“the Bill will reduce the Employment Relations Act to a farce and the result will be wages are driven down and employment agreements broken up, with some of the most significant impact being on workers in the public sector.”
And when that does not happen will we see an apology from the author of this post?
Today is a great day for the country.
[lprent: This looks more like diversion trolling than addressing the topic – moved to OpenMike.
Two week ban. One for diversion trolling. The second for wasting my time moving the comments. ]
The ironic thing is labour will get into power and leave most of the changes intact (like most of the changes Roger implemented) – they know its good for the economy
Then again labour is acting mighty strangely lately with all this NZ Power craziness!!!
In relation to ” ‘Cos-I’m-John-Key-can’t-remember-my-last-username”, this is defining. In the archaic meaning of “squire” he was a fellow who was the dependable runner or errand boy of the knight.
Well, no unkindness intended but that’s how the abovenamed strikes me.
And he will be vindicated.
There is no doubt that before that citizen of the Kingdom of Global Banker leaves these now less-lovely shores, he will bestow upon himself The Order Of This That the Other Thing.
The abovenamed will have a true knight to snivel around after !
crmlu
You’re right Labour did blend in NACT type policies. There was a subterranean movement and a lot of aspiring NACTs took over hearts and minds of the Labour faithful in spades. It’s time to forge new approaches which is what is being said each day.
I don’t mind you refusing to print any of my guest post requests. As a Centre Left website you have every right to do so. No website allows posts they disagree with, that’s understandable. And why should you be different? But Lynn, do you really have to bump down my posts on Open mike?
P.S. Saying that. If you did allow more controversial Left of Centre posts. Who knows? You might find you could possibly get more debate and more readership.
the site is unpredictable at times Jenny; comments I make often end up above comments that came before; don’t panic; I read most of your comments, most of the time anyway.
Coincidentally since I put up THIS post on open mike yesterday.
The Herald has published reviews of a new book which details all the pressures that David Lange was put under by the New Zealand state, the permanent heads of the Civil Service, military leaders, and foreign government leaders, to ignore his promise to the electorate. And the dismay these people felt, when Lange, under this onslaught of secret behind the scenes pressure, despite some early vacillation, eventually turned his back on them. That these undemocratic parasites on the body politic have now accused Lange of lying to them. Is just sour grapes. Politics is all about pressure and this time the pressure from below, was greater than the pressure from above.
If only Lange had had the courage and the wit to stand up to the enemy within: Douglas, Prebble, Bassett, Moore, De Cleene and their fanatical mentors in Treasury.
To Morrissey and Rhinocrates et al “If only Lange had had the courage and the wit to stand up to the enemy within: Douglas, Prebble, Bassett, Moore, De Cleene and …….”
He did ! Don’t you remember ? Some time late in 1987 Lange called for a “cup of tea” – meaning he wanted a pause in the ongoing rushed economic reforms to allow for proper consideration of them and their effects.
He was strongly vilified for that, a grouping led by Douglas, Prebble ,De Cleene etc set up the “Backbone Club” which went out publicly – with MSM support – to vilify Lange and his attempts to stop what was going on, when he had realised just how damaging it was. The vilification continued in house in the caucus as well. It was sickening to observe. Disgusting behaviour on the part of the leaders.
During an industrial dispute in Kawerau, provoked when Tasman cunningly appointed an unqualified woman to a machine operating position ahead of several qualified men, Lange came out on the side of the bosses. He said he would never stand with a union that was against employment for women, even when this patently was not the issue.
My view of Lange is that Kirk was the last half way decent Labour PM.
Agreed …. though I don’t judge him QUITE as harshly as the ‘careerists’ that followed and who STILL keep trying to push their barrow (or rather keep doing their best to push SHIT uphill).
At Least Lange had the decency to call for a cup of tea and a lay down – i.e. he recognised the programme was hollow.
Not so others – and unfortunately I now have to include that pathetic munter Robertson amongst that ilk (UNLESS of course he has an epiphany forthwith).
Hey……… btw….. whatever happened to that FanBoi or Fan Club fella?
Haven’t seen it screaching loudly lately in defense of the indefensible. (I guess he/she/it is too busy climbing the ranks and sucking as much rrrrrrrr’s as possible)
Gerald Hensley reinvents history to besmirch the memory of David Lange, and instead of being critical of that cowardly and disgusting behaviour, comments on The Standard concerning this matter are predominantly anti-Labour… Some even claiming Lange wasn’t courageous enough at a time he implemented legislation to ensure New Zealand became nuclear free in spite of huge international and domestic pressures.
You’d have to be seriously gullible to believe what Piggy Muldoon’s former chief adviser has made up to discredit a left wing Prime Minister. In fact you’d likely have to be as deluded as Hensley himself. Let’s instead ask the right wing hack what his advice was on the Springbok tour, the Think Big projects and increasing external debt by 1338% while Muldoon was Prime Minister. Where’s the book accepting that the third National Government was a complete economic, social and political failure for New Zealand?
Giving Hensley’s fabrications the credence they clearly don’t deserve by attacking Labour will only help to promote the idea of removing our Nuclear Free legislation (PDF)… Not that National presently abides by those laws anyway, that’s the end goal for Hensley and the current government. Let’s make something very clear… Like the vast majority of Kiwis, David Lange wanted New Zealand to be nuclear free… Hensley’s lies won’t change that fact one iota.
If only Lange had had the courage and the wit to stand up to the enemy within: Douglas, Prebble, Bassett, Moore, De Cleene and their fanatical mentors in Treasury.
Morrissey
No human being could stand up to that sort of pressure alone. Such pressure can be so intense that you can be ambushed into making decisions that can even go against your own better judgement. Despite it all, Lange did eventually call a halt. And probably wondered “Why on earth did I ever support any of that?” A question that I am sure many principled people finding themselves in similar isolated positions have asked themselves.
To his cost. For David Lange on his retirement, there was no plum sinecure as a director on a board of some well off company or bank, the usual reward for politicians of his stature who do what they’re told.
What was missing was a mass movement that would have supplied Lange with the counter pressure to the neo-liberal tidal wave.
Politics is all about pressure and who can bring it to bear.
“March 21 Novopay debacle solved by restarting computer
Novopay minister Steven Joyce: “We tried everything we could think of. We made sure the plug was in, we ran a virus scan. You know, pretty much everything. And then John walks in this morning munching on his breakfast bagel, and he says ‘Hey, Steve. Have you tried restarting the computer’?”
If in doubt – reboot! – Says it all really. Cure the immediate, though not the cause.
Very symbolic of a NAct agenda, and symbolic of the neo-Lib agenda too.
Keep it up is what I’m DESPERATELY hoping for but they should not be surprised when they disappear up their own arses (as fat and ugly as they may be).
Shades of Monty P/Greed/Sloth explosions in the nature of weapons of mass disgusting
from what I have read of this chap behind The Civilian (beyond a Nicholas Cage article) he appears very capable and creative; now a part of the media furniture for a while, with the hesitant support of his parents.
Here in H.B there is a young woman broadcasting her interesting life and personality to a YouTube audience of hundreds of thousands of people.”Jamies World”. great self-marketing for an aspirant dramatic arts performer or director. could be a few unforeseen consequences.
At least we can be a little pleased for the guy that runs The Civillian. He does help to make the day go with a smile. And as they say Any advertising is good advertising.
Indeed David H.Thank god (no religious inference intended) for Colin Craig being an arse. I hadn’t heard about that hilarious Civilian website until he threw a wee tanty.
The Comedy of Mortification
Kiwi version of The Office struggles along Back Benches, Prime TV, Wednesday 24 April 2013, 10:30 p.m.
Hosted by WALLACE CHAPMAN and DAMIAN CHRISTIE
Politicians: Gareth Hughes (Green), Aaron Gilmore (National), Chris Hipkins (Labour)
After suffering through TV3’s dire The Vote: Is New Zealand a Racist Country?, my big night of television continued with yet another New Zealand current affairs show fronted by a couple of clowns.
These two, although far less self-assured clowns than Espiner and Garner, are, nonetheless, impressive exponents of the comedy of embarrassment. Christie, in particular, came across very effectively as New Zealand television’s very own David Brent. The fact that this was entirely unintentional only made it all the more effective.
In case you haven’t seen Back Benches—and you probably haven’t—it consists of aforesaid clowns (Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie) talking to a panel of three politicians and then walking around the Back Benches tavern in Wellington asking people what they think about what the politicians have said. The politicians are usually pretty relaxed—it seems that ties are banned—and usually acquit themselves quite well. The members of the public, however, are a little more unpredictable. The following is a quick highlights reel of Wednesday night’s episode….
After the politicians have been interviewed, the first person on the roving mike is John Carnegie from Business New Zealand. Predictably, sadly, he vapours pompously about the Labour-Green electricity pricing policy: “We are sending an incredibly bad signal that New Zealand is no longer a safe place to invest.” The crowd reacts to this rant with skeptical murmuring and scattered laughter. Quite apart from his irrational, hysterical words, many people have no doubt noticed that Carnegie looks uncannily like the fat guy in The Office.
Back to the politicians, for their thoughts. This is where not only the intellectual, but the moral calibre of the politicians is often revealed. Chris Hipkins and Gareth Hughes both speak eloquently, but when Hipkins is speaking, Aaron Gilmore hoots and laughs. Such displays of loutish imbecility are, damningly, all that National is capable of; Gilmore’s antics are no different from the antics in Parliament of other National Party thugs, especially Gerry Brownlee. (Talking about people who look like Big Keith…)
Then it’s time for the most unpredictable part of the show: the vox pops. This consists of Damian Christie walking around the tables with his microphone and asking them what they think. This is a nerve-wracking exercise at the best of times, and it’s not helped by Christie’s patent awkwardness….
DAMIAN CHRISTIE: Have you been to Gallipoli for the dawn service? WOMAN: Yes. DAMIAN CHRISTIE: What were you doing over there? WOMAN: Going to the dawn service.
This is met by gales of laughter, some of it shading into outright derision of Christie. Undeterred, however, Christie ploughs on, like an ANZAC soldier struggling doggedly up a Turkish cliff…
CHRISTIE: You’re getting all choked up over it now, aren’t you! WOMAN: Not really.
Bravely, Christie continues to circulate around the room, wielding his enormous microphone, looking for vulnerable drinkers. It’s quite noticeable that people are drawing away as he approaches. He’d better watch himself, otherwise he’s going to make people as nervous as Brian Edwards did with his ambush vox pops in Auckland’s Victoria Park during his short-lived Saturday night horror show a decade ago.
Indeed – don’t encourage them.
I’ve only managed to watch one Backbenches since is commercial transition – just as I have Media3 (once was Media7).
One of the big problems with the commercialisation of these programmes (or should I now call them ‘shows’) is that the continuity is destroyed often by the NEED to ‘take a break’ at as close to set times as is possible – and regardless of interrupting participants trying to make a point.
You’ll notice it on FUX NEWS often – when the left are getting any sort of advantage in an argument….. “we gotta get a break”, etc.
That’s just ONE of the problems! The platform is insidious: whether intended or not – you’ll find Brown, Chapman, Christie et al become victims of the ‘stardom mentality’ that seems to be a necessity in operating on this commercially driven platform.
In both cases (Prime BB, and MW M3), the defense is – it’s better than no BB or M3. I’m afraid not for me.
We are sending an incredibly bad signal that New Zealand is no longer a safe place to invest
It would be followed by an lowering of our credit rating, and a devaluation in currency.
The oil prices being kept artificially high as a deterrant to flirting with currency devaluation, because the inflationary pressure threat would be rammed down everyones throat!
Interest rates would rise, and whats left of the NZ economy will fall out the backdoor. Even with more competitive exports, the current account deficit will keep widening, with a higer cost of borrowing to service the lesser credit rating, leading to higher taxes to service the gowing debt costs!
The NZ Power policy as no chance of getting off the ground,
Because the global banking cartel, has NZ, by the balls!
The effect of NZ Power on private shareholders dividends will be 3 to 4.5% (not accounting for revenue increasing, + 18.6% in 2012). You’re saying that because of a potential 3 to 4.5% reduction in value of dividends going to private shareholders the NZ economy will fall out the backdoor? Get off the grass muzza.
I have to agree with you there CV… After crunching a few numbers it appears NZ Power won’t have much if any affect on power companies profitability or the dividends they payout. However there are savings to be made through better management of current infrastructure, which I think is just as much a problem as the current bidding system that means consumers are paying far too much for electricity that’s relatively cheap to produce.
It appears that Labour and the Greens perhaps knew there would be howls of anger from the right wing regarding NZ Power and so devised a very moderate policy. It certainly isn’t far left “economic vandalism” that some have claimed. Let’s hope that when NZ Power gets up and running (mid to late 2016) they will push the envelope a bit on how much is actually able to be saved for consumers.
Actually Jackal, my intent was aimed at what would likely happen to the housing/retail markets, should interest rates rise from their current. *lows* ??? following a devaluation in our currency, via a ratings mark down!
My commentary was a high level overview of what would happen, as was pointed out, if *a signal that NZ was no longer a safe place to invest*, went out!
Which is what NZ Power will have to contend with, and its creators contend with, before it stands any chance to become airborne!
A wee bit surprised you didn’t zone in on the comment made by one of those ( I don’t know one from the other) aforementioned clowns Morrissey. Never mind. I’ll do it. Came after a quick fire question to the pollies relating to Boston.
Where were the alleged bombers from? Answer given was Chechnya. Answer queried on the grounds (I guess) that Kyrgyzstan had been mentioned in connection to them and their family. And the clown, not remembering the name ‘Kyrgyzstan’ deemed it an an opportunity to pop out the racially loaded ‘Wogistan’ alternate answer.
Not surprised you don’t know one clown from another. After all, they’re all make-uo (courtesy of whatever brand of face paint that’s in vogue these days).
I was just thinking though (after witnessing a hipkins on some Beck Benchas ‘show’ – constructed by a Chapman and a Christie – where the credits were at pains to tell us all who ‘dressed them’) – I was going to suggest he should ‘Moisturise!…. Moisturise!…. Moisturise”.
It may well be his greatest contribution to the Labouring Party
A wee bit surprised you didn’t zone in on the comment made by one of those ( I don’t know one from the other) aforementioned clowns Morrissey.
I heard it, but I didn’t write it down in my transcription notebook, so I’d forgotten it by the time I came to type it up. The clown that said it was (surprise, surprise) the National Party lout Aaron Gilmore.
Never mind. I’ll do it. Came after a quick fire question to the pollies relating to Boston.
Thanks, Bill. You’re a trooper—in the good sense.
Where were the alleged bombers from? Answer given was Chechnya. Answer queried on the grounds (I guess) that Kyrgyzstan had been mentioned in connection to them and their family. And the clown, not remembering the name ‘Kyrgyzstan’ deemed it an an opportunity to pop out the racially loaded ‘Wogistan’ alternate answer.
And no-one batted an eyelid.
It’s not that nobody noticed, or cared. The problem is the format of the show. To remonstrate with that halfwitted National Party thug would have been counter to this show’s enforced mood of frivolity. Earlier in the evening, over on TV3, the same determined dumbing down occurred when Prof. Damon Salesa tried to say something serious during the moronic laugh-fest The Vote.
It wasn’t Gilmore came out with that shit Morrissey. It was one of the presenters – the one who tended to do the wandering around eliciting opinion from attendees.
Gilmore answered with “Chechnya”. One of the presenters was a bit unsure of that as an answer and the other clown kind of dismissively (barely conceiled undertones of ‘they’re all the same and who the fuck cares anyway’) suggested “Wogistan”. Racially, ethnically and religiously fucked up as all hell imo.
John Armstrong is the Peter Dunne of the NZ Herald. Always trying to position himself in the vaccuous centre because he thinks that will may him look sensible, balanced and fair. In reality he’s just another self-serving journo.
Everyone should see the the film ‘Shadows of liberty’; it was on at documentary festival and hopefully will come back to cinemas once finished the festival cycle.
Here it trailer http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=_SAUborWbPw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D_SAUborWbPw
It does show what has happened to the media and examples can be found in New Zealand of all the same issues mentioned in the film.
“John Armstrong is the Peter Dunne of the NZ Herald.”
heh.
It’s a thing. “High Broderism” it’s called, after David Broder who dominated the Washington press corp for lo, many years.
The basic conceit is that some journalists develop a identity of being the caretakers of the discourse. The content of policy, the actual business of politics, becomes a side issue at best; the protection of order, and form, take over. Disputes are seen not as politics functioning as it ought, but as threats to be resolved. ‘Bold policy’ is just a move in a game. They are positioning statements aimed at voter blocks, rather than policies aimed at problems.
What that leads to, though it is never admitted, or even realised I suspect, is that much of the political analysis we see is not analysis of policy, or even of politicians, but of the polis.
The question “How will this policy play in the electorate in terms of votes” is not answered by looking at the effects of a policy, or the reasoning behind it. ie, it cannot be answered by reporting on policy or politicians. It is answered by discussing whose votes might shift, and what it might do in the polls.
The advantage for journalists here is that this is a non partisan endeavor; they aren’t pontificating about whether the policy is good/bad, or whether the politician is honest/mendacious.
Nice link, PB. I think Colin Espiner fits that description too. When many had pegged him as a friend of the left he let loose with the article on Green/Labour policy.
Armstrong’s piece is all about strategy – about The Game. And nothing about what is actually the right thing to do for the majority of Kiwis, and especially for those struggling on low incomes.
It’s a heartless piece. But that’s what “neoliberalism” has done to mainstream political commentary.
small question (and I understand folks are busy)
Why is there no banner/promotion on The Standard for the Day of Action ?
There is just yesterday’s reminder. Seems like a missed opportunity is all.
anyways . . .
You may have voted National, Maori Party, United Future or even Act. That does not deny you your right to voice opposition to their actions as a Government. In fact to succeed in their crimes, they count on your silence and your complicity. Today is your chance to let them know you matter.
If you are not working today, little has greater significance to the future of New Zealand than this simple walk down the street amongst friends.
The crowning of Maurice Williamson as a ‘gay icon’ (by the media at least) has left me somewhat bemused.
Nothing against Williamson. He voted yes for marriage equality and as a result I applaud him. Even more so, he is a member of a conservative party in a rather blue neighbourhood. I have no doubt the pressure on him from those opposing equality was fierce.
His speech was good. Great? That’s debatable. It was loud. It had a few amusing turns of phrase. But it wasn’t necessarily any better than any of the other pro-speeches. Mojo Mathers, for example, gave one of the most stirring speeches I’ve ever seen. So why isn’t she being lauded as a ‘gay icon’?
Perhaps because she isn’t male, white and heterosexual? She doesn’t possess that holy triumvirate that many in society ascribe as being ‘preferable’ or ‘powerful’ or even ‘acceptable’.
Williamson voted down Civil Unions. He says it’s because they didn’t go far enough. That doesn’t wash with me. By that same logic you would deny a starving person a hamburger because it wasn’t steak. Back then those of us who needed legal protection were happy to get it any way we could. We saw civil unions as a secondary class, but it was a class nonetheless. No Maurice, you don’t get a pass on that. You voted tactically there, not with your conscience. Be honest.
Maurice, you’re not an ‘icon’ to this ethnic gay man. You’re a straight white man who voted progressively. You’re not worthy of the kudos that the media is heaping on you for marriage equality. That belongs to those politicians who worked tirelessly for years, decades, to achieve this. Kevin Hague. Louisa Wall. Those are gay icons. Those are the people who should be invited on Ellen. Not you, Maurice.
Stop the interviews. Don’t go on Ellen. Get on with doing your job. Because feeding this ‘gay icon’ fire is just sad to those who know it’s all puffery. You did a good thing. A very good thing. But there’s nothing worse than someone taking credit that isn’t due.
But won’t Mr Key be livid. He had to boyishly grin as he gave approval for the Ellen visit.
But why wasn’t it him! John Key is the man for centre stage, the limelight, the adulation, the autograph hunters, and international spotlight. To have to step back for a lowly Maurice for heavens sake! Hell will blaze for a man back-benched!
My conspiracy theory is that Maurice nixed the trip (I seem to remember him saying he wouldn’t go at first) but that Key pushed him to promote NZ. His talk about the trip now has tourism speak all over it.
But we can assume Key is pissed someone else is getting the limelight…
Some people I know took it upon themselves to inform Ellen de Generes of Williamson’s history on the issue. He was pretty much promoted by the Herald etc because he’s a Tory – just hijacking kudos for NAct. I didn’t think his speech was anything great and the fact that it was lauded all round the world just goes to show oratory has died.
I can see how Ellen might think Williamson would help get the white male heterosexual conservatives in the US onside for the same sex marriage campaign in the US.
However, she totally ignores the impact within NZ.
I agree, Tigger. Mojo Mathers gave the best speech in the 3rd reading of the Bill, as far as I’m concerned – it was about an inclusive family and wider whanau.
From the US point of view, that so many National MPs voted for marriage reform basically identifies them as God-despising family hating bleeding heart liberals who are all going to hell.
hence the “database unavailable” shite a while back.
You should be commended lprent as I’m hoping you are from time to time.
The approach is obviously not the ‘suck it and see’ one found elsewhere.
The outages should have only been 10-20 seconds or so each time.
Upgraded and been through a good solid compacting including old versions of posts and comments. I have corrected all issues with orphaned comments (~200 all up). Deleted about 4 that were in a chain in 2010 where the original comment got deleted and the replies all referred to the original comment.
It is suck it and see some of the time. There are some issues that I can’t test on the development system because of loading differences.
To all marching today…thank you so very much. I can’t be there due to the on call nature of my work but I am with you in spirit and will be following the protests around the country with much interest. I marched up Queen Street with my 84yr old Dad last year and found it very helpful in so many ways. I trust you all will too. Once again, many thanks from those of us unable to be there in body, we are with you.
see, with these subsistence-labour factories like the one that collapsed in Bangladesh it is only the consumer, and their demand for price, that can make the difference; the consumer. A dilemma indeed.
They can be quite delayed and sensationalist these prime-time news bulletins; In context, the last bird-flu killed approximately 370 people world-wide, from memory. That is not to say that something unforeseen might happen if the current strain becomes transmitted human to human.
According to the agonising of the sheep and beef farmer, if they don’t find solutions “they may as well pack it in” according to one representativee.
So, the use of sarin is a “red-line”, a “game-changer” says Obama, yet the US and Co. are being a bit more cautious before rushing in this time it appears.
and according to a commentator on the Auckland transport bind; “cycling (if possible) really does blow all other forms of transport away”.
Doug Sellman is the man to go to concerning the addiction issues NZ faces.
“professional sports are just rife with mental health issues”-Karen Nimmo
“rugby administrators are inconsistent in their enforcement of ‘codes of conduct'”
Rob Nichol, an apologist for big-money sports investment effectively, nonetheless identifies the two big issues professional sports (and those who aspire to participation in the field) face;
-integrity
-mental health of athletes (just consider Susan Devoy; too many shuttles to the head).
I’d like to thank anyone who is marching today against the theft of our national assets. I am unable to be there, but am with you in spirit.
To the scum who wish to sell us out: Kaore e mau te rongo–ake, ake!
Swaps and detivatives rate fixing investigation hits Bank of America Merrill Lynch
After fining banks billions of dollars over the last year for distorting a key interest rate known as Libor, regulators in the U.S. are now investigating whether a more obscure rate in another huge market is also rigged.
