Even if nobody involved actively hates him, nobody saw the problem, or if they did see the problem nobody cared enough about his image to point it out.
TV camera shows close up of what looks like a normal size desk, clever.
In fact a lot of other presidents have probably done it to get round things when travelling or whatever.
Trumps problem is he is an arsehole and easy pickings now, with no power anymore, so someone gets to photo it and show how the "fake" works at his expense.
Imagine there were a lot lining up to do it given his staff loyalty.
But this isn't an improvised setting while travelling. He's at the freaking white house. Dude could have actually sat at a normal sized desk, instead of a side table.
Not everything has to be done behind the Resolute Desk, but shiiiiit…
Looking at more photos (lots more on the twitter thread), it looks like it's a silly chair with short legs much more than a silly desk. Most people sitting at that desk look normal, and the top of their thigh is more or less at the rails underneath. But there's a pic of some other dude looking just as weird, it looks like he's in the same chair, and the top of his thigh is way below the rails.
edit: I’m also curious about what looks like a lot of white powder was sprinkled around, then someone just barely started to vacuum it up before getting shooed out. It could be just how the light reflects off the lie of the rug, but it looks the same from a bunch of different angles and weird reflections from carpet usually change at different angles.
Interesting about the desk. A lot of it does seem to be the chair – it looks like dolt45 is sitting an inch or two lower than Obama? But then dolt is also leaning forward bigly in the side shot.
But the combo of the open jacket and big empty space around him just make it look so much more silly.
I'm happy to report his spell has broken. I no longer live within the existential dread of having that fool as leader of the free world. I do not viscerally react to headlines with his name in them, I no longer click, I no longer care.
I will take great delight in seeing him gone. I will relish the further milestones of election ratification and Biden stepping into office.
My schadenfreude is not yet sated, but Trump is now about as interesting as a shit on the sidewalk. I will enjoy watching the GOP trying to explain their sedition as they fall to recrimination, blame and fractious infighting.
repug party brought us nixon and sarah palin before trump. they have no shame, and will be like cochroachs, even stepping on them wont stop them from returning.
Look Andre you are in the right company as usual …Wall St love your new guy as much as you..no wait.. that's right, they loved Trump too, maybe it turns out Trump and Biden have more interests in common than the media would have us believe….could it be that just their delivery is a little different…?
Dow climbs 310 points as investors cheer transition to Biden administration
I am somewhat disturbed by his (repeated) claims that america will now ‘again 'lead the free world'.
I feel we could be in for some more regime-change/bombings…
(all in the name of 'freedom'..of course..)
and of course..like j. ardern…he is a neoliberal-incrementalist..
and it seems they are 'ruling'.. for now and the foreseeable future..
and disaster has been good for both biden and ardern…
he got in because he isn't trump..
and ardern was saved from having to explain the woeful experience/performance/promise-non-delivery of her first term..by the virus.
and we are all the losers..
(and on a personal note.. i am surprised@ how bummed out I am ..by how all this is turning out..I had no expectations of biden..but I did hold out some hope for ardern…it's clearly time to pack that away again ..)
@ Andre (1) … Like Trump's presidency, the WH furnishings, as exampled by the kindergarten desk, are dwindling with him. The buffoon looks more ridiculous than ever in that picture.
Yep interesting read. One thing struck me though -the assumption that we will go back to high immigration in the near future. Why? given that
-so far GDP per head has stayed pretty constant so there are no economic gains
-it has had very negative economic consequences around housing supply and wage suppression plus adding to infrastructure costs.
-it has increased the competition for starter jobs by a massive amount.
-wage suppression has sent our best and brightest offshore
-workforce automation is well on the way so we are likely just importing surplus labour
-immigration is so high in some areas that it pretty much looks like a wave of colonisation
I'd say that there is a much better case for limiting it severely and dare I say it moving on some of the 267000 visa holders still hanging around here could do a lot for the current house prices. World population is expected to drop I believe is going to drop over this century. The sooner we go for a stable state the better we will cope,
id agree but strongly suspect the need to feed the credit bubble will have immigration back asap…even if its done on the quiet…it is after all the only economic strategy they can imagine.
Re Clapton.."I am shocked, shocked, to learn that Clapton is a right-wing asshole"… personally I think just about everything he has done post Cream has been either bland or boring and usually lacking any real substance (with very the occasional glimmer of brilliance)…unlike Jack Bruce who although had his ups and downs, put out some real bangers post Cream including this great LP…
True that, Baker and Bruce now there is a formidable rock rhythm section if there ever was one…probably (IMO) the best Clapton ever sounded was because he had these guys were pushing him along so hard.
So E.C. was happy to indulge in a bit of cultural appropriation, and end up doing very well out of it, but not to give house-room to the originators of said culture? Hmm …..
It's a glaring inconsistency that surely needs to be addressed.
I will trot out that now typical word 'unprecedented'. We've not had this situation before as we've not had travel curtailed in such a manner. So the response should get a bit of wiggle room as the government adjust while throwing patches at it.
I'd expect they ask industry to pay living wages. I'd hope?
If the government could be trusted to act, it wouldn't be so bad – but they can't. They pushed through an epic failure on freshwater, and got it Greenwashed. Wouldn't have taken much in the way of effort or funding to make it real – but no – our rivers will run with shit till I die of old age. Same will prove true with this – lazy, corrupt politicians posturing for an international audience instead of serving their constituency.
The shame of it – to be led by such an odious group of self-serving expletives.
"Why is it that the government is always missing in action for NZ workers?"…that is an easy question to answer, it is because the New New Zealand Labour party stopped having even any pretence to being a "workers" party in 1984 when the body of the party was taken over by a new aggressive ideological disease known as free market neo liberlisim…
Which is why here in Hasting Hawkes Bay our newly elected and John Key lovin', opportunist Labour representative Anna Lorke is a better fit in todays Labour NZ than Helen Kelly would have been…think about that for a moment, a sad but true reality for the Left wing in NZ today to somehow over come.
The higher payment demanded for the incoming work force would have been set at that rate to ensure that the growers were not said to be undercutting willing workers here in NZ. The fact that they can afford to pay higher wages and still remain profitable, if that is the case, will be noticed by our workers and a reason for them to make a successful case for higher wages next season.
Plus some sort of sharing arrangement, so that in good seasons they get a bonus, and in bad seasons, or when the market prices go against them they do not get the bonus. I think that would seem fair to them and keep them coming back each season, hoping for a good one this year.
So let me get this right…are you are saying that Labours sneaky plan is that the NZ orchard industries have to pay a living wage to imported unskilled labour so as not to be seen as undercutting the (not) living wage payed to NZ workers…
Fuck the local horticultural industries, those aresholes have been cycnically using imported labour to undermine wage growth for New Zealand workers for decades, all the while making huge profits and buying up all the locally owned family orchards all the while…it's revolting, and of course all this is done with NZ Labours blessing…yuk.
"Fuck the local horticultural industries, those aresholes have been cycnically using imported labour to undermine wage growth for New Zealand workers for decades, all the while making huge profits"
Bloody oath
I stayed at a camping ground in Kerikeri a few summers ago. PEP workers crammed themselves into one of the units. They washed their clothes in the fetid river that flowed through the grounds.
A North Carolina donor who gave $2.5 million to a group promising to help President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the general election is now suing to get his money back.
Fred Eshelman, who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republicans in 2020, according to Federal Election Commission data, says in his lawsuit that the organization True the Vote had not fulfilled the conditions of his monetary gift.
In a final minute issued yesterday, commissioners Sir William Young and Jacqui Caine said evidence and submissions by public sector chief executives and current and former ministers would be subject to non-publication orders for 30 years.
National security was cited as a reason for the suppressions…
Translation: Yeah, we f***ed up big time so we're gonna keep some things secret.
Yes, there can be compelling reasons for the suppression of certain information, but I wonder how many people over the decades have been denied justice on the grounds that the information sought that would enable them to achieve it… cannot be divulged for "security concerns".
I have much empathy for members of the Muslim community who have been so adversely affected by what happened.
I'm gonna make a wild guess here….a cover-up of the bleeding incompetence of our spooks..in missing all the signals put out by the killer…that would be high on my list of reasons..
(I guess they were too busy spying on environmentalists..)
Not just the official spooks Phillip ure. It's across several government agencies including the police. In fact the police have been at it for decades under the guise of a Special Branch unit which we don't get to hear much about.
We now have what will probably be the biggest test of the new Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Labour Government – the assassination of yet another Iranian scientist, obviously by state actors. No doubt, POTUS will have plausible deniability but the other actor is pretty obvious. So far, there has been no criticism of the continued commissions of war crimes victimising Palestinians. However, striking the match to cause a Middle East inferno is in a totally different realm. It is past time for the mouse to roar!
When you talk about that stuff how about putting the link. I hadn’t caught up with the assassination of Iranian scientists – you say 'another' one. And state actors – who exactly? The Iranian state of the USA?
Mossad, if that was who assasinated the Iranian nuclear boffin, timed it nicely. It happened on the same day that the (Belgian) trial started of four Iranians caught planning a bomb attack on an Iranian opposition rally near Paris (2 years ago). One of the Iranians, Assadollah Assadi, was a diplomat based in the Iranian embassy in Vienna. the Israelis and the mullhas have similar ethics (none), but the Israelis have more sophisticated murder weapons that take out individals they don't like rather than indiscriminate attacks on crowds.
edit
Labour should be looking out for the people who labour not for great rewards and who are not in the glamour spotlight. Miners, parents, people who stand out in the rain and do important stuff, go up power poles in bad weather, and so on. They used to but becoming managers and distancing themselves from the raw physical has become the norm, and the workers have become the exception to be considered. How did things get so arse-up? Was it just The Third Way?*
Sir Michael Parkinson known for great tv interviews on his steadfast Dad who did the hard yards.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018774816/sir-michael-and-mike-parkinson-like-father-like-son …he enlisted his son Mike, who reshaped the book and gave it a definition.
“He started writing about the miners themselves, about the job itself, what it was about, and brought it a different kind of a serious and beautifully written account of this extraordinary tribe of men who went in a hole in the ground, like my father, and 40 years later emerged pneumoconiosis and died.”Reflecting on his research for the book, Mike said there were two things that particularly horrified him – the physical aspects of the job and working in darkness.
"The awful thing about them was they were a forgotten people, everything happened underground," he said. "If you drove past them you would only see the pit head workers, you wouldn't understand that beneath that, 1000 metres under your ground, people were working in unimaginable conditions."
It was a job that broke men physically, mentally and spiritually, he said. "And the one thing it did to my grandfather, it may have diminished him physically but it never broke him mentally, it never broke him spiritually and that is an extraordinary testament to him."
Above all, he took on the difficult job out of love for his family. "He loved the two of us beyond measure, he treated both of us with a great respect and love. He never raised a finger to me," Sir Michael said. He got to experience the nature of his father's work at about 14 or 15, when he was taken down into the pit.
"I've never been so frightened in my life," he said. "What appalled me most of all was the scene that they worked in. My father worked in a scene that was about three-foot, maybe a bit less than that." To start work he had to crawl on his stomach for around an hour and then he would work for another eight or nine hours, "digging coal on his belly".
"He never ever complained and all he could think of was to make myself and my mum happy, for that would have been his greatest fulfilment in life."
When we get really tired of The Third Way, are we then going to turn in a hairpin curve and go back in the other direction that we have been distancing ourselves from?
https://elephantinthelab.org/the-return-to-science-at-the-turn-of-modernity/
An old yet powerful principle has emerged from the COVID-19 crisis. It was introduced to the West in the writings of Carl G. Jung, and has its roots in the works of the pre-Socratic Greeks: enantiodromia (enantios – opposite and dromos – running course) (Jung 1968). Put simply, this means when something is pushed to the extreme, it tends to turn into its opposite. There is more than one way to conceptualize this principle, as the idea of the coincidence of opposites has had some form of cultural expression throughout the world.
When the classical Greek thinker Heraclitus alluded to it, he described it in the form of a natural process of equilibrium, in which cold things warm up and warmer things cool down. Later it found a voice in Plato, and then Hegel’s dialectic. In Daoism, the principle was given the shape of the yin-yang symbol, in which contrasting forces complement each other in an eternal cycle, bringing forth the sacred balance upon which the world rests.
The riddles presented in these ancient writings are very similar: they all imply that opposing powers are impregnated with the seeds of their own reconciliation. Jung was deeply intrigued by this philosophical strand and used the term prominently to mark a psychical phenomenon. In his observation, the dominance of a radical propensity in conscious life over a long time rouses the unconscious opposite that has been festering below the surface. For him, this overarching dualism was a nearer, personal phenomenon, reflected in one’s struggle with the self.
Jung’s notion of the archetype of the shadow symbolizes the unconscious invisible properties of an individual’s personality that are not integrated with their conscious identity. A subtle implication contained here is towards the analogy of the good wolf and the bad wolf, the clash between the known and the unknown, the struggle within as the image of the struggle without.
The third way is a cargo cult. It ascribes special status to business people that is really only possessed by a tiny fraction of them, the innovators. Innovators are capable of solving their own problems, so they don't need political influence.
The rest greatly enjoy lobbying rights, which they immediately abuse, destroying hard fought left gains like steady work hours, penal rates and so forth. Carried on to its inevitable conclusion, you get insanity like a Labour immigration minister de facto endorsing slave ships, and the party apparatus mobilising to defend the practice.
Third way politics is only possible for the comfortably deluded and the actually corrupt. Workers won't have a bar of the nonsense – employer dishonesty is always in their face and at their expense.
Third way politics is only possible for the comfortably deluded and the actually corrupt. Workers won't have a bar of the nonsense – employer dishonesty is always in their face and at their expense.
That is why Jeremy Corbyn was pricked in the back by Labour Party officials, so that his 'life blood' slowly trickled away, not knifed, that would be too direct and obvious. The sly way of fooling most of the people, most of the time is the middle-way. The Blairites who did Corbyn down are Middle-Way proponents. His enthusiasts tended to be young and from the working class, or so I understand. So they were not to be encouraged. Future prosperity for the middle class is more important than embracing all to float upwards supporting each other.
Are these the opposites – Middle-Way or Middle-Earth. Hobbits or bad habits?
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Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
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Maybe he thought it would make him look like he actually is the 6'2" he falsely claims, that even his elevator shoes don't get him to?
https://twitter.com/MongolianMisfit/status/1332118811353501699
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-tiny-desk-meme_n_5fc0a552c5b68ca87f8319b6
That is actually quite a clever set-up by whoever was doing the staging for the speech, or what ever.
It's a bit like the bogroll on his shoe as he walked up the steps to Airforce One.
Even if nobody involved actively hates him, nobody saw the problem, or if they did see the problem nobody cared enough about his image to point it out.
Pretty much.
TV camera shows close up of what looks like a normal size desk, clever.
In fact a lot of other presidents have probably done it to get round things when travelling or whatever.
Trumps problem is he is an arsehole and easy pickings now, with no power anymore, so someone gets to photo it and show how the "fake" works at his expense.
Imagine there were a lot lining up to do it given his staff loyalty.
But this isn't an improvised setting while travelling. He's at the freaking white house. Dude could have actually sat at a normal sized desk, instead of a side table.
Not everything has to be done behind the Resolute Desk, but shiiiiit…
Yeah. I apologise. I Googled the actual footage and as you say, it is as was actually shown on the peoples telly.
Sorry. Just assumed that it was a behind the camera snapshot of how they make shit look real.
I was wrong 🙂 He is again, just a fricken idiot.
Edit: Pretty funny though. It is like the dude has run out of any semblence of dignity!
Looking at more photos (lots more on the twitter thread), it looks like it's a silly chair with short legs much more than a silly desk. Most people sitting at that desk look normal, and the top of their thigh is more or less at the rails underneath. But there's a pic of some other dude looking just as weird, it looks like he's in the same chair, and the top of his thigh is way below the rails.
https://twitter.com/Mantia/status/1332184158882340866
edit: I’m also curious about what looks like a lot of white powder was sprinkled around, then someone just barely started to vacuum it up before getting shooed out. It could be just how the light reflects off the lie of the rug, but it looks the same from a bunch of different angles and weird reflections from carpet usually change at different angles.
The Obama ones look just as funny tbf
The carpet looks like a velvet or something.
Interesting about the desk. A lot of it does seem to be the chair – it looks like dolt45 is sitting an inch or two lower than Obama? But then dolt is also leaning forward bigly in the side shot.
But the combo of the open jacket and big empty space around him just make it look so much more silly.
I'm happy to report his spell has broken. I no longer live within the existential dread of having that fool as leader of the free world. I do not viscerally react to headlines with his name in them, I no longer click, I no longer care.
I will take great delight in seeing him gone. I will relish the further milestones of election ratification and Biden stepping into office.
My schadenfreude is not yet sated, but Trump is now about as interesting as a shit on the sidewalk. I will enjoy watching the GOP trying to explain their sedition as they fall to recrimination, blame and fractious infighting.
repug party brought us nixon and sarah palin before trump. they have no shame, and will be like cochroachs, even stepping on them wont stop them from returning.
Sharpie not included. Saves the walls from being scribbled on.
Look Andre you are in the right company as usual …Wall St love your new guy as much as you..no wait.. that's right, they loved Trump too, maybe it turns out Trump and Biden have more interests in common than the media would have us believe….could it be that just their delivery is a little different…?
Dow climbs 310 points as investors cheer transition to Biden administration
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/stock-market-news-today-biden-transition-yellen-value-rotation-economy-2020-11?r=US&IR=T
Joe Biden to rich donors: "Nothing would fundamentally change" if he's elected
https://www.salon.com/2019/06/19/joe-biden-to-rich-donors-nothing-would-fundamentally-change-if-hes-elected/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lFX30hGZco
Huff Post Reporter: Biden's documented history of trying to cut social security
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT6zHIXUsPs
The only thing biden will solve..is trump..
'cos he sure as hell is no agent of change..
I am somewhat disturbed by his (repeated) claims that america will now ‘again 'lead the free world'.
I feel we could be in for some more regime-change/bombings…
(all in the name of 'freedom'..of course..)
and of course..like j. ardern…he is a neoliberal-incrementalist..
and it seems they are 'ruling'.. for now and the foreseeable future..
and disaster has been good for both biden and ardern…
he got in because he isn't trump..
and ardern was saved from having to explain the woeful experience/performance/promise-non-delivery of her first term..by the virus.
and we are all the losers..
(and on a personal note.. i am surprised@ how bummed out I am ..by how all this is turning out..I had no expectations of biden..but I did hold out some hope for ardern…it's clearly time to pack that away again ..)
@ Andre (1) … Like Trump's presidency, the WH furnishings, as exampled by the kindergarten desk, are dwindling with him. The buffoon looks more ridiculous than ever in that picture.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300168640/heres-why-you-shouldnt-believe-what-youre-told-about-the-housing-market
Headline says it all…while not complete it at least points the fingers in the right directions.
Yep interesting read. One thing struck me though -the assumption that we will go back to high immigration in the near future. Why? given that
-so far GDP per head has stayed pretty constant so there are no economic gains
-it has had very negative economic consequences around housing supply and wage suppression plus adding to infrastructure costs.
-it has increased the competition for starter jobs by a massive amount.
-wage suppression has sent our best and brightest offshore
-workforce automation is well on the way so we are likely just importing surplus labour
-immigration is so high in some areas that it pretty much looks like a wave of colonisation
I'd say that there is a much better case for limiting it severely and dare I say it moving on some of the 267000 visa holders still hanging around here could do a lot for the current house prices. World population is expected to drop I believe is going to drop over this century. The sooner we go for a stable state the better we will cope,
id agree but strongly suspect the need to feed the credit bubble will have immigration back asap…even if its done on the quiet…it is after all the only economic strategy they can imagine.
Privilege is no obstacle to covidiocy.
https://twitter.com/nomoremister/status/1332341563826057216
Re Clapton.."I am shocked, shocked, to learn that Clapton is a right-wing asshole"… personally I think just about everything he has done post Cream has been either bland or boring and usually lacking any real substance (with very the occasional glimmer of brilliance)…unlike Jack Bruce who although had his ups and downs, put out some real bangers post Cream including this great LP…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0dDQa8dmhE
Cream was nothing without Mr Baker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=josXy65dQI8
True that, Baker and Bruce now there is a formidable rock rhythm section if there ever was one…probably (IMO) the best Clapton ever sounded was because he had these guys were pushing him along so hard.
I actually watched that g. baker doc the other day..and would recommend spending the time..
wow, that was good thanks
you are correct in that clapton largely blanded out after cream..(much of his latter stuff I will run from the room to avoid..)
and yep..!..he is a far-right/racist p.o.s..
So E.C. was happy to indulge in a bit of cultural appropriation, and end up doing very well out of it, but not to give house-room to the originators of said culture? Hmm …..
Why is it that the government is always missing in action for NZ workers?
Unions question why local fruit-pickers haven't been offered living wage, like foreigners (msn.com)
RSEs will get the living wage – but kiwis deserve the same.
Who the hell do our feckless MPs think they are supposed to be working for?
Who the hell do our feckless MPs think they are supposed to be working for?
The centre holds.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/decision-2020/nz-sees-red-labours-landslide-jacindas-vow-all-kiwis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(poem)
It's a glaring inconsistency that surely needs to be addressed.
I will trot out that now typical word 'unprecedented'. We've not had this situation before as we've not had travel curtailed in such a manner. So the response should get a bit of wiggle room as the government adjust while throwing patches at it.
I'd expect they ask industry to pay living wages. I'd hope?
If the government could be trusted to act, it wouldn't be so bad – but they can't. They pushed through an epic failure on freshwater, and got it Greenwashed. Wouldn't have taken much in the way of effort or funding to make it real – but no – our rivers will run with shit till I die of old age. Same will prove true with this – lazy, corrupt politicians posturing for an international audience instead of serving their constituency.
The shame of it – to be led by such an odious group of self-serving expletives.
"Why is it that the government is always missing in action for NZ workers?"…that is an easy question to answer, it is because the New New Zealand Labour party stopped having even any pretence to being a "workers" party in 1984 when the body of the party was taken over by a new aggressive ideological disease known as free market neo liberlisim…
Which is why here in Hasting Hawkes Bay our newly elected and John Key lovin', opportunist Labour representative Anna Lorke is a better fit in todays Labour NZ than Helen Kelly would have been…think about that for a moment, a sad but true reality for the Left wing in NZ today to somehow over come.
Turn Labour Left!
The higher payment demanded for the incoming work force would have been set at that rate to ensure that the growers were not said to be undercutting willing workers here in NZ. The fact that they can afford to pay higher wages and still remain profitable, if that is the case, will be noticed by our workers and a reason for them to make a successful case for higher wages next season.
Plus some sort of sharing arrangement, so that in good seasons they get a bonus, and in bad seasons, or when the market prices go against them they do not get the bonus. I think that would seem fair to them and keep them coming back each season, hoping for a good one this year.
So let me get this right…are you are saying that Labours sneaky plan is that the NZ orchard industries have to pay a living wage to imported unskilled labour so as not to be seen as undercutting the (not) living wage payed to NZ workers…
Fuck the local horticultural industries, those aresholes have been cycnically using imported labour to undermine wage growth for New Zealand workers for decades, all the while making huge profits and buying up all the locally owned family orchards all the while…it's revolting, and of course all this is done with NZ Labours blessing…yuk.
Turn Labour Left!
"Fuck the local horticultural industries, those aresholes have been cycnically using imported labour to undermine wage growth for New Zealand workers for decades, all the while making huge profits"
Bloody oath
I stayed at a camping ground in Kerikeri a few summers ago. PEP workers crammed themselves into one of the units. They washed their clothes in the fetid river that flowed through the grounds.
Itinerant workers = second class citizens.
People who call others second class = shit.
You missed my point entirely.
I'm not calling them second class citizens; the industry defines them as that and treats them as though they are.
Things not going too well.
https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1332378809660809225
[…]
https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1332407600558841857
That's nice of them.
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1332471453430788096
edit: funnier by the minute
A North Carolina donor who gave $2.5 million to a group promising to help President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the general election is now suing to get his money back.
Fred Eshelman, who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republicans in 2020, according to Federal Election Commission data, says in his lawsuit that the organization True the Vote had not fulfilled the conditions of his monetary gift.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/27/fred-eshelman-sues-pro-trump-true-vote-election-lawsuits/6440272002/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-mosques-terror-attack-evidence-suppressed-by-royal-commission-for-30-years/UL3B4DJWB7FMNJ7YE3FUZ5R6X4/
Translation: Yeah, we f***ed up big time so we're gonna keep some things secret.
Yes, there can be compelling reasons for the suppression of certain information, but I wonder how many people over the decades have been denied justice on the grounds that the information sought that would enable them to achieve it… cannot be divulged for "security concerns".
I have much empathy for members of the Muslim community who have been so adversely affected by what happened.
It does beg the question of what it is that has to be concealed.
Poor policy, and a bad precedent.
I'm gonna make a wild guess here….a cover-up of the bleeding incompetence of our spooks..in missing all the signals put out by the killer…that would be high on my list of reasons..
(I guess they were too busy spying on environmentalists..)
Not just the official spooks Phillip ure. It's across several government agencies including the police. In fact the police have been at it for decades under the guise of a Special Branch unit which we don't get to hear much about.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/damning-report-confirms-government-agencies-used-private-investigators-for-spying/O5EBZZCGCT4NVZITQJLZQ6X7PE/
And don’t forget the revelations of police spying for political purposes:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/760466/The-activist-who-turned-police-informer
And chasing Maori round the bush.
If the evidence must be suppressed, who was the report written for?
Obviously not the hoi polloi who might be interested in how and why the Muslim community was not protected from murdering extremists
For commenters serious about knowing all about stuff.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018774523/the-history-of-nz-s-reserve-bank-governors
Here is a little Christmas present for the musically inclined. Bill Bailey and adaptable musicians with cow bells 'doing ' The Swan (I think he said).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5xJW-jHI24
Amazing dude Bill Bailey.
Seen him live a couple of times. Apparently one of a few with perfect pitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr0KvKfHSBc
We now have what will probably be the biggest test of the new Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Labour Government – the assassination of yet another Iranian scientist, obviously by state actors. No doubt, POTUS will have plausible deniability but the other actor is pretty obvious. So far, there has been no criticism of the continued commissions of war crimes victimising Palestinians. However, striking the match to cause a Middle East inferno is in a totally different realm. It is past time for the mouse to roar!
When you talk about that stuff how about putting the link. I hadn’t caught up with the assassination of Iranian scientists – you say 'another' one. And state actors – who exactly? The Iranian state of the USA?
Some reading for you greywarshark:
Latest assassination of Iranian scientist and Previous
Iranian president points finger at Israel after assassination of top military scientist near Tehran
Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program
Iraq fears Donald Trump's final weeks could see confrontation between US and Iran
Google to your hearts content, information, opinions and comments abound. The only question is, what will Minister Mahuta do?
Mossad, if that was who assasinated the Iranian nuclear boffin, timed it nicely. It happened on the same day that the (Belgian) trial started of four Iranians caught planning a bomb attack on an Iranian opposition rally near Paris (2 years ago). One of the Iranians, Assadollah Assadi, was a diplomat based in the Iranian embassy in Vienna. the Israelis and the mullhas have similar ethics (none), but the Israelis have more sophisticated murder weapons that take out individals they don't like rather than indiscriminate attacks on crowds.
We modern humans are so clever we cut ourselves. Every country seems to be dragging a burden of disgraceful actions behind it like an ankle chain.
Thanks for the links. I will read and try not to digest.
The Red tsunami carries on in the provinces. Go Tasman! 13-12.
edit
Labour should be looking out for the people who labour not for great rewards and who are not in the glamour spotlight. Miners, parents, people who stand out in the rain and do important stuff, go up power poles in bad weather, and so on. They used to but becoming managers and distancing themselves from the raw physical has become the norm, and the workers have become the exception to be considered. How did things get so arse-up? Was it just The Third Way?*
Sir Michael Parkinson known for great tv interviews on his steadfast Dad who did the hard yards.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018774816/sir-michael-and-mike-parkinson-like-father-like-son
…he enlisted his son Mike, who reshaped the book and gave it a definition.
“He started writing about the miners themselves, about the job itself, what it was about, and brought it a different kind of a serious and beautifully written account of this extraordinary tribe of men who went in a hole in the ground, like my father, and 40 years later emerged pneumoconiosis and died.”Reflecting on his research for the book, Mike said there were two things that particularly horrified him – the physical aspects of the job and working in darkness.
"The awful thing about them was they were a forgotten people, everything happened underground," he said. "If you drove past them you would only see the pit head workers, you wouldn't understand that beneath that, 1000 metres under your ground, people were working in unimaginable conditions."
It was a job that broke men physically, mentally and spiritually, he said.
"And the one thing it did to my grandfather, it may have diminished him physically but it never broke him mentally, it never broke him spiritually and that is an extraordinary testament to him."
Above all, he took on the difficult job out of love for his family.
"He loved the two of us beyond measure, he treated both of us with a great respect and love. He never raised a finger to me," Sir Michael said.
He got to experience the nature of his father's work at about 14 or 15, when he was taken down into the pit.
"I've never been so frightened in my life," he said. "What appalled me most of all was the scene that they worked in. My father worked in a scene that was about three-foot, maybe a bit less than that."
To start work he had to crawl on his stomach for around an hour and then he would work for another eight or nine hours, "digging coal on his belly".
"He never ever complained and all he could think of was to make myself and my mum happy, for that would have been his greatest fulfilment in life."
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way
Baron Anthony Giddens – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens#Biography
When we get really tired of The Third Way, are we then going to turn in a hairpin curve and go back in the other direction that we have been distancing ourselves from?
https://elephantinthelab.org/the-return-to-science-at-the-turn-of-modernity/
An old yet powerful principle has emerged from the COVID-19 crisis. It was introduced to the West in the writings of Carl G. Jung, and has its roots in the works of the pre-Socratic Greeks: enantiodromia (enantios – opposite and dromos – running course) (Jung 1968). Put simply, this means when something is pushed to the extreme, it tends to turn into its opposite. There is more than one way to conceptualize this principle, as the idea of the coincidence of opposites has had some form of cultural expression throughout the world.
When the classical Greek thinker Heraclitus alluded to it, he described it in the form of a natural process of equilibrium, in which cold things warm up and warmer things cool down. Later it found a voice in Plato, and then Hegel’s dialectic. In Daoism, the principle was given the shape of the yin-yang symbol, in which contrasting forces complement each other in an eternal cycle, bringing forth the sacred balance upon which the world rests.
The riddles presented in these ancient writings are very similar: they all imply that opposing powers are impregnated with the seeds of their own reconciliation. Jung was deeply intrigued by this philosophical strand and used the term prominently to mark a psychical phenomenon. In his observation, the dominance of a radical propensity in conscious life over a long time rouses the unconscious opposite that has been festering below the surface. For him, this overarching dualism was a nearer, personal phenomenon, reflected in one’s struggle with the self.
Jung’s notion of the archetype of the shadow symbolizes the unconscious invisible properties of an individual’s personality that are not integrated with their conscious identity. A subtle implication contained here is towards the analogy of the good wolf and the bad wolf, the clash between the known and the unknown, the struggle within as the image of the struggle without.
But what is the opposite of Third Way?
Trump (ism)
Traditional democracy.
The third way is a cargo cult. It ascribes special status to business people that is really only possessed by a tiny fraction of them, the innovators. Innovators are capable of solving their own problems, so they don't need political influence.
The rest greatly enjoy lobbying rights, which they immediately abuse, destroying hard fought left gains like steady work hours, penal rates and so forth. Carried on to its inevitable conclusion, you get insanity like a Labour immigration minister de facto endorsing slave ships, and the party apparatus mobilising to defend the practice.
Third way politics is only possible for the comfortably deluded and the actually corrupt. Workers won't have a bar of the nonsense – employer dishonesty is always in their face and at their expense.
That is why Jeremy Corbyn was pricked in the back by Labour Party officials, so that his 'life blood' slowly trickled away, not knifed, that would be too direct and obvious. The sly way of fooling most of the people, most of the time is the middle-way. The Blairites who did Corbyn down are Middle-Way proponents. His enthusiasts tended to be young and from the working class, or so I understand. So they were not to be encouraged. Future prosperity for the middle class is more important than embracing all to float upwards supporting each other.
Are these the opposites – Middle-Way or Middle-Earth. Hobbits or bad habits?