly malfeasance on the right.
That seems a quotable quote RedLogix. And if that is not acceptable grammar to anyone, I note that stuff have included banning comments that protest against grammatical errors in its latest tranche of changes. It is good though if the piece is readable. I complain at large bricks without paras. Good thinking through things can be bypassed if its too dense, or having difficulty to get through someone’s brain that is too dense!
ROFL, so the whole Russian collusion conspiracy theory has just fallen over, and handed trump the sympathy card.
Could people play it any worse – oh wait this is the centre left were talking about so, yeah this could get way worse…
trump is going to walk in, becasue the centre left lost its mind and spent two years down the rabbit hole chasing a conspiracy theory.
An apology for the muppets who pushed the Russian Collusion conspiracy theory would be nice. Or at least an apology for the name calling of ‘putin puppets’ would be a good place to start.
AT least one thing to like about the centre left, when it comes to going crazy, at least you do it on a grand scale.
So this main actor goes into the Mosque. And passage-way-extra-guy1 is on the floor with bare feet. The main actor goes out, comes back in, and now the passage-way-extra-guy1 is still in the same place but now wearing socks, blue socks! I shit you not, it has been filmed in two takes! This is the level of BS in the video, super-fake and a very strange situation we find ourselves in. No surprise that Islamic leaders in NZ calling it how it looks.
[No more disrespectful comments, please. The next false flag fantasy sees you removed from the site. TRP]
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar, gave a speech questioning where the gunman got his funding from. He said he suspected it came from “Mossad” and “Zionist business”.
When links get broken (like the link to the quote I give above), then I shout it louder. I would truly like to understand where you folk are coming from. Why should we censor all views other than the lone-wolf narrative? Do folk here believe that it is in the interests of national security? Is it fear? I read quotes from our leaders like Marama D calling for the truth. To quote James S, “when the facts change, we change our mind”. How do we avoid the polarisation of opinion? By making sure there is only one opinion? I respect that our leaders’ hands’ are politically tied, but that means that it’s up to us, farmers and unionist, to say the uncomfortable truths. If not us, now? Then who, and when? Perhaps I’m too direct. If so, then please, demonstrate to me the more graceful way. But to simply put on a head scarf and bury the truth, this is a sad defeat for us all.
In the setting of the bigger picture, as financial melt-down warms, with the US ready for civil war, Israel given the green light for expansion… sorry for the fear porn, but surely we would want to keep our local communities informed, if these impulses where to act upon our shores. The truth is safe if you remain empathetic with it. I thought the audience here was political. If I can’t share the truth here, then where? Well I have said my piece, and will leave you folk in peace now. Much to do on farm.
Yeah you are far from understanding anything here when you ask:
Why should we censor all views other than the lone-wolf narrative? Do folk here believe that it is in the interests of national security? Is it fear?
Here you will find the opposite – that views are broadly tolerated other than the ‘hate speech’ of your so-called lone-wolf narrative and other false-flag shit. This is where a line gets drawn – some don’t like it – but I entirely agree with such censorship.
Fear Porn, as you call it, seems to be at the heart of your rants.
Me disrespectful? How about NZ Police Commissioner Bush, is he being respectful by turning aspects of this investigation over to the FBI? (sorry my computer is too hacked to cut-n-paste at this minute, I’ll paraphrase his statement): “We are getting help from the FBI to paint a better picture of the (singular) attacker.” Is he turning it over to the FBI? Are NZ police not up to the job? Is he narrowing the focus down to one man? Sorry, I’m agreeing with mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar. Smells like rat to me too.
But there’s some facts in Corodales comments. They aren’t all about his dumb opinions.
(Why did you put that Corodale? About socks and all that? Get some respect for the gravity of this matter. This is not a time for interesting discussion like about something minor that you saw on tv or a film!)
Facts as reported correctly one expects:
* The Mt Roskill leader of the local church was quoted as mentioning Mossad etc. mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar.
** Jews have been quoted as being outraged about Mossad, their spy organisation, being referred to in a suspicious way by the Mt Roskill mosque chairman.
*** Commissioner Bush has mentioned that the FBI are here and the Australian Federal police and that they are in touch withother jurisdictions around the world. Video update 10 Can’t see any date (on-line seems chary about dates). e&oe https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=438111816929508
Study shows IPCC is underselling climate change
March 19, 2019, University of Adelaide
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
A new study has revealed that the language used by the global climate change watchdog, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is overly conservative – and therefore the threats are much greater than the Panel’s reports suggest.
Published in the journal BioScience, the team of scientists from the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, the University of Bristol (UK), and the Spanish National Research Council has analysed the language used in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (from 2014).
“We found that the main message from the reports—that our society is in climate emergency—is lost by overstatement of uncertainty and gets confused among the gigabytes of information,” says lead author Dr. Salvador Herrando-Pérez, from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
“The IPCC supports the overwhelming scientific consensus about human impact on climate change, so we would expect the reports’ vocabulary to be dominated by greater certainty on the state of climate science—but this is not the case.”
Clearing the mind of some of the nitty gritty to let the major matters emerge. That’s what is so important I think cleangreen. (Don’t read any further if you are inclined to depression – someone pointing out things clearly you sort of know is too much to take on sometimes. Did you have to say that? is the angry thought.)
Those points you put up are major, and so true about not getting the clear message we need to take on board. But often it’s more than I can cope with, and i am ahead of others. The young ones are still trying to make their lives and constantly be flexible, adapting to the new technology, demands, etc. If older people only think of pleasure, going on holidays, meeting at cafes for meals and chat, keeping up with the children and grand-children, limited input to keep up with society, who is actually confronting the problems? Big nasty ones too. That is the situation.
And that is why I won’t get tv again, Sky can keep ringing and I am polite most of the time to the worker at the end of the line. But I haven’t time. I am in a minority amongst people I meet in the everyday world who pay attention to the future, who regards with cynicism the pretty speeches of politicians and the ones about how love will keep us together. If it was so easy it would have been done decades ago. Love is essential, and it will enable us to decide what is the best thing to do for our families, our neighbourhood and what we are going to help with, and how to retire from the world when it becomes essential to do so. We might decide it is better to train as medical personnel and go into the war-torn areas there and help the brave and moral people attempting to act nobly and practically for instance. We are only costing the country money to keep us alive and active and doing our own thing in the midst of growing disaster. The eye of the storm we are living in at present.
Knowing the coldness and self-absorption of the better-off, which is the same all the way up to the leaders and manipualtors to whom money is no barrier, I can’t have hope that they will do anything to keep things going that is not expedient for them. Trying to improve anything back to the way it was is tremendously difficult because the people in power want to lower conditions down to necessities for the people, and the necessities are in their sights also. Our right to be able to afford our own homes, or even have decent rental ones is an example.
I hope that we can find true-hearted people to work with and do what we can to avoid the worst situations. But any slip-slide away to cults and
glamorous ideas and leave you in the lurch when you try to do anything, when you try to get a practical working group going that will fix on a system that is good in theory, and prove it in practice and change to meet changing needs and times, and not cling to historical methods.
The feedback practice on Stuff is being changed to meet criteria of the well-run ethical business they want to be Our political systems for instance shouldn’t be set in stone. Each plan is a compromise and should have clear objectives to be proud of, and then when not achieving them some change is acceptable, say each year.
corodale. Thanks for the link…I’m a little OCD about such things.
And bugger me, there it is….Bush saying how the FBI are over here helping out with the investigation. I thought I was keeping up but that wee tidbit had escaped me.
All I can say is, thank heavens for The FBI…..they have a sterling reputation for sorting shit out. /sarc 😉
We certainly have to be careful. There is a very snappy approach showing up on here at present. The shock has made us all tense and our reactions can be triggered. I was annoyed with someone starting a discussion referring to other tragedies and wondering if this was worse, rating it on a scale I felt which bothered me. That was picking up on our PM saying that the tragedy was unprecedented in NZ.
I agree grey. We’re going through the “angry” phase at present and I currently have a low tolerance level for bullshit and crank statements. This is in part because of personal historical experiences and the fact the people making them are flying in the face of present reality.
But a fence is not a wall, guys, what part of following instructions do you just not get?? I foresee tv pictures of hordes of locals jumping up & down in unison chanting “We Wanna Wall! We Wanna Wall!”
“The Pentagon has authorised army engineers to begin construction of additional fencing on the US-Mexico border, diverting an initial $1bn after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to bypass Congress on the matter. The army would begin planning and building 57 miles of 18-foot-high fencing in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, according to a statement by acting defence secretary Patrick Shanahan.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-border-wall-mexico-funding-pentagon-security-congress-vote-a8839811.html
corodale can you understand that huge amount of unknown information that affects anybody’s ability to make a reasoned decision? And how much time is wasted that could be spent on learning the facts, but is wasted in engaging with dunderheads like you and similar smart-arses.
This is an expression of the thinking about information and its complexity.There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns
I suggest you don’t pretend ignorance about known things, otherwise you will never catch up with the quest for knowledge that others are on.
I think Dennis at 11, was in reply to 9 about the wall from joe90. He has put up a copy of the letter refusing Defence from taking $1 billion from its booty to help Trumpy and his wall. It could actually be a major tourist attraction for Mexico, and a place where artists hang out decorating it and fighting over where Banksy- like people can keep their art for posterity. The Berlin Wall was covered in graffiti.
Simultaneous writing actually. I was expecting to be first with the news but got beaten by a few minutes, so didn’t know the other report was in the pipeline – fortunately my quote provided more detail, so supplementing the other.
I find the fence/wall thing weird, inasmuch as the fence has been there awhile apparently – in some locations, even if not continuous. But we never got an explanation from Trump re Mexico funding so he’s just ad hoc.
I’m not sure why you’d be applauding that. Right leaning employer sacks employee making left wing comment might attract some consternation, and rightly so. Is that what you’re suggesting?
“Hooray!” probably needed a /sarc tag after it. This is actually a horrifying development, and I hope the current government is moving to give people working for temp agencies greater protection against this kind of thing. If the guy had been directly employed by Placemakers it would have been much harder to dismiss him (which is one of the reasons employers use temp agencies – the workers have fewer rights).
Yep thought it was sarcasm. More than 20,000 workers have been sacked in the last year who were on 90 day trials. Making political comments I suspect is one “justification” used by employers.
He could just not say things that marty mars retrospectively and without hearing them declares to be hate speech? Yes, that is too hard. Effectively, your argument is “He could just not say things.”
something to consider – now days indigenous peoples often focus on decolonising the mind. Basically as colonization occured it took from indigenous peoples and replaced with the unshakable belief that all euro aspects are the peak and naturally are the best way. Politics, social structure, law and ways of thinking about law, everything. Decolonising the mind is realizing the truth that there is no white supremacy in ANYTHING including how to think, react, what’s important and what isn’t.
So your logic and approach is not mine. Get used to it.
Given you have openly endorsed punishing people who say things you don’t like, I should point out that this is a system us toxic white people (and others) have tried out at various times in the past century or so, and demonstrated to be a catastrophically bad idea.
On the other hand you may have better luck with it.
and your first sentence is not correct. I applaud people being protected against white supremacist hate speech and religious hate speech. I think it hurts people and is sick anytime but especially now. Pity you don’t.
I stand on my track record here going back over a decade as being implacably opposed to religious zealots and fundamentalists of any kind. At the same time I’ve made it clear I am not an atheist, I have a long standing relationship with religion and I’ve spoken in respectful terms whenever the topic arose.
Indeed I’ve taken more than some flack for this over the years from people who hold all religions in contempt; ‘sky fairies’ and the like.
Long before it became the issue it has been this past 10 days.
Well the romans outlawed greek practitioners of rhetoric,then again they also outlawed athletics as the Greeks performed this naked in public,but allowed violent spectator sports (a bit like television programming)
Alexander Pope summed up the problems on discourse in his Epistle to man.
But errs not Nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
“No, (’tis replied) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen’ral laws;
Th’ exceptions few; some change since all began:
And what created perfect?”—Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then Nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show’rs and sunshine, as of man’s desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp’rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav’n’s design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar’s mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?
From pride, from pride, our very reas’ning springs;
Account for moral, as for nat’ral things:
Why charge we Heav’n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos’d the mind.
But ALL subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The gen’ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.
There is only one logic Marty to argue otherwise is illogical Also there is a reason the world flock to western countries, democracies and ideals and not the other way round Hint , it’s not about colour
…there is a reason the world flock to western countries…
There was a reason western countries flocked to the world over the last 500 years, too. Indigenous people in many countries have some views on that. So, maybe not the best argument to offer to one of them (which I believe marty mars is)?
Reason isn’t “White,” it just is. If you mistake rational argument for a Pākehā cultural affectation and “decolonise” it from your mind, your ability to argue for your views will be damaged, not improved.
Reason – you assess information and reach conclusions. You’re not a machine – only some information is assessed – what info and why those ones? You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective. If you live in society and every day the variables considered important are reinforced and others not which ones become natural? White isn’t a colour to me but a set of privileges attached to groups. Some have more, some less.
True, there are an infinite number of ways we assess information and one of the core ideas the radical left has embraced is that none of them are privileged above the other; they’re all equally valid.
I presume then you’d have no quibble with me ‘decolonising’ my modern western mind and embracing my Viking heritage:
You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective.
Its even worse than that. We reach conclusions based on personal prejudices, emotions we’re feeling, whatever hormone happens to be getting the most traction at the time, things we believe are true but aren’t – there’s a big list.
That’s why reason is so important. What are the rational arguments for the conclusions I’ve reached? If I can’t come up with any, or I do but they’re a collection of logical fallacies and other people tear them to shreds in front of me, it’s time to figure out what’s really led me to those conclusions.
Yet when I speak seriously to the notion of a global civilisation, one that unites the best aspects of all cultures, one that expands our moral and emotional horizons to embrace the entire human race … as I have done many times … you go all silent on me.
In the global civilisation I have in mind, us white people would compose just 1 billion of the 7 or more billion humans. There is plenty of diversity to go around.
The members of your whanau are all unique and different people, yet together they are united as family. As with the citizens of a nation. We are all unique, diverse and individuals, while at the same time connected and merged at many different levels.
Unity does not imply uniformity; it means connection and the ability to work to a common purpose.
He said he knew as soon as the words came out of his mouth that he’d said the wrong thing.
Maybe he should have thought first.
But then a “qualified engineer” reduced to fruitpicking probably has other issues, too.
But although I don’t have much sympathy for him, arbitrarily kicking him was wrong. There should have been a disciplinary meeting, and based on exactly what he said (not his description of what he said) appropriate disciplinary action should have been taken.
Good you’re on board. It seemed like his co workers were a bit frightened and the boss listened to them and fair enough imo. Times change and they just did for this country.
Suppose his co-workers were “a bit frightened” because he spoke te reo Maōri or expressed support for tino rangatiratanga – still good if the boss listens to them and makes sure the troublemaker doesn’t get to “frighten” them again? Now that times have changed and it’s apparently OK to dismiss people for saying something you don’t like, an’ all that?
You’re not good on context imo – nothing is happening in a vacuum is it. Your principles are constructed yet you hold them so tight. They appear fragile if they can’t take this stuff.
My principles are so far from fragile that I can cope with hearing unpopular opinions without wanting to get the holders of the opinions sacked. It would be good if yours were equally robust.
You’re dreaming mate – you spent days here moaning about a call to prayer for a God you dont believe in. Lol wake up and be honest at least with yourself.
Gods you don’t believe in can kill you, as a lot of people have found out over the last few thousand years. They may kill you by proxy, via the people who do believe in them, but you end up just as dead. Don’t assume that gods you don’t believe in are trivial, because it’s not true.
Islam’s merely the ugliest of them. I wrote “gods” plural for a reason – the Christian ones have probably clocked up a bigger body count than Allah over the centuries, especially when you take the Americas into account. There have been plenty of others.
Influencers – this phenomenon is beyond me. This is a good article. Gives the vegan haters some good material and by jeeze they need it ha ha ha. Fishgate.
“Not only was Mendoza promoting a restrictive diet that was making her sick, she was extolling dangerous practices, such as 25-day water fasts, to her millions of followers. And she is far from the only influencer promoting extreme eating. Jordan Peterson, a prominent psychologist, has been outspoken about his all-beef diet, claiming it cured his depression and his gum disease. (Unfortunately, it hasn’t cured his pseudo-intellectual prattling.)”
Fortunately Peterson also makes it clear it’s a diet he has found addresses specific issues his family have encountered over the years. Nowhere does he recommend or promote it as a generally good idea. Indeed whenever someone does ask him about, he says it’s a restrictive and onerous diet he doesn’t like much at all.
Incidentally gum disease has been recently implicated in Alzheimers:
thanks for that – alzheimers eh – not good – I certainly wouldn’t wish that on him and i can’t imagine a journalist doing this connection thing you’ve bought up – it appears you’ve connected those dots all by yourself 🙂
‘Dental care is not only cosmetic’- it is part of our whole health and well being.
I got a clear message about this two years ago.
In 2016 my teeth got damaged after a boating accident and this was around Xmas and dental care was not carried out until four months later due to ACC hangups, and by then infections had been set in causing blood poisoning that threatened my life and I spend two years after wards getting the teeth fixed with 6 root canals and seven restorations.
Gum abbess infections and resulting blood poisoning from gum infections can destroy anyone’s health, mind and body,.
Don’t let the teeth health be left out of healthcare funding here; – as many cannot afford to pay for dental care.
It actually is sort of serious and just becoming known, so cleany felt he would give us the facts Gabby. Taking quite a few sentences to explain it which takes time and a desire to be helpful, just not pass judgment.
To be able to charge loads of fees
To be able to make parents buy devices they cannot afford
To pander to internation students
To kick out ‘dumb kids’ that make their schools look bad
**TO RUN SCHOOLS AS A TRADEABLE BUSINESS COMMODITY AND NOT A PUBLIC SERVICE**
To be honest, I trust civil servants to run schools than the red faced reactionary bourgeois hacks that control most boards of trustees, and have their own little networks.
The Hubs are going to shine some light on all the corruption and nepotism that goes on in our education system, and some people dont like that.
millsy
I noticed that the nice Maori woman keen and willing to be a good Board member didn’t get voted in to my local primary school with a catchment of mostly pakeha, and many professionals. Board members came from the public, but the accountant, businessman, the solicitor or solicitor’s wife were the vast majority
( could be both women). So having Boards chosen from the public giving the impression of reflecting the whole community is misleading.
And the middle class are not really open to progressive ideas, they just want their kids to learn get good jobs and know how to be naice. Their standards are derisory, they will want religion and allow any obsessive to prate on; they will want sex education but on the end of a barge pole, or not discussed on a level of personal experience of the youngsters, and the dry facts miss the chance of putting to them that they could take time before experiencing it, be a bit wary of jumping in because others start at 13 or 14. Why not decide for yourself that you will try it out after 18? A suggestion not a sacred promise. There is so much conservatism and also limitation in subjects that the Boards can decide. What they themselves know can form a protective barrier around school subjects and ways, and they are reluctant to allow the other ideas in, or not till everyone else is accepting them.
In both cases they spoke unwisely, through frustration or lips loosened by alcohol but what they said still stands. It’s what they said, it’s what they think, it’s what has escaped into the public arena. Excuses as to why they said it don’t retract what they actually said.
“I went to get a flight attendant and informed her of what was going on. They checked other witness accounts and the head of the flight service (a woman) asked the man to move.
“He resisted then started swearing at me and asked to talk to the boss and the head flight attendant said ‘I’m the boss, this is really serious and we could land the plane’.
“He moved. The attendants checked in with the young woman and wrote up a report.”
Airline staff later gave Ms Chiu and the other woman cards thanking them for stepping in and helping.
This book published in 2001 defines five lines of stress on the world and us. The summary sounds pretty right. Anyone read it?
Five Holocausts by Derek J Wilson
Paperback, 2001, 472pages, very good condition
Reviews:
Derek Wilson?s 10-year labour of love proposes that the world faces ruin through five intertwining apocalypses of human construction: militarism, human oppression, economic destitution, population explosion and environmental destruction.
The five holocausts cannot be understood or dealt with in isolation. The problems are vast and indisputable; uncounted acres of taxpayer gold are thoroughly wasted on armaments, trillions of dollars spin round the world in unproductive speculation, people enslave each other given half a chance, rich nations use vast shares of the Earth?s resources and the environment is in accelerating decline.
The point of a New Zealand-produced book on the subject ? given that none of the above registers in the average Kiwi?s day to day ? is that acting to stop it all is in everyone?s interests. (Alistair Bone Listener reviewer)
This authoritative book gives a clear and thorough overview of the impending global crisis, connecting the constituent parts of the global predicament. Derek Wilson draws attention to many dynamic and hopeful initiatives that are growing in response to the overall challenge and makes an impassioned case for action by government, institutions and society generally.
This is a book with a powerful challenge, packed with vital, thoroughly interesting information. (From the foreword by George Porter, founder and past President of the Pacific Institute of Resource Management, Aotearoa New Zealand)
Yes, I have. Bought a copy a few years ago and read it. Should go back and revisit it soon, just to see if it stands up.
I ‘enjoyed’ the read, being a local publication and very straightforward about the crises we face, but recall thinking it is not for the faint-hearted.
Thanks for the warning Molly. Perhaps one should be like the Oz politicians, take on some whiskies, and then that weakens the effect of the ideas, for a while.
Don’t mean to put anyone off. Probably those who visit this website regularly will find it a good read. Just mean that recommending it to people who aren’t politically active or interested in current affairs might be problematic.
I’ll have to dig it out after renovations and revisit it again. I know I was sufficiently interested enough to have a look for Derek Wilson to see if he was still alive and perhaps publishing or speaking.
They counted 1 to 12 reasons to put it back up. It’s the new bible for a drifting
generation whose parents have no idea of what principles to tell their children to live by. We are getting into loose hippy ideas of branching out, dropping out,
and making changes, so what do you do – you find some cult figure to tell you.
They had the Vietnam war looming which they were rejecting; we have the end of our world. That would make anyone grab at something like a calf will suck your thumb for comfort.
You nailed it GWS. A distinct lack of leadership and answers in tumultuous times.
I don’t see Peterson as a nasty type right, more a mediator among them. A bloke they identify with who might talk them back from a ledge. He got famous re: the pronoun debate and upset a lot of left wing people. This enamored him with a lot of disaffected right wing youth.
He’s asked them to be introspective. I like that, far cry from blaming immigrants for everything. He’s taken on their nihilism with instructions for self-responsibility.
And people mock his readers like slow children – for trying not to be nihilistic butt-heads. There’s a lot worse types out there they might have glommed on to.
I also rate his lectures on the bible stories. I’ve not read his recent book.
Audrey Young has been absent from writing her column since the christchurch massacre. Maybe she has been on leave? Her chosen topic for her first article is about Winston Peters supposedly falling asleep in Turkey.
The msm bias against the Coalition, Labour and Ardern is so very obvious right now.
I heard a woman ring in while out driving and give a robust account of how disgusted she was with Shorn Plunket’s pre-show blurb on Winston, you could apply her concerns to almost every host they have on that particular station now – with the slight exception that Brendan Telfer did play devil’s advocate on occasion to contest their rabid opinions.
She called it “talk at” rather than talk back and she is 100% correct.
Sadly Telfer is only a fill in for a couple of weeks for the equally horrible Peter Williams – his lack of experience shows as well but that seems no bar for a station who chose him for his familiar name and allow their hosts to push their personal barrows with contentious subjects in a very one-sided way.
A man dead from what seems to be a self inflicted stab wound – after refusing to surrender to Police. Cache of arms found on dead mans property after public tip off.
There is nowhere near enough information. It seems a suicide in preference to giving himself up. IF this is so, it is a very extreme reaction, and this guy was maybe up to something very nasty and/or is hiding other nasty people and designs.
IF he killed himself rather than give up.
Another scenario is that he was hurt by someone else, but that makes no sense in light of the standoff. If a so called associate tried silence you, you’d have second thoughts about dying to protect them.
But Killary!
How the fuck any person with an ounce of intelligence can say this current administration is as good as what might have been, had there not be an electoral college to stuff up the popular vote, I will never know.The environmental vandalism that has been carried out by t.rump and “friends” is unbelievable. This is just another sick instance of short term profit for a few takes precedence over all else.
Interesting books I have come across on Trade me. The first one is major along with climate change in its harsh effects on us if we can’t mobilise to think how we can manage. No-one else will! And the book by Derek J Wilson above talks about 5 holocausts we are facing. These books relate to all sorts of strife we are noticing.
“I am writing from inside the tech bubble to let you know that we are coming for your jobs.” So begins Andrew Yang’s book, The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future.
Despite the tagline, this isn’t fundamentally a book about Universal Basic Income (UBI). It’s about the market, and our attitude towards it….It isn’t simply the case that American society is separating into strata, Yang argues, but that the elites are consciously working to put the rest of society out of work.
The sectors where “normal” people tend to work—administration, retail, food service, transportation, and manufacturing—have high levels of repetitiveness and are highly susceptible to automation. Since competition in these sectors is quite fierce, companies are sooner or later forced to automate to keep up with their competition. Once a single competitor automates, the others must follow. In many cases, automation is not only cheaper, but also produces better products or services. The natural result is, as Yang relates through conversations he’s had with people in the tech industry, a race to make “normal” people redundant….
Keeping At It
The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
by Paul Volcker and Christine Harper
Paul Volcker has devoted his life’s work to public service and the critical importance of open, disciplined and efficient government. As chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987) he literally rescued the American economy from destroying itself, summoning the courage to take radical and controversial steps to slay the inflation dragon.
And whenever the going got really tough–the financial crash of 2008, the need to reform banking, the oil for food UN scandal, the turmoil in Switzerland over theft of Holocaust victims, cheating in Major League Baseball–US presidents and other leaders said to ‘get Volcker in here to help me work this thing through.’… http://fortune.com/2018/10/30/paul-volcker-book-review/
Lost Enlightenment S. Frederick Starr
In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia’s medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds–remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world.
Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia–drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.
They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth’s diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world’s greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America–five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impac ..
I thought that vid was as a parody at first Andre – bloody hell. And mark hamill is cool. Enjoyed visiting his Twitter feed- that one about t.rumps signature was good.
Thinking about it a bit, I’ve started to wonder if there’s a hidden message in that photo of a bunch of babies all the same age and fairly clearly mixed parentage. Y’know, Mike Lee being a libertarian-leaning Mormon an all.
The failure of the Left and the cowardice of the Centrists.
Green New Deal blocked. Democratic Senators abstain, (four voted against it).
….At 0-57, the nonbinding measure fell short of the necessary 60-vote threshold needed. No senators voted in support of it. Four members of the Democratic caucus voted against it. And most Democrats simply voted “present.”
How many votes did AOC get in her constituent like 15k. She’s about 70 million votes short of getting legislation across the house floor. Perhaps she should learn her craft first before assigning blame to others.
Sam 25.1
28 March 2019 at 6:53 am
How many votes did AOC get in her constituent like 15k……
In fact it is remarkable that AOC has a seat in Congress at all.
Usually money from corporate donors to fund your campaign is needed to win a seat, in the US congress.
Corporate backers that “most” Democratic Senators can’t afford to offend.
The Democratic Caucus know what needs to be done. This is shown by the fact, that “most” didn’t vote against the Green New Deal. That they didn’t actively vote for it, shows that they are afraid of offending their corporate sponsors.
What a cop out. How about using her position to lobby congress people instead of buying them off before she goes off half cocked proclaiming that America should give up air travel. Finger waving and facial features do not make up for a lack of support.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute. https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4
There should be a story about there not being a complaint process for the common person to make. Police Station have no complaints procedure that actually works.??????????????
snonky housing short has worked a treat one can not even rent a furniture storage in Rotorua I new that was going to happen that + no housing to rent. What a joke Ka kite ano link below
Jenny Eco Maori says it about time the government made laws to make the wealthy rent out the house they buy make them rent them out to the POOR COMMON PEOPLE. KA KITE ANO
I go to the gas station this morning and Eco Maori get a funny smell then I look around for the sandflys stalkers and sure enough there it is a 6 3 bald man peeping at me from behind the petrol pump. You see whanau were ever I go the sandflys are stalking here is a photo of one of there stalkers cars stalking me now. Ka kite ano.P.S the setting on. My phone are playing up when I get the bad smell it means they intend to ATTACK ECO MAORI
Don’t believe all the negative stories the oil barron have commissioned against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s the WEALTHY are shaking in their boots because of her MANA WAHINE Kia kaha Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s sad to see that humpback whale tangled with old fish gear mabe Dock could have a hot line so when the public see a issue like that with our wild life they can report it.
That beluga whale is a beautiful looking creature I miss the story on them. I know someone who has payed 10000 deposit on getting a new roof as far as I know he is still waiting 3 months later for his new roof I offered to help him but know some people have no scrupulous. I seen that Ruaumoko is waking up in Mexico.
Tawhirirmate is very powerful Mike Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Te ao Maori News its good to see that there was a good atmosphere in Christchurch today.
I that was a awesome sung NZ ational anthem I think you have a few songs on YouTube that I listened to. Poor Hine got it when she sang the Maori ational anthem in England at a All Blacks test Mana Wahine. I say if tangata whenua te reo is receiving GREAT Interest than Kapa Haka is receiving the same KA PAI.
Aroha is Nice but I want justice and Equal rights Equality. P.S you media people know how much attention the Authorities are paying to ECO MAORI subjects What I am getting at is everything I say is True you know the old saying the best trick the devil has pulled is no one believes it exists even when its ight in front of our EYES
These sandflys are using all the dirtiest tricks in their little books to try and stop Eco Maori but know I have something they know Eco Maori is UNTOUCHABLE Ka kite ano
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The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
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High time social media toxicity resulted in an antidote: “New Zealand’s biggest news site has closed a huge swathe of their notorious comments section. Stuff editor in chief Patrick Crewdson spoke to The Spinoff about why they made the choice.” https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/27-03-2019/free-speech-under-attack-why-stuff-are-reining-in-their-comment-section/
There’s “a whole lot of new rules designed to get rid of the assholes. A wide range of article topics – like 1080, vaccinations and the disputed region of Kashmir – just won’t have the comments open anymore. Along with that, they plan to be a lot tougher on where the line that cannot be crossed is. And – in what might seem like an unrealistically utopian development – they even plan to have an ‘editor’s pick’ function to highlight the best, most enlightening comments.”
Carrot as well as stick. A traditional formula, usually works fairly well. “We asked Stuff’s editor in chief Patrick Crewdson why he was shutting down free speech. Why are you shutting down free speech? Because I’ve been ordered to by the World Government.”
“Toldya so!” will probably be the most frequent response from WhaleOil commenters.
“We’ve always had rules for comments, and before today we were rejecting around a third of the 7000 comments we receive daily. So this isn’t about the era of free speech coming to an end. It’s about our community standards, and drawing the boundary in a different place.”
Cool, let’s have more fluid boundaries. Fixed boundaries are boring. “One of the other stipulations is that comments will be rejected if they “just generally aren’t very nice.” Hypothetically, say you had an article about The Spinoff on your site. What would be an example of a not very nice comment that would be rejected?”
“I feel you’re trying to trick me into being mean to you.” Trickster is good, very valuable social archetype, pan-cultural too, let’s have more of that…
Yeah well it’s about bloody time. Corporations have a social responsibility too. Just what a shame it takes a tragedy to give them the proverbial boot they need.
Stuff have been extremely complicit- and encouraging- of beneficiary bashing which of course reached it’s zenith under the last regieme. By republishing the Natz press releases verbatim with no proper journalism to check the validity, then by opening the comments for the inevitably vile to be spewed. If they let what they did be published I hate to think what they rejected… A lot of what went though met the criteria for breaches of the Human Rights Act. So nice to see they won’t be opening comments for articles related to beneficiaries anymore, but proof in pudding and all that.
As I said in an OM post a few days ago, this is hate speech and words can kill.
Even our resident tabloid had the decency to quit with the comments years ago. If these coordinated (and probably paid) haters can’t handle the fact they’ve lost a large platform, tough shit.
It is possible to reset fixed boundaries every now and then. That does not make them ‘fluid’. It is how organisations and organisms adapt to environmental change.
There’s “a whole lot of new rules designed to get rid of the assholes.
A wide range of article topics – like 1080, vaccinations and the disputed region of Kashmir –
just won’t have the comments open anymore
And there it is…articles can be authored…and go unchallenged and unchecked…
A preordained list of subjects…where will the subject matter boundaries be…will a list be made public…
This is what folks asked for…
If I were a media owner, I’d be looking at it from a cost perspective. Do I want to pay employees to spend all day moderating comments?
Being Green, I also see it from an ecosystem perspective. Toxic commentators are like the worst weeds: those that grow fast & often. One must be a busy gardener to extract them.
They are rather careful not to mention the forced organ donations. Might have decided diplomacy best.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/111544569/muslim-group-wants-2-million-donation-to-be-returned-to-china
And it would b good if it could be spent on Muslim support and positive projects there. It would be needed help, not wasted.
Greywarshark – yes it would, but the Chinese government simply would not allow that. The Uighurs are seen as a threat to the communist party, and effectively isolated from the wider Chinese Empire.
I think they are more concerned with the forced imprisonment and reeducation of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, which our government is so silent on.
Forced organ donations are across the board in China, not a specifically Muslim thing.
They are predominantly taken from Uighurs + practitioners of Falong Gong.
No doubt.
Falun Gong pose a very real threat to the government of China, as they are openly anti China in their publications. The communist government can not and will not tolerate any organised group, regardless of their views. Says just how insecure they are.
I think the Chinese Empire will go the way of the USSR, and break apart. Nei Mongolia. Sichuan. Xinjiang. Xizhang. Take those away and China will be a rump of its current size. Will happen without a doubt.
And it can’t happen soon enough.
Tibetans, Mongolians and Uyghurs all deserve their own independent states (though no doubt the Mongolians of Inner Mongolia would join Mongolia).
Maybe even the Cantonese speaking Han would form a new country.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1110170205748187136
Censorship usa style …. supporting the peacful BDS movement …. Or mention the HUGE influence the AIPAC israel lobby has on usa policy …. then your either breaking the law ……or your supporting anti semitisim , under the new ( and perverted) definition of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=javzUCQbbeQ
I was reading the wiki page of Maajid Nawaz the other day after both David Farrar and Bryce Edwards had linked to an article of his post Christchurch (and if you want an idea of Edwards’ political leanings these days then there it is).
The wiki page had a featured quote:
Maajid Nawaz The Big Questions (BBC show)
I wondered if his supposition would hold for Judaism?
Probably not.
Or perhaps Zionism.
And while we’re on the subject of lateral thinking, why not apply it to the Waiho Bridge? Instead of spending all that money replacing it every time climate change washes it away, just put a big hinge on the side of the damn thing!
Then either incorporate auto-opening with red lights to stop traffic every time the river gets high enough, or a trigger-release that gets activated when the river almost reaches the road. After the flood, get a truck and chain to pull it closed again.
If the bridge has been washed away many times before, it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
They anticipate this by building a bailey bridge (basically a short term military bridge used when existing bridges have been blown up).
They could actually build a decent bridge, which could be future proofed against climate change. Probably would cost $30 million or so, but in the long run would seem better than a rickety old bailey bridge.
Was amused to hear the Westland mayor saying it was unusual for a “100 year event” on the Ciast to be so geographically widespread.
He didn’t sound older than about 55.
They need a bridge which spans the entire river, and at least 50 metres of the bank, in one leap. No piles in the shifting and unstable bed to get undermined.
… it won’t be due to climate change, it will be as a result of south Westland getting horrendous floods which it has done just about forever.
Yes, but it probably started out to be a one in 20 year flood, then it dropped to a one in 10 year flood and so on… now its happening frequently enough due to CC that it has weakened the bridge’s structure and the stability of the river bed.
Wayne Mapp = climate change denier.
Everyone’s an engineer.
They tried a cool neo-Bascule luft design in Whangarei. They forgot heat expansion so it stuck.
It is working OK now though as they have shaved a little off it. That bridge works of course because the hinged bit is only wide enough to let a boat through. The Waiho Bridge is obviously too long for this to work. There is also hugely more water going under it.
Punt.
Boosting local economy via employment? Good thinking. Have another govt workshop this morning, yesterday’s was excellent.
Flying fox.
There is a HUGE movement of gravel washing down the Waiho and raising the riverbed. Only a handful of years ago that Waiho bridge was raised about 3m or so due to the riverbed lifting to the underside of the bridge. In that handful of years the riverbed has lifted again.
This is a common occurence with all bridges in NZ. They constrain the river being bridged, which results in the gravel building up and up and up as it cannot spill out the side. It happens everywhere, but is more noticeable on the coast due to the extent of rainfall and one of the world’s highest mountain erosion rates. These rivers need digging out frequently.
The Waiho in particular has this HUGE gravel bulge coming down the river (due to glacier retreat). It has many years to go yet. Franz is in trouble. Everyone knows it. That is why that bridge has been a bailey-type bridge – easier to repair/replace every few decades.
Building a more permanent bridge would require more work to each end than actually building the bridge, such is the geography of the site.
The other point – much of NZ’s roading infrastrcture was built around 50-70 years ago. It is at the end-of-life point, in two main ways. One, all the roads were cut into hillsides and they are now eroding from above to an unpreventable level (e.g. Manawatu Gorge). Two, the constrained rivers are full to bursting, and are bursting.
It’s a biggie thing
Thank you, I was busy typing out a similar response but far less informed. Temporary bridges aren’t all bad, they have speed and weight limits and are a bit inconvenient, but from an engineering perspective make a great deal of sense in this sort of highly unstable environment.
And then of course there’s the Alpine Fault, (running through the township of Franz Joseph), that is due to go any day now ….
The Alpine Fault is one of the world’s major plate boundaries and New Zealand’s most hazardous earthquake-generating fault. It runs for 650 kilometres along the spine of New Zealand’s South Island and we know that it ruptures on average every 300 years, producing an earthquake of about magnitude 8.
The last time the Alpine Fault went was in 1717, when it shunted land horizontally by eight metres and uplifted the mountains a couple of metres.
Would need to be very well hinged! (As opposed to unhinged …)
http://theconversation.com/new-zealands-alpine-fault-reveals-extreme-underground-heat-and-fluid-pressure-77868
vto; yes
NZ roads were never designed to carry 60 tonne trucks either.
*As they built the roads and the under base to carry a laden weight of only 20 tonnes or less,- then, as vehicles back then trucks were an average of 9 tonnes and rail carried 90% of our freight.
*But now that whole picture has reversed.
* Now 60+ tonne trucks are now 8 times heavier and carry 90% of our freight.
* Rail only carries 6% of our freight.
So vto; – common sense says “something had to give”.
Our problems are that the road transport industry is far to powerful and has far to much control and heavy influence over our politicians today and rail needs to now take at least half the freight.
Unless the government does change this, – this problem we will never fix the problem.
Uhh, yeah, railways are really relevant to a thread about a bridge failure hundreds of kilometres from the nearest railway, and is hundreds of kilometres from anywhere 60+ tonne trucks are allowed by the HPMV regulations.
You wanna start lobbying for a brand new railway line down the West Coast?
http://nzta.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e00b3ac6ab524cb19a369fc5c2b4e6fa
Two good women standing out … and standing up to …. the garbage enviromen and reporting …surrounding usa politic s.
And the comments directed towards Ilhan Omar on her twitter feed …. whaleoil / kiwi blog sickness does not even begin to describe it.
All the little Masa s commenting against her are sick …. in the worlds master nation
I’m surprised Mark Rubio has not threatened to Lynch her … as he sometimes tweets such stuff …. as a warning to those not doing what the Masa says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr2qh9uTsBY
Isn’t she a racist anti Semite publicly and privately ? Very nice smile though
Not according to Jewish people who are not affiliated to Aipac or extreme zionisim Bewildered … these honest people think the false anti semite smear …. like you just dishonestly used ….. are the real threat to Israel …. and the rise of real anti Semitic feelings worldwide .
Your Blatant nasty dishonesty is ugly …. it’s so obvious ….and reflects very poorly upon honest Jewish people …. who would never spread your lies …. Bewildered.
Your a disgrace …. tainting others with your filth
But back to the good people …. like this Jewish man …. a brother to those seeking justice and truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAEwCQApNMc
Regarding the unlawful theft of the Golan heights …,. this honest sister shows up the gangster ethos … in the Trump and Netanyahu crime partnership
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQk_m4RcTDo
In the sense that you’re a racist alcoholic diaper wearing masochist beewee or in a different sense? Very quizzical befuddled gape though.
She manages to keep her sense of humor …. when speaking to the worst of people …. Are you as good looking as Eliots Abrams Bewildered ?
As in …….. Do your looks match your personality ….. does your smile scare children ? 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IeJGbmjWqw
She’s a diamond.
From a few week ago.
West Coast Regional Council wants proof of human-caused climate change before supporting Zero Carbon Bill
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/110223334/west-coast-regional-council-wants-proof-of-humancaused-climate-change-before-supporting-zero-carbon-bill
Today
State of emergency as massive deluge hits West Coast, with more to come
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111533664/heavy-rain-moving-up-nz-from-the-south-in-significant-weather-event-live-coverage
Previously Stuart Nash was against tighter gun controls. Today he has revised his opinion. It’s a pity that people in national or local government are governing by opinion which is limited by their own ignorance and lack of desire to obtain and understand the facts of the situation.
Thanks for the reminder dv.
I hope the locals have more sense next local body elections to vote out the neanderthals running their council.
Teachable moment. Took my son and his friend to school today both aged 11. Raining here. They bought up climate change and we discussed increased energy and wilder extremes of weather. Had just helped homework with the boy around the difference between heat and temperature. They said that we (olders) weren’t doing enough and leaving them to deal with it. I said yep that is happening and we must continue to do all we can do including creating sustainability and resilience and community. I learnt so much from those young boys.
Given recent times, the chances of mistaken identities with our NZ PM must be next to nil, as Jacinda goes to embark on a whirlwind international diplomacy trip to meet the China heads of state.
Being able to do such whirlwind foreign engagements though, even amidst the ongoing backdrop of the past week or so, then beyond trade numbers and volumes, it would surely be very valuable to NZ if culturally more of an eye starts to be kept out for any headline get togethers as involves Ivanka Trump to gender equality promotions with leadership/corporate decision making structures.
Ivanka is very well known around the world in different places, including China, and there are far worse ideas of reference for a place in often chaotic world traffic than a layperson stickability like Ivanka, Jacinda, Gender Equality, New Zealand, to be understood with.
As I predicted a couple of months ago, Pentagon gets Trump’s wall started by shifting $1b of internal funds, unilaterally. Armed Forces Committee may complain, but DoD is its own kingdom with plenty of discretion.
Trump will now go to the electorate with tax reform, corruption scandals behind him, and wall started.
Dems are such a long way from a single candidate that they may simply run out of time to take Trump out.
It’s a point well made and worth repeating; our political landscape seems as much shaped by sullen incompetence on the left as it is by sly malfeasance on the right.
That seems a quotable quote RedLogix. And if that is not acceptable grammar to anyone, I note that stuff have included banning comments that protest against grammatical errors in its latest tranche of changes. It is good though if the piece is readable. I complain at large bricks without paras. Good thinking through things can be bypassed if its too dense, or having difficulty to get through someone’s brain that is too dense!
Gentlemen, start your lawsuits.
It’s on!
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1110572158126833664
ROFL, so the whole Russian collusion conspiracy theory has just fallen over, and handed trump the sympathy card.
Could people play it any worse – oh wait this is the centre left were talking about so, yeah this could get way worse…
trump is going to walk in, becasue the centre left lost its mind and spent two years down the rabbit hole chasing a conspiracy theory.
An apology for the muppets who pushed the Russian Collusion conspiracy theory would be nice. Or at least an apology for the name calling of ‘putin puppets’ would be a good place to start.
AT least one thing to like about the centre left, when it comes to going crazy, at least you do it on a grand scale.
And right on cue…
Trump ‘gifts Golan’…having already gifted Jerusalem…
Yeah…but…Russian interference…
“Jews outraged after mosque leader blames Mossad for Christchurch …
https://www.newshub.co.nz/…/jews-outraged-after-mosque-leader-blames-mossad-for-…”
Link hacked and redirected, so search for yourself (I believe Yippy.com is an option to avoid the Google engine)
So this main actor goes into the Mosque. And passage-way-extra-guy1 is on the floor with bare feet. The main actor goes out, comes back in, and now the passage-way-extra-guy1 is still in the same place but now wearing socks, blue socks! I shit you not, it has been filmed in two takes! This is the level of BS in the video, super-fake and a very strange situation we find ourselves in. No surprise that Islamic leaders in NZ calling it how it looks.
[No more disrespectful comments, please. The next false flag fantasy sees you removed from the site. TRP]
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar, gave a speech questioning where the gunman got his funding from. He said he suspected it came from “Mossad” and “Zionist business”.
Why are you repeating this shit here?
When links get broken (like the link to the quote I give above), then I shout it louder. I would truly like to understand where you folk are coming from. Why should we censor all views other than the lone-wolf narrative? Do folk here believe that it is in the interests of national security? Is it fear? I read quotes from our leaders like Marama D calling for the truth. To quote James S, “when the facts change, we change our mind”. How do we avoid the polarisation of opinion? By making sure there is only one opinion? I respect that our leaders’ hands’ are politically tied, but that means that it’s up to us, farmers and unionist, to say the uncomfortable truths. If not us, now? Then who, and when? Perhaps I’m too direct. If so, then please, demonstrate to me the more graceful way. But to simply put on a head scarf and bury the truth, this is a sad defeat for us all.
In the setting of the bigger picture, as financial melt-down warms, with the US ready for civil war, Israel given the green light for expansion… sorry for the fear porn, but surely we would want to keep our local communities informed, if these impulses where to act upon our shores. The truth is safe if you remain empathetic with it. I thought the audience here was political. If I can’t share the truth here, then where? Well I have said my piece, and will leave you folk in peace now. Much to do on farm.
Life, Light and Love
Yeah you are far from understanding anything here when you ask:
Here you will find the opposite – that views are broadly tolerated other than the ‘hate speech’ of your so-called lone-wolf narrative and other false-flag shit. This is where a line gets drawn – some don’t like it – but I entirely agree with such censorship.
Fear Porn, as you call it, seems to be at the heart of your rants.
Me disrespectful? How about NZ Police Commissioner Bush, is he being respectful by turning aspects of this investigation over to the FBI? (sorry my computer is too hacked to cut-n-paste at this minute, I’ll paraphrase his statement): “We are getting help from the FBI to paint a better picture of the (singular) attacker.” Is he turning it over to the FBI? Are NZ police not up to the job? Is he narrowing the focus down to one man? Sorry, I’m agreeing with mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar. Smells like rat to me too.
Go away you nasty piece of work.
+ 1
You said that far too nicely marty.
hard words spoken softly
always superior
But there’s some facts in Corodales comments. They aren’t all about his dumb opinions.
(Why did you put that Corodale? About socks and all that? Get some respect for the gravity of this matter. This is not a time for interesting discussion like about something minor that you saw on tv or a film!)
Facts as reported correctly one expects:
* The Mt Roskill leader of the local church was quoted as mentioning Mossad etc. mosque leader Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar.
** Jews have been quoted as being outraged about Mossad, their spy organisation, being referred to in a suspicious way by the Mt Roskill mosque chairman.
*** Commissioner Bush has mentioned that the FBI are here and the Australian Federal police and that they are in touch withother jurisdictions around the world. Video update 10 Can’t see any date (on-line seems chary about dates). e&oe
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=438111816929508
And the other quote about Mt Roskill was on this link earlier supplied from which I copied. And put again.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/03/jews-outraged-after-mosque-leader-blames-mossad-for-christchurch-attack.html
[Rambling rant removed. Banned till 1st May. Repeat this behaviour when you return and the ban will be significantly longer. TRP]
Yes greywarshark
There is always two sides to every story, and some don’t want to accept this and just want to rubbish others and are not helping anything doing that.
Perhaps solka and marty need to read this. latest 19th March 2019 study;
” IPCC is underselling climate change”
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-ipcc-underselling-climate.html
Study shows IPCC is underselling climate change
March 19, 2019, University of Adelaide
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
A new study has revealed that the language used by the global climate change watchdog, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is overly conservative – and therefore the threats are much greater than the Panel’s reports suggest.
Published in the journal BioScience, the team of scientists from the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, the University of Bristol (UK), and the Spanish National Research Council has analysed the language used in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (from 2014).
“We found that the main message from the reports—that our society is in climate emergency—is lost by overstatement of uncertainty and gets confused among the gigabytes of information,” says lead author Dr. Salvador Herrando-Pérez, from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
“The IPCC supports the overwhelming scientific consensus about human impact on climate change, so we would expect the reports’ vocabulary to be dominated by greater certainty on the state of climate science—but this is not the case.”
Clearing the mind of some of the nitty gritty to let the major matters emerge. That’s what is so important I think cleangreen. (Don’t read any further if you are inclined to depression – someone pointing out things clearly you sort of know is too much to take on sometimes. Did you have to say that? is the angry thought.)
Those points you put up are major, and so true about not getting the clear message we need to take on board. But often it’s more than I can cope with, and i am ahead of others. The young ones are still trying to make their lives and constantly be flexible, adapting to the new technology, demands, etc. If older people only think of pleasure, going on holidays, meeting at cafes for meals and chat, keeping up with the children and grand-children, limited input to keep up with society, who is actually confronting the problems? Big nasty ones too. That is the situation.
And that is why I won’t get tv again, Sky can keep ringing and I am polite most of the time to the worker at the end of the line. But I haven’t time. I am in a minority amongst people I meet in the everyday world who pay attention to the future, who regards with cynicism the pretty speeches of politicians and the ones about how love will keep us together. If it was so easy it would have been done decades ago. Love is essential, and it will enable us to decide what is the best thing to do for our families, our neighbourhood and what we are going to help with, and how to retire from the world when it becomes essential to do so. We might decide it is better to train as medical personnel and go into the war-torn areas there and help the brave and moral people attempting to act nobly and practically for instance. We are only costing the country money to keep us alive and active and doing our own thing in the midst of growing disaster. The eye of the storm we are living in at present.
Knowing the coldness and self-absorption of the better-off, which is the same all the way up to the leaders and manipualtors to whom money is no barrier, I can’t have hope that they will do anything to keep things going that is not expedient for them. Trying to improve anything back to the way it was is tremendously difficult because the people in power want to lower conditions down to necessities for the people, and the necessities are in their sights also. Our right to be able to afford our own homes, or even have decent rental ones is an example.
I hope that we can find true-hearted people to work with and do what we can to avoid the worst situations. But any slip-slide away to cults and
glamorous ideas and leave you in the lurch when you try to do anything, when you try to get a practical working group going that will fix on a system that is good in theory, and prove it in practice and change to meet changing needs and times, and not cling to historical methods.
The feedback practice on Stuff is being changed to meet criteria of the well-run ethical business they want to be Our political systems for instance shouldn’t be set in stone. Each plan is a compromise and should have clear objectives to be proud of, and then when not achieving them some change is acceptable, say each year.
corodale. Please don’t ” quote” without linking to the source. It undermines credibility.
“Bush said FBI agents have traveled to New Zealand to help with the investigation.” https://www.foxnews.com/world/new-zealand-holds-first-funerals-for-mosque-shooting-victims
(sorry my computer was hanging, and I couldn’t cut-n-paste, I’ll lost my previous link)
corodale. Thanks for the link…I’m a little OCD about such things.
And bugger me, there it is….Bush saying how the FBI are over here helping out with the investigation. I thought I was keeping up but that wee tidbit had escaped me.
All I can say is, thank heavens for The FBI…..they have a sterling reputation for sorting shit out. /sarc 😉
You’re mad corodale.
Anne Nice please be nice not rude here,
It hurts and offends people; – as we are supposed to be living in a freedom of civil expression here.
Corridale said sorry; – so what do you want?
cleangreen look at the times. I posted mine in answer to his earlier mad rants. Since when there has been a plethora of replies to later comments.
I see he has now been banned until 1st May.
Check the facts before bursting into print eh?
We certainly have to be careful. There is a very snappy approach showing up on here at present. The shock has made us all tense and our reactions can be triggered. I was annoyed with someone starting a discussion referring to other tragedies and wondering if this was worse, rating it on a scale I felt which bothered me. That was picking up on our PM saying that the tragedy was unprecedented in NZ.
I agree grey. We’re going through the “angry” phase at present and I currently have a low tolerance level for bullshit and crank statements. This is in part because of personal historical experiences and the fact the people making them are flying in the face of present reality.
I will endeavour to curb my reactions to them. 🙂
But a fence is not a wall, guys, what part of following instructions do you just not get?? I foresee tv pictures of hordes of locals jumping up & down in unison chanting “We Wanna Wall! We Wanna Wall!”
“The Pentagon has authorised army engineers to begin construction of additional fencing on the US-Mexico border, diverting an initial $1bn after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to bypass Congress on the matter. The army would begin planning and building 57 miles of 18-foot-high fencing in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, according to a statement by acting defence secretary Patrick Shanahan.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-border-wall-mexico-funding-pentagon-security-congress-vote-a8839811.html
Will engineers factor in the curvature of the earth, or is it presumed to be flat?
“Presumed”? By engineers?
corodale can you understand that huge amount of unknown information that affects anybody’s ability to make a reasoned decision? And how much time is wasted that could be spent on learning the facts, but is wasted in engaging with dunderheads like you and similar smart-arses.
This is an expression of the thinking about information and its complexity.There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns
I suggest you don’t pretend ignorance about known things, otherwise you will never catch up with the quest for knowledge that others are on.
not an either or question
it is both flat and curved
can you get your head around such?
I think Dennis at 11, was in reply to 9 about the wall from joe90. He has put up a copy of the letter refusing Defence from taking $1 billion from its booty to help Trumpy and his wall. It could actually be a major tourist attraction for Mexico, and a place where artists hang out decorating it and fighting over where Banksy- like people can keep their art for posterity. The Berlin Wall was covered in graffiti.
Simultaneous writing actually. I was expecting to be first with the news but got beaten by a few minutes, so didn’t know the other report was in the pipeline – fortunately my quote provided more detail, so supplementing the other.
I find the fence/wall thing weird, inasmuch as the fence has been there awhile apparently – in some locations, even if not continuous. But we never got an explanation from Trump re Mexico funding so he’s just ad hoc.
Good one. Dont tolerate hate speech. We are changing our country slowly but surely.
“A man lost his job after making comments about Muslims following the Christchurch terror attack.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12216465
We are changing our country slowly but surely.
Into one where you can lose your job for saying something your boss doesn’t like. Hooray!
PM
I’m not sure why you’d be applauding that. Right leaning employer sacks employee making left wing comment might attract some consternation, and rightly so. Is that what you’re suggesting?
“Hooray!” probably needed a /sarc tag after it. This is actually a horrifying development, and I hope the current government is moving to give people working for temp agencies greater protection against this kind of thing. If the guy had been directly employed by Placemakers it would have been much harder to dismiss him (which is one of the reasons employers use temp agencies – the workers have fewer rights).
Yep thought it was sarcasm. More than 20,000 workers have been sacked in the last year who were on 90 day trials. Making political comments I suspect is one “justification” used by employers.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1903/S00039/tens-of-thousands-of-kiwi-workers-sacked.htm
I spose he could just not say hate speech – too hard?
He could just not say things that marty mars retrospectively and without hearing them declares to be hate speech? Yes, that is too hard. Effectively, your argument is “He could just not say things.”
Ball gags for all employees…the idea has merit
Oh dear.
something to consider – now days indigenous peoples often focus on decolonising the mind. Basically as colonization occured it took from indigenous peoples and replaced with the unshakable belief that all euro aspects are the peak and naturally are the best way. Politics, social structure, law and ways of thinking about law, everything. Decolonising the mind is realizing the truth that there is no white supremacy in ANYTHING including how to think, react, what’s important and what isn’t.
So your logic and approach is not mine. Get used to it.
Given you have openly endorsed punishing people who say things you don’t like, I should point out that this is a system us toxic white people (and others) have tried out at various times in the past century or so, and demonstrated to be a catastrophically bad idea.
On the other hand you may have better luck with it.
Cool good to know.
and your first sentence is not correct. I applaud people being protected against white supremacist hate speech and religious hate speech. I think it hurts people and is sick anytime but especially now. Pity you don’t.
I stand on my track record here going back over a decade as being implacably opposed to religious zealots and fundamentalists of any kind. At the same time I’ve made it clear I am not an atheist, I have a long standing relationship with religion and I’ve spoken in respectful terms whenever the topic arose.
Indeed I’ve taken more than some flack for this over the years from people who hold all religions in contempt; ‘sky fairies’ and the like.
Long before it became the issue it has been this past 10 days.
Well the romans outlawed greek practitioners of rhetoric,then again they also outlawed athletics as the Greeks performed this naked in public,but allowed violent spectator sports (a bit like television programming)
Alexander Pope summed up the problems on discourse in his Epistle to man.
But errs not Nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
“No, (’tis replied) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen’ral laws;
Th’ exceptions few; some change since all began:
And what created perfect?”—Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then Nature deviates; and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show’rs and sunshine, as of man’s desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp’rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav’n’s design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition in a Cæsar’s mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?
From pride, from pride, our very reas’ning springs;
Account for moral, as for nat’ral things:
Why charge we Heav’n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos’d the mind.
But ALL subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The gen’ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.
Martians are boring.
There is only one logic Marty to argue otherwise is illogical Also there is a reason the world flock to western countries, democracies and ideals and not the other way round Hint , it’s not about colour
…there is a reason the world flock to western countries…
There was a reason western countries flocked to the world over the last 500 years, too. Indigenous people in many countries have some views on that. So, maybe not the best argument to offer to one of them (which I believe marty mars is)?
“Also there is a reason the world flock to western countries”
You mean Maori, Islander, Aboriginal and Amerindian countries.
But carry on in your delusion you are the greatest.
Reason isn’t “White,” it just is. If you mistake rational argument for a Pākehā cultural affectation and “decolonise” it from your mind, your ability to argue for your views will be damaged, not improved.
Reason – you assess information and reach conclusions. You’re not a machine – only some information is assessed – what info and why those ones? You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective. If you live in society and every day the variables considered important are reinforced and others not which ones become natural? White isn’t a colour to me but a set of privileges attached to groups. Some have more, some less.
True, there are an infinite number of ways we assess information and one of the core ideas the radical left has embraced is that none of them are privileged above the other; they’re all equally valid.
I presume then you’d have no quibble with me ‘decolonising’ my modern western mind and embracing my Viking heritage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings
Who do you think would win a waka full of Maori toa, or a longboat of Vikings? 🙂
You reach conclusions based on past experience, knowledge etc. Its all subjective.
Its even worse than that. We reach conclusions based on personal prejudices, emotions we’re feeling, whatever hormone happens to be getting the most traction at the time, things we believe are true but aren’t – there’s a big list.
That’s why reason is so important. What are the rational arguments for the conclusions I’ve reached? If I can’t come up with any, or I do but they’re a collection of logical fallacies and other people tear them to shreds in front of me, it’s time to figure out what’s really led me to those conclusions.
@ red
Yeah good you’re being a smartarse cos it shows you’re worried and uncertain. That’s the point really.
@pm
“and other people tear them to shreds in front of me,”
There are other ways of doing it.
@ marty
Yet when I speak seriously to the notion of a global civilisation, one that unites the best aspects of all cultures, one that expands our moral and emotional horizons to embrace the entire human race … as I have done many times … you go all silent on me.
@ red – I oppose merging. I like uniqueness and variety.
In the global civilisation I have in mind, us white people would compose just 1 billion of the 7 or more billion humans. There is plenty of diversity to go around.
The members of your whanau are all unique and different people, yet together they are united as family. As with the citizens of a nation. We are all unique, diverse and individuals, while at the same time connected and merged at many different levels.
Unity does not imply uniformity; it means connection and the ability to work to a common purpose.
Maybe he should have thought first.
But then a “qualified engineer” reduced to fruitpicking probably has other issues, too.
But although I don’t have much sympathy for him, arbitrarily kicking him was wrong. There should have been a disciplinary meeting, and based on exactly what he said (not his description of what he said) appropriate disciplinary action should have been taken.
Alleged hate speech mardymardy.
Good you’re on board. It seemed like his co workers were a bit frightened and the boss listened to them and fair enough imo. Times change and they just did for this country.
Ok so you won’t complain if a worker gets sacked on day 89 of his 90 day trial for merely praising the PM…
Suppose his co-workers were “a bit frightened” because he spoke te reo Maōri or expressed support for tino rangatiratanga – still good if the boss listens to them and makes sure the troublemaker doesn’t get to “frighten” them again? Now that times have changed and it’s apparently OK to dismiss people for saying something you don’t like, an’ all that?
You’re not good on context imo – nothing is happening in a vacuum is it. Your principles are constructed yet you hold them so tight. They appear fragile if they can’t take this stuff.
My principles are so far from fragile that I can cope with hearing unpopular opinions without wanting to get the holders of the opinions sacked. It would be good if yours were equally robust.
You’re dreaming mate – you spent days here moaning about a call to prayer for a God you dont believe in. Lol wake up and be honest at least with yourself.
Gods you don’t believe in can kill you, as a lot of people have found out over the last few thousand years. They may kill you by proxy, via the people who do believe in them, but you end up just as dead. Don’t assume that gods you don’t believe in are trivial, because it’s not true.
I’m aware of your views on Islam but feel free to spell them out for others who may not know.
Islam’s merely the ugliest of them. I wrote “gods” plural for a reason – the Christian ones have probably clocked up a bigger body count than Allah over the centuries, especially when you take the Americas into account. There have been plenty of others.
Influencers – this phenomenon is beyond me. This is a good article. Gives the vegan haters some good material and by jeeze they need it ha ha ha. Fishgate.
“Not only was Mendoza promoting a restrictive diet that was making her sick, she was extolling dangerous practices, such as 25-day water fasts, to her millions of followers. And she is far from the only influencer promoting extreme eating. Jordan Peterson, a prominent psychologist, has been outspoken about his all-beef diet, claiming it cured his depression and his gum disease. (Unfortunately, it hasn’t cured his pseudo-intellectual prattling.)”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/26/the-furore-over-the-fish-eating-vegan-influencer-is-a-warning-to-us-all
Fortunately Peterson also makes it clear it’s a diet he has found addresses specific issues his family have encountered over the years. Nowhere does he recommend or promote it as a generally good idea. Indeed whenever someone does ask him about, he says it’s a restrictive and onerous diet he doesn’t like much at all.
Incidentally gum disease has been recently implicated in Alzheimers:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2191842-gum-disease-may-be-the-cause-of-alzheimers-heres-how-to-avoid-it/
So maybe the author of this smear by association piece has it entirely backwards.
thanks for that – alzheimers eh – not good – I certainly wouldn’t wish that on him and i can’t imagine a journalist doing this connection thing you’ve bought up – it appears you’ve connected those dots all by yourself 🙂
Yeah, look after your gums. Gum disease seems to *cause* all kinds of other maladies – heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, pancreatic cancer …
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/gum-disease-and-the-connection-to-heart-disease
and because of this Dental care is cosmetic, not a health care. 🙂
Sabine,
No!!
‘Dental care is not only cosmetic’- it is part of our whole health and well being.
I got a clear message about this two years ago.
In 2016 my teeth got damaged after a boating accident and this was around Xmas and dental care was not carried out until four months later due to ACC hangups, and by then infections had been set in causing blood poisoning that threatened my life and I spend two years after wards getting the teeth fixed with 6 root canals and seven restorations.
Gum abbess infections and resulting blood poisoning from gum infections can destroy anyone’s health, mind and body,.
Don’t let the teeth health be left out of healthcare funding here; – as many cannot afford to pay for dental care.
Irony isn’t your bag is it cleany.
It actually is sort of serious and just becoming known, so cleany felt he would give us the facts Gabby. Taking quite a few sentences to explain it which takes time and a desire to be helpful, just not pass judgment.
That’s good RL. Thanks. I can use that information.
Reposted from last night’s Daily Review..
The rich schools oppose the plan to return education to being a public service for the greater good:
http://www.communityschools.org/
They want:
To be able to charge loads of fees
To be able to make parents buy devices they cannot afford
To pander to internation students
To kick out ‘dumb kids’ that make their schools look bad
**TO RUN SCHOOLS AS A TRADEABLE BUSINESS COMMODITY AND NOT A PUBLIC SERVICE**
To be honest, I trust civil servants to run schools than the red faced reactionary bourgeois hacks that control most boards of trustees, and have their own little networks.
The Hubs are going to shine some light on all the corruption and nepotism that goes on in our education system, and some people dont like that.
millsy
I noticed that the nice Maori woman keen and willing to be a good Board member didn’t get voted in to my local primary school with a catchment of mostly pakeha, and many professionals. Board members came from the public, but the accountant, businessman, the solicitor or solicitor’s wife were the vast majority
( could be both women). So having Boards chosen from the public giving the impression of reflecting the whole community is misleading.
And the middle class are not really open to progressive ideas, they just want their kids to learn get good jobs and know how to be naice. Their standards are derisory, they will want religion and allow any obsessive to prate on; they will want sex education but on the end of a barge pole, or not discussed on a level of personal experience of the youngsters, and the dry facts miss the chance of putting to them that they could take time before experiencing it, be a bit wary of jumping in because others start at 13 or 14. Why not decide for yourself that you will try it out after 18? A suggestion not a sacred promise. There is so much conservatism and also limitation in subjects that the Boards can decide. What they themselves know can form a protective barrier around school subjects and ways, and they are reluctant to allow the other ideas in, or not till everyone else is accepting them.
What has that link got to do with NZ ?
Two separate articles in today’s news on separate topics but they seem to me to point out a common error.
When people try to excuse poor conduct, it does not help to excuse what they said by trying to explain it away by why they said it.
The two events are the Marlborough Federated Farmers’ president, Philip Neal, whose excuse was that he was frustrated at proposed taxation on such as farmers when he slagged beneficiaries as ‘useless’.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/111537528/farmers-share-tax-reform-fears-but-dont-back-beneficiary-bashing
The second is the excuse by the Australian One Nation’s party men who blamed alcohol for their talk about getting the American NRA to fund their party.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/111571472/one-nation-staffers-blame-booze-for-their-nra-boasting
In both cases they spoke unwisely, through frustration or lips loosened by alcohol but what they said still stands. It’s what they said, it’s what they think, it’s what has escaped into the public arena. Excuses as to why they said it don’t retract what they actually said.
They thought it, they said it, it’s the truth outing under stress without the protective cover of equivocation.
This is the story that counters the story of how a woman on a flight to NZ was sexually assulted and nothing was done.
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/journalist-intervenes-after-creep-harasses-teen-seated-beside-him-on-plane/news-story/8fc72dfd7abbf1c4df10a59e673ef8b0
“I went to get a flight attendant and informed her of what was going on. They checked other witness accounts and the head of the flight service (a woman) asked the man to move.
“He resisted then started swearing at me and asked to talk to the boss and the head flight attendant said ‘I’m the boss, this is really serious and we could land the plane’.
“He moved. The attendants checked in with the young woman and wrote up a report.”
Airline staff later gave Ms Chiu and the other woman cards thanking them for stepping in and helping.
This book published in 2001 defines five lines of stress on the world and us. The summary sounds pretty right. Anyone read it?
Five Holocausts by Derek J Wilson
Paperback, 2001, 472pages, very good condition
Reviews:
Derek Wilson?s 10-year labour of love proposes that the world faces ruin through five intertwining apocalypses of human construction: militarism, human oppression, economic destitution, population explosion and environmental destruction.
The five holocausts cannot be understood or dealt with in isolation. The problems are vast and indisputable; uncounted acres of taxpayer gold are thoroughly wasted on armaments, trillions of dollars spin round the world in unproductive speculation, people enslave each other given half a chance, rich nations use vast shares of the Earth?s resources and the environment is in accelerating decline.
The point of a New Zealand-produced book on the subject ? given that none of the above registers in the average Kiwi?s day to day ? is that acting to stop it all is in everyone?s interests. (Alistair Bone Listener reviewer)
This authoritative book gives a clear and thorough overview of the impending global crisis, connecting the constituent parts of the global predicament. Derek Wilson draws attention to many dynamic and hopeful initiatives that are growing in response to the overall challenge and makes an impassioned case for action by government, institutions and society generally.
This is a book with a powerful challenge, packed with vital, thoroughly interesting information. (From the foreword by George Porter, founder and past President of the Pacific Institute of Resource Management, Aotearoa New Zealand)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=2197594
Derek J. Wilson
Yes, I have. Bought a copy a few years ago and read it. Should go back and revisit it soon, just to see if it stands up.
I ‘enjoyed’ the read, being a local publication and very straightforward about the crises we face, but recall thinking it is not for the faint-hearted.
Thanks for the warning Molly. Perhaps one should be like the Oz politicians, take on some whiskies, and then that weakens the effect of the ideas, for a while.
Don’t mean to put anyone off. Probably those who visit this website regularly will find it a good read. Just mean that recommending it to people who aren’t politically active or interested in current affairs might be problematic.
I’ll have to dig it out after renovations and revisit it again. I know I was sufficiently interested enough to have a look for Derek Wilson to see if he was still alive and perhaps publishing or speaking.
I see Whitcoulls have Jordan Peterson’s book back on their shelves. Must have decided it was a silly decision to remove it.
They counted 1 to 12 reasons to put it back up. It’s the new bible for a drifting
generation whose parents have no idea of what principles to tell their children to live by. We are getting into loose hippy ideas of branching out, dropping out,
and making changes, so what do you do – you find some cult figure to tell you.
They had the Vietnam war looming which they were rejecting; we have the end of our world. That would make anyone grab at something like a calf will suck your thumb for comfort.
You nailed it GWS. A distinct lack of leadership and answers in tumultuous times.
I don’t see Peterson as a nasty type right, more a mediator among them. A bloke they identify with who might talk them back from a ledge. He got famous re: the pronoun debate and upset a lot of left wing people. This enamored him with a lot of disaffected right wing youth.
He’s asked them to be introspective. I like that, far cry from blaming immigrants for everything. He’s taken on their nihilism with instructions for self-responsibility.
And people mock his readers like slow children – for trying not to be nihilistic butt-heads. There’s a lot worse types out there they might have glommed on to.
I also rate his lectures on the bible stories. I’ve not read his recent book.
Is it in the fairytale section now beewee?
Nah, it’s next to Marie Kondo’s latest. Does this spark joy? I know someone’s laughing.
Yep, right next to Mein Campf fairies in the garden
Audrey Young has been absent from writing her column since the christchurch massacre. Maybe she has been on leave? Her chosen topic for her first article is about Winston Peters supposedly falling asleep in Turkey.
The msm bias against the Coalition, Labour and Ardern is so very obvious right now.
I heard a woman ring in while out driving and give a robust account of how disgusted she was with Shorn Plunket’s pre-show blurb on Winston, you could apply her concerns to almost every host they have on that particular station now – with the slight exception that Brendan Telfer did play devil’s advocate on occasion to contest their rabid opinions.
She called it “talk at” rather than talk back and she is 100% correct.
Sadly Telfer is only a fill in for a couple of weeks for the equally horrible Peter Williams – his lack of experience shows as well but that seems no bar for a station who chose him for his familiar name and allow their hosts to push their personal barrows with contentious subjects in a very one-sided way.
A man dead from what seems to be a self inflicted stab wound – after refusing to surrender to Police. Cache of arms found on dead mans property after public tip off.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/resident-says-he-heard-gunshot-in-overnight-incident-suburban-christchurch
There is nowhere near enough information. It seems a suicide in preference to giving himself up. IF this is so, it is a very extreme reaction, and this guy was maybe up to something very nasty and/or is hiding other nasty people and designs.
IF he killed himself rather than give up.
Another scenario is that he was hurt by someone else, but that makes no sense in light of the standoff. If a so called associate tried silence you, you’d have second thoughts about dying to protect them.
Wild speculation. Not facts at all.
All those firearms and he stabs himself???
Thread about how the evil fuckers and their mates in the poisoning business are determined to kill every damn thing.
https://twitter.com/EricLiptonNYT/status/1110522380550590464
https://tttthreads.com/thread/1110522380550590464.html
http://archive.li/B7RdC
But Killary!
How the fuck any person with an ounce of intelligence can say this current administration is as good as what might have been, had there not be an electoral college to stuff up the popular vote, I will never know.The environmental vandalism that has been carried out by t.rump and “friends” is unbelievable. This is just another sick instance of short term profit for a few takes precedence over all else.
Interesting books I have come across on Trade me. The first one is major along with climate change in its harsh effects on us if we can’t mobilise to think how we can manage. No-one else will! And the book by Derek J Wilson above talks about 5 holocausts we are facing. These books relate to all sorts of strife we are noticing.
“I am writing from inside the tech bubble to let you know that we are coming for your jobs.” So begins Andrew Yang’s book,
The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future.
Despite the tagline, this isn’t fundamentally a book about Universal Basic Income (UBI). It’s about the market, and our attitude towards it….It isn’t simply the case that American society is separating into strata, Yang argues, but that the elites are consciously working to put the rest of society out of work.
The sectors where “normal” people tend to work—administration, retail, food service, transportation, and manufacturing—have high levels of repetitiveness and are highly susceptible to automation. Since competition in these sectors is quite fierce, companies are sooner or later forced to automate to keep up with their competition. Once a single competitor automates, the others must follow. In many cases, automation is not only cheaper, but also produces better products or services. The natural result is, as Yang relates through conversations he’s had with people in the tech industry, a race to make “normal” people redundant….
Keeping At It
The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
by Paul Volcker and Christine Harper
Paul Volcker has devoted his life’s work to public service and the critical importance of open, disciplined and efficient government. As chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987) he literally rescued the American economy from destroying itself, summoning the courage to take radical and controversial steps to slay the inflation dragon.
And whenever the going got really tough–the financial crash of 2008, the need to reform banking, the oil for food UN scandal, the turmoil in Switzerland over theft of Holocaust victims, cheating in Major League Baseball–US presidents and other leaders said to ‘get Volcker in here to help me work this thing through.’…
http://fortune.com/2018/10/30/paul-volcker-book-review/
Lost Enlightenment S. Frederick Starr
In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia’s medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds–remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world.
Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia–drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects.
They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth’s diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world’s greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America–five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impac ..
new green deal is extinct.
https://twitter.com/RyanMaue?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1110591219804049408
AOC and Waleed Shahid are much too kind to Mr Lee. The other posters are vastly more hilarious.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-lee-green-new-deal_n_5c9a64aae4b072a7f6006c44
edit: normally I just shitcan the autoplay video as soon as it starts, but this one’s worth watching.
There’s a disturbance in the force;
https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1110583992938450944
+ 1 x 3
Thanks you three.
I thought that vid was as a parody at first Andre – bloody hell. And mark hamill is cool. Enjoyed visiting his Twitter feed- that one about t.rumps signature was good.
Thinking about it a bit, I’ve started to wonder if there’s a hidden message in that photo of a bunch of babies all the same age and fairly clearly mixed parentage. Y’know, Mike Lee being a libertarian-leaning Mormon an all.
Just dormant poisson.
There is no housing shortage.
And inevitably, just as predicted, the over supply of houses is leading to perfectly good houses being demolished.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/111576642/saving-surplus-houses-from-demolition-is-helping-solve-housing-crisis
This is only the beginning
The wanton destruction, can only accelerate as more and more un-affordable new houses reach completion and can’t find buyers.
It won’t be much longer before newly built homes will also go under the wrecking ball.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-ghost-house-epidemic-and-the-invisible-hand/#comment-1188477
We must not allow this
What is really needed is a government prepared to do what they did in Vancouver,
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/vancouver-bc-wields-7450-a-day-fine-in-crackdown-on-empty-homes/
The failure of the Left and the cowardice of the Centrists.
Green New Deal blocked. Democratic Senators abstain, (four voted against it).
How many votes did AOC get in her constituent like 15k. She’s about 70 million votes short of getting legislation across the house floor. Perhaps she should learn her craft first before assigning blame to others.
In fact it is remarkable that AOC has a seat in Congress at all.
Usually money from corporate donors to fund your campaign is needed to win a seat, in the US congress.
Corporate backers that “most” Democratic Senators can’t afford to offend.
The Democratic Caucus know what needs to be done. This is shown by the fact, that “most” didn’t vote against the Green New Deal. That they didn’t actively vote for it, shows that they are afraid of offending their corporate sponsors.
https://splinternews.com/democrats-who-swore-off-corporate-campaign-donations-ar-1830082624
What a cop out. How about using her position to lobby congress people instead of buying them off before she goes off half cocked proclaiming that America should give up air travel. Finger waving and facial features do not make up for a lack of support.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4
There should be a story about there not being a complaint process for the common person to make. Police Station have no complaints procedure that actually works.??????????????
snonky housing short has worked a treat one can not even rent a furniture storage in Rotorua I new that was going to happen that + no housing to rent. What a joke Ka kite ano link below
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11630414
Jenny Eco Maori says it about time the government made laws to make the wealthy rent out the house they buy make them rent them out to the POOR COMMON PEOPLE. KA KITE ANO
I go to the gas station this morning and Eco Maori get a funny smell then I look around for the sandflys stalkers and sure enough there it is a 6 3 bald man peeping at me from behind the petrol pump. You see whanau were ever I go the sandflys are stalking here is a photo of one of there stalkers cars stalking me now. Ka kite ano.P.S the setting on. My phone are playing up when I get the bad smell it means they intend to ATTACK ECO MAORI
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/F4sNi2PUiWM
Don’t believe all the negative stories the oil barron have commissioned against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s the WEALTHY are shaking in their boots because of her MANA WAHINE Kia kaha Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/28/dogs-can-smell-when-seizures-are-about-to-begin-scientists-
find
https://youtu.be/m5M8vvEhCFI
The fear they feel is probably what is behind the latest rule changes designed to keep popular progressive representatives like Ocasio-Cortez, out.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/28/progressive-caucus-rips-dccc-attack-primary-challengers-slap-face-democratic-voters?
https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2019/mar/27/people-are-dying-ocasio-cortez-delivers-fiery-speech-on-climate-inaction-video link for my story above people are dieing because of climate change the rich try and put a spin on the subject and call us leftys greens intelligent people Elite’s look in the – – – mirror BOY Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub It’s sad to see that humpback whale tangled with old fish gear mabe Dock could have a hot line so when the public see a issue like that with our wild life they can report it.
That beluga whale is a beautiful looking creature I miss the story on them. I know someone who has payed 10000 deposit on getting a new roof as far as I know he is still waiting 3 months later for his new roof I offered to help him but know some people have no scrupulous. I seen that Ruaumoko is waking up in Mexico.
Tawhirirmate is very powerful Mike Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Te ao Maori News its good to see that there was a good atmosphere in Christchurch today.
I that was a awesome sung NZ ational anthem I think you have a few songs on YouTube that I listened to. Poor Hine got it when she sang the Maori ational anthem in England at a All Blacks test Mana Wahine. I say if tangata whenua te reo is receiving GREAT Interest than Kapa Haka is receiving the same KA PAI.
Aroha is Nice but I want justice and Equal rights Equality. P.S you media people know how much attention the Authorities are paying to ECO MAORI subjects What I am getting at is everything I say is True you know the old saying the best trick the devil has pulled is no one believes it exists even when its ight in front of our EYES
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/1SN7Pko_jCM
AT I HAVE A ASULT ON MY FREEDOM EVERYDAY OF THE YEAR JUSTICE EQUALITY WHAT A JOKE
Some things go missing from my house quite regularly can you guess who muppets.
https://youtu.be/tgVVG5EknuI
These sandflys are using all the dirtiest tricks in their little books to try and stop Eco Maori but know I have something they know Eco Maori is UNTOUCHABLE Ka kite ano
https://youtu.be/Yd2T3o-Ybow