Paddy performs as expected and is valued by the DP movers and shakers as the attack dog with a national tv soapbox. Sacked ! ha more likely just some firm directions on toning it down to appear considered and suck more sheeple in.
The whole current crop of so called journalists can go, im so sick of them telling us their views of the news instead of just reporting the news, Gower is the worst that pillock will burst a blood vessel one day while he is glorifying in somebody elses misfortune
I don’t believe it ! Yesterday the Herald had a column which commented favourably on Andrew Little’s state of nation speech, this morning there is another one PLUS an editorial which states :
“Mr Little has the luxury of time to produce more definitive solutions to the issues still facing the country, Mr Key does not. He urgently needs to give his Government new themes and impetus. This time last year he announced an imaginative education initiative, yesterday was an opportunity lost. ”
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
That’s how it looks. There’s a long way to go but up looks an attainable direction now.
There’s evidence too that opponents see Little as a threat that they are not sure how to deal with.
Key competing on the same day is one indication.
And Slater has been running a long and frequent series of attempted hits on Little (at least five posts yesterday alone), including repeated digs at Little’s appearance and his temperament. It looks like flailing around trying to seed something to attack with. It’s not working.
Another promising step along the way for Little yesterday. A lot still to do but it looks like the beginning of a recovery and rebuild, at last.
About FJK: “Key confirmed plans to sell 1000 to 2000 state houses in the next year to community housing providers and up to 8000 over the next four years.
Housing New Zealand would remain the biggest provider of social housing with at last 60,000 properties by 2017 against 68,000 now.”
It doesn’t take advanced mathematics to see that the have stopped building state houses altogether. Did FJK actually mention that?
The print version of the Herald has a half page devoted to rating the Key and Little speeches. The result according to them?
8/10 for Key and 4/10 for Little. So, no, I am afraid there is no change of tack in that right wing rag.
The odd pat on the head for Little means nothing unless they take Key to task instead of sheltering him from scrutiny.
Right at the moment they will be lining Little-Labour up in the business hearld with something stupid like “former Union Boss buckles to his union mates demands to abolish 90 day trial” (fire at will bill).
Where is the attack on bullshit artist Key over selling state housing, something he lied about in his pre election campaign ‘no further assets sales’.
How about, what exactly do you mean by part of the proceeds of state housing sales goes for capital infrastructure, what paying for roading projects?
Or, won’t you be paper shuffling and applying colorful accounting, referring to the sale of state houses to balance (fudge) the books?
I thought the focus of Andrew’s speech excellent. Small and medium business are the heart and blood of this bilateral nation. A labour government focussed on job creation through improving conditions for small business is a vote winner.
Positive and practical messaging and policies to increase the volume of money flowing through communities clogged by unemployment and impoverishment is a vote winner.
The biggest and immediate issue confronting Māori communities is the lack of jobs. Young people are rotting on unemployment and many are not on benefits.
Job creation should be the primary focus of any Labour Government otherwise it should relabel itself as Non-Labour Government.
Police Association president Greg O’Connor says Sabin is entitled to natural justice. But he believes it is unfair the MP, who is an ex-cop, is not held accountable to the same standards as police staff put before him.
“Any police officer who is under any sort of a cloud, generally, the first thing that happens is that they are stood down.
“So there would be a certain irony in police officers who would be subject to that being questioned. If one of those police officers in front of the select committee was under the same cloud, then they wouldn’t be there. However, we as police work on the principle innocent until proven guilty.”
h/t Tracey.
Conflict of interest much? How is this Key’s call?
Just heard the very good justice lawyer and friend Kelly Ellis rubbing Sabin’s nose into the dirt. Love that lady’s witty style. Yip what an ebarrasment Sabin is by pushing for the removal of a right to silence, and choosing silence himself, oh the hypocrisy makes me laugh.
Maybe John Key will ‘break the silence’ and force Sabin into retirement from politics.
My experience has been more along the lines of “However, we as police work on the principle innocent until bashed sufficiently to confess, or until we can do a deal with some jailhouse informant, or until we can fabricate sufficient evidence.”
Gower is an example of a TV presenter who believe they are more important than the message. Or worse maybe he is so deluded he thinks that people enjoy some rantings of a brown nosed National simpleton, with a brain smaller than his large teeth that he bares in some hideous attempt at entertainment. Again the Rugby thicko TV execs don’t notice that people are watching TV less and less in particular news …. I wonder why?
What is it with these political commentators/radio hosts, listened to that muppet Duncan (gotcha) Garner with his “epic fail” comment r.e Littles speach yesterday, at least hes consistant as he pulls the same crap with everyone, he is nothing but a sound bite merchant but that sound bite is now being replayed every hour, and he tries to make out he left political life because of all the nastiness well i say that trait has a bit more to do with him than his previous job
Rant over
The link to the news item is pay-walled but apparently local government have blocked a development so the addled have decided to do something for their friendly corporate.