The rate, known as ISDAfix, is a benchmark in the $379 trillion market for interest rate swaps, which corporations and governments use to fine-tune their borrowing costs. U.S. regulators have subpoenaed as many as 15 banks and about a dozen current and former brokers at ICAP (IAP), the company that collects the data submitted by banks to set ISDAfix prices, to determine if they’re colluding to manipulate quotes. ICAP said in a statement on April 9 that it had no knowledge of price manipulations by its brokers, and that it is conducting its own inquiry.
It should surprise no one that among the players implicated in this scheme to fix the prices of interest-rate swaps are the same megabanks – including Barclays, UBS, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and the Royal Bank of Scotland – that serve on the Libor panel that sets global interest rates.
Shoddy standards continue to erode the integrity of TVNZ news
Why would anyone trust this television station?
Television One News, Saturday 27 April 2013
Thousands of people turned out on the streets this afternoon to protest against the Government’s plan to flog off our national assets. But not according to one crusty old newsreader on Television One. I switched on my television just after 6:30 this evening to hear this…
Peter Williams: “HUNDREDS of people turned out in marches all over the country today…”
Given the fact that there were hundreds of protestors in Tauranga alone, it seems certain that there were several thousand marchers over the whole country.
Yet someone gave that silly old fool Peter Williams a script that said there were only “hundreds” of marchers nationwide. Or maybe Williams adjusted the figure himself; in light of his many nasty, smug little comments over the years, I would not put it past him to do such a thing.
After that came the preview of the sports news. This was equally abject, equally foolish, equally contrary to reality….
Jenny-May Coffin: “The Blues and Hurricanes have both lost to Aussie opposition. Both games were superb spectacles but the Australian teams were WAY TOO STRONG.”
Yet some genius wrote a script for Jenny-May Coffin to read out that claimed the Australians were “way too strong.” Perhaps it was the same person who claimed there were only “hundreds” of marchers nationwide today.
Are they testing the copy-writers at TVNZ for hallucinogenic drug use? And if not, why not?
I found it strange watching the news – no mention of the Stewart Island oil leaking fishing vessel country of origin – why it ended up on rocks. Just the name Sureste – and a seemingly relaxed Environment Southland – heavy weather had dispursed most of the oil away.
Is this the same Sur Este – one of the Korean-flagged fishing vessels recently in the news for abusing crew?
Here’s an odd thing – an application from the FBI to hack a computer which was denied on the basis that the target computer is outside the territorial limit. I guess it just a Texas judge, so presumably the hacking of Kim Dotcom’s computers must have been issued by someone from the World Court, right?
Dotcom’s house was raided by NZ authorities, not by American. (although the Americans instigated and supervised it). This is also why the NZ courts system has jurisdiction over the incident.
And here’s what we know so far: The CFTC has sent subpoenas to ICAP and to as many as 15 of those member banks, and plans to interview about a dozen ICAP employees from the company’s office in Jersey City, New Jersey. Moreover, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, or ISDA, which works together with ICAP (for U.S. dollar transactions) and Thomson Reuters to compute the ISDAfix benchmark, has hired the consulting firm Oliver Wyman to review the process by which ISDAfix is calculated. Oliver Wyman is the same company that the British Bankers’ Association hired to review the Libor submission process after that scandal broke last year. The upshot of all of this is that it looks very much like ISDAfix could be Libor all over again.
Remember that these private banks are empowered by the central banks, and that the top execs of both move freely between each others organisations at the highest levels.
What’s new? The whole 20th century was one of concentration of capital into giant industrial and banking trusts, combines and cartels.
Its called state monopoly capitalism.
Competition is for losers. You only survive by getting bigger. Once you are big enough you can corner any market, land, finance, oil etc and set up a cartel especially if you can buy the govt. Land is a natural monopoly, but in finance you buy the govt and get it to license you to print money, set interest rates, get bailed out blah blah.
Its not new, its not an aberration, its not corruption, its the way the capitalist system works by outgrowing its competitive origins and using state power to bully all and sundry to accept your monopoly as god’s gift.
The system has to run like this because that’s the only way it can continue to accumulate and concentrate private wealth at the top, i.e. by making sure that only those at the top can compete.
So competition is squeezed upward out of markets, out of national jurisdictions and into international trusts that use the power of their state machines to bully their rivals. Its also squeezed downwards into the surplus population to divide and rule the working class. The result is world wars. US vs China is the current world war in the making.
Even at the beginning of the 20th century such was the fusion of industrial capital and banking capital that Lenin coined the term ‘finance capital’ to express this fact.
Today the term ‘finance capital’ is used to mean ‘money’ or ‘banking’ capital, when in reality it is fused with industrial capital.
As I said none of this is new. The constant surprise expressed by these ‘players’ as to the depth of collusion in business and banking is evidence of their ignorance as to how the system really works.
This sort of learned stupidity is part of the process of legitimating capitalism.
Its not new, its not an aberration, its not corruption, its the way the capitalist system works…
It’s not new, it is how the capitalist system works and it is corrupt.
This sort of learned stupidity is part of the process of legitimating capitalism.
My latest thought on the matter is that the whole neo-liberal paradigm isn’t actually an economic theory (How can it be? It’s not even remotely explaining the reality) but is just a means to legitimate the continued accumulation of the communities wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
Agree DTB if you use a standard of ‘corruption’ external to capitalism. Capitalism is inherently corrupt compared to pre-capitalist standards of communal sharing of social resources, and compared to post-capitalist concepts of communal existence. It breaks what is a fundamental rule of social reproduction (i.e. survival) which is “from each according to their ability and to each according to their needs”. It’s transgression of this rule is what is driving it to destroy humanity and nature.
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL for your ...
The deed is done, the doers undoneHad I been a Brit, I would have voted ‘Remain’ rather than Brexit (or ‘Leave’). Instead, I have been bemused by the comic theatre of British politics, fascinated by what the Brits actual think and professionally interested by the revelations of the complexity of ...
But Will She Keep Smiling? Kindness is as kindness does. And the one thing kindness cannot do is force people to be kind. Understanding that was the single most important factor in the Prime Minister’s success at stamping out the Coronavirus. She took New Zealanders with her; she encouraged them ...
Completed reads for 2020: The History of the Britons, by NenniusThe Annales CambriaeThe Life of King Alfred, by AsserThe Wood Beyond the World, by William MorrisThe Life of Merlin, by Geoffrey of MonmouthThe History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of MonmouthThe Life of Gildas, by Caradoc ...
As per my blog tradition, here is where my blog viewers came from in 2020: United StatesUnited KingdomCanadaAustraliaNew ZealandBrazilGermanySpainSwedenThe Netherlands The top four remain as per 2019. After four years at #6, New Zealand gains a spot. Brazil is up four, and The Netherlands jumps from #16 to #10. ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
New virus variants and ongoing high rates of diseases in some countries prompt additional border protections Extra (day zero or day one) test to be in place this week New ways of reducing risk before people embark on travel being investigated, including pre-departure testing for people leaving the United Kingdom ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
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.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s new hit show based on Julia Quinn’s novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
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“the Bill will reduce the Employment Relations Act to a farce and the result will be wages are driven down and employment agreements broken up, with some of the most significant impact being on workers in the public sector.”
And when that does not happen will we see an apology from the author of this post?
Today is a great day for the country.
[lprent: This looks more like diversion trolling than addressing the topic – moved to OpenMike.
Two week ban. One for diversion trolling. The second for wasting my time moving the comments. ]
The ironic thing is labour will get into power and leave most of the changes intact (like most of the changes Roger implemented) – they know its good for the economy
Then again labour is acting mighty strangely lately with all this NZ Power craziness!!!
It’s good for owners
Bad for workers
That’s a very simple ‘class war’ construct to think about the issue..you can do better than that
Exactly, this anti-labour legislation is a salvo in NZ’s ongoing class war.
Lol you like a walking slogan….
I suspect you’re a wannabee shogun.
You are talking an alien culture. Fuck Off !
No, he’s a wannabe squire.
Manservant
In relation to ” ‘Cos-I’m-John-Key-can’t-remember-my-last-username”, this is defining. In the archaic meaning of “squire” he was a fellow who was the dependable runner or errand boy of the knight.
Well, no unkindness intended but that’s how the abovenamed strikes me.
And he will be vindicated.
There is no doubt that before that citizen of the Kingdom of Global Banker leaves these now less-lovely shores, he will bestow upon himself The Order Of This That the Other Thing.
The abovenamed will have a true knight to snivel around after !
crmlu
You’re right Labour did blend in NACT type policies. There was a subterranean movement and a lot of aspiring NACTs took over hearts and minds of the Labour faithful in spades. It’s time to forge new approaches which is what is being said each day.
I don’t mind you refusing to print any of my guest post requests. As a Centre Left website you have every right to do so. No website allows posts they disagree with, that’s understandable. And why should you be different? But Lynn, do you really have to bump down my posts on Open mike?
P.S. Saying that. If you did allow more controversial Left of Centre posts. Who knows? You might find you could possibly get more debate and more readership.
the site is unpredictable at times Jenny; comments I make often end up above comments that came before; don’t panic; I read most of your comments, most of the time anyway.
You are right, of course. Thanks ghost, for your vote of support.
“Politics is all about pressure”
Coincidentally since I put up THIS post on open mike yesterday.
The Herald has published reviews of a new book which details all the pressures that David Lange was put under by the New Zealand state, the permanent heads of the Civil Service, military leaders, and foreign government leaders, to ignore his promise to the electorate. And the dismay these people felt, when Lange, under this onslaught of secret behind the scenes pressure, despite some early vacillation, eventually turned his back on them. That these undemocratic parasites on the body politic have now accused Lange of lying to them. Is just sour grapes. Politics is all about pressure and this time the pressure from below, was greater than the pressure from above.
“Lange lied over Anzus rift: author”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879810
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879996
P.S. All my best wishes to those attending rallies against asset sales today.
See you there.
Jenny
If only Lange had had the courage and the wit to stand up to the enemy within: Douglas, Prebble, Bassett, Moore, De Cleene and their fanatical mentors in Treasury.
You can add Goff and King, who are still there.
To Morrissey and Rhinocrates et al “If only Lange had had the courage and the wit to stand up to the enemy within: Douglas, Prebble, Bassett, Moore, De Cleene and …….”
He did ! Don’t you remember ? Some time late in 1987 Lange called for a “cup of tea” – meaning he wanted a pause in the ongoing rushed economic reforms to allow for proper consideration of them and their effects.
He was strongly vilified for that, a grouping led by Douglas, Prebble ,De Cleene etc set up the “Backbone Club” which went out publicly – with MSM support – to vilify Lange and his attempts to stop what was going on, when he had realised just how damaging it was. The vilification continued in house in the caucus as well. It was sickening to observe. Disgusting behaviour on the part of the leaders.
Indeed, sorry for any misunderstanding. Lange was a sincere person under enormous pressure.
Goff and King on the other hand…
Aye!
During an industrial dispute in Kawerau, provoked when Tasman cunningly appointed an unqualified woman to a machine operating position ahead of several qualified men, Lange came out on the side of the bosses. He said he would never stand with a union that was against employment for women, even when this patently was not the issue.
My view of Lange is that Kirk was the last half way decent Labour PM.
Agreed …. though I don’t judge him QUITE as harshly as the ‘careerists’ that followed and who STILL keep trying to push their barrow (or rather keep doing their best to push SHIT uphill).
At Least Lange had the decency to call for a cup of tea and a lay down – i.e. he recognised the programme was hollow.
Not so others – and unfortunately I now have to include that pathetic munter Robertson amongst that ilk (UNLESS of course he has an epiphany forthwith).
Hey……… btw….. whatever happened to that FanBoi or Fan Club fella?
Haven’t seen it screaching loudly lately in defense of the indefensible. (I guess he/she/it is too busy climbing the ranks and sucking as much rrrrrrrr’s as possible)
I ‘spose he/she/it’s content with that little media 15 secs of fame on Neshnool TV recently -though I doubt it.
Grant……where are you?
Shearer ……… where are you?
Bullyboy – what’s her name – ah yea – Mallard ……..where are you?
Clare! Darling! Where are you?
Maid Marion – where are you?
Oh…… I know – all in your little comfort zones destined to destroy the entire concept of the “Labour Party”.
Carry on what?
Gerald Hensley reinvents history to besmirch the memory of David Lange, and instead of being critical of that cowardly and disgusting behaviour, comments on The Standard concerning this matter are predominantly anti-Labour… Some even claiming Lange wasn’t courageous enough at a time he implemented legislation to ensure New Zealand became nuclear free in spite of huge international and domestic pressures.
You’d have to be seriously gullible to believe what Piggy Muldoon’s former chief adviser has made up to discredit a left wing Prime Minister. In fact you’d likely have to be as deluded as Hensley himself. Let’s instead ask the right wing hack what his advice was on the Springbok tour, the Think Big projects and increasing external debt by 1338% while Muldoon was Prime Minister. Where’s the book accepting that the third National Government was a complete economic, social and political failure for New Zealand?
Giving Hensley’s fabrications the credence they clearly don’t deserve by attacking Labour will only help to promote the idea of removing our Nuclear Free legislation (PDF)… Not that National presently abides by those laws anyway, that’s the end goal for Hensley and the current government. Let’s make something very clear… Like the vast majority of Kiwis, David Lange wanted New Zealand to be nuclear free… Hensley’s lies won’t change that fact one iota.
love ya work Jackal
Thanks ghostrider888.
don’t always agree with your analysis yet you appear a fairly astute and balanced commentator. *Bow* (wow)
No human being could stand up to that sort of pressure alone. Such pressure can be so intense that you can be ambushed into making decisions that can even go against your own better judgement. Despite it all, Lange did eventually call a halt. And probably wondered “Why on earth did I ever support any of that?” A question that I am sure many principled people finding themselves in similar isolated positions have asked themselves.
To his cost. For David Lange on his retirement, there was no plum sinecure as a director on a board of some well off company or bank, the usual reward for politicians of his stature who do what they’re told.
What was missing was a mass movement that would have supplied Lange with the counter pressure to the neo-liberal tidal wave.
Politics is all about pressure and who can bring it to bear.
The unions could have crippled the 4th Labour Government, had they chosen to.
Colin Craig: working tirelessly to help the unemployed! Well done, Craig! What’s next? Secure housing for the homeless?
“March 21
Novopay debacle solved by restarting computer
Novopay minister Steven Joyce: “We tried everything we could think of. We made sure the plug was in, we ran a virus scan. You know, pretty much everything. And then John walks in this morning munching on his breakfast bagel, and he says ‘Hey, Steve. Have you tried restarting the computer’?”
If in doubt – reboot! – Says it all really. Cure the immediate, though not the cause.
Very symbolic of a NAct agenda, and symbolic of the neo-Lib agenda too.
Keep it up is what I’m DESPERATELY hoping for but they should not be surprised when they disappear up their own arses (as fat and ugly as they may be).
Shades of Monty P/Greed/Sloth explosions in the nature of weapons of mass disgusting
from what I have read of this chap behind The Civilian (beyond a Nicholas Cage article) he appears very capable and creative; now a part of the media furniture for a while, with the hesitant support of his parents.
Here in H.B there is a young woman broadcasting her interesting life and personality to a YouTube audience of hundreds of thousands of people.”Jamies World”. great self-marketing for an aspirant dramatic arts performer or director. could be a few unforeseen consequences.
At least we can be a little pleased for the guy that runs The Civillian. He does help to make the day go with a smile. And as they say Any advertising is good advertising.
Indeed David H.Thank god (no religious inference intended) for Colin Craig being an arse. I hadn’t heard about that hilarious Civilian website until he threw a wee tanty.
Same and I am so pleased I found it. Maybe a thank you E-Mail to Colin, for telling us about this website. Just to say thanks you know 😉
The Comedy of Mortification
Kiwi version of The Office struggles along
Back Benches, Prime TV, Wednesday 24 April 2013, 10:30 p.m.
Hosted by WALLACE CHAPMAN and DAMIAN CHRISTIE
Politicians: Gareth Hughes (Green), Aaron Gilmore (National), Chris Hipkins (Labour)
After suffering through TV3’s dire The Vote: Is New Zealand a Racist Country?, my big night of television continued with yet another New Zealand current affairs show fronted by a couple of clowns.
These two, although far less self-assured clowns than Espiner and Garner, are, nonetheless, impressive exponents of the comedy of embarrassment. Christie, in particular, came across very effectively as New Zealand television’s very own David Brent. The fact that this was entirely unintentional only made it all the more effective.
In case you haven’t seen Back Benches—and you probably haven’t—it consists of aforesaid clowns (Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie) talking to a panel of three politicians and then walking around the Back Benches tavern in Wellington asking people what they think about what the politicians have said. The politicians are usually pretty relaxed—it seems that ties are banned—and usually acquit themselves quite well. The members of the public, however, are a little more unpredictable. The following is a quick highlights reel of Wednesday night’s episode….
After the politicians have been interviewed, the first person on the roving mike is John Carnegie from Business New Zealand. Predictably, sadly, he vapours pompously about the Labour-Green electricity pricing policy: “We are sending an incredibly bad signal that New Zealand is no longer a safe place to invest.” The crowd reacts to this rant with skeptical murmuring and scattered laughter. Quite apart from his irrational, hysterical words, many people have no doubt noticed that Carnegie looks uncannily like the fat guy in The Office.
http://www.pilkipedia.co.uk/wiki/images/thumb/4/4f/BigKeith.jpg/250px-BigKeith.jpg
http://www.businessnz.org.nz/images/upload/JohnCarnegie%20web.jpg
Back to the politicians, for their thoughts. This is where not only the intellectual, but the moral calibre of the politicians is often revealed. Chris Hipkins and Gareth Hughes both speak eloquently, but when Hipkins is speaking, Aaron Gilmore hoots and laughs. Such displays of loutish imbecility are, damningly, all that National is capable of; Gilmore’s antics are no different from the antics in Parliament of other National Party thugs, especially Gerry Brownlee. (Talking about people who look like Big Keith…)
Then it’s time for the most unpredictable part of the show: the vox pops. This consists of Damian Christie walking around the tables with his microphone and asking them what they think. This is a nerve-wracking exercise at the best of times, and it’s not helped by Christie’s patent awkwardness….
DAMIAN CHRISTIE: Have you been to Gallipoli for the dawn service?
WOMAN: Yes.
DAMIAN CHRISTIE: What were you doing over there?
WOMAN: Going to the dawn service.
This is met by gales of laughter, some of it shading into outright derision of Christie. Undeterred, however, Christie ploughs on, like an ANZAC soldier struggling doggedly up a Turkish cliff…
CHRISTIE: You’re getting all choked up over it now, aren’t you!
WOMAN: Not really.
Bravely, Christie continues to circulate around the room, wielding his enormous microphone, looking for vulnerable drinkers. It’s quite noticeable that people are drawing away as he approaches. He’d better watch himself, otherwise he’s going to make people as nervous as Brian Edwards did with his ambush vox pops in Auckland’s Victoria Park during his short-lived Saturday night horror show a decade ago.
Can you find this online?
You CAN get this online, but SkyTV makes you jump through hoops. I recommend you don’t encourage them in their bid to privatize this content….
http://www.isky.co.nz/product/481749.aspx
Indeed – don’t encourage them.
I’ve only managed to watch one Backbenches since is commercial transition – just as I have Media3 (once was Media7).
One of the big problems with the commercialisation of these programmes (or should I now call them ‘shows’) is that the continuity is destroyed often by the NEED to ‘take a break’ at as close to set times as is possible – and regardless of interrupting participants trying to make a point.
You’ll notice it on FUX NEWS often – when the left are getting any sort of advantage in an argument….. “we gotta get a break”, etc.
That’s just ONE of the problems! The platform is insidious: whether intended or not – you’ll find Brown, Chapman, Christie et al become victims of the ‘stardom mentality’ that seems to be a necessity in operating on this commercially driven platform.
In both cases (Prime BB, and MW M3), the defense is – it’s better than no BB or M3. I’m afraid not for me.
Probably more entertaining to read your take on the programme anyway!
It would be followed by an lowering of our credit rating, and a devaluation in currency.
The oil prices being kept artificially high as a deterrant to flirting with currency devaluation, because the inflationary pressure threat would be rammed down everyones throat!
Interest rates would rise, and whats left of the NZ economy will fall out the backdoor. Even with more competitive exports, the current account deficit will keep widening, with a higer cost of borrowing to service the lesser credit rating, leading to higher taxes to service the gowing debt costs!
The NZ Power policy as no chance of getting off the ground,
Because the global banking cartel, has NZ, by the balls!
Since 1961
The effect of NZ Power on private shareholders dividends will be 3 to 4.5% (not accounting for revenue increasing, + 18.6% in 2012). You’re saying that because of a potential 3 to 4.5% reduction in value of dividends going to private shareholders the NZ economy will fall out the backdoor? Get off the grass muzza.
If that’s all it reduces shareholder dividends by, NZ Power is only scratching the surface of what it should be doing.
I have to agree with you there CV… After crunching a few numbers it appears NZ Power won’t have much if any affect on power companies profitability or the dividends they payout. However there are savings to be made through better management of current infrastructure, which I think is just as much a problem as the current bidding system that means consumers are paying far too much for electricity that’s relatively cheap to produce.
It appears that Labour and the Greens perhaps knew there would be howls of anger from the right wing regarding NZ Power and so devised a very moderate policy. It certainly isn’t far left “economic vandalism” that some have claimed. Let’s hope that when NZ Power gets up and running (mid to late 2016) they will push the envelope a bit on how much is actually able to be saved for consumers.
Actually Jackal, my intent was aimed at what would likely happen to the housing/retail markets, should interest rates rise from their current. *lows* ??? following a devaluation in our currency, via a ratings mark down!
My commentary was a high level overview of what would happen, as was pointed out, if *a signal that NZ was no longer a safe place to invest*, went out!
Which is what NZ Power will have to contend with, and its creators contend with, before it stands any chance to become airborne!
A ratings downgrade because of a potential 3 to 4.5% decrease in dividend values for private shareholders… Are you out of your mind?
A wee bit surprised you didn’t zone in on the comment made by one of those ( I don’t know one from the other) aforementioned clowns Morrissey. Never mind. I’ll do it. Came after a quick fire question to the pollies relating to Boston.
Where were the alleged bombers from? Answer given was Chechnya. Answer queried on the grounds (I guess) that Kyrgyzstan had been mentioned in connection to them and their family. And the clown, not remembering the name ‘Kyrgyzstan’ deemed it an an opportunity to pop out the racially loaded ‘Wogistan’ alternate answer.
And no-one batted an eyelid.
Not surprised you don’t know one clown from another. After all, they’re all make-uo (courtesy of whatever brand of face paint that’s in vogue these days).
I was just thinking though (after witnessing a hipkins on some Beck Benchas ‘show’ – constructed by a Chapman and a Christie – where the credits were at pains to tell us all who ‘dressed them’) – I was going to suggest he should ‘Moisturise!…. Moisturise!…. Moisturise”.
It may well be his greatest contribution to the Labouring Party
A wee bit surprised you didn’t zone in on the comment made by one of those ( I don’t know one from the other) aforementioned clowns Morrissey.
I heard it, but I didn’t write it down in my transcription notebook, so I’d forgotten it by the time I came to type it up. The clown that said it was (surprise, surprise) the National Party lout Aaron Gilmore.
Never mind. I’ll do it. Came after a quick fire question to the pollies relating to Boston.
Thanks, Bill. You’re a trooper—in the good sense.
Where were the alleged bombers from? Answer given was Chechnya. Answer queried on the grounds (I guess) that Kyrgyzstan had been mentioned in connection to them and their family. And the clown, not remembering the name ‘Kyrgyzstan’ deemed it an an opportunity to pop out the racially loaded ‘Wogistan’ alternate answer.
And no-one batted an eyelid.
It’s not that nobody noticed, or cared. The problem is the format of the show. To remonstrate with that halfwitted National Party thug would have been counter to this show’s enforced mood of frivolity. Earlier in the evening, over on TV3, the same determined dumbing down occurred when Prof. Damon Salesa tried to say something serious during the moronic laugh-fest The Vote.
It wasn’t Gilmore came out with that shit Morrissey. It was one of the presenters – the one who tended to do the wandering around eliciting opinion from attendees.
Gilmore answered with “Chechnya”. One of the presenters was a bit unsure of that as an answer and the other clown kind of dismissively (barely conceiled undertones of ‘they’re all the same and who the fuck cares anyway’) suggested “Wogistan”. Racially, ethnically and religiously fucked up as all hell imo.
Really? Thanks for that, Bill.
Aaron Gilmore, sorry. Call off your lawyers now.
Damian Christie: you are so much better than that.
Even John Armstrong is taking not-so-much an anti Labour line this morning.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10880014
I’m not sure if this is a good thing.
John Armstrong is the Peter Dunne of the NZ Herald. Always trying to position himself in the vaccuous centre because he thinks that will may him look sensible, balanced and fair. In reality he’s just another self-serving journo.
Everyone should see the the film ‘Shadows of liberty’; it was on at documentary festival and hopefully will come back to cinemas once finished the festival cycle.
Here it trailer http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=_SAUborWbPw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D_SAUborWbPw
It does show what has happened to the media and examples can be found in New Zealand of all the same issues mentioned in the film.
“John Armstrong is the Peter Dunne of the NZ Herald.”
heh.
It’s a thing. “High Broderism” it’s called, after David Broder who dominated the Washington press corp for lo, many years.
The basic conceit is that some journalists develop a identity of being the caretakers of the discourse. The content of policy, the actual business of politics, becomes a side issue at best; the protection of order, and form, take over. Disputes are seen not as politics functioning as it ought, but as threats to be resolved. ‘Bold policy’ is just a move in a game. They are positioning statements aimed at voter blocks, rather than policies aimed at problems.
What that leads to, though it is never admitted, or even realised I suspect, is that much of the political analysis we see is not analysis of policy, or even of politicians, but of the polis.
The question “How will this policy play in the electorate in terms of votes” is not answered by looking at the effects of a policy, or the reasoning behind it. ie, it cannot be answered by reporting on policy or politicians. It is answered by discussing whose votes might shift, and what it might do in the polls.
The advantage for journalists here is that this is a non partisan endeavor; they aren’t pontificating about whether the policy is good/bad, or whether the politician is honest/mendacious.
The whole area gets a good working over here:
http://pressthink.org/2010/06/clowns-to-the-left-of-me-jokers-to-the-right-on-the-actual-ideology-of-the-american-press/
lovely article there.
interesting; well they are not very good at looking after the polis
having just re-read the Armstrong piece, conclude it is disgusting (and patronising as well).
Nice link, PB. I think Colin Espiner fits that description too. When many had pegged him as a friend of the left he let loose with the article on Green/Labour policy.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/bull-dust/8568124/Labours-crazy-new-energy-policy
These pretend journalist types are determined to make the news and be the news, not report and analyse it.
And like Peter Dunne, he’s prone to let the whole facade drop and throw a hissy fit when he thinks he’s not being given the obeisance he’s due.
Poor old Armstrong is still licking his wounds after being comprehensively humiliated by the superior Gordon Campbell last year.
Armstrong’s piece is all about strategy – about The Game. And nothing about what is actually the right thing to do for the majority of Kiwis, and especially for those struggling on low incomes.
It’s a heartless piece. But that’s what “neoliberalism” has done to mainstream political commentary.
The coldness of the writing comes from the coldness in the heart.
small question (and I understand folks are busy)
Why is there no banner/promotion on The Standard for the Day of Action ?
There is just yesterday’s reminder. Seems like a missed opportunity is all.
anyways . . .
You may have voted National, Maori Party, United Future or even Act. That does not deny you your right to voice opposition to their actions as a Government. In fact to succeed in their crimes, they count on your silence and your complicity. Today is your chance to let them know you matter.
If you are not working today, little has greater significance to the future of New Zealand than this simple walk down the street amongst friends.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10879994
The crowning of Maurice Williamson as a ‘gay icon’ (by the media at least) has left me somewhat bemused.
Nothing against Williamson. He voted yes for marriage equality and as a result I applaud him. Even more so, he is a member of a conservative party in a rather blue neighbourhood. I have no doubt the pressure on him from those opposing equality was fierce.
His speech was good. Great? That’s debatable. It was loud. It had a few amusing turns of phrase. But it wasn’t necessarily any better than any of the other pro-speeches. Mojo Mathers, for example, gave one of the most stirring speeches I’ve ever seen. So why isn’t she being lauded as a ‘gay icon’?
Perhaps because she isn’t male, white and heterosexual? She doesn’t possess that holy triumvirate that many in society ascribe as being ‘preferable’ or ‘powerful’ or even ‘acceptable’.
Williamson voted down Civil Unions. He says it’s because they didn’t go far enough. That doesn’t wash with me. By that same logic you would deny a starving person a hamburger because it wasn’t steak. Back then those of us who needed legal protection were happy to get it any way we could. We saw civil unions as a secondary class, but it was a class nonetheless. No Maurice, you don’t get a pass on that. You voted tactically there, not with your conscience. Be honest.
Maurice, you’re not an ‘icon’ to this ethnic gay man. You’re a straight white man who voted progressively. You’re not worthy of the kudos that the media is heaping on you for marriage equality. That belongs to those politicians who worked tirelessly for years, decades, to achieve this. Kevin Hague. Louisa Wall. Those are gay icons. Those are the people who should be invited on Ellen. Not you, Maurice.
Stop the interviews. Don’t go on Ellen. Get on with doing your job. Because feeding this ‘gay icon’ fire is just sad to those who know it’s all puffery. You did a good thing. A very good thing. But there’s nothing worse than someone taking credit that isn’t due.
But won’t Mr Key be livid. He had to boyishly grin as he gave approval for the Ellen visit.
But why wasn’t it him! John Key is the man for centre stage, the limelight, the adulation, the autograph hunters, and international spotlight. To have to step back for a lowly Maurice for heavens sake! Hell will blaze for a man back-benched!
My conspiracy theory is that Maurice nixed the trip (I seem to remember him saying he wouldn’t go at first) but that Key pushed him to promote NZ. His talk about the trip now has tourism speak all over it.
But we can assume Key is pissed someone else is getting the limelight…
+1
Boyfriend just yesterday was wondering why Louisa Wall didn’t get the invite, since she actually did the work.
Some people I know took it upon themselves to inform Ellen de Generes of Williamson’s history on the issue. He was pretty much promoted by the Herald etc because he’s a Tory – just hijacking kudos for NAct. I didn’t think his speech was anything great and the fact that it was lauded all round the world just goes to show oratory has died.
I can see how Ellen might think Williamson would help get the white male heterosexual conservatives in the US onside for the same sex marriage campaign in the US.
However, she totally ignores the impact within NZ.
I agree, Tigger. Mojo Mathers gave the best speech in the 3rd reading of the Bill, as far as I’m concerned – it was about an inclusive family and wider whanau.
By US political standards, Williamson is a card carrying communist. I don’t think he’ll help get their conservatives onside.
From the US point of view, that so many National MPs voted for marriage reform basically identifies them as God-despising family hating bleeding heart liberals who are all going to hell.
A few upgrades running. Site may be a bit slow for an period.
Oops – database just upgraded
hence the “database unavailable” shite a while back.
You should be commended lprent as I’m hoping you are from time to time.
The approach is obviously not the ‘suck it and see’ one found elsewhere.
The outages should have only been 10-20 seconds or so each time.
Upgraded and been through a good solid compacting including old versions of posts and comments. I have corrected all issues with orphaned comments (~200 all up). Deleted about 4 that were in a chain in 2010 where the original comment got deleted and the replies all referred to the original comment.
It is suck it and see some of the time. There are some issues that I can’t test on the development system because of loading differences.
To all marching today…thank you so very much. I can’t be there due to the on call nature of my work but I am with you in spirit and will be following the protests around the country with much interest. I marched up Queen Street with my 84yr old Dad last year and found it very helpful in so many ways. I trust you all will too. Once again, many thanks from those of us unable to be there in body, we are with you.
see, with these subsistence-labour factories like the one that collapsed in Bangladesh it is only the consumer, and their demand for price, that can make the difference; the consumer. A dilemma indeed.
They can be quite delayed and sensationalist these prime-time news bulletins; In context, the last bird-flu killed approximately 370 people world-wide, from memory. That is not to say that something unforeseen might happen if the current strain becomes transmitted human to human.
According to the agonising of the sheep and beef farmer, if they don’t find solutions “they may as well pack it in” according to one representativee.
So, the use of sarin is a “red-line”, a “game-changer” says Obama, yet the US and Co. are being a bit more cautious before rushing in this time it appears.
and according to a commentator on the Auckland transport bind; “cycling (if possible) really does blow all other forms of transport away”.
Latest spin from Rugby Union http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/8604494/Rugby-bad-boys-paying-the-penalty
No sympathy here. If psychological stress is a job issue then screen them for it before hiring them in the first place.
Doug Sellman is the man to go to concerning the addiction issues NZ faces.
“professional sports are just rife with mental health issues”-Karen Nimmo
“rugby administrators are inconsistent in their enforcement of ‘codes of conduct'”
Rob Nichol, an apologist for big-money sports investment effectively, nonetheless identifies the two big issues professional sports (and those who aspire to participation in the field) face;
-integrity
-mental health of athletes (just consider Susan Devoy; too many shuttles to the head).
I’d like to thank anyone who is marching today against the theft of our national assets. I am unable to be there, but am with you in spirit.
To the scum who wish to sell us out: Kaore e mau te rongo–ake, ake!
+100 Ditto, as above
Swaps and detivatives rate fixing investigation hits Bank of America Merrill Lynch
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/meet-isdafix-the-libor-scandals-sequel
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425
NB: Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch in 2009
Five questions about the CFTC’s Isdafix probe
The ISDA includes foreign exchange derivatives among its suite of products.
I read those links thanks Pete; too blown out to comment.
Zero Hedge does a brief out take from the story for those who want a summary.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-26/illuminati-were-amateurs-matt-taibbi-explains-how-everything-rigged
Another .5cent equivilant fine coming their way, and the system will remain unchanged!
Been caught stealing (the energy of the entire planet)
Shoddy standards continue to erode the integrity of TVNZ news
Why would anyone trust this television station?
Television One News, Saturday 27 April 2013
Thousands of people turned out on the streets this afternoon to protest against the Government’s plan to flog off our national assets. But not according to one crusty old newsreader on Television One. I switched on my television just after 6:30 this evening to hear this…
Peter Williams: “HUNDREDS of people turned out in marches all over the country today…”
Given the fact that there were hundreds of protestors in Tauranga alone, it seems certain that there were several thousand marchers over the whole country.
http://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/42694-marching-against-asset-sales.html
Yet someone gave that silly old fool Peter Williams a script that said there were only “hundreds” of marchers nationwide. Or maybe Williams adjusted the figure himself; in light of his many nasty, smug little comments over the years, I would not put it past him to do such a thing.
After that came the preview of the sports news. This was equally abject, equally foolish, equally contrary to reality….
Jenny-May Coffin: “The Blues and Hurricanes have both lost to Aussie opposition. Both games were superb spectacles but the Australian teams were WAY TOO STRONG.”
THE FACTS…
The Auckland Blues lost to Queensland by one point in a closely fought away game, in Brisbane. The Blues scored the only try, a beauty by Jackson Willison. The Reds were extremely fortunate to win.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10880055
In Palmerston North, the Hurricanes lost 16-18 to the Cape Town Stormers. Both sides scored two tries, and the Hurricanes were unlucky not to win.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10880001
Yet some genius wrote a script for Jenny-May Coffin to read out that claimed the Australians were “way too strong.” Perhaps it was the same person who claimed there were only “hundreds” of marchers nationwide today.
Are they testing the copy-writers at TVNZ for hallucinogenic drug use? And if not, why not?
I found it strange watching the news – no mention of the Stewart Island oil leaking fishing vessel country of origin – why it ended up on rocks. Just the name Sureste – and a seemingly relaxed Environment Southland – heavy weather had dispursed most of the oil away.
Is this the same Sur Este – one of the Korean-flagged fishing vessels recently in the news for abusing crew?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8266324/Fishing-crew-walk-off-ship-in-Timaru
mentioned on three news
Yes, it is
‘
Here’s an odd thing – an application from the FBI to hack a computer which was denied on the basis that the target computer is outside the territorial limit. I guess it just a Texas judge, so presumably the hacking of Kim Dotcom’s computers must have been issued by someone from the World Court, right?
http://cryptome.org/2013/04/tx-search.pdf
Dotcom’s house was raided by NZ authorities, not by American. (although the Americans instigated and supervised it). This is also why the NZ courts system has jurisdiction over the incident.
Too-big-to-fail banks implicated in $500 trillion fraud: biggest price-rigging scandal in history
Yeah, private banks – just so fucken trustworthy.
Remember that these private banks are empowered by the central banks, and that the top execs of both move freely between each others organisations at the highest levels.
A true “inside job”.
cheers, draco
Matt Taibbi of The Exile no less
What’s new? The whole 20th century was one of concentration of capital into giant industrial and banking trusts, combines and cartels.
Its called state monopoly capitalism.
Competition is for losers. You only survive by getting bigger. Once you are big enough you can corner any market, land, finance, oil etc and set up a cartel especially if you can buy the govt. Land is a natural monopoly, but in finance you buy the govt and get it to license you to print money, set interest rates, get bailed out blah blah.
Its not new, its not an aberration, its not corruption, its the way the capitalist system works by outgrowing its competitive origins and using state power to bully all and sundry to accept your monopoly as god’s gift.
The system has to run like this because that’s the only way it can continue to accumulate and concentrate private wealth at the top, i.e. by making sure that only those at the top can compete.
So competition is squeezed upward out of markets, out of national jurisdictions and into international trusts that use the power of their state machines to bully their rivals. Its also squeezed downwards into the surplus population to divide and rule the working class. The result is world wars. US vs China is the current world war in the making.
Even at the beginning of the 20th century such was the fusion of industrial capital and banking capital that Lenin coined the term ‘finance capital’ to express this fact.
Today the term ‘finance capital’ is used to mean ‘money’ or ‘banking’ capital, when in reality it is fused with industrial capital.
As I said none of this is new. The constant surprise expressed by these ‘players’ as to the depth of collusion in business and banking is evidence of their ignorance as to how the system really works.
This sort of learned stupidity is part of the process of legitimating capitalism.
It’s not new, it is how the capitalist system works and it is corrupt.
My latest thought on the matter is that the whole neo-liberal paradigm isn’t actually an economic theory (How can it be? It’s not even remotely explaining the reality) but is just a means to legitimate the continued accumulation of the communities wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
Agree DTB if you use a standard of ‘corruption’ external to capitalism. Capitalism is inherently corrupt compared to pre-capitalist standards of communal sharing of social resources, and compared to post-capitalist concepts of communal existence. It breaks what is a fundamental rule of social reproduction (i.e. survival) which is “from each according to their ability and to each according to their needs”. It’s transgression of this rule is what is driving it to destroy humanity and nature.