Just tried to delete this message as I see that Lynn has commented below about the problems, clicking on the “delete” link takes me to an otherwise blank page that says “-1” in the top left corner.
Work has its own dignity and reward built in. Jobs on the other hand? Can’t see any dignity there at all…just a tawdry exchange that attempts to mask blatent theft while promoting various human traits associated with selfishness that in turn cast us in the role of adverseries to one another … A waste of life and living.
There is no dignity in creating surplus value for some capitalist prick to steal.
Until this myth is rejected there is no viable pathway to a fair and sustainable society based on the allocation of resources according to need, and of individual contibutions according to ability and meeting the requirements of the community.
The first step is to start differentiating between jobs and work.
Outage this morning. The database server jammed up at 03:35 (cleared itself at 0449) and at 06:05 (I hard rebooted at 09:34) in a pattern I have seen a couple of irritating times now. I got some more logs on what the problem is.. I’ll have a look at them after breakfast.
I was hoping that upgrading and cleaning up the database would either fix it or make it clearer what was going on. Hopefully the latter has happened.
Damn I set my phone to silent whilst watching Warm Bodies last night (you can just see the pitch – romeo and juliet in the zombie apocalypse)
Hypocrisy Watch: Ali Williams criticizes the referee
Queensland Reds 12 defeat Auckland Blues 11, Brisbane, 26 April 2013
Ironic quote of the weekend, probably of the whole year, comes from the Auckland Blues captain Ali Williams, after his team went down by one point in Brisbane:
The referee he was complaining about was the notorious CRAIG JOUBERT. Just eighteen months ago, not a peep was heard from Williams after he and his All Black team-mates had been effectively gifted the World Cup not by one marginal call, but by Joubert’s defiant refusal to penalize their flagrant repeated fouling of a superior Tricolors team.
This time, though, after Joubert had actually done what he is always supposed to do, and refereed a match honestly, Williams is whining and bitching about not a systematic refusal to do his job, as happened to Williams’ benefit in the RWC final, but one marginal decision.
As any French fan would say: quelle hypocrisie.
And as local observers of Ali Williams, that tiresomely childish streak of narcissism, would say: fucking idiot.
If professional sports “stars” are having difficultly with the pressure that their job entails they should resign from their position before taking their mental issues out on other people…and then blame the pressures of their job.
Screen out the weak ones BEFORE you sign them and create a climate of zero tolerance rather than offer up pathetic excuses for abuse.
AND FYI, if it really were the pressure of the job why aren’t they hitting each other? Because
– it is much easier to take your anger out on weaker females
– it isn’t an acceptable thing to smack around a fellow sports star
– the coach wouldn’t allow it to happen. They might lose a game.
A 5ft (1.5m) piece of landing gear believed to be from one of the planes destroyed in the 9/11 attacks has been discovered wedged between a mosque site and another building near the World Trade Centre.
The piece of equipment was discovered on Wednesday by surveyors inspecting the lower Manhattan site of a planned Islamic community centre, at 51 Park Place, on behalf of the building’s owner. The inspectors called police who secured the scene, documenting it with photos.
Got to keep those anti *muslim/islamic* emotions, well fired up, at all times!
is the propaganda that they have found a bit of a plane with identification or something to do with the planned Islamic community centre I can’t work it out.
Edit – I see you’ve added a bit but it still seems pretty murky in regards to the propaganda imo
Marty the propagada is in the timing of these *factual news releases*.
They are designed to keep the racial/religious tensions ratcheted right up, an to provide constant programming of fear into the minds of the people, these are all techniques, make no mistake about it!
The convenience of this *find*, being so soon after the Boston Bombings, and coming hot on the heels of the latest financial (rate swaps scandal).
Such *news*, has multi facted distractions to fend off/to provide cover/support for, and ensure the focus remains firmly on the muslims/islamic *terrorists*, everywhere….because they’re everywhere, Marty!
Never forget that, the news media certainly won’!
This is more bankers sponsored *news*, just like the bankers sponsored *wars*, all of them!!
Fair points muzza although I’d imagine if they were holding onto this ‘evidence’ they could have found a few good (for them) moments over the last few years to ‘find’ this and report it.
Interesting point about there being terrorists everywhere. If the definition of terrorist is defined by them then they can find terrorists everywhere and, based on their definition, they are correct, they are everywhere, and that certainly maintains and amplifies the fear.
Exactly Marty – It like Key claiming WMDs in NZ, well under those who control the definition, about what constitutes WMDs these days, Key can easily claim he was not lying!
Let’s not forget NZ’s shameful part in the history of chemical warfare!
Yes, there are some twisted sad individuals out there, eh. Ghouls, preying on horror to satisfy their own limited understanding, and bolster their pathetic alternative histories. Are you one of them?
No, but then I’m not attempting to draw attention by exploiting victims of a bomb attack, I’m the one expressing my contempt and disgust for those who do.
The 12 supposed dead reported by the NY Post, from a “trusted law enforcement source”?
The people who suffered shock, disorientation, and possibly temporary hearing loss after the first explosion (supposedly loaded with shrapnel), which was just a few feet away from them?
The man with shredded clothes who immediately ran from the epicenter after the first explosion?
The Saudi national Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, who was reported to have suffered a leg injury from shrapnel, yet was able to run from the scene and was later held in custody in hospital?
What do we call those creatures who feed on corpses? Ah, that’s right, we call them maggots, but maggots are just following their nature. What’s your excuse?
Well put. Limited understanding and a digital world where there are only two options. Question the smallest element of their narrative and it’s “OMG OMG Another sheeple who believes everything in the MSM!!!”
Small minds and a messianic complex, overflowing with hatred, they place watching youtube well before organised militancy in their arsenal of methods to change the world. In fact, they don’t even want to change the world. The horror is so all pervading and everything is so tied up in these enormous conspiracies that nothing can be changed. In their world, marching against asset sales = ignoring the non existent chemtrails; saving some whales = supporting the Kenyan Obama as he disarms us (forgetting in the transfer from Alex Jones to The Standard that we don’t live in the US and A); feeding kids = supporting Agenda 21 (whatever that is, it’s not a plan for world government and overly pigmented helicopters)……….
Ghouls is too nice a word for them.
DOVER — New Hampshire State Rep. Stella Tremblay is calling for answers about whether the American government was involved in detonating explosives at the Boston Marathon last week, killing three people and wounding more than 170 others.
In an interview with Foster’s Daily Democrat Tuesday, Tremblay said she can’t rule out the possibility the government was involved in carrying out the bombings.
Tremblay’s remarks came a few hours after she was criticized by the New Hampshire Democratic Party for a comment she posted on Facebook several days earlier, in which Tremblay wrote that the marathon attack on April 15 was carried out by “Black Ops.”
Glen Beck has claimed that he has proof the federal government has covered up the Boston bombing as being carried out by Chechnya terrorists. He says that the bombing was actually carried out by Saudi nationals and that he has the evidence to prove it.
In relation to Glenn Beck’s position, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer questions on the subject by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on Capitol Hill on April 18, saying the inquiry was “so full of misstatements and misapprehension that it’s just not worthy of an answer.”
Duncan’s question was:
“Wouldn’t you agree with me that it’s negligent for us as an American administration to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing and we’re going to deport him, not to be able to question him anymore?”
Yes. No doubt you find that significant. I suggest you spread your faith in Mr. Beck far and wide, especially in your workplace and to random strangers at the bar. Make a sign, a sandwich board perhaps. You’ll gain everyone’s undying respect, I promise.
Beck’s position as an argument is supported by facts, it is more than rambling.
I find it ironic that you accuse me of feeding off death when that is the defining characteristic of the industry of war which is being exposed by people who are challenging the MSM narrative.
The relationship of the war industry to all this is that the empire depends on the existence of a adversary, real or perceived. The adversary could be something as simple as a noun, like “terror”, or as complex as a foreign religion like Islam or a shadowy organisation like Al Qaeda. The Boston narrative provides Islam from Tamerlan and Chechnya, and has the potential to supply Al Qaeda from the Saudi national at the heart of Glen Beck’s campaign.
Really???? Gosh, that sounds just like Orwell’s vision from 1984, can you teach me to suck eggs too???????
Speaking of eggs, that the US has sewn dragons’ teeth is old news around here, but the notion that it’s part of some sort of coherent strategy is beyond stupid.
Whether or not the strategy is coherent is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not it exists and what the implications are if it does. The fact that it exists is implied by the repeated behaviour of the US empire regarding manufactured threats. Beck’s position is a problem for the empire because the response of the Obama administration to the exposure of AbdulRahman ali Al-Harbi only makes sense if he was a potential asset.
The shallow, foolish, rhythmically challenged TV chatterer Ellen DeGeneres is championing Maurice Williamson, who along with his other National Party colleagues took secret payments from the gay-hating Brethren cult, as a hero for the gay cause. She is going to go ahead with the booking of Williamson despite the efforts of many New Zealand gay activists to inform her of Williamson’s record. As shown by that incident and the following story, gay politics are little different from “straight” or “mainstream” politics: the people who get to the top of organizations are generally corrupt and/or cowardly individuals….
Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is embraced
A seemingly trivial controversy reveals quite a bit about pervasive political values
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Guardian, 27 April 2013
News reports yesterday indicated that Bradley Manning, widely known to
be gay, had been selected to be one of the Grand Marshals of the
annual San Francisco gay pride parade, named by the LGBT Pride
Celebration Committee. When the predictable backlash instantly ensued,
the president of the Board of SF Pride, Lisa L Williams, quickly
capitulated, issuing a cowardly, imperious statement that has to be
read to be believed.
Williams proclaimed that “Manning will not be a grand marshal in this
year’s San Francisco Pride celebration” and termed his selection “a
mistake”. She blamed it all on a “staff person” who prematurely made
the announcement based on a preliminary vote, and she assures us all
that the culprit “has been disciplined”: disciplined. She then accuses
Manning of “actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and
women in uniform”: a substance-free falsehood originally spread by top
US military officials which has since been decisively and extensively
debunked, even by some government officials (indeed, it’s the US
government itself, not Manning, that is guilty of “actions which
placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform”). And
then, in my favorite part of her statement, Williams decreed to all
organization members that “even the hint of support” for Manning’s
action – even the hint – “will not be tolerated by the leadership of
San Francisco Pride”. Will not be tolerated.
I originally had no intention of writing about this episode, but the
more I discovered about it, the more revealing it became. So let’s
just consider a few of the points raised by all of this.
First, while even a hint of support for Manning will not be tolerated,
there is a long roster of large corporations serving as the event’s
sponsors who are welcomed with open arms. ….
Morresey i,m a referee Joubert,s refereeing of the tackle was poor went both ways, you are right on the World Cup Final had that game been refereed properly France win
Just watched Q&A if you need reminding what a out of touch dinosaur Michelle Boag is catch it on demand or on TV1later tonight her echoing of Key and Joyce,s rant during the week had to be seen to be believed Jon Johansen,s reaction to the crap that came fron her mouth is a must see
Yep I just watched her as well. I did send them an E-mail.
“Why oh Why do you keep giving Boag credibility by allowing her to spout Nationalistic rubbish on National TV???”
I have no need to reference her in my study of Q + A; what’s the word, oh yeah, irrelevant, and a week late with the commentary.(get all current and up-to-date political commentary right here from The Standard, your one-stop-shop for laughs and barffs.
Shane Jones- “comfortable with Greens now”. 😉 (you cheeky man).
Joyce releases a press statement to the effect-“that centrist Labour MPs being isolated by the shift to the Greens”.
(well, OK, her spin was “giving ground to the Greens is very scary for most New Zealanders”).Really?
David Round (man who does not like The Treaty and fears the current constitutional review)- “countries can ruin (ruin none-the-less, ruin we tell you) themselves through their own folly.” Well…
John Minto (Excellent composure if you are reading this).- a “furious, hysterical reaction to NZPower by vested interests”. (well, near enough).
There is an Excellent article by Eugenie Sage in the links column on the dodgy dealings behind the H.B Irrigation Scheme development.
They put DAVID ROUND on this programme? As anybody who saw this pretentious bow-tied ninny on Willie Jackson’s Eye to Eye will know, Round is an extreme race-baiter, almost pathological in his detestation of Māori culture. Round often teamed up with the S.S. advocate and ACT benchwarmer Stephen Franks to scoff, sneer and disparage any liberal speaker on the programme. I thought that, with the death of Paul Holmes, we had seen the end of racist louts being given the run of the studio on TVNZ; clearly I was wrong.
Why don’t they just hire Kyle Chapman as a commentator and be done with it?
How many Labour front benchers does it take to change a light bulb?
Two.
First, Shearer announces that he, as Leader of the Labour Party that he’s leader of the Labour Party and Party of as the Leader, he’ll um, well, consider hiring a glow worm to replace the light bulb, no um, ah as Learer of the Paybour Larty, ah, he personally, himself, as Pay TV of the Leaper is personally responsible for providing a source of continual heat and light that will be available to all for half of every day and it will be called “The Sun” and it was his initiative, as a television.
Second, after hearing Hooton screech that sunlight is communism and it made his budgie explode, Robertson will promptly wet his pants and announce, so as to protect budgies everywhere, there will be no more sunlight.
Oh, and then the lightbulb doesn’t get changed after all.
It’s always a tragedy when careerism destroys a once-great party.
Humour is a raft I’m clinging too, and it’s in danger of falling apart.
The fact is, a few people have been repeating the canard that the right-wing LINO is “opening up space on the left”, but that dollop of custard Robertson has shown – as I predicted – that LINO will use the Greens to get superficial cred, but kill their initiatives once they threaten to change the status quo. Instead, they’re going to smear yet more lipstick on the neoliberal pig.
Just to make things perfectly clear. This isn’t LINO “opening up space on the left”, this is LINO announcing that they want to use the Greens and possibly Mana to get the numbers, and to appease them, they’ll let their initiatives get a hearing, but don’t worry, my dear, dear, precious markets, we won’t let them get to the status of law. We are never, ever going to disrupt the status quo.
If they were honest, the front benchers would call the party “Middle-Class Baby Boomer Technocrats Who Mainly Work in Media, PR and Law”, but it doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.
There is a real Labour party, a progressive socialist party, and it’s on the back benches.
Can we realistically expect a mainstream political party with membership invested in the current socio-economic hierarchy to throw out or revolutionise the very same status quo?
It’s not going to happen. By definition, a mainstream party must be conservative to exist in the mainstream*.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
*The key here is realising that too often, political parties aim for the mainstream of the media, not the mainstream of the nation.
Too long speaking to the media, they mistake the media for the nation.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
Fingers crossed. Keep the pressure on, I say. They’ll never be perfect, but keep the pressure on, and maybe they’ll be just a bit better.
It’s all Bellamy’s fault, I say – metaphorically – the nice meals for free, the comforts and the limousines breed complacency (Hell, look at he effect BMW 7-series limos have had on the Maori Party – they must be automotive heroin). I representative should never be complacent. Making excuses for them is never going to work.
It was an old Roman custom to have a slave riding with a triumphant general in his victory parade to whisper in his ear “remember that thou art a man”.
Um
If your critics are obsessive or nuts, they don’t apply any pressure whatsoever.
But more specifically, your joke was too long and too niche.
A better version would be:
How many labour mps does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two: shearer to change the bulb, and robertson to promise that labour has no further territorial demands on the free market mechanism.
“I keep being kicked in the gutter”: the cruelty of multiple disability cuts ~ That should shame Britain to the core
“Thousands of people with disabilities or long-term illness are now being affected by simultaneous cuts. As the welfare state undergoes unprecedented changes, the same people are being hit over and over again, says Frances Ryan.”
“During the first half of our marriage he suffered a brain haemorrhage and although he was ok and could still do things, one side was quite paralysed and he was not able to work,”
Mrs Barker told the inquest.
“I know he had been on some sort of benefit for a number of years.”
Mrs Barker said she had last seen Mr Barker on December 8 when he had called to see her at work.
“He was going for a drink and seemed happy but he wanted me to help him go through his benefit papers because he was worried that he was going to be sent back to work,”
Shame on the fascist scum tories! Camoron and Untergrupenfuhrer IDS.
Not just in Britain: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8606036/Appalling-plight-of-elderly-revealed
Its a worldwide phenomena that the elderly and infirm are basically killed by neglect and abuse as the law will not persecute this at all, neither as neglect nor abuse and let alone deliberate homicide. What people don’t seem to comprehend: we will all be old one day – or hopefully not.
Sickening report that. I feel rage but don’t know who to rage at – politicians, the owners of these hellholes, the exploiters of elders, our society, the mirror.
Rage at the institution would be appropriate. As for me, I would rather die in the ditch then be holed up in a home where people with such disregard for dignity and life join to make someone else’s last days full of misery. Mind you I saw an article today (stuff) where it is noted that Gay adoption and Euthanasia are the final frontier for the Government.
Seems that the Government is already working on plan B – Euthanasia. It will lead to some vigorous debate – but only because these sadists will loose their job if the elderly need “too much care” and it is “better” to not have them suffer. Still, ditch for me….
ffs! Get shot of the private providers! Universal state provisioning of aged care with properly paid and resourced staff wouldn’t sort out all of the problems. But it would be a damned sight better than the ‘ship ’em in, rip ’em off and trundle ’em out’ culture that’s all the rage at the moment.
after only another day of events, ICAP / ISDA, rest-home reports, and OIA obstruction, and viewing an S.A promo fo their current mission, I despair, I really do. For example, the army is charting the social decline of the casualties of the “free” markets, yet by their very nature and function are well-enmeshed in that decline; phenemona measured and token-funded.
And yet this is nothing new, has been happening a long time – We have all allowed this to happen, and collectively each and every number, will at some stage in the timeline, reap what has been sowed!
Just finished dealing with Orcon’s Call Centre, now in the Phillipines…….what used to be relatively good local experience is now just like Vodafone, Telecom etc
Smaller has significant merits in service and quality, I’m seeing this with what were good local tradeys. They can’t say no to work they should turn away, employ whoever they can and then hope for the best as they are too busy quoting, demanding deposits and eagerly collecting the money without checking the quality of their new employees or often their qualifications.
Isn’t deregulation and toothless industry bodies just wonderful. I’ve had the plumbers board basically toss their arms up over ripping a family member off and not completing the job and the vet association did same over a vet who ignored a direct instruction from the pet owner which could have resulted in the Pets death except the owner went to another Vet who did as asked and diagnosed/fixed the problem.
Yup a colleague asked me about Telstra clear and moving across, once I explained who had bought them and what comes next they decided against it, an easy call if you study history.
in historical times I imagine my people and I would have. sadly, I have met and socialized with former armed bank-robbers; regrettably , once a fire-arm is concerned, the outcomes can be (yet were not in these cases) irreversible.
feck! that Instant Finance promotes some arrears dunnit. All this lending in a context where nearly half of all NZ households live week to week. The mind boggles! and with Winter coming…so many threads to the tapestry of the future yet they are all being woven into a web together.
Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of free-market economics predicted rejection of climate science. Endorsement of free markets also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings…
Most people who believe conspiracy crap seem to be incredibly right wing once you scratch them. They also tend to believe in Zionist/Illuminati conspiracies, Obama as a Kenyan, chemtrails, scientists conspiring to make a buck out of global warming, and similar nonsense. Explaining everything as a conspiracy, they explain nothing. Irrespective of country, they seem to think the second amendment holds.
If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.
“If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.”
Really?
Well then, let me help you recognise it.
On this thestandard.org.nz page under the Links menu there is a LEFT Blogs list with the link below to a LEFT blog, scroll down the page a bit and in the right hand column of this LEFT blog page is a big picture of the collapsing towers with the heading:
“As seen in this revealing photo the Twin Towers’ destruction exhibited all the characteristics of destruction by explosions:”
Still no geo-engineering reading done, eh Murray, come along, you can’t just keep poking holes in what you know nothing about!
I see your comment attracted some approval from OAB, shame man!
Should be all the catalyst you need to get yourself informed eh!
Edit, I see you got Joe90 too, unlucky!
Edit 2 – Do you believe the constitution, should be completely openly trashed, or are you losing your marbles with that second amendment comment, or perhaps in general!
I realise that the second amendment of the US Constitution doesn’t have any status in law in any country I live in. That already gives me quite a few more marbles than you.
As for reading anything you’d recommend on geoengineering – I’d rather clean my eyes with a cheese grater, thanks. If something smells like shit and looks like shit, I don’t actually have to taste it just to be sure, let alone try to make a golden calf out of it.
TV3’s tame—and untrustworthy—news department
That $43 million bribe to MediaWorks has worked well
TV3 “news” preview, Sunday 28 April 2013, 5:50 p.m.
CAROLYN ROBINSON: Coming up tonight on Three News! The public’s take on political BRAIN FADES, like those suffered by John Key and David Shearer…
Excuse me? Shearer “suffered” a “brain fade” like John Key did? They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?
Yes, I think they are.
I guess they justify such rancid bias, such partisan distortion, such open, shameless and sycophantic support for their major sponsor by calling it “balance”. The rest of us will remember that, less than two years ago, TV3’s parent company was gifted forty-three million dollars by the Key government.
It certainly appears someone in the editorial team is a bit of a yes man… or woman.
I’m surprised some of the senior presenters would read the stuff they’re given, but then I guess they don’t want to get kicked off air and have to get real jobs.
Imagine how that poor lady from N Korea must feel when she’s reading out how kim lil dong is gonna nuke it all unless psy teaches him the dance steps in person – Pyongyang style.
“They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?”
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”. Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”.
I’m not being disingenuous; you are being provocative. I shall, however, take the advice of our good friend “dumrse” and refrain from (to use a John Banks expression) “tearing your wings off”.
So let’s get back to the matter in hand: Shearer failed to include his overseas bank account on his parliamentary declaration. The fact that he declared it to the Inland Revenue shows that it was an oversight, not a deliberate deception. It is immensely different to, say, taking secret payments from a fanatically anti-democratic, anti-homosexual, anti-women religious cult.
Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
I’m not trying to excuse his behaviour, I’m pointing out what you already know, viz., Shearer’s behaviour was not comparable to Key’s systematic dishonesty.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
I never suggested anything different.
See how that works?
I sure do, although I’m a little concerned that you can’t quite understand how grave Key’s dishonesty is.
Yes, I agree TV3 is partly following the (flawed) logic of “impartiality – showing both sides. But it’s a false equivalence. They only seem similar (Shearer brain fade compared with Key and Banks), because of another feature of “neoliberal” infotainment – lack of background context.
If they were to look more deeply into each of the “brain fades” they’d see that Key’s and Banks relate to some crucial issues of democracy, and accountability on intelligence services, cronyism and funding of political campaigns.
Shearer’s brain fade seems to relate more to personal savings, possibly individual tax dodging – not a good thing but it’s peripheral to NZ”s political structure.
I just saw that silly vain self centred has-been Shane Jones on the news.
What an embarrassment to the Party.
I look forward to hearing that he has been strongly admonished for his publicity seeking antics.
He has contributed nothing to the Labour Party. Yet he is allowed to speak on TV on a wide range of topics.
I loose my appetite just hearing him.
No doubt that stellar deputy and action Leader Grant Robertson will whip Shane’s ass.
Yes between DS, the mallarfia old guard, Jones arrogance and lightweight brown noses like Curran, Hipkins etc the hollowmen just have to keep the shonkey one in check and 2014 is a shoe in.
Of course having the media on your side helps which makes the need to have an effective opposition so vital, sadly these are not the droids we are looking for to biff out the evil empire.
I wondered which RWNJ had driven the comments to over 100 and see ‘ugly truth’ has been busy. When there is a high count it’s often a case of an annoying mosquito. Some are resistant to spray and require the quick, hard bash. At one time when mosquitoes were bad I had numerous bloody marks on my bedroom wall. It was satisfying and worked – till the next outbreak.
come on muzza why are you sticking up for ugly or do you agree with his repetitive use of the derogatory and disgusting term ‘retarded’. On that basis alone, let alone his fawning of beck, he/she should be treated as a lowrider and given the short shift, as OAK has done. Just because OAK has not treated your views with much respect or credence in the past doesn’t mean that who he/she opposes is correct or valid.
Prism mused that the comment count had gone up, then went on to throw insults at UT.
My only contention, was to point out, that there were two invovled in a long conversation, the other happened to be OAB. I would have called prism on that one regardless, because his comment was unblanced!
Not sure where you read support in there bro, or the part where I am concerned about what OAB makes of my posts here…
I moved past most the usual hangups people grapple through their lives with, from a very young age!
sure mate but I think you’ll find that prism did mention ‘knuckle’ in the comment. And the fact is that often a high comment count is a RWNJ getting dealt to, as has happened today.
it’s cool that you have got through the usual hangups at a very young age although I’m not sure what you are meaning there, but whatever…
marty mars
Thanks for bringing some light to muzza’s page. How can people write here frequently commenting on others stuff yet not even read it all. It is really important to glance over the whole thing to get the actual message, the whole thought. I added at the bottom in plain sight that it was UT and knuckle and gave the count I had just made, with a one-word observation that I might be wrong in my original statement.
@muzza
So muzza get with it, brain warmed up, running nicely before going into gear – and do start off at first for a smooth takeoff. Those kangaroo hops are a telling sign that here there is a practitioner still evolving in skills. That’s going to get up your nose probably but hey you can’t win them all.
It’ll probably take the extinction of their beloved Chesapeake oysters before rising sea temperatures are taken seriously.
Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). These high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are the latest in a trend of above average temperature seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a pattern of elevated temperatures occurring in the Northwest Atlantic, but not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin over the past century.
They’ve only just cleaned up a lot of the growing areas enough to make the oysters edible again as well. Contamination of oysters around New York especially provided a big impetus to cutting down on dumping crap straight into the water. Hmmm. Too late.
Personally, I’d kick all the NAct voters’ yachts out of Opua as well to preserve the oysters up there, then carry on with the rest of the country.
I am not normally impressed by him, but Shane Jones’ performance on Q and A was impressive.
It was particularly heartening to hear a Labour MP use such language as:
‘The merchant bankers have gone absolutely nutty’
The rhetoric of the merchant bankers is “tainted”
Taking advice from them is like taking grooming advice from Frankenstein”
Yeah, but the problem is that if you remove the “merchant bankers” and substitute in “shane jones” (after the last years of screwups at least since the GFC), then guess what – you have a match!
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
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Quiet here this morning, or has there been a hiccup?
There was a hiccup.
Just tried to delete this message as I see that Lynn has commented below about the problems, clicking on the “delete” link takes me to an otherwise blank page that says “-1” in the top left corner.
“The dignity of work” – Is it just as dignified if our labour will be worth less than those on a collective contract?
Work has its own dignity and reward built in. Jobs on the other hand? Can’t see any dignity there at all…just a tawdry exchange that attempts to mask blatent theft while promoting various human traits associated with selfishness that in turn cast us in the role of adverseries to one another … A waste of life and living.
There is no dignity in creating surplus value for some capitalist prick to steal.
Until this myth is rejected there is no viable pathway to a fair and sustainable society based on the allocation of resources according to need, and of individual contibutions according to ability and meeting the requirements of the community.
The first step is to start differentiating between jobs and work.
Outage this morning. The database server jammed up at 03:35 (cleared itself at 0449) and at 06:05 (I hard rebooted at 09:34) in a pattern I have seen a couple of irritating times now. I got some more logs on what the problem is.. I’ll have a look at them after breakfast.
I was hoping that upgrading and cleaning up the database would either fix it or make it clearer what was going on. Hopefully the latter has happened.
Damn I set my phone to silent whilst watching Warm Bodies last night (you can just see the pitch – romeo and juliet in the zombie apocalypse)
Hypocrisy Watch: Ali Williams criticizes the referee
Queensland Reds 12 defeat Auckland Blues 11, Brisbane, 26 April 2013
Ironic quote of the weekend, probably of the whole year, comes from the Auckland Blues captain Ali Williams, after his team went down by one point in Brisbane:
****************************************************
“It comes down to what the referee sees. That hurts, that sucks.”
****************************************************
The referee he was complaining about was the notorious CRAIG JOUBERT. Just eighteen months ago, not a peep was heard from Williams after he and his All Black team-mates had been effectively gifted the World Cup not by one marginal call, but by Joubert’s defiant refusal to penalize their flagrant repeated fouling of a superior Tricolors team.
This time, though, after Joubert had actually done what he is always supposed to do, and refereed a match honestly, Williams is whining and bitching about not a systematic refusal to do his job, as happened to Williams’ benefit in the RWC final, but one marginal decision.
As any French fan would say: quelle hypocrisie.
And as local observers of Ali Williams, that tiresomely childish streak of narcissism, would say: fucking idiot.
Maybe Williams can only win when he cheats?
Almost any player will cheat if given the opportunity. The fault in the 2011 RWC final lay with the referee, or (to be accurate) the non-referee.
This is a good summary, from British television, of Joubert’s outrageous failure in that match….
There are, of course, many more exhaustive French analyses of the catastrophe.
Absolute rubbish there – you cherry pick analysis that has been completely disowned except for whinging French fans.
You don’t have a clue about rugby do you? At least come up with some examples instead of posting to something thats been completely discredited.
If professional sports “stars” are having difficultly with the pressure that their job entails they should resign from their position before taking their mental issues out on other people…and then blame the pressures of their job.
Screen out the weak ones BEFORE you sign them and create a climate of zero tolerance rather than offer up pathetic excuses for abuse.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/28/stop-pretending-the-all-blacks-are-just-normal-ordinary-guys/
Pressure of the game crap: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/all-black-granted-bail-but-barred-from-contact-with-partner-20130422-2i9qb.html
AND FYI, if it really were the pressure of the job why aren’t they hitting each other? Because
– it is much easier to take your anger out on weaker females
– it isn’t an acceptable thing to smack around a fellow sports star
– the coach wouldn’t allow it to happen. They might lose a game.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/26/september-11-landing-gear-found-nypd
Got to keep those anti *muslim/islamic* emotions, well fired up, at all times!
The propganda war, NEVR sleeps!
How is it propaganda to report the facts?
is the propaganda that they have found a bit of a plane with identification or something to do with the planned Islamic community centre I can’t work it out.
Edit – I see you’ve added a bit but it still seems pretty murky in regards to the propaganda imo
Or the fact that they can call it Evidence, and tie up the building of said Mosque for a few years?
Thanks David that makes sense
Marty the propagada is in the timing of these *factual news releases*.
They are designed to keep the racial/religious tensions ratcheted right up, an to provide constant programming of fear into the minds of the people, these are all techniques, make no mistake about it!
The convenience of this *find*, being so soon after the Boston Bombings, and coming hot on the heels of the latest financial (rate swaps scandal).
Such *news*, has multi facted distractions to fend off/to provide cover/support for, and ensure the focus remains firmly on the muslims/islamic *terrorists*, everywhere….because they’re everywhere, Marty!
Never forget that, the news media certainly won’!
This is more bankers sponsored *news*, just like the bankers sponsored *wars*, all of them!!
Fair points muzza although I’d imagine if they were holding onto this ‘evidence’ they could have found a few good (for them) moments over the last few years to ‘find’ this and report it.
Interesting point about there being terrorists everywhere. If the definition of terrorist is defined by them then they can find terrorists everywhere and, based on their definition, they are correct, they are everywhere, and that certainly maintains and amplifies the fear.
Exactly Marty – It like Key claiming WMDs in NZ, well under those who control the definition, about what constitutes WMDs these days, Key can easily claim he was not lying!
Let’s not forget NZ’s shameful part in the history of chemical warfare!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ranch_Hand
EDIT: I’ll be following with interest, the progess of the landing gear, and how it turns out to related/unrelated to 911.
Managing the Boston actors:
Yes, there are some twisted sad individuals out there, eh. Ghouls, preying on horror to satisfy their own limited understanding, and bolster their pathetic alternative histories. Are you one of them?
Yes, there are some retards out there, uncritically accepting the MSM narrative. Are you one of them?
Good that you have admitted that you are twisted and sad ugly – that is the first step in sorting it all out – good luck with that.
No, but then I’m not attempting to draw attention by exploiting victims of a bomb attack, I’m the one expressing my contempt and disgust for those who do.
Which victims?
The 12 supposed dead reported by the NY Post, from a “trusted law enforcement source”?
The people who suffered shock, disorientation, and possibly temporary hearing loss after the first explosion (supposedly loaded with shrapnel), which was just a few feet away from them?
The man with shredded clothes who immediately ran from the epicenter after the first explosion?
The Saudi national Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, who was reported to have suffered a leg injury from shrapnel, yet was able to run from the scene and was later held in custody in hospital?
No, the ghoulish trash who seek to draw attention to themselves.
Why can’t you identify any victims, are you retarded or something?
All of them, collectively, are being exploited by attention-seeking trash.
So you are both a retard and a liar. Glad we’ve got that sorted out.
What do we call those creatures who feed on corpses? Ah, that’s right, we call them maggots, but maggots are just following their nature. What’s your excuse?
good questions : disturbing.
But wait, there’s more….
http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/04/26/boston-bombers-uncle-married-daughter-of-top-cia-official/
Are Blogs (political) Echo-Chambers? ; top article, a pdf, is revealing.
and the Veenstra et al; (2008) article at the bottom of page.
Well put. Limited understanding and a digital world where there are only two options. Question the smallest element of their narrative and it’s “OMG OMG Another sheeple who believes everything in the MSM!!!”
Small minds and a messianic complex, overflowing with hatred, they place watching youtube well before organised militancy in their arsenal of methods to change the world. In fact, they don’t even want to change the world. The horror is so all pervading and everything is so tied up in these enormous conspiracies that nothing can be changed. In their world, marching against asset sales = ignoring the non existent chemtrails; saving some whales = supporting the Kenyan Obama as he disarms us (forgetting in the transfer from Alex Jones to The Standard that we don’t live in the US and A); feeding kids = supporting Agenda 21 (whatever that is, it’s not a plan for world government and overly pigmented helicopters)……….
Ghouls is too nice a word for them.
DOVER — New Hampshire State Rep. Stella Tremblay is calling for answers about whether the American government was involved in detonating explosives at the Boston Marathon last week, killing three people and wounding more than 170 others.
In an interview with Foster’s Daily Democrat Tuesday, Tremblay said she can’t rule out the possibility the government was involved in carrying out the bombings.
Tremblay’s remarks came a few hours after she was criticized by the New Hampshire Democratic Party for a comment she posted on Facebook several days earlier, in which Tremblay wrote that the marathon attack on April 15 was carried out by “Black Ops.”
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130423/GJNEWS_01/130429720/-1/FOSNEWS
Yes, she’s a fucking idiot alright.
Why do you think she’s an idiot?
http://www.freepatriot.org/2013/04/20/glenn-beck-says-he-has-proof-boston-bombing-is-inside-job/
Glen Beck has claimed that he has proof the federal government has covered up the Boston bombing as being carried out by Chechnya terrorists. He says that the bombing was actually carried out by Saudi nationals and that he has the evidence to prove it.
Morans unite.
So you were lying about uncritically accepting the MSM narrative, then?
Skepticism, you’re doing it wrong.
I’ll take that as a yes.
If you were skeptical of the MSM account you would have been able so say what was wrong with Glenn Beck’s position.
What’s right about Glenn Beck’s position would be a shorter list:
1. Nothing.
I think he’s a waste of oxygen, but you knock yourself out.
I don’t give a shit what you think, OAK.
In relation to Glenn Beck’s position, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer questions on the subject by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on Capitol Hill on April 18, saying the inquiry was “so full of misstatements and misapprehension that it’s just not worthy of an answer.”
Duncan’s question was:
“Wouldn’t you agree with me that it’s negligent for us as an American administration to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing and we’re going to deport him, not to be able to question him anymore?”
Yes. No doubt you find that significant. I suggest you spread your faith in Mr. Beck far and wide, especially in your workplace and to random strangers at the bar. Make a sign, a sandwich board perhaps. You’ll gain everyone’s undying respect, I promise.
I have no faith in Beck, retard.
You just find his ramblings significant enough to bear repetition, maggot.
Beck’s position as an argument is supported by facts, it is more than rambling.
I find it ironic that you accuse me of feeding off death when that is the defining characteristic of the industry of war which is being exposed by people who are challenging the MSM narrative.
That’s because you have no more clue about irony than you do of scepticism.
PS: Thinking you to be a witless maggot ≠ support for the MSM
Another lie from OAK, the retarded MSM sycophant.
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/what-is-irony-with-examples/
The relationship of the war industry to all this is that the empire depends on the existence of a adversary, real or perceived. The adversary could be something as simple as a noun, like “terror”, or as complex as a foreign religion like Islam or a shadowy organisation like Al Qaeda. The Boston narrative provides Islam from Tamerlan and Chechnya, and has the potential to supply Al Qaeda from the Saudi national at the heart of Glen Beck’s campaign.
Really???? Gosh, that sounds just like Orwell’s vision from 1984, can you teach me to suck eggs too???????
Speaking of eggs, that the US has sewn dragons’ teeth is old news around here, but the notion that it’s part of some sort of coherent strategy is beyond stupid.
Whether or not the strategy is coherent is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not it exists and what the implications are if it does. The fact that it exists is implied by the repeated behaviour of the US empire regarding manufactured threats. Beck’s position is a problem for the empire because the response of the Obama administration to the exposure of AbdulRahman ali Al-Harbi only makes sense if he was a potential asset.
Argh, the stupid, it burns.
“…potential asset.”
The term is “political football”.
Speaking of stupid, who was the fuckwit who was engaged in a knee-jerk attack on Beck’s position not so very long ago?
You do understand the term political football, don’t you?
PS: You think Glenn Beck is a credible source of anything? I pity you.
The shallow, foolish, rhythmically challenged TV chatterer Ellen DeGeneres is championing Maurice Williamson, who along with his other National Party colleagues took secret payments from the gay-hating Brethren cult, as a hero for the gay cause. She is going to go ahead with the booking of Williamson despite the efforts of many New Zealand gay activists to inform her of Williamson’s record. As shown by that incident and the following story, gay politics are little different from “straight” or “mainstream” politics: the people who get to the top of organizations are generally corrupt and/or cowardly individuals….
Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is embraced
A seemingly trivial controversy reveals quite a bit about pervasive political values
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Guardian, 27 April 2013
News reports yesterday indicated that Bradley Manning, widely known to
be gay, had been selected to be one of the Grand Marshals of the
annual San Francisco gay pride parade, named by the LGBT Pride
Celebration Committee. When the predictable backlash instantly ensued,
the president of the Board of SF Pride, Lisa L Williams, quickly
capitulated, issuing a cowardly, imperious statement that has to be
read to be believed.
Williams proclaimed that “Manning will not be a grand marshal in this
year’s San Francisco Pride celebration” and termed his selection “a
mistake”. She blamed it all on a “staff person” who prematurely made
the announcement based on a preliminary vote, and she assures us all
that the culprit “has been disciplined”: disciplined. She then accuses
Manning of “actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and
women in uniform”: a substance-free falsehood originally spread by top
US military officials which has since been decisively and extensively
debunked, even by some government officials (indeed, it’s the US
government itself, not Manning, that is guilty of “actions which
placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in uniform”). And
then, in my favorite part of her statement, Williams decreed to all
organization members that “even the hint of support” for Manning’s
action – even the hint – “will not be tolerated by the leadership of
San Francisco Pride”. Will not be tolerated.
I originally had no intention of writing about this episode, but the
more I discovered about it, the more revealing it became. So let’s
just consider a few of the points raised by all of this.
First, while even a hint of support for Manning will not be tolerated,
there is a long roster of large corporations serving as the event’s
sponsors who are welcomed with open arms. ….
Read more….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/27/bradley-manning-sf-gay-pride?commentpage=1
Mozza – Which war/envionmental/human suffering sponsoring media empire does DeGeneres work for – Oh look its NBC Universal, who owns NBC, COMCAST/GE
Maurice Williamson’s speech was a fraud, and I expect was written as part of the playbook!
Morresey i,m a referee Joubert,s refereeing of the tackle was poor went both ways, you are right on the World Cup Final had that game been refereed properly France win
Just watched Q&A if you need reminding what a out of touch dinosaur Michelle Boag is catch it on demand or on TV1later tonight her echoing of Key and Joyce,s rant during the week had to be seen to be believed Jon Johansen,s reaction to the crap that came fron her mouth is a must see
Yep I just watched her as well. I did send them an E-mail.
“Why oh Why do you keep giving Boag credibility by allowing her to spout Nationalistic rubbish on National TV???”
No wonder they laughed at her.
Why do you keep giving Boag credibility by allowing her to spout Nationalistic rubbish on National TV?
You meant to write “National Party rubbish”. If Michelle Boag was in any way nationalistic, she would oppose the flogging off of our national assets.
Yeah Sorry I was being distracted by my 2 year old. But yeah, that’s what I meant.
I have no need to reference her in my study of Q + A; what’s the word, oh yeah, irrelevant, and a week late with the commentary.(get all current and up-to-date political commentary right here from The Standard, your one-stop-shop for laughs and barffs.
Shane Jones- “comfortable with Greens now”. 😉 (you cheeky man).
Joyce releases a press statement to the effect-“that centrist Labour MPs being isolated by the shift to the Greens”.
(well, OK, her spin was “giving ground to the Greens is very scary for most New Zealanders”).Really?
David Round (man who does not like The Treaty and fears the current constitutional review)- “countries can ruin (ruin none-the-less, ruin we tell you) themselves through their own folly.” Well…
John Minto (Excellent composure if you are reading this).- a “furious, hysterical reaction to NZPower by vested interests”. (well, near enough).
There is an Excellent article by Eugenie Sage in the links column on the dodgy dealings behind the H.B Irrigation Scheme development.
David Round (man who does not like The Treaty)…
They put DAVID ROUND on this programme? As anybody who saw this pretentious bow-tied ninny on Willie Jackson’s Eye to Eye will know, Round is an extreme race-baiter, almost pathological in his detestation of Māori culture. Round often teamed up with the S.S. advocate and ACT benchwarmer Stephen Franks to scoff, sneer and disparage any liberal speaker on the programme. I thought that, with the death of Paul Holmes, we had seen the end of racist louts being given the run of the studio on TVNZ; clearly I was wrong.
Why don’t they just hire Kyle Chapman as a commentator and be done with it?
Americans increasingly cynical about official promises of progress.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-starting-to-realize-new-era-of-american-inn,32156/?ref=auto
How many Labour front benchers does it take to change a light bulb?
Two.
First, Shearer announces that he, as Leader of the Labour Party that he’s leader of the Labour Party and Party of as the Leader, he’ll um, well, consider hiring a glow worm to replace the light bulb, no um, ah as Learer of the Paybour Larty, ah, he personally, himself, as Pay TV of the Leaper is personally responsible for providing a source of continual heat and light that will be available to all for half of every day and it will be called “The Sun” and it was his initiative, as a television.
Second, after hearing Hooton screech that sunlight is communism and it made his budgie explode, Robertson will promptly wet his pants and announce, so as to protect budgies everywhere, there will be no more sunlight.
Oh, and then the lightbulb doesn’t get changed after all.
It’s always a tragedy when passion destroys a sense of humour
or a giggle puts you off your stroke
Nice retort 🙂
It’s always a tragedy when careerism destroys a once-great party.
Humour is a raft I’m clinging too, and it’s in danger of falling apart.
The fact is, a few people have been repeating the canard that the right-wing LINO is “opening up space on the left”, but that dollop of custard Robertson has shown – as I predicted – that LINO will use the Greens to get superficial cred, but kill their initiatives once they threaten to change the status quo. Instead, they’re going to smear yet more lipstick on the neoliberal pig.
Just to make things perfectly clear. This isn’t LINO “opening up space on the left”, this is LINO announcing that they want to use the Greens and possibly Mana to get the numbers, and to appease them, they’ll let their initiatives get a hearing, but don’t worry, my dear, dear, precious markets, we won’t let them get to the status of law. We are never, ever going to disrupt the status quo.
We’re safe!
For the rich.
OK, what’s a LINO again?
What is LINO rhino?
edit – snap cv
Labour In Name Only
If they were honest, the front benchers would call the party “Middle-Class Baby Boomer Technocrats Who Mainly Work in Media, PR and Law”, but it doesn’t really have much of a ring to it.
There is a real Labour party, a progressive socialist party, and it’s on the back benches.
Ahhhh of course
Can we realistically expect a mainstream political party with membership invested in the current socio-economic hierarchy to throw out or revolutionise the very same status quo?
It’s not going to happen. By definition, a mainstream party must be conservative to exist in the mainstream*.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
*The key here is realising that too often, political parties aim for the mainstream of the media, not the mainstream of the nation.
Too long speaking to the media, they mistake the media for the nation.
But maybe life will be made a bit more tolerable for the bottom 50%?
Fingers crossed. Keep the pressure on, I say. They’ll never be perfect, but keep the pressure on, and maybe they’ll be just a bit better.
It’s all Bellamy’s fault, I say – metaphorically – the nice meals for free, the comforts and the limousines breed complacency (Hell, look at he effect BMW 7-series limos have had on the Maori Party – they must be automotive heroin). I representative should never be complacent. Making excuses for them is never going to work.
It was an old Roman custom to have a slave riding with a triumphant general in his victory parade to whisper in his ear “remember that thou art a man”.
we like that custom
Um
If your critics are obsessive or nuts, they don’t apply any pressure whatsoever.
But more specifically, your joke was too long and too niche.
A better version would be:
How many labour mps does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two: shearer to change the bulb, and robertson to promise that labour has no further territorial demands on the free market mechanism.
But even that is a niche taste.
“I keep being kicked in the gutter”: the cruelty of multiple disability cuts ~ That should shame Britain to the core
“Thousands of people with disabilities or long-term illness are now being affected by simultaneous cuts. As the welfare state undergoes unprecedented changes, the same people are being hit over and over again, says Frances Ryan.”
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/04/18/i-keep-being-kicked-in-the-gutter-the-cruelty-of-multiple-disability-cuts-that-should-shame-britain-to-the-core/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlackTriangleCampaign+%28Black+Triangle+Campaign%29
‘Benefits withdrawal led to man’s suicide’
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/04/17/man-partially-paralysed-with-brain-haemorrhage-shot-himself-after-benefits-stopped/
“During the first half of our marriage he suffered a brain haemorrhage and although he was ok and could still do things, one side was quite paralysed and he was not able to work,”
Mrs Barker told the inquest.
“I know he had been on some sort of benefit for a number of years.”
Mrs Barker said she had last seen Mr Barker on December 8 when he had called to see her at work.
“He was going for a drink and seemed happy but he wanted me to help him go through his benefit papers because he was worried that he was going to be sent back to work,”
Shame on the fascist scum tories! Camoron and Untergrupenfuhrer IDS.
Not just in Britain:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8606036/Appalling-plight-of-elderly-revealed
Its a worldwide phenomena that the elderly and infirm are basically killed by neglect and abuse as the law will not persecute this at all, neither as neglect nor abuse and let alone deliberate homicide. What people don’t seem to comprehend: we will all be old one day – or hopefully not.
Sickening report that. I feel rage but don’t know who to rage at – politicians, the owners of these hellholes, the exploiters of elders, our society, the mirror.
Rage at the institution would be appropriate. As for me, I would rather die in the ditch then be holed up in a home where people with such disregard for dignity and life join to make someone else’s last days full of misery. Mind you I saw an article today (stuff) where it is noted that Gay adoption and Euthanasia are the final frontier for the Government.
Seems that the Government is already working on plan B – Euthanasia. It will lead to some vigorous debate – but only because these sadists will loose their job if the elderly need “too much care” and it is “better” to not have them suffer. Still, ditch for me….
ffs! Get shot of the private providers! Universal state provisioning of aged care with properly paid and resourced staff wouldn’t sort out all of the problems. But it would be a damned sight better than the ‘ship ’em in, rip ’em off and trundle ’em out’ culture that’s all the rage at the moment.
+1
Get shot of the private providers!
Private profit-takers, you mean.
after only another day of events, ICAP / ISDA, rest-home reports, and OIA obstruction, and viewing an S.A promo fo their current mission, I despair, I really do. For example, the army is charting the social decline of the casualties of the “free” markets, yet by their very nature and function are well-enmeshed in that decline; phenemona measured and token-funded.
And yet this is nothing new, has been happening a long time – We have all allowed this to happen, and collectively each and every number, will at some stage in the timeline, reap what has been sowed!
When will the people rise!
How despicable the tories are. This had me in tears.
The crazy spreads.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/27/false-flags-sharia-law-and-gun-grabs-gop-lawmakers-embrace-the-crazy.html
it’s only the biking and walking they fear joe, (oh, and the hippie mind-control). 😀
Just finished dealing with Orcon’s Call Centre, now in the Phillipines…….what used to be relatively good local experience is now just like Vodafone, Telecom etc
Smaller has significant merits in service and quality, I’m seeing this with what were good local tradeys. They can’t say no to work they should turn away, employ whoever they can and then hope for the best as they are too busy quoting, demanding deposits and eagerly collecting the money without checking the quality of their new employees or often their qualifications.
Isn’t deregulation and toothless industry bodies just wonderful. I’ve had the plumbers board basically toss their arms up over ripping a family member off and not completing the job and the vet association did same over a vet who ignored a direct instruction from the pet owner which could have resulted in the Pets death except the owner went to another Vet who did as asked and diagnosed/fixed the problem.
Small IS Good (dark days indeed)
Yup a colleague asked me about Telstra clear and moving across, once I explained who had bought them and what comes next they decided against it, an easy call if you study history.
Gerald Hensley. “Richard Prebble told me ——-“
“Richard Prebble told me ——-”
Says everything you need to know about Hensley’s integrity, and his reliability.
I must say, though, that Hensley’s books are extraordinarily good reads. He could have been New Zealand’s John Le Carré.
Just a pity he doesn’t seem to be able to differentiate fiction from truth….
Lol
banks are pissed that new loansharking legislation will apply to them, even though they assure us that they don’t do any of the nastythings mentioned.
And I am outraged that laws against bank robbery apply to me, even though I would never rob a bank.
Have you no heart, McFlock? Think of all the bankers who will be made redundant now their day job is illegal.
in historical times I imagine my people and I would have. sadly, I have met and socialized with former armed bank-robbers; regrettably , once a fire-arm is concerned, the outcomes can be (yet were not in these cases) irreversible.
feck! that Instant Finance promotes some arrears dunnit. All this lending in a context where nearly half of all NZ households live week to week. The mind boggles! and with Winter coming…so many threads to the tapestry of the future yet they are all being woven into a web together.
I found those numbers pretty shocking too, I would’ve thought no more than 25% in arrears.
But probably the worse part is that he says that if they turn the customer down, they’ll just go to another lender and get the money instead.
The ongoing cataloguing of right-wing buffoonery continues apace. NASA faked the moon landings, therefore climate science is a hoax.
findings too abstract for free-market adherents; if you cannot steal it it can’t be real.
“The ongoing cataloguing of right-wing buffoonery continues apace.”
As compared to the Left wing 9 11 conspiracy about the deliberate demolition of the twin towers by the US Government.
I wouldn’t call it “left-wing”…. I believe that it originally started in some right wing groups in the US.
No mate, its definitely a Left Wing number, own it.
Right wingers are more than happy to accept its Muslims who did it.
Of course many Muslims say it was the Jews, so maybe some Christian Yank right wingers would pay attention to that…
I just LOVE multiculturalism, LOL.
Most people who believe conspiracy crap seem to be incredibly right wing once you scratch them. They also tend to believe in Zionist/Illuminati conspiracies, Obama as a Kenyan, chemtrails, scientists conspiring to make a buck out of global warming, and similar nonsense. Explaining everything as a conspiracy, they explain nothing. Irrespective of country, they seem to think the second amendment holds.
If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.
+1
the search for the location of anti-matter goes on I guess
“If they’re left wing, it’s not any left I recognise.”
Really?
Well then, let me help you recognise it.
On this thestandard.org.nz page under the Links menu there is a LEFT Blogs list with the link below to a LEFT blog, scroll down the page a bit and in the right hand column of this LEFT blog page is a big picture of the collapsing towers with the heading:
“As seen in this revealing photo the Twin Towers’ destruction exhibited all the characteristics of destruction by explosions:”
http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/
How was that, you ‘recognise’ it now, Mr Olsen?
There is absolutely nothing left about that blog, so thanks for the help. I will refuse it in the same bad faith with which it was offered.
++1
there sure is some nuttiness on the net joe; takes a bit a discernement from the average bear. 😀
Still no geo-engineering reading done, eh Murray, come along, you can’t just keep poking holes in what you know nothing about!
I see your comment attracted some approval from OAB, shame man!
Should be all the catalyst you need to get yourself informed eh!
Edit, I see you got Joe90 too, unlucky!
Edit 2 – Do you believe the constitution, should be completely openly trashed, or are you losing your marbles with that second amendment comment, or perhaps in general!
I realise that the second amendment of the US Constitution doesn’t have any status in law in any country I live in. That already gives me quite a few more marbles than you.
As for reading anything you’d recommend on geoengineering – I’d rather clean my eyes with a cheese grater, thanks. If something smells like shit and looks like shit, I don’t actually have to taste it just to be sure, let alone try to make a golden calf out of it.
K_P has a point though, there are certainly left-wing conspiracy theorists. The difference being that their ravings don’t become policy statements.
or invasions
Maddow on the conspiracy racket.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/27/maddow-right-wing-fringe-is-now-a-cynical-money-making-racket/
As opposed to the likes of Maddow, and the network she spins for Joe?
If your point was that the narrative is controlled, you would be correct..
Or were you simply making some idle noise..
Hows SFO coming along, you know, geographically speaking?
TV3’s tame—and untrustworthy—news department
That $43 million bribe to MediaWorks has worked well
TV3 “news” preview, Sunday 28 April 2013, 5:50 p.m.
CAROLYN ROBINSON: Coming up tonight on Three News! The public’s take on political BRAIN FADES, like those suffered by John Key and David Shearer…
Excuse me? Shearer “suffered” a “brain fade” like John Key did? They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?
Yes, I think they are.
I guess they justify such rancid bias, such partisan distortion, such open, shameless and sycophantic support for their major sponsor by calling it “balance”. The rest of us will remember that, less than two years ago, TV3’s parent company was gifted forty-three million dollars by the Key government.
It certainly appears someone in the editorial team is a bit of a yes man… or woman.
I’m surprised some of the senior presenters would read the stuff they’re given, but then I guess they don’t want to get kicked off air and have to get real jobs.
Imagine how that poor lady from N Korea must feel when she’s reading out how kim lil dong is gonna nuke it all unless psy teaches him the dance steps in person – Pyongyang style.
‘ol 49ers aye.(looking forward to that touchdown).
Like rugby, a game played by men with funny shaped balls.
And touchdown, we all know where that brings me round again to find 😉
“They are trying to suggest that Shearer belatedly declaring his overseas bank account—not hiding it, just being tardy—is equivalent to John Key’s systematic, massive, scandalous pattern of dishonesty?”
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”. Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
See how that works?
You’re being disingenuous there. He failed to declare it 4 years in a row, while declaring it on his tax return each year. That’s more than “just being tardy”.
I’m not being disingenuous; you are being provocative. I shall, however, take the advice of our good friend “dumrse” and refrain from (to use a John Banks expression) “tearing your wings off”.
So let’s get back to the matter in hand: Shearer failed to include his overseas bank account on his parliamentary declaration. The fact that he declared it to the Inland Revenue shows that it was an oversight, not a deliberate deception. It is immensely different to, say, taking secret payments from a fanatically anti-democratic, anti-homosexual, anti-women religious cult.
Yes, he was upfront about it – so he handled the outcome well, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour.
I’m not trying to excuse his behaviour, I’m pointing out what you already know, viz., Shearer’s behaviour was not comparable to Key’s systematic dishonesty.
Shearer: bad behaviour, good response
Key: bad behaviour, bad response
I never suggested anything different.
See how that works?
I sure do, although I’m a little concerned that you can’t quite understand how grave Key’s dishonesty is.
So now you’re acknowledging that Shearer did indeed have a brain fade.
Sure, everything about it wasn’t as bad was what Key did, but it still happened.
So we were in agreement all along.
Sheesh!
Bloggers only get so many key strokes in life. You could lengthen your life considerably if you took the emotion out of your post.
Bloggers only get so many key strokes in life. You could lengthen your life considerably if you took the emotion out of your post.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll try to stay cool.
First the first time Morrisey, I agree with you. Patrick Gower is to journalism as Craig Joubert is to refereeing.
First the first time Morrisey, I agree with you.
Thanks, buddy. That’s the best news I’ve had all year.
Patrick Gower is to journalism as Craig Joubert is to refereeing.
He may well be, but my criticism was directed at the delectable but dim Carolyn Robinson and whoever wrote her outrageous script for her.
Yes, I agree TV3 is partly following the (flawed) logic of “impartiality – showing both sides. But it’s a false equivalence. They only seem similar (Shearer brain fade compared with Key and Banks), because of another feature of “neoliberal” infotainment – lack of background context.
If they were to look more deeply into each of the “brain fades” they’d see that Key’s and Banks relate to some crucial issues of democracy, and accountability on intelligence services, cronyism and funding of political campaigns.
Shearer’s brain fade seems to relate more to personal savings, possibly individual tax dodging – not a good thing but it’s peripheral to NZ”s political structure.
Well no, it is actually important to the political narrative and the perception of voters as to trustworthiness and hypocrisy.
I just saw that silly vain self centred has-been Shane Jones on the news.
What an embarrassment to the Party.
I look forward to hearing that he has been strongly admonished for his publicity seeking antics.
He has contributed nothing to the Labour Party. Yet he is allowed to speak on TV on a wide range of topics.
I loose my appetite just hearing him.
No doubt that stellar deputy and action Leader Grant Robertson will whip Shane’s ass.
Yes between DS, the mallarfia old guard, Jones arrogance and lightweight brown noses like Curran, Hipkins etc the hollowmen just have to keep the shonkey one in check and 2014 is a shoe in.
Of course having the media on your side helps which makes the need to have an effective opposition so vital, sadly these are not the droids we are looking for to biff out the evil empire.
from the tele;
Key: on ChCh, “this 40B may not be the ” ceiling for rebuilding ChCh. (but won’t affect surplus targets, oh no…)
Joyce- “Labour going further left is bad for New Zealand”.
…now there is this Russian state telephone surveillance of the Boston Bomber’s family in 2010?
I wondered which RWNJ had driven the comments to over 100 and see ‘ugly truth’ has been busy. When there is a high count it’s often a case of an annoying mosquito. Some are resistant to spray and require the quick, hard bash. At one time when mosquitoes were bad I had numerous bloody marks on my bedroom wall. It was satisfying and worked – till the next outbreak.
Dunno though only 31 with ut and knuckle
Yet no mention of the other half of that conversation , OAB
You think the count can rise on the back of one person only Prism!
Come on Prism, keep it balanced!
come on muzza why are you sticking up for ugly or do you agree with his repetitive use of the derogatory and disgusting term ‘retarded’. On that basis alone, let alone his fawning of beck, he/she should be treated as a lowrider and given the short shift, as OAK has done. Just because OAK has not treated your views with much respect or credence in the past doesn’t mean that who he/she opposes is correct or valid.
Marty, Marty, Marty…
Prism mused that the comment count had gone up, then went on to throw insults at UT.
My only contention, was to point out, that there were two invovled in a long conversation, the other happened to be OAB. I would have called prism on that one regardless, because his comment was unblanced!
Not sure where you read support in there bro, or the part where I am concerned about what OAB makes of my posts here…
I moved past most the usual hangups people grapple through their lives with, from a very young age!
sure mate but I think you’ll find that prism did mention ‘knuckle’ in the comment. And the fact is that often a high comment count is a RWNJ getting dealt to, as has happened today.
it’s cool that you have got through the usual hangups at a very young age although I’m not sure what you are meaning there, but whatever…
marty mars
Thanks for bringing some light to muzza’s page. How can people write here frequently commenting on others stuff yet not even read it all. It is really important to glance over the whole thing to get the actual message, the whole thought. I added at the bottom in plain sight that it was UT and knuckle and gave the count I had just made, with a one-word observation that I might be wrong in my original statement.
@muzza
So muzza get with it, brain warmed up, running nicely before going into gear – and do start off at first for a smooth takeoff. Those kangaroo hops are a telling sign that here there is a practitioner still evolving in skills. That’s going to get up your nose probably but hey you can’t win them all.
It’ll probably take the extinction of their beloved Chesapeake oysters before rising sea temperatures are taken seriously.
Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). These high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are the latest in a trend of above average temperature seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a pattern of elevated temperatures occurring in the Northwest Atlantic, but not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin over the past century.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130426115614.htm?
love the intro joe
They’ve only just cleaned up a lot of the growing areas enough to make the oysters edible again as well. Contamination of oysters around New York especially provided a big impetus to cutting down on dumping crap straight into the water. Hmmm. Too late.
Personally, I’d kick all the NAct voters’ yachts out of Opua as well to preserve the oysters up there, then carry on with the rest of the country.
MO
Heavens! What next?
I am not normally impressed by him, but Shane Jones’ performance on Q and A was impressive.
It was particularly heartening to hear a Labour MP use such language as:
‘The merchant bankers have gone absolutely nutty’
The rhetoric of the merchant bankers is “tainted”
Taking advice from them is like taking grooming advice from Frankenstein”
Tough talking Shane O will take on the global banking cartel then I expect…
Nah , thought not!
Yeah, but the problem is that if you remove the “merchant bankers” and substitute in “shane jones” (after the last years of screwups at least since the GFC), then guess what – you have a match!
hence my (cheeky man)