New demands on the justice system requiring restorative justice talks even when the victirm doesn’t want it, are meaning three times the appearances for one very minor offence when only one was used to be needed. The system is grinding to a halt.
Ideological not practical or pragmatic. In 2012 submissions were made against this.
Perhaps we should call it the Bazley effect. Minister Amy Adams (not the celebrity) is looking at it. But it was pushed through by the previous Minimal of Justice so being new on the Block she might not have any authority. Has she the perspicacity?
This regime is fast gaining a deserved reputation for ignoring all expert on-the-ground advice in various areas and running solely on their own ideology.
@ vto
Let’s make it third-terminalitis!
After all balloons filled with hot air and helium only stay out of reach at the ceiling for a time. What goes up must come down.
As I listened to the talk about selling off, hiving off, our social housing I thought of a subtitle for our country – New Zealand/Aotearoa, the Islands of Reduced Circumstances.
We are like the elderly ladies in many Brit stories I have read who have been living on Father’s legacy or annuity which has dwindled as they have got older, and gradually they have been forced to sell heirlooms and treasured family belongings. Poor old lady NZ reduced to poverty in the land of much milk and less honey, and suffering the kind attentions of loan sharks, hucksters and high rollers.
edited
A survey by the website voteforpolicies.org.uk reports that in blind tests (the 500,000 people it has polled were unaware of which positions belong to which parties), the Green party’s policies are more popular than those of any other. If people voted for what they wanted, the Greens would be the party of government.
And that’s just a small taste. There is so much more in that article that can be directly transferred to NZ.
The head of the US military has had to launch an essay competition to find someone to write something nice about the brutal ruler who John Key honoured this week by ordering the lowering of the New Zealand flag to half mast.
Maybe General Martin Dempsey, Chair of the US Joint heads of staff could have saved himself the effort, and just instead asked the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to tell the world what he personally admired about the late King Addullah of Saudi Arabia.
Maybe JK could wax lyrical about the multiply beheadings and dismemberments, and the jailing of government critics, or possibly the lack of civil rights for women. Or the Saudi Government’s legal sanction of child abuse, paternal rape and murder, or the flogging and jailing of bloggers and writers critical of the government. (Lynn Prentice, Eleanor Catton take note).
I am certain that an essay written by John Key on these subjects as well as creating an international sensation would easily win US Chief of Staff General Dempsey’s prize. (As well as winning the approval of the US State Department and President Obama’s office, something John Key has always been mindful of.)
I guess sometimes the truth hurts. I particularly liked this quote:
“It has to belong to everybody or the country really doesn’t want to know about it.”
It irritates me that the politicians and the wealthy in this country are very quick to celebrate their own achievements, which clearly result from their hard work, but if someone else does something worth of recognition it suddenly becomes “we did,” not “he did,” or “she did.” Even the phrase “New Zealand’s own…” suggests ownership.
Why not suggest support, instead? My degree contributed nothing toward her success, nor did anything else I’ve done in the last year. Perhaps a few cents from my taxes did, in some small way, but it was her talents that won her the award, not my taxes or even her nationality.
I’m disgusted by the behaviour of the media toward Miss Catton, but I can’t find a suitable word to describe my feelings for the Prime Minister, a man who brags that he had the support of the taxpayer as a child and made his way unaided after that, forgetting his free degree, and he now deserves his wealth and power.
When do we get our slice of the fortune our taxes created for him?
In NZ I notice that any time the UNACTS want to smear goo on a policy they label it Green. The worst sort of thing that could be imagined. They must huddle together at parties and down their alcohol in buckets while they shiver fearfully at some gory story about the frightening Greens, the new vampires.
On 4 July 2014 USA population given as 318,881,992. How much average per person of Koch $889,000,000?
In NZ the 2014 popuation was 4,500,000. How much if this is multipled by USA individual
amount?
And think of the spending and influence power of just one uber-rich group.
And Koch is giving that money to media and PR firms who already have all the infrastructure and staff in place and are ready to roll. So the $$$ will go much further.
“The government position is that basic commodity shortages are being caused by elements of the private sector that control the importation, production and distribution of food and other products and criminal speculators and smugglers who are sometimes allied with this sector. These actors are allegedly responsible or complicit in the illegal stockpiling of products in warehouses aimed at bringing about artificial shortages. There is empirical evidence for such claims. Thousands of tons of products, including subsidized items, have been diverted from the marketplace for sale in Colombia in 2014. Warehouses full of goods that ought to be on store shelves are frequently discovered by the authorities. Subsidized food items are often purchased by speculators for resale at higher prices in the domestic market. Some importers have been buying products at the subsidized currency exchange rate but then selling those products as though they were purchased at the much higher parallel rate. Fictitious “importers” are also blamed for massive amounts of currency fraud by obtaining divisas (dollars) at the preferential exchange rate under pretext of importing priority goods and then selling those dollars on the parallel market or holding on to them in expectation of further devaluation of the bolivar, a practice that suggests the corruption of some public servants as well. What are we to make of these observations about scarcity?”
Wow! Who would have thought that distorting the economy by providing subsidies or imposing price controls would lead to people taking advantage of these to make money?
The solution seems obvious. You remove the distortions and then the people won’t sell subsidised goods in neighbouring countries.
Also I love how some leftists think they can just dictate problems away.
“For Maduro, the game is up for the economic coup being waged by the political opposition and its allied collaborators in the private sector. He has delivered an ultimatum to food distributors to cooperate with efforts to overcome food shortages…”
Goostepper i do so like pointing out that you have only used parts of your own link that suits your agenda.
Trying to dictate what we think and say.
But your own link points out that the right wing in Venezuela are trying to undermine a democratically elected govt the same way as the CIA did in Chile underming Allende and installing a murdurous Dictator.
South America is littered with the mass graves of American foreign Policy of keeping corrupt murderous dictators and drug lords in power!
Thankfully we live in a capatlist society where the free market allows people to operate in an honest and open way never taking advantage of the lack of regulation and controls. In our great system people making huge amounts off speculation alone would never create a situation that endangers the economy of the enitre world for their own profit.
Stupid socialists identifying people breaking their laws designed to try and help people. They should totally do things the way we do.
If you think you can construct laws that solve problems of economic distribution and supply you are very, very wrong. Attempting to legislate prices at a level below what people are willing to pay for them will just lead to exactly the problem the Venezuelan government is facing now. People will stop producing and/or sell the items on the black market or across the border in places where they can get higher prices. You may try to claim this behaviour is unethical or immoral but then many people always try to blame others for problems they themselves have caused.
Gooseman you have only chosen selected parts of the story gooseman.
The reason why food shortages are occuring is because the right wing are using the same tactics as the CIA used to overthrow a democratically elected Allende and installing a murderous fascist dictator!
Fascist Murderous Dictators were installed in just about every South American country one stage or another.
Maduro was elected the right wing are deliberately with the collusion of the CIA underming democracy.
Don’t get me started on the war on drugs in South America.
Fact is South America is littered with mass graves as a direct result of American nihilistic foreign policy.
Democracy freedoms have been undermined!
Yes, it’s funny how the most freedom for the market seems to require the least freedom for workers and the strongest state apparatus.
A good example was the military dictatorship in Chile, the students of Milton Friedman economics.
Apparently you can’t tell the market what to do, but the state required by the ‘free’ market can not only tell you what to do but lock you up, torture you and kill you if you don’t obey.
How exactly is the right wing doing this? They seem terribly effective if they are as well. the economy is close to collapse. Perhaps it is best not to start a fight with them.
Of course you could try prosecuting the corrupt public servants. We could set an example by prosecuting those who handed out SFC assets to Key’s neighbour, for cents in the dollar.
But yeah Gooseman, you are right on one point. Capitalist scum like yourself cannot be trusted not to enrich themselves at the cost of the rest of us. You lot are criminals and should be treated as such. Funny that you are all willing to trot out the traitor label for someone who makes some mild criticisms.
I was told by a good source that Waiariki Institute of Technology is charging Indian Students $20k to do its Agricultural course, which is fine (nothing like exploiting people who are desperate to get out of their country)
BUT
Farmers can employ these students between May and November (busy calving time) for $200 per week. This needs to be investigated because these students are being exploited, its displacing local people and there is no way that this falls within minimum pay rates legislation.
Re the $200/wk, is that true for students who are residents too? Indian students only? i.e is this via immigration or via tertiary practice of making these deals.
One of the union people from round here should get on to this .
There has always been a good amount of farm owners treating there workers like dirt but they seem to get away with it Out sight out of mind I guess.
If you want to know who was behind Jordan Williams’s attack on Eleanor Catton yesterday, look no further than David Farrar: http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/who_we_are
The Taxpayers Union is just a thinly disguised recruiting tool for National Party members.
Danyl at Dimpost pointing out the two tracks is up and running again,
There are lots of good pieces on the Eleanor Catton contretemps – Morgan Godfrey, Brian Easton, Gordon Campbell, Andrew Geddis, Simon Wilson – all focusing on issues around intellectuals and criticism and New Zealand attitudes towards same, which are all valid points. But what’s also meaningful, I think, is that this is a reprise of National’s two-track communications strategy we spent so much time talking about last year. Sean Plunket isn’t just a talk-radio dofus: he’s very close to the National government and, just like his mate Cameron Slater, Plunket is there to smear and bully and intimidate anyone who speaks out against John Key or National, so that National themselves don’t have to.
If – like most of the country – you haven’t heard anything from Plunket since he left Morning Report a few years back then his attack on Catton probably seemed very strange. But if you listened to him during the 2014 election campaign, most of which he spent in a state of flat-out hysteria ranting about terrorists and traitors, culminating in Plunket phoning Paddy Gower live on air and accusing him of being involved in a conspiracy against the government because he was reporting on Dirty Politics, it’s easier to see that abusing critics of the National Party – real or imaginary – is pretty much just his day to day role.
The past year has seen a massive upsurge of working class communities in the south of Ireland against the attempt of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to impose a household water tax. This follows on the household tax itself, cuts in social welfare payments, the raising of the retirement age and other anti-working class measures.
In a rake of working class communities people are physically preventing the installation of meters and sabotaging them where the state-capitalist water company, Irish Water, does manage to install them.
This is all very different from New Zealand, where workers remain almost obdurately passive in the face of the whittling away of rights and conditions and living standards by the bosses and by successive National and Labour governments.
Why is the NZ working class so passive compared to workers in Ireland?
We’ve tentatively explored the question a few times on Redline, but we need to do a lot more work on it.
I agree with you about the 1980s (and early 1990s).
But even at its most militant, the labour movement in NZ wasn’t really all that militant.
Take, for instance, 1913. In NZ workers fought for a few weeks. (And, in terms of workers involved, this was the most significant labour dispute in NZ history). At the same time the most significant industrial dispute in Irish history was taking place. Impoverished Dublin workers fought for *six months*.
When Massey’s Cossacks clubbed workers here, they complained about it. When the police in Dublin clubbed workers, the workers formed a workers militia, got armed, and paraded around Dublin streets tooled up; the cops kept their distance.
Those workers, the Irish Citizen Army, went on to be the driving force of the 1916 Rebellion. A number of their officers and a section of the ranks were women.
One reason I’ve become sympathetic to the idea of Australia and NZ merging is that the Aussies are much more Bolshie in defending their rights and we need some damn thing to harden up the working class here.
I think if I was young and had kids, I’d emigrate. I just couldn’t bear my kids growing up in a society where workers are so supine; I wouldn’t want my kids thinking that eating shit sandwiches is normal. I’d go to Oz or to Ireland.
maybe cos we have tended to lead the world, our work force swallow the oft fed line “you are not as badly off as xxx,”, with its implication to not seem ungrateful… we tend to be a polite and deferential lot
8 hour day
40 hour week
women voting
labour govts
ACC
health and safety
every day someone tells the poor or the workers of New Zealand how grateful they should be, they just use different and more nasty words. Kiwis apparently dont like to stick out from the crowd to be seen to be making a fuss, not risk-takers our fellow average kiwis.
For some reason, this country is infested with the idea of “I’ve got mine, screw you.” Everyone thinks they’re on their way up, through their own hard work, but nobody else is.
Anecdotes:
My brother overheard some (highly paid) managers at the last election time, saying that they were going to vote National because Labour were just going to give money to poor people, and why should they get something for nothing?
(Funny. I recall working long days and getting bitchy emails from my manager, telling me that I wasn’t working enough unpaid hours. He got a lot of something for nothing.)
I hear that kind of thing a lot. Before he retired, one of my father’s co-workers said that he worked 40 years to get whatever his wage was, he doesn’t see why he should help anybody else.
Many of us pride ourselves on our charity and thoughtfulness toward others, most especially Christians, but so very many of us seem to act contrary to that.
Then there’s the whole ideal that if a manager gets a pay increase, they deserve it for working hard, but if I want more than minimum wage I’m just being greedy.
Three or four years ago, one of the guys who worked with me was getting $15/hour. He was senior staff, and asked for a pay increase. I heard our boss tell him that if he wants a pay increase then he’d better upskill and become more valuable to the company.
I can do everything that other guy did with a single exception, and a whole lot more than he ever learned. I get minimum wage and there are no pay increases. According to my boss the only guy who gets a pay increase (and a Christmas bonus) is the CEO. The rest of us munters are just out of luck.
I’ve tried organising. Supporting my initial statements, one guy doesn’t care, he’s just funding his studies while another feels that he’ll be recognised as a true talent any day now, either promoted or hired somewhere else, and this is just his investment in his career.
These are only symptoms of the issue, though. I don’t know what’s causing it, or why we think we’re special and everyone else is lazy. I do know that it makes us easy prey for reducing our rights, and creating a low-wage economy.
Kiwis grow up in a culture that says you should have your own business and your own house to be a success. We really are Napoleon’s nation of shopkeepers and never developed a deeply entrenched sense of class. Even Bomber, a supposed left wing mouthpiece, carries on about rubbish like generational differences and almost never gives an analysis in terms of class. I wish it was different.
With regard to Oz, there is also the important factor that the ostensibly Labour government of Lange was the one that achieved a tko on its supporters. The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. In Oz it was a Liberal government that tried most of it on, and the unions instinctively fought back, even if only to protect their relationship with the Labor Party.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s much better over here. You might find militant class warriors marching in support of “Stop the Boats” or complaining about Kiwis taking their jobs. It’s no proletarian paradise, comrade.
“The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. ”
They got big fat redundancy payouts for themselves and their members. Then they could set their own businesses, contract back to the SOE’s, and pole vault themselves into the middle bourgeois class.
30 odd years later, National has a new layer of voters.
I’ve been bouncing back in time, thse past few days, when I click on comments and even the “feeds”.
Oddly, usually to the same two places, one a blog from 2014. I’m starting to feel like my computer, or ths site has some misguided Hal* which is trying to bring something to my attention.
Wikipedia tell us: “The Imitation Game was both a critical and commercial success. The film was included in both the National Board of Review’s and American Film Institute’s “Top 10 Films of 2014″. At the 87th Academy Awards, it has been nominated in eight categories including Best Picture, Best Director for Tyldum, Best Actor for Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley. It also garnered five nominations in the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and was nominated in three categories at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In addition, it received nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations including Best Film and Outstanding British Film.”
Alan Turing, the person the film is mainly about, was the guy mainly responsible for cracking the Nazis’ ‘enigma code’ during WW2. In 1952, however, Turing was convicted of ‘gross indecency’, the usual name for male homosexual acts.
Last August the British queen announced a royal pardon of Turing.
An interesting indication of the changes in capitalism and in bourgeois ideology in recent decades:
and he possibly committed suicide when a nation turned on him because of who he loved…
“Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behaviour was still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death a suicide; his mother and some others believed it was accidental.[9] In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated”. Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.[10][11][12]”
The Brits did a pretty good job of taking hate on the road too when they colonised…
I’m not sure Turing was the guy mainly responsible. The effort began with the Polish military and mathematicians even before WW2. Commandos and Royal Marines also played an important role, as well as spies and French intelligence. Turing played a crucial role and it would have taken longer without him, but others were important as well. There is an interesting book:
Little had some good digs at the current government in his speech and all we get is bull shit from the press about lack of policy when Little said he wasn’t doing policy .
Reporters are either thick as pigshit or owned.
Ross, the NZLP was in the news all day yesterday and again today. The party (mainly Andrew Little) got some decent coverage on their own initiatives, National’s housing fail and Sabin’s case. It’s not compulsory to watch the TV news or read the papers, but it’s a good idea before you make comments like that to do some prep, lest you look like a bridge dweller.
TRP. Unfortunately, I no longer live in my own country. I wish I could. I subscribe to feeds and get my thrills through TS. What you say is, no doubt, correct. But I do the research I can. That research, for now, reveals almost zero penetration of the fog by Labour or any opposition. I often get more news about NZ from the Guardian than I do through Stuff. That’s a comment about the media. An opposition’s job is to find a way around that. Why doesn’t a Labour MP get a shovel and dig a spud patch on the front lawn at parliament? Why? To feed our starving kids! Why doesn’t one of the useless fools order a truck load of concrete sewerage pipes to be dumped alongside the potato patch? Why? To house our homeless!
Here one for you and for everyone that opposes these Key’s State house sell off:
Take a look, make a stand and sign the petition now.
This is the email message I received from Phil Twyford.
“Key finally admitted his plans to sell off thousands of our state houses over the next two and a bit years.
Now he’s fronted the policy, it raises the stakes. He’ll want to push the sell-off through as soon as possible as he’ll be scared of losing face if his plans fall through.
It means if we’re going to have a chance to stop the sell-off, we need to move quickly. In our tens of thousands. But it also means John Key is vulnerable.
The first step of this campaign is proving the levels of public opposition to the sell-off. Already, nearly 22,000 of us have signed a petition against it.
We need thousands more. If you’ve not yet added your name, time is running out to act – so please add your name today”
Once your name’s on the petition, please forward this email to your friends and family – every name on the petition will make our campaign stronger.
Next week, we’ll be in touch with an exciting plan to use our huge petition to make sure the Government can’t just force this issue through without the rest of New Zealand being made aware of their plans. But first, we need to work together to get as many people to sign the petition as possible.
Please take a minute to sign the petition and forward it on to other people you know who will be concerned about John Key’s state house sell-off.
@Phil not that I know of and i would think it is very very unlikely that this occurs in NZ.
The larger issue in NZ is the continuing limiting of registration of certain medical specialties to ensure a large enough practice and waiting lists – although to some extent for example in orthopaedics this is a function of limited theatre space.
“Or do you find evidence of the crime that the National Party is often accused of: deliberately running public health down for money.”
No evidence of that whatsoever.
Health services in NZ are generally speaking of a very high quality and from memory the money going into vote health has been rising year on year for quite some time – as i’m sure you understand we could put our entire GDP into health and there’d still be unmet demand for services.
The Urologists and ophthalmologists used to limit the numbers admitted into their particular specialties to make sure there were enough population per surgeon to ensure a good patient stream in public and private.
There are other surgical specialties which tend to do the same.
Cabinet minister Nick Smith has chartered another helicopter for television cameras – this time using tax-payer cash set aside for the families of the Pike River victims.
Why does the minister even have access to that money?
But of all the ways that Uber could change the world, the most far-reaching may be found closest at hand: your office. Uber, and more broadly the app-driven labor market it represents, is at the center of what could be a sea change in work, and in how people think about their jobs. You may not be contemplating becoming an Uber driver any time soon, but the Uberization of work may soon be coming to your chosen profession.
Contrary to many Leftists I’m actually cautiously optimistic about this but it does, IMO, show that these types of services need to be run through government servers. Running it through government servers will get rid of the capitalist bludgers that are making millions from other people being paid minimum wage or less. The government will just be getting the taxes and so the dead-weight loss of profit will be removed from the equation.
Also shows the needs for a UBI for two reasons. Firstly if you don’t get enough work you’ll still have enough to get by on with out dropping into poverty or having the risk of losing everything. Secondly it would remove the need to ‘have a job’. Essentially you could tell your employer to fuck off and still have work. Again, it helps remove the dead-weight loss of profit.
It’ll be the one thing that National and employers really hate – an actual free and flexible labour market. How do I know that they hate it? Because that’s what an unemployment benefit allows and National always undermines that.
If Russia killed a UN peacekeeper,
it would be headline news for days on the BBC
And of course, Israel can strike Syria without the UN batting an eyelid. Says it all about the state of of international law in at the present time. One law for official enemies, and quite another for us.
Colonial Rawshark, why did you make that comment? It has nothing to do with the item I posted.
Also, I do not believe it is legitimate to “mock Jews”. Of course it’s perfectly legitimate to mock war criminals and sanctimonious, murderous hypocrites—including Israeli ones. But it’s their criminality, sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy that should be attacked, not their Jewishness.
Leave the crude race-baiting to the likes of David Rankin, Leighton Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams and Nevil “Breivik” Gibson.
I don’t think CR was mocking Jews. I don’t think he’s either that depraved or that foolish. I just think he needs to be careful how he expresses his ideas.
In other words, abusing or mocking Jews as Jews is as unacceptable as the Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.
Yes, that is correct. I’m interested in serious analysis, not in crude ethnic or religious stereotyping. If you want to indulge in that dismal nonsense, ring Kerre McIvor on NewstalkZB.
“… Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.”
Yeah, I’m totally sure you’ve got a cite for that, Moz. And CV, splitting hairs is pretty sad. Bigotry is bigotry. Anti-semitism is pathetic, whatever the specific religion turns out to be.
Those cartoons were aimed at insulting, humiliating and antagonizing French Muslims—most of whom are Algerian. It’s an old tactic of the extreme right, made no more acceptable by the fact it has been taken up by people who like to think of themselves as liberals.
Marine Le Pen knew perfectly well what the Charlie Hebdo folk were up to, and endorsed them completely. As did such liberal heroes as Binyamin Netanyahu and David Cameron.
It’s a French magazine. It attacked Muslims. It sells in France. Most Muslims in France are Algerians. French people would tend to identify Muslims in France as Algerians.
Really? You think that French people can’t recognise different ethnicities? Perhaps zay all look ze same to zem, non?
Algerians are not the majority in the Muslim religious demographic. Some folk might think that only a racist would think they were, but I’m sure that’s not the case with you, Murray.
CH attacks Muslims does not equal CH attacks Algerians. Moz was wrong.
You’re trying to suggest I am racist, even though you’re sure that’s not the case. Fairly typical of your debating style.
There are more than 5 million Algerians in France. The majority of these are Sunni Muslim. There are estimated to be something like 6 million Muslims in France. Who are the majority?
I think Morrisey is correct on this one.
Nice try saying the French can recognise different ethnicities, followed by some stupid imitation of Franglais. Who said they couldn’t?
Your numbers are wrong, Murray. Algerians make up around a third of the ‘immigrant’ Muslim population of France. That is, about 1.5 million people. In fact, they are about half of the population that hails from the Maghreb.
So, if you want to avoid looking dodgy, check your facts before opining and don’t conflate one ethnic group with others.
I did check my numbers and I am not conflating one ethnic group with another. Any further accusations, font of all that is true and righteous? Where does your figure of 1.5 million come from?
By the way, I couldn’t give a fuck if you think I look dodgy. Your life would have no meaning without the opportunity to try and look superior on a blog. You make a habit of it.
And CV, splitting hairs is pretty sad. Bigotry is bigotry. Anti-semitism is pathetic, whatever the specific religion turns out to be.
So now, stating facts = splitting hairs?
I stated what had actually happened at Charlie Hebdo. A cartoonist got fired in 2009 and threatened with charges for something which was interpreted as being anti-Jewish. So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.
Again I stated that fact plain and simple, and contrasted to bring the hypocrisy in to distinct relief. Not my problem if you don’t like the illustration I used.
Yes, that’s one way of looking at it. Taking a semantic approach to an issue instead of recognising the wider truth. Yep, a good definition of splitting hairs.
The cartoonist that got fired all those years ago appealed the sacking and won. I’m sure the folk at CH learned a valuable lesson. Your bigotry is not based on anything substantial, CV, just word wankery.
Ps: “So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.”
They never actually used that defence, because they didn’t need a defence. They were defiantly proud of being anti-religion.
The Petulant Entitlement Syndrome of Journalists
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, 29 January 2015
As intended, Jonathan Chait’s denunciation of the “PC language police” – a trite note of self-victimization he’s been sounding for decades – provoked intense reaction: much criticism from liberals and praise from conservatives (with plenty of exceptions both ways). I have all sorts of points I could make about his argument – beginning with how he tellingly focuses on the pseudo-oppression of still-influential people like himself and his journalist-friends while steadfastly ignoring the much more serious ways that people with views Chait dislikes are penalized and repressed – but I’ll instead point to commentary from Alex Pareene, Amanda Marcotte and Jessica Valenti as worthwhile responses. In sum, I fundamentally agree with Jill Filipovic’s reaction: “There is a good and thoughtful piece to be written about language policing & ‘PC’ culture online and in academia. That was not it.” I instead want to focus on one specific point about the depressingly abundant genre of journalists writing grievances about how they’re victimized by online hordes, of which Chait’s article is a very representative sample….
Records about to be broken for driest January on record in Auckland and Wellington.
Yet Fairfax media fails to mention climate change once in this article.
You do wonder who is in control of the conversation at these organisations.
A mining magnate by the name of Julia Reinhard?
Pu is on the mark. I detest his prescription but he is correct labour is little more than national lite, tweaking at the boundaries, why change, barring if your of that persuasion the greens get their hands on the lever of powers. Labours dilemma at every election, no matter who their leader is
If Syriza is the answer it must have been a pretty stupid question
Castro Cuba. Chavez Venezuela all hard left lefties that led their county to nirvana why is Syria different little red riding hood ( to stay on the fairy tail theme been your realm of reality)
Re delusional The govenor of the Bank of England disagrees with you to redelusion.
Syrizia has gone into coalition with ACT type party of the far right.
So re delusional your argument is!
This short blog post and the linked PDF document is the result of a collaborative effort by Anne-Marie Blackburn, Dana Nuccitelli, Bärbel Winkler, Ken Rice and John Cook. When the climate change (mis)information briefs pushed by David Legates and others started to make the rounds in January 2021 we wondered whether ...
A part of this morning's transport announcement which hasn't got a lot of attention yet: biofuels are back: “Our Government has agreed in principle to mandate a lower emitting biofuel blend across the transport sector. Over time this will prevent hundreds of thousands of tonnes of emissions from cars, ...
After almost twenty years of ignoring the Māori vote, National may run in the Māori seats again: A former National MP is excited the party could stand a candidate in the Māori electorate seats for the first time since 2002. One News reported last night that National's leader Judith ...
If one stubbornly clings to the Elimination strategy (I don’t support it, but that will have to wait for another occasion) then try to get it right. You need secure borders. We have attempted this with a very large measure of success. It has not been perfect as the Covid-19 Response ...
Diaspora: perception departs from reality In this collection of articles are two papers currently captivating the attention of people following the science and emergence of climate change, especially the rapid variety we've accidentally unleashed and which is now unfolding around us. The synthesis and review article Earth's Ice Imbalance by Slater ...
The ultra-rich have done very, very well out of the pandemic. Globally, the wealth of the ten richest people rose by US$540 billion last year, enough money to pay for the pandemic in its entirity. And in New Zealand, local billionaire Graeme Hart saw his wealth increase by almost NZ$3.5 ...
Postmodernism has long been looked upon as an indecipherable ideology and a source of amusement. In 1996 Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University, had a hoax article published in ‘Social Text’ an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. In ‘Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Anew study in Nature Sustainability incorporates the damages that climate change does to healthy ecosystems into standard climate-economics models. The key finding in the study by Bernardo Bastien-Olvera and Frances Moore from the University of California at Davis: The models have been underestimating the ...
In a recent interview with RNZ (14th of January), NZ Council of Civil Liberties Chair Thomas Beagle, in response to Simon Bridges condemnation of the post-Trump Twitter purge of local far Right and other accounts, said the following: “Cos the thing about freedom of expression is that it’s not just ...
Let’s be clear: if Trump is not politically killed off once and for all, he will become a MAGA Dracula, rising from the dead to haunt US politics for years to come and giving inspiration to his wretched family of grifters and thousands of deplorables well into the next decade. ...
Since its demise as an imperial power, and especially its deindustrialisation under Thatcher, the UK's primary economic engine has been its role as a money laundry, using its network of overseas territories as tax havens to enable rich people around the world to steal from the societies they live in. ...
Last month OMV quit the Great South Basin and surrendered its offshore exploration permits outside of Taranaki. This month, Australian-owned Beach Energy has done the same: Beach Energy Resources New Zealand has decided to abandon all of its oil and gas exploration permits off the South Island coast, including ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA ...
MARVIN HUBBARD, US citizen by birth, New Zealand citizen by choice, Quaker and left-wing activist, has been broadcasting his show, "Community or Chaos", on Otago Access Radio for the best part of 30 years. On 24 November last year, I spoke with him about the outcome of the 2020 General ...
This is a guest blog post by Daniel Tamberg, Potsdam, co-founder and director of SCIARA GmbH. The non-profit organisation SCIARA is developing and operating a flexible software platform for scientific simulation games that allows thousands of players to explore, design and understand possible climate futures together. Decision-makers in politics, business, ...
Yesterday's Gone: Cold shivers are running up and down the spines of conservatives everywhere. Donald Trump may have gone, but all the signs point to there being something much more momentous in the wind-shift than a simple return to the status quo ante. A change is gonna come. ONE COULD ...
Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 17, 2021 through Sat, Jan 23, 2021Editor's Choice12 new books explore fresh approaches to act on climate changeAuthors explore scientific, economic, and political avenues for climate action ...
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Michael Cowling, CQUniversity AustraliaWe’ve probably all been there. We buy some new smart gadget and when we plug it in for the first time it requires an update to work. So we end up spending hours downloading and updating before we can even play with our new toy. But ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Zero emission buses, cleaner cars and environmentally-friendly biofuels will soon be hitting New Zealand’s roads, as the Government delivers on its election promise to make our transport network more sustainable. ...
The Green Party is already delivering on its commitment for cleaner, climate-friendly transport through our Cooperation Agreement with the Government. ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
Prudence Steven QC, barrister of Christchurch has been appointed as an Environment Judge and District Court Judge to serve in Christchurch, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Steven has been a barrister sole since 2008, practising in resource management and local government / public law. She was appointed a Queen’s ...
The Government is delivering on its first tranche of election promises to take action on climate change with a raft of measures that will help meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. “This will be an ongoing area of action but we are moving ...
The Government is investing up to $10 million to support 30 of the country’s top early-career researchers to develop their research skills. “The pandemic has had widespread impacts across the science system, including the research workforce. After completing their PhD, researchers often travel overseas to gain experience but in the ...
A Waitomo-based Jobs for Nature project will keep up to ten people employed in the village as the tourism sector recovers post Covid-19 Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “This $500,000 project will save ten local jobs by deploying workers from Discover Waitomo into nature-based jobs. They will be undertaking local ...
Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw spoke yesterday with President Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. “I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Kerry this morning about the urgency with which our governments must confront the climate emergency. I am grateful to him and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta today announced three diplomatic appointments: Alana Hudson as Ambassador to Poland John Riley as Consul-General to Hong Kong Stephen Wong as Consul-General to Shanghai Poland “New Zealand’s relationship with Poland is built on enduring personal, economic and historical connections. Poland is also an important ...
Work begins today at Wainuiomata High School to ensure buildings and teaching spaces are fit for purpose, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. The Minister joined principal Janette Melrose and board chair Lynda Koia to kick off demolition for the project, which is worth close to $40 million, as the site ...
A skilled and experienced group of people have been named as the newly established Oranga Tamariki Ministerial Advisory Board by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis today. The Board will provide independent advice and assurance to the Minister for Children across three key areas of Oranga Tamariki: relationships with families, whānau, and ...
The green light for New Zealand’s first COVID-19 vaccine could be granted in just over a week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. “We’re making swift progress towards vaccinating New Zealanders against the virus, but we’re also absolutely committed to ensuring the vaccines are safe and effective,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
The Minister for ACC is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to join the Board of ACC on 1 February 2021. “All three bring diverse skills and experience to provide strong governance oversight to lead the direction of ACC” said Hon Carmel Sepuloni. Bella Takiari-Brame from Hamilton ...
The Government is investing $9 million to upgrade a significant community facility in Invercargill, creