Another beautiful sunny morning in North Welly. Not sposed to last though. I can see grey clouds moving in from norwest. A week of gardening & lawn maintenance, some new plants in, including marigolds, so a couple of warm rainy days will be just the ticket. 👍🏼 🐧
Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are nowhere near as accurate as traditional RT-PCR tests when it comes to detecting the virus behind COVID-19 but they have their place, Kiwi scientists behind a new study say.
The Government announced on Thursday an end to its year-and-a-half-long ban on point-of-care RATs. Associate MInister of Health Ayesha Verrall said while we were trying to eliminate the virus "the cost of missing a case was too high", so the Government wanted every test to be via the ultra-accurate but slow RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or PCR), a type of nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT).
I just don't know what to say in response to India Willoughby.
I am sorry she got trolled for her appearance, but it doesn't seem to have given her any empathy. These "butch lesbians" should be free to dress how they want, knowing they are lesbian and knowing the are women, not men.
and as always, one of the core problems here is how to talk about this without throwing trans people generally under the bus. Women need to be free to talk about what is going on, and the active suppression of that has led to a really skewed debate. So I will spell it out: not all trans women (obviously)*, and trans people have the same right to human rights as everyone else (also obviously). Supporting trans people in their rights is part of progressive politics. The above isn't progressive.
That gender identity politics now positions itself as speaking for trans people is part of the problem, because there is no way in hell that women are going to let the above tweet stand without challenge. Lefties and liberals need to get a grip and step up and push back on that bullshit instead of attacking gender critical feminists.
*or men for that matter, which apparently still needs spelling out.
Women need to be free to talk about what is going on, and the active suppression of that has led to a really skewed debate. So I will spell it out: not all trans women (obviously)*, and trans people have the same right to human rights as everyone else (also obviously). Supporting trans people in their rights is part of progressive politics. The above isn't progressive.
I agree. I've stopped posting along the lines of this obvious paragraph because it is ignored, but it remains true.
The arrogance of telling women how to women, seems a common thread in protests and other silencing actions. Seems to be done without any sense of irony or self-awareness.
I read that they were trolled in the Wikipaedia link.
Have been thinking about India's comments some more. Its like they are trying to erase lesbians, the butch ones anyway. The implication is they are really trans women who don't have the guts to become men. What a bloody cheek.
To be honest, I find this very offensive. I grew up with someone who was what we called a tom boy. Hated dresses, dolls, wanted to do all the "boy" things. There was never any real pressure on her to be more girly. It was very much accepted. And what a surprize she grew up to be lesbian. Not quite butch, but always clear she was a girl then a women…….not a man or boy. She's a women and is being her self with clothes, sexual orientation etc.
I try to stay out of the trans wars. Except when I see this. Men fucking ragging on women for not living up to their expectations? Despicable behaviour from someone who wouldn’t want to be picked on for their appearance.
Sadly shows how far trans rights have moved from feminism and lgb rights
Brother-in-law's father died yesterday after being hospitalised with Covid. (Treatment they gave caused internal bleeding which they were unable to stop. Will be looking to see if gets recorded as a Covid fatality.)
These statistics will be given faces for many of us over the coming months, I'm sure.
Don't know really, family still reeling. Family were isolating at home after one member tested positive. AFAIK, three household members tested positive, with the Dad going in for hospital care.
Posted initially just to say that many of us will have faces to go along with these numbers that are released each day. It is likely a few of us will have personal connections with the statistics.
So sorry. Was thoughtless of me to query you about that.
I truly hope Jacinda re thinks the plan to open the border. The new variant has mutated to such a degree I wont be surprised if they find the vaccine has little effect on it.
And you're right. It will, if it hasn't already, be affecting us all personally before long
Molly, so very sorry to hear that. Yes you are correct. Some of us feel "safe" in our bubble, but that is likely to be tested in the next while, and we will watch the numbers with growing anxiety. This is always a worry for family already on treatment for other conditions. A terrible tragedy for your family. Keep well Molly, and thank you for your brave post. I suggest a family video of the life, so family too young now will see their relative.
Sympathy from our family to yours Molly.
That's devastating Molly. I hope your family find a good way of gathering all that was good about that person and sharing it. Funerals at this time are such stunted affairs.
Sad news for you and your family Molly. I hope this brings you all together in both sorrow and hope. Look after each other – and know that we're here for you too if needed.
There is smoke in the air and rubble on ground after days of rioting and arson attacks in Solomon Islands capital of Honiara.
Businesses, schools and even the Prime Minister's residence were set alight and looted by protesters during three straight days of civil unrest.
Now people are struggling to restock food supplies, and there are queues at ATMs and petrol stations as the extent of the crisis begins to take its toll.
So while the ADF will be present at the request of the Solomon govt, the irony is that this is a pro-CPP govt. At the same time there are many hundreds of PRC citizens who are understandably looking for protection and possibly evacuation. If the PRC sends ships into Honiara for this purpose it will demand close cooperation with the ADF to avoid misunderstanding and confrontation.
And right now close cooperation between Canberra and Beijing is a big ask. The risks of this escalating must be of deep concern to everyone in the South Pacific right now.
Where is mao smith in all of this? Surely this is the work of western imperialist agitators who no have no understanding of the benevolence the ccp can bestow on its “friends” and those minorities “in its historical realms”
To be fair this crisis lies at a very messy intersection between tribalism, a weak government, and a geopolitical landscape in turmoil. If this one falls apart it won't be pretty and NZ will not remain aloof.
This is interesting, a group with long term monitoring and data in regards to heart health has seen significant increases in markers that infer increased risk of heart issues post vaccination.
Without gainsaying or pre-empting any conclusions on this – this is just an abstract and lacks some important data.
The way I look at signals like this is that they should not be ignored. If there is only a small, say 10% chance, of the eventual paper being correct – it would have very severe implications. On the other hand it's too soon to call on it.
working the phone for somebody else is what a corporate shill does. luxom doesnt even want an election on tuesday, wants to be made boss without asking. needs to get on with privatising things. big corp needs a mouthpiece.
Stephen D (10) … That would guarantee a Luxon/Key Nat leadership, because Key would be pulling Luxon's strings from behind the scenes no doubt. If Luxon is allowing someone else to do his work for him at this stage, then he’s weak!
After quitting the game halfway through a term in 2016 and as a past Nat leader and former PM, Key needs to butt out doing anyone’s 's lobbying for leader.
"If Luxon is allowing someone else to do his work for him at this stage, then he’s weak!"
Totally agree. A strong PM – regardless of their political leanings – earns the right to be elected after proving their mettle for the job.
Two PM's on opposite sides – Rob Muldoon and Helen Clark are cases in point. I despised Muldoon but acknowledge he earned the right to be elected in 1975. So did Helen Clark in 1999.
If Luxon thinks he can just walk into the job by relying on someone else to do the running for him then he is not fit to be a PM.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Your problem now is that not only will I ban you from all my posts if you troll like that again, but you are now on my radar for being a troll generally. I want disagreement under my posts, but it has to relate to the post and mean something. This is a political blog, we expect people to make political arguments and engage in debate. If you want to drop random reckons that suggest you didn’t even bother reading a post, try FB and see how you get on. You try and bait me again over feminism instead of posting something meaningful, expect a ban site wide. – weka]
The default defence…'trolling'…my allegation of femmesplaining relies 100% on your criteria of what 'mansplaining' is.
I realise now, that when you start threads,they are only for the 'faithful'…I can tell you, I have no wish to comment on any topic you originate ,on the basis that you will use your power as a moderator in an extremely prejudicial and blatantly, oppressive ,intolerance of people who do not accept your viewpoint.
you're certainly entitled to your opinions Blazer, and you can by and large express them on this site. What you can't do is troll, and calling a feminist on her post post a femmesplainer without saying how or why is in fact trolling. There's no substance there to respond to, there's no politics, there's just a lazily thrown out slur.
Mansplaining is a known phenomenon. If you want coin the term 'femmesplainer' you have to be able to explain what it means.
And, seeing as how you brought it up, sexism isn't symmetrical in the way you imply. Just because mansplaining is a thing, doesn't mean that there is automatically such a thing as femmesplaining. That you think I was doing the female equivalent of mansplaining, instead of setting boundaries on my own post, tells me you don't actually understand what mansplaining is.
You came into my post, made an assertion that didn't make sense on the context of the post, I pointed this out the problem and your next comment wasn't to talk about the politics you had raised or I had written about, but to instead take a pop at me, that my post wasn't clearly written.
The reason I don't tolerate this kind off approach on my posts is because it is well known in feminism and it's just a basic derail.
You are also wrong to believe that you cannot disagree with me. You can, you just need to have an actual argument. Put one up and then I'll respect what you are saying even if I disagree. There are plenty of people in that thread that I disagree with, but it's only you that got mod attention. Consider that it's about what you did.
1-'femmesplaining'-'mansplaining' is a known phenomenom…really..so you believe in equality I presume=the criteria you applied to accuse someone of …'mansplaining' can logically be applied to its equal and opposite..'femmesplaining'..whether or not you accept that as ..'known' is completely moot.
2-'made an assertion that didn't make sense on the context of the post'
That is merely your OPINION..nothing more ,nothing..less.,
' because it is well known in feminism and it's just a basic derail.'
O.K please understand that what is 'well known in feminism' is NOT well known in …general.
'There are plenty of people in that thread that I disagree with, but it's only you that got mod attention'=what relevance is that!
Your reply to Gezza was quite benign compared to your response to me.
Quite frankly the you are guilty of the very crimes you rail against as a feminist..imo.
Not most people, imo. Women are simply starting their own businesses & young women are noticing that that’s the way to get around the male-centric gender pay gap, for example. Work for a female boss.
In the Public Service there’s a requirement for 50% of CEOs to be female. My stay i hospital showed as many doctors are females as males. I don’t think there’s a gender pay gap there. As I found, when I decided to copy my thank you email to the ward doctors and staff and ancillary staff who looked after me during my recent two week stint in Welly Hospital, to the CEO of Wellington’s CCDHB, THE CEOs a woman.
But weka’s right, if you comment & its only to attack someone (or e.g. childishly call them a nasty name like “roll-on deodorant” based on their appearance, not their politics or policies) you probably won’t last long here.
Supporters of the law say their goal is to save the life of every embryo, regardless of the circumstances of conception.
“We never advocate taking a life of an unborn child unless it is necessary to protect the life of a woman,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life.
Even in cases of rape or incest, “we don’t advocate for taking the life of an unborn child for the crime of the father,” he said.
The law’s supporters say that it provides sufficient leeway for physicians to act if a mother’s life or bodily functions are compromised, and they insist those cases are rare.
Dr. Ingrid Skop, an obstetrician in San Antonio who belongs to the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said that even a girl as young as 9 or 10, impregnated by a father or a brother, could carry a baby to term without health risks.
“If she is developed enough to be menstruating and become pregnant, and reached sexual maturity, she can safely give birth to a baby,” Dr. Skop said.
The only way you can lose your immunity in Russia is if you're caught with either a dead elk or a live reporter.
Russia’s State Duma has voted to deprive a Communist MP of his immunity from prosecution after police found the dismembered remains of an elk in the boot of his car.
Valery Rashkin, who recently led protests against the Kremlin over alleged election fraud, could face criminal charges for illegal hunting and may also be stripped of his seat in parliament.
Police say officers discovered the animal remains during a traffic stop in the Saratov region in October. Rashkin also faces punishment for refusing to take a breathalyser test, Russian prosecutors said.
Open access notables Via PNAS, Ceylan, Anderson & Wood present a paper squarely in the center of the Skeptical Science wheelhouse: Sharing of misinformation is habitual, not just lazy or biased. The signficance statement is obvious catnip: Misinformation is a worldwide concern carrying socioeconomic and political consequences. What drives ...
Mark White from the Left free speech organisation Plebity looks at the disturbing trend of ‘book burning’ on US campuses In the abstract, people mostly agree that book banning is a bad thing. The Nazis did us the favor of being very clear about it and literally burning books, but ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has undergone a stern baptisim of fire in his first week in his new job, but it doesn’t get any easier. Next week, he has a vital meeting in Canberra with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, where he has to establish ...
As PM Chris Hipkins says, it’s a “no brainer” to extend the fuel tax cut, half price public subsidy and the cut to the road user levy until mid-year. A no braoner if the prime purpose is to ease the burden on people struggling to cope with the cost of ...
Buzz from the Beehive Cost-of-living pressures loomed large in Beehive announcements over the past 24 hours. The PM was obviously keen to announce further measures to keep those costs in check and demonstrate he means business when he talks of focusing his government on bread-and-butter issues. His statement was headed ...
Poor Mike Hosking. He has revealed himself in his most recent diatribe to be one of those public figures who is defined, not by who he is, but by who he isn’t, or at least not by what he is for, but by what he is against. Jacinda’s departure has ...
New Zealand is the second least corrupt country on earth according to the latest Corruption Perception Index published yesterday by Transparency International. But how much does this reflect reality? The problem with being continually feted for world-leading political integrity – which the Beehive and government departments love to boast about ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
A new Prime Minister, a revitalised Cabinet, and possibly revised priorities – but is the political and, importantly, economic landscape much different? Certainly some within the news media were excited by the changes which Chris Hipkins announced yesterday or – before the announcement – by the prospect of changes in ...
Currently the government's strategy for reducing transport emissions hinges on boosting vehicle fuel-efficiency, via the clean car standard and clean car discount, and some improvements to public transport. The former has been hugely successful, and has clearly set us on the right path, but its also not enough, and will ...
Buzz from the Beehive Before he announced his Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced he would be flying to Australia next week to meet that country’s Prime Minister. And before Kieran McAnulty had time to say “Three Waters” after his promotion to the Local Government portfolio, he was dishing ...
The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing that unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%. There are now 99,000 people unemployed - 24,000 fewer than when Labour took office. So, I guess the Reserve Bank's plan to throw people out of work to stop wage rises "inflation", and ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular reforms in water and DHB centralisation ...
Completed reads for January Lilith, by George MacDonald The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, by Anonymous The Lay of Kraka (poem), by Anonymous 1066 and All That, by W.C. Sellar and R.J. ...
Pity the poor Brits. They just can’t catch a break. After years of reporting of lying Boris Johnson, a change to a less colourful PM in Rishi Sunak has resulted in a smooth media pivot to an end-of-empire narrative. The New York Times, no less, amplifies suggestions that Blighty ...
On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth.Genesis 6:11-12THE TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS that dumped a record-breaking amount of rain on Auckland this anniversary weekend will reoccur with ever-increasing frequency. The planet’s atmosphere is ...
Buzz from the Beehive There has been plenty to keep the relevant Ministers busy in flood-stricken Auckland over the past day or two. But New Zealand, last time we looked, extends north of Auckland into Northland and south of the Bombay Hills all the way to the bottom of the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters When early settlers came to the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers before the California Gold Rush, Indigenous people warned them that the Sacramento Valley could become an inland sea when great winter rains came. The storytellers described water filling the ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins ...
Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins has changed everything, and Labour is back ...
Over the last few years, it’s seemed like city after city around the world has become subject to extreme flooding events that have been made worse by impacts from climate change. We’ve highlighted many of them in our Weekly Roundup series. Sadly, over the last few days it’s been Auckland’s ...
A ‘small target’ strategy is not going to cut it anymore if National want to win the upcoming election. The game has changed and the game plan needs to change as well. Jacinda Ardern’s abrupt departure from the 9th floor has the potential to derail what looked to be an ...
When Grant Robertson talks about how the economy might change post-covid, one of the things he talks about is what he calls an unsung but interesting white paper on science. “It’s really important,” he says. The Minister in charge of the White Paper — Te Ara Paerangi, Future Pathways ...
The news media were at one ceremony by the looks of things. The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and his deputy were at another. The news media were at a swearing-in ceremony. The country’s leaders were at an appointment ceremony. The New Zealand Gazette record of what transpired says: Appointment of ...
I n some alternative universe, Auckland mayor Efeso Collins readily grasped the scale of Friday’s deluge, and quickly made the emergency declaration that enabled central government to immediately throw its resources behind the rescue and remediation effort. As Friday evening became night, Mayor Collins seemed to be everywhere: talking with ...
They called it an “atmospheric river”, the weather bombardment which hit NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a terrible toll on metropolitan Auckland and the rest of the region. Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was ...
I know, that is a pretty corny title but given the circumstances here in the Auckland region, I just had to say it. The more oblique reference embedded in the title is to the leadership failures exhibited by Mayor Wayne Brown and his so-called leadership team when confronted by the ...
How much confidence should the public have in authorities managing natural disasters? Not much, judging by the farcical way in which the civil defence emergence in Auckland has played out. The way authorities dealt with Auckland’s extreme weather on Friday illustrated how hit-and-miss our civil defence emergency system is. In ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The recent leadership change in the governing Labour party resulted in a very strange response from National’s (current) leader, Christopher Luxon. Mr Luxon berated Labour for it’s change of leader, citing no actual change.As ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 22, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 28, 2023. Story of the Week New Study Reveals Arctic Ice, Tracked Both Above and Below, Is Freezing LaterClimate change is affecting the timing of both ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It was another ‘SHOCK! HORROR!’ headline from a media increasingly venturing into tabloid-style journalism:Andrea Vance’s article seemed to focus on the "million dollar sums from the Government as the country grapples with a housing ...
Dr Brian Easton writes: It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some ...
What Was the Prime Minister Reading in the Runup to Election Year?It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. ...
In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
Airstrikes ordered against civilian targets, destruction of thousands of buildings, millions displaced, nearly 3000 civilians murdered, more than 13,000 jailed, the country’s independent media banished, and the country locked in a deadly nationwide civil war. Myanmar civilians now ask what else must happen before they receive international support in line ...
By Nick Young of Greenpeace My family and I are lucky to have come through it unscathed, but my neighbourhood in Titirangi has been ravaged. Many people here and around the wider region have lost their homes altogether. I’ve seen people’s belongings out on the streets in piles ruined beyond ...
By Jonty Dine, RNZ News reporter While Auckland residents enjoy a brief reprieve from the rain, the rubbish continues to pile up as the full cost of the New Zealand flash floods continues to be counted. Some streets in Auckland are littered with items damaged and discarded from Friday’s freak ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Former Fijian Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was paid $224,792 in bonuses during his term at FBC which began in 2008, the new board chair has claimed. He was due for a $30,000 bonus this year. FBC chair Ajai Bhai Amrit also revealed Sayed-Khaiyum, ...
In additon to the MetService severe thunderstorm warning issued earlier this afternoon for Auckland, Coromandel and the Waikato, the MetService has issued a further update saying it is “ideal thunderstorm weather” in Auckland. Auckland is experiencing very high humidity and MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths says “Today and tomorrow brings us ...
The Green Party co-leader joins Grant Robertson and Nicola Willis in opting not to contest the seat.Just six days after five-term Wellington Central MP and finance minister Grant Robertson announced he would not be contesting the Wellington Central seat and would go list-only at this year’s election, James Shaw ...
The decision turns Wellington into a 2023 battleground, with three brand new faces set to contest the electorate - and Shaw has already thrown his support behind Tamatha Paul. ...
The Wellington Central electorate is set to be a wide-open race, with Greens co-leader James Shaw joining Labour incumbent Grant Robertson in opting against a run for the seat later this year Green Party co-leader James Shaw will not run for the Wellington Central seat at this year’s election, instead ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zahid Shahab Ahmed, Senior research fellow, Deakin University Muhammad Sajjad/AP Earlier this week, a suicide blast ruptured the relative calm that had returned to Pakistan in recent years. The attack at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed ...
Between midnight February 3 and 8pm on February 10, rare photographs of New Zealand writers will be up for auction on the Fairfax Archives website. Books editor Claire Mabey explains.So, what is this auction?As of midnight on February 3 you can bid on pieces of literary history. The ...
The sun might be out, but Aucklanders are being warned another deluge could hit the city as soon as tonight. The city has been in a state of emergency since late Friday evening which is not due to expire until later this week. But while the weather has improved dramatically ...
When the streets flood, contaminated water gets everywhere – including into your clothes and shoes. Here’s why that matters and what to do next. Bernard Hickey, journalist and host of podcast When the Facts Change was “rubbernecking” around Auckland on Friday night. There were puddles everywhere. “They certainly didn’t look ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Nordberg, Senior Lecturer (Applied Ecology and Landscape Management), University of New England Shutterstock Australia’s renewable energy transition has prompted the construction of dozens of large-scale solar farms. The boom helps reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels, but requires large ...
It has, to put it mildly, been a wet one. After record rainfall caused major flooding events and stormwater issues, Auckland is in crisis. Roads, suburbs, parks and homes have been overwhelmed with floodwater, much of which is “blackwater,” meaning it contains faecal matter and other sewage contaminants. So here’s ...
The government has unlocked an additional $700,000 in flood relief for regions most badly hit by recent bad weather. That includes Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland and the Bay of Plenty, with most of the money going toward providing unskilled and semi-skilled jobs for local people who can support the clean-up ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Helps, Research fellow, Monash University Shutterstock Identifying perpetrators of domestic and family violence is critical to ending violence against women. Practitioners across different sectors, including mental health, alcohol and drug services, have a vital opportunity to “screen” clients to ...
Age Concern New Zealand would like to extend a warm welcome to new Minister for Seniors, Ginny Andersen, who takes up the Seniors portfolio from the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall. Karen Billings-Jensen, Chief Executive Age Concern New Zealand, says “We ...
Continuing fuel subsidies despite official and expert advice urging otherwise is focused on helping New Zealanders in the here and now, the finance minister says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University As we enter the fourth year of living with COVID, we are all asking the predictable question: when will the pandemic be over? To answer this question, it’s worth reminding ourselves that a pandemic involves ...
The twitter account for the mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, has posted and deleted an image showing the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, pointing at Brown, who stares back in a tableau that at first glance appears combative. The tweet, which came with a caption describing a meeting between the two ...
The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand later this month, taking in the sights of Palmerston North. Prime minister Chris Hipkins announced the royal will attend the 100th anniversary celebrations for the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief. These ...
PM Anthony Albanese has announced changes to help protect New Zealand-born residents of Australia from deportation, following years of outcry about the toll on so-called ‘501s’. Don Rowe looks at why the policy is so widely reviled. A major shift in Australian immigration policy means the government will now consider ...
King Charles has sent a message to New Zealand following the floods that hit the top of the North Island over the past few days. In a letter shared via the governor general, the monarch said he had been following the news with the “deepest concern” and wanted to pass ...
Dunedin – Following news that the Scottish city of Edinburgh has become Europe’s first capital to sign the Plant Based Treaty, animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent a letter to the mayor of Edinburgh’s ...
New figures reveal just how much living costs increased for households in 2022. Last year was dominated politically by the cost of living crisis, which has carried over into 2023 with inflation sky high and a looming recession on the horizon. According to Stats NZ, the cost of living for ...
Ramari Jackson-Paniora is the daughter of one of the main faces of the 1972 Māori Language Petition – but her relationship with te reo Māori is more complicated than people may assume.My whānau’s journey with reo Māori is typical of many Māori whānau across Aotearoa. Looking at my parents’ ...
After Monday night, the accepted narrative around rugby, sexuality and masculinity will never be quite the same, writes Sam Brooks. If you tuned into Seven Sharp on Monday night, you probably did so unaware that you were about to watch a history-making interview. After a wholesome segment with two ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has apologised for his “drongo” comment about journalists, but defended his decision to stop other councillors speaking out on the night of the devastating floods. In an interview with Newshub’s AM this morning, Brown admitted he shouldn’t have called the media drongos, adding that he will ...
Buller Electricity (BEL), the community owned lines network company that supplies the majority of electricity consumers in the Buller district on the South Island’s West Coast, has lodged a formal legal challenge opposing a 427% price increase in ...
Chris Hipkins says Aotearoa has "some tough calls to make as a country" regarding the future of communities in places vulnerable to extreme weather events. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pii-Tuulia Nikula, Principal Academic, Eastern Institute of Technology GettyImages An increasing number of businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand are changing how they operate to reduce their overall climate impact. These measures, which include reducing carbon emissions, are largely voluntary outside of ...
Increasing prices continued to affect all household groups in the 12 months to December 2022, Stats NZ said today. The cost of living for the average household (as measured by the household living-costs price indexes) increased by 8.2 percent in the 12 months ...
“The recent flooding in Auckland, Northland and the Bay of Plenty has caused chaos and has put people, homes and businesses at risk. It has also decimated huge crops of fruit and vegetables at a time when we are already paying significantly more than ...
The devastating deluge has highlighted the need for urgent climate action – but how likely is that under our current mayor?As a proud, unashamed JAFA, the recent floods literally hit home. Sirens blared nonstop all night Friday and all morning Saturday as a mighty torrent raged outside my window. ...
ANZ has said it will drop home loan interest rates by up to 55 basis points. It comes after yesterday’s employment data was released which showed that unemployment rose to 3.4% in the December, and pay did not rise as much as some economists had expected. Bank economists now expect the official cash rate ...
It’s a popular policy – and we are in an election year after all – but the government’s decision to extend the fuel tax cuts until the end of June has provoked a fair amount of criticism since being announced. Greenpeace told Today FM that while the government had good ...
Likely it be most expensive non-earthquake disaster in New Zealand, a picture is beginning to form about the long term implications of the flooding that will impact the entire country, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Birger Rasmussen, Adjunct Professor, The University of Western Australia Saul Shepstein, Author provided The Pilbara region of Western Australia is home to one of the most ancient surviving pieces of Earth’s crust, which has been geologically unchanged since its creation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Dickie, PhD Candidate in Public Health Nutrition, Deakin University Shutterstock For years, the term “junk food” has been used to refer to foods considered bad for you, and not very nutritious. But junk can mean different things to different ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Daniel, Tutor / Lecturer in Film and Media Studies, Western Sydney University Columbia Pictures “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” ...
Empathetic leadership is not some magical superpower – it’s a necessary skill in a time of crisis.It’s more ironic than rain on your wedding day that we’re having to contemplate the qualities of good leadership two weeks after the formal resignation of Jacinda Ardern. In assessments of the former ...
An international human rights group has called on NZ to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14. Don Rowe explains what’s going on.What’s all this then? The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has criticised the New Zealand government for failing to raise ...
Books editor Claire Mabey and poetry consultant Louise Wallace analyse this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards long (really quite long) list.Here are the books longlisted for the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards (for books published between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2022). We’ve listed them all ...
Ockham longlist announced Once again the dear old Ockhams are the shockhams. The longlist of the 2023 Ockham New Zealand national book awards was announced this morning and much of it is quite crazy, which is to say adventurous and unusual, as well as showing a commitment to deeply boring ...
Wayne Brown's repeated defences of the radio silence from council offices on Friday night miss the point that communications is a fundamental part of an emergency response. ...
Lisa Cross' life has had many twists and turns in her almost 40 years. Now the mum of two says she's never felt better running at the world cross country champs for the first time. When Lisa Cross was an apprentice jockey, she became attuned to the puffs and blows of the ...
The humble egg is in short supply - The Detail looks at the reasons why it's so hard to get your hands on a carton Online auctions for chickens have attracted double the usual number of clicks in recent weeks, amid a nationwide egg shortage. Supermarket shelves have been empty and ...
'Where once the Karepiro chenier hosted dotterel and oystercatcher nests there could soon be sandcastles, and how many cats?' Pat Baskett looks at our ongoing contribution to the Sixth Extinction. It’s tempting to describe this breeding season of the tūturiwhatu (NZ dotterel) at Karepiro Bay on Auckland’s North Shore as a ...
We need to reduce our energy consumption and embrace 'degrowth’, in which we redesign the economy to put human and environmental wellbeing at its centreOpinion: In years gone by, you may have heard the words ‘peak oil’, often intoned with a sense of foreboding, warning us that before long oil ...
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Treasure Island is back, baby, and so are our power rankings. Tara Ward recaps all the big plays from the dramatic first week of Fans v Faves. Treasure Island: Fans v Faves has finally washed ashore, and after hoovering down the first three action-packed episodes, I’m fuller than a weatherman ...
It’s the biggest week in Real Pod history! Jane made her debut in Treasure Island: Fans v Faves and we grill her all about the drama from week one. Why did she put up Micah? How brutal was the wrestling challenge IRL? And what were her concerns about joining Lance’s ...
By Felix Chaudhary in Suva New Zealand-based Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva says that if the coalition government is strong, resilient and lasts, “this will reflect well as a future model for coalitions in Fiji”. “It’s a learning process for a new government and a new democracy and we expect ...
By Finau Fonua, RNZ Pacific journalist Many Pasifika families affected by the flash floods and torrential rainfall that have lashed New Zealand’s North Island over the past few days were braced for more bad weather overnight. With four people dead and hundreds forced out of their homes over the weekend ...
RNZ Pacific A New Zealand-based professor in comparative politics says the Fiji constitution needs to clear up the role of the military. Dr Jon Fraenkel of Victoria University, formerly of the University of the South Pacific, says the 2013 constitution revived the provision that existed in the 1990 constitution which ...
By Repeka Nasiko in Lautoka Fiji’s Media Industry Development Act will soon be reviewed over the next few weeks. Speaking to The Fiji Times in Lautoka on Monday, Minister for Communications Manoa Kamikamica said the review was one of the main objectives of the coalition government when it came to ...
ANALYSIS:By Peter Wilson, political commentator for RNZ News Tuesday, February 7, at 2pm. That’s when New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ parliamentary year begins and he faces National leader Christopher Luxon in the debating chamber for the first question time of 2023. He needs to “Win the House”, ...
Analysis - Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had a dream start with polls showing Labour ahead of National, but now he has to prove himself in Parliament and quickly deliver on his promises. ...
Andrew Kirton has been appointed the prime minister’s staff by Chris Hipkins. He begins the role on February 8, replacing Raj Nahna, who has resigned. Nahna become Jacinda Ardern’s chief of staff after Mike Munro resigned for health reasons in 2019. A former Helen Clark staffer, Labour Party general secretary ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luciano Beheregaray, Matthew Flinders Professor of Biodiversity Genomics, Flinders University Shutterstock As the climate heats up rapidly, many species will struggle to avoid extinction. If they had time, they could evolve to the new environmental conditions. But they don’t. That’s ...
The Labour Party has selected Sarah Pallett as its candidate for the Ilam electorate in the 2023 general election. Sarah has been the MP for Ilam since the 2020 General Election. She currently sits on two Select Committees, is the Chair of the Labour ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madison Williams-Hoffman, PhD Candidate in Environmental Radioactivity, Edith Cowan University WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services By now, you’ve probably heard about a tiny radioactive capsule that went missing from the back of a truck somewhere in Western Australia. ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has welcomed the news that schools will be allowed to reopen from tomorrow morning. The Ministry of Education backtracked on its initial decision to keep schools closed until next week. In a statement, Brown also welcomed the blue sky that had replaced clouds across the super ...
Another beautiful sunny morning in North Welly. Not sposed to last though. I can see grey clouds moving in from norwest. A week of gardening & lawn maintenance, some new plants in, including marigolds, so a couple of warm rainy days will be just the ticket. 👍🏼 🐧
He sounds very content.
He was, Patricia.
Boss Tui. He sang in that tree for hours. Most unusual. Usually they fly between trees for relatively short singing performances.
Countering rapid antigen tests (RATs) are nowhere near as accurate – they're accurate enough when it matters.
Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are nowhere near as accurate as traditional RT-PCR tests when it comes to detecting the virus behind COVID-19 but they have their place, Kiwi scientists behind a new study say.
The Government announced on Thursday an end to its year-and-a-half-long ban on point-of-care RATs. Associate MInister of Health Ayesha Verrall said while we were trying to eliminate the virus "the cost of missing a case was too high", so the Government wanted every test to be via the ultra-accurate but slow RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, or PCR), a type of nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT).
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/11/coronavirus-rapid-antigen-testing-misses-more-than-half-of-positive-cases-kiwi-study.html?
Prominent trans activist says it out loud:
India Willoughby is a UK tv celebrity and presenter.
I just don't know what to say in response to India Willoughby.
I am sorry she got trolled for her appearance, but it doesn't seem to have given her any empathy. These "butch lesbians" should be free to dress how they want, knowing they are lesbian and knowing the are women, not men.
Willoughby is the epitome of the male/TW subculture colonisation of women as a class. Male pattern gaslighting in that tweet.
and as always, one of the core problems here is how to talk about this without throwing trans people generally under the bus. Women need to be free to talk about what is going on, and the active suppression of that has led to a really skewed debate. So I will spell it out: not all trans women (obviously)*, and trans people have the same right to human rights as everyone else (also obviously). Supporting trans people in their rights is part of progressive politics. The above isn't progressive.
That gender identity politics now positions itself as speaking for trans people is part of the problem, because there is no way in hell that women are going to let the above tweet stand without challenge. Lefties and liberals need to get a grip and step up and push back on that bullshit instead of attacking gender critical feminists.
*or men for that matter, which apparently still needs spelling out.
I agree. I've stopped posting along the lines of this obvious paragraph because it is ignored, but it remains true.
The arrogance of telling women how to women, seems a common thread in protests and other silencing actions. Seems to be done without any sense of irony or self-awareness.
Trolled for her appearance?
I read that they were trolled in the Wikipaedia link.
Have been thinking about India's comments some more. Its like they are trying to erase lesbians, the butch ones anyway. The implication is they are really trans women who don't have the guts to become men. What a bloody cheek.
To be honest, I find this very offensive. I grew up with someone who was what we called a tom boy. Hated dresses, dolls, wanted to do all the "boy" things. There was never any real pressure on her to be more girly. It was very much accepted. And what a surprize she grew up to be lesbian. Not quite butch, but always clear she was a girl then a women…….not a man or boy. She's a women and is being her self with clothes, sexual orientation etc.
I try to stay out of the trans wars. Except when I see this. Men fucking ragging on women for not living up to their expectations? Despicable behaviour from someone who wouldn’t want to be picked on for their appearance.
Sadly shows how far trans rights have moved from feminism and lgb rights
Brother-in-law's father died yesterday after being hospitalised with Covid. (Treatment they gave caused internal bleeding which they were unable to stop. Will be looking to see if gets recorded as a Covid fatality.)
These statistics will be given faces for many of us over the coming months, I'm sure.
What was the treatment? Anti clotting medication?
Don't know really, family still reeling. Family were isolating at home after one member tested positive. AFAIK, three household members tested positive, with the Dad going in for hospital care.
Posted initially just to say that many of us will have faces to go along with these numbers that are released each day. It is likely a few of us will have personal connections with the statistics.
So sorry. Was thoughtless of me to query you about that.
I truly hope Jacinda re thinks the plan to open the border. The new variant has mutated to such a degree I wont be surprised if they find the vaccine has little effect on it.
And you're right. It will, if it hasn't already, be affecting us all personally before long
thanks for this insight Molly. Hope everyone else is doing ok.
Thanks everyone. Your kind thoughts are appreciated.
Molly, so very sorry to hear that. Yes you are correct. Some of us feel "safe" in our bubble, but that is likely to be tested in the next while, and we will watch the numbers with growing anxiety. This is always a worry for family already on treatment for other conditions. A terrible tragedy for your family. Keep well Molly, and thank you for your brave post. I suggest a family video of the life, so family too young now will see their relative.
Sympathy from our family to yours Molly.
That's devastating Molly. I hope your family find a good way of gathering all that was good about that person and sharing it. Funerals at this time are such stunted affairs.
"Funerals at this time are such stunted affairs."
They truly are. My favourite brother inlaw died recently. I cold only watch by video link which was appallingly badly recorded. It was just horrible.
Condolences Molly. So sorry for the loss your whanau has suffered.
Hell, that's awful … sympathy & best wishes from my family, Molly.
Sad news for you and your family Molly. I hope this brings you all together in both sorrow and hope. Look after each other – and know that we're here for you too if needed.
So very sorry to hear Molly. Condolences to your family
Bad news Molly
Devastating for close family members
Sorry for your loss.
Seems lately that every day deaths are announced. Grim times.
Interesting, I like the clear statement
Absolutely right, Ben & Fw.
A significant crisis is unravelling in our own backyard:
This has a very messy and byzantine backstory.
So while the ADF will be present at the request of the Solomon govt, the irony is that this is a pro-CPP govt. At the same time there are many hundreds of PRC citizens who are understandably looking for protection and possibly evacuation. If the PRC sends ships into Honiara for this purpose it will demand close cooperation with the ADF to avoid misunderstanding and confrontation.
And right now close cooperation between Canberra and Beijing is a big ask. The risks of this escalating must be of deep concern to everyone in the South Pacific right now.
Looks like a scene setter for more Canberra/Beijing relationship tensions.
Was dumbfounded that Darwin leased their port to China in 2015 for 99 years.
No one seemed too concerned then…as for…now!
Where is mao smith in all of this? Surely this is the work of western imperialist agitators who no have no understanding of the benevolence the ccp can bestow on its “friends” and those minorities “in its historical realms”
To be fair this crisis lies at a very messy intersection between tribalism, a weak government, and a geopolitical landscape in turmoil. If this one falls apart it won't be pretty and NZ will not remain aloof.
This is interesting, a group with long term monitoring and data in regards to heart health has seen significant increases in markers that infer increased risk of heart issues post vaccination.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712
It would be interesting if a comparison was done amongst people who have caught covid.
A rise in endothelial inflammatory markers or a dangerous and potentially fatal endothelial disease….?
https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/41/32/3038/5901158
Maybe a double whammy from both Joe.
Wow, we would be gonners with our problems … explains why people hang on but then succumb.
Without gainsaying or pre-empting any conclusions on this – this is just an abstract and lacks some important data.
The way I look at signals like this is that they should not be ignored. If there is only a small, say 10% chance, of the eventual paper being correct – it would have very severe implications. On the other hand it's too soon to call on it.
A bit of a gold rush at the moment for scientists and researchers wanting to make their mark
There'll be a lot of wheat and chaff to sort through
But it does seem that the short period (up to 2 weeks) monitoring for heart issues may not be enough.
I do hope this won't be neglected in the rush to get everyone vaccinated
Could anyone posting here who read this premium article in The Herald today give us a precis or summary?
The great divide: Why are NZ interest rates so much higher than Australia?
Re the new variant Nu (B.1.1.529).
Interesting that John Key is working the phones for Luxon.
Luxon himself isn’t.
working the phone for somebody else is what a corporate shill does. luxom doesnt even want an election on tuesday, wants to be made boss without asking. needs to get on with privatising things. big corp needs a mouthpiece.
Stephen D (10) … That would guarantee a Luxon/Key Nat leadership, because Key would be pulling Luxon's strings from behind the scenes no doubt. If Luxon is allowing someone else to do his work for him at this stage, then he’s weak!
After quitting the game halfway through a term in 2016 and as a past Nat leader and former PM, Key needs to butt out doing anyone’s 's lobbying for leader.
key is only doing what he is told . key doesnt pull strings, ponytails are his limit. he has always worked for big corp, and still does.
"If Luxon is allowing someone else to do his work for him at this stage, then he’s weak!"
Totally agree. A strong PM – regardless of their political leanings – earns the right to be elected after proving their mettle for the job.
Two PM's on opposite sides – Rob Muldoon and Helen Clark are cases in point. I despised Muldoon but acknowledge he earned the right to be elected in 1975. So did Helen Clark in 1999.
If Luxon thinks he can just walk into the job by relying on someone else to do the running for him then he is not fit to be a PM.
Key has now denied that he has done this. Other Nats say he did.
So to sum up, they're still a bunch of liars, divided.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300464783/national-party-leadership-john-key-says-he-wasnt-making-calls-for-luxon
Guilty of femmesplaining.Leave your thread now.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Your problem now is that not only will I ban you from all my posts if you troll like that again, but you are now on my radar for being a troll generally. I want disagreement under my posts, but it has to relate to the post and mean something. This is a political blog, we expect people to make political arguments and engage in debate. If you want to drop random reckons that suggest you didn’t even bother reading a post, try FB and see how you get on. You try and bait me again over feminism instead of posting something meaningful, expect a ban site wide. – weka]
mod note.
The default defence…'trolling'…my allegation of femmesplaining relies 100% on your criteria of what 'mansplaining' is.
I realise now, that when you start threads,they are only for the 'faithful'…I can tell you, I have no wish to comment on any topic you originate ,on the basis that you will use your power as a moderator in an extremely prejudicial and blatantly, oppressive ,intolerance of people who do not accept your viewpoint.
you're certainly entitled to your opinions Blazer, and you can by and large express them on this site. What you can't do is troll, and calling a feminist on her post post a femmesplainer without saying how or why is in fact trolling. There's no substance there to respond to, there's no politics, there's just a lazily thrown out slur.
Mansplaining is a known phenomenon. If you want coin the term 'femmesplainer' you have to be able to explain what it means.
And, seeing as how you brought it up, sexism isn't symmetrical in the way you imply. Just because mansplaining is a thing, doesn't mean that there is automatically such a thing as femmesplaining. That you think I was doing the female equivalent of mansplaining, instead of setting boundaries on my own post, tells me you don't actually understand what mansplaining is.
You came into my post, made an assertion that didn't make sense on the context of the post, I pointed this out the problem and your next comment wasn't to talk about the politics you had raised or I had written about, but to instead take a pop at me, that my post wasn't clearly written.
The reason I don't tolerate this kind off approach on my posts is because it is well known in feminism and it's just a basic derail.
You are also wrong to believe that you cannot disagree with me. You can, you just need to have an actual argument. Put one up and then I'll respect what you are saying even if I disagree. There are plenty of people in that thread that I disagree with, but it's only you that got mod attention. Consider that it's about what you did.
1-'femmesplaining'-'mansplaining' is a known phenomenom…really..so you believe in equality I presume=the criteria you applied to accuse someone of …'mansplaining' can logically be applied to its equal and opposite..'femmesplaining'..whether or not you accept that as ..'known' is completely moot.
2-'made an assertion that didn't make sense on the context of the post'
That is merely your OPINION..nothing more ,nothing..less.,
' because it is well known in feminism and it's just a basic derail.'
O.K please understand that what is 'well known in feminism' is NOT well known in …general.
'There are plenty of people in that thread that I disagree with, but it's only you that got mod attention'=what relevance is that!
Your reply to Gezza was quite benign compared to your response to me.
Quite frankly the you are guilty of the very crimes you rail against as a feminist..imo.
ok, well I did try. /
pathetic=try ..harder.
No point in your adopting your counterpunching technique here, imo, B. It too quickly deteriorates into hooflungdung shit fights you can’t win here.
Interesting perspectives in this Guardian article – which also covers femmesplaining or womansplaining:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/06/is-the-term-mansplaining-sexist-google-autocomplete
Interesting link…Gezza.
The reality is …'who cares'!
Outside of here – this blog, you mean?
Not most people, imo. Women are simply starting their own businesses & young women are noticing that that’s the way to get around the male-centric gender pay gap, for example. Work for a female boss.
In the Public Service there’s a requirement for 50% of CEOs to be female. My stay i hospital showed as many doctors are females as males. I don’t think there’s a gender pay gap there. As I found, when I decided to copy my thank you email to the ward doctors and staff and ancillary staff who looked after me during my recent two week stint in Welly Hospital, to the CEO of Wellington’s CCDHB, THE CEOs a woman.
But weka’s right, if you comment & its only to attack someone (or e.g. childishly call them a nasty name like “roll-on deodorant” based on their appearance, not their politics or policies) you probably won’t last long here.
Fucking sad, 'Murica.
Aunt Lydia is real.
Supporters of the law say their goal is to save the life of every embryo, regardless of the circumstances of conception.
“We never advocate taking a life of an unborn child unless it is necessary to protect the life of a woman,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life.
Even in cases of rape or incest, “we don’t advocate for taking the life of an unborn child for the crime of the father,” he said.
The law’s supporters say that it provides sufficient leeway for physicians to act if a mother’s life or bodily functions are compromised, and they insist those cases are rare.
Dr. Ingrid Skop, an obstetrician in San Antonio who belongs to the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said that even a girl as young as 9 or 10, impregnated by a father or a brother, could carry a baby to term without health risks.
“If she is developed enough to be menstruating and become pregnant, and reached sexual maturity, she can safely give birth to a baby,” Dr. Skop said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/health/texas-abortion-law-risky-pregnancy.html
https://archive.li/aHKKn
The only way you can lose your immunity in Russia is if you're caught with either a dead elk or a live reporter.
Russia’s State Duma has voted to deprive a Communist MP of his immunity from prosecution after police found the dismembered remains of an elk in the boot of his car.
Valery Rashkin, who recently led protests against the Kremlin over alleged election fraud, could face criminal charges for illegal hunting and may also be stripped of his seat in parliament.
Police say officers discovered the animal remains during a traffic stop in the Saratov region in October. Rashkin also faces punishment for refusing to take a breathalyser test, Russian prosecutors said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/25/kremlin-critic-found-with-dead-elk-in-car-is-stripped-of-immunity?
Chilled
wunderbar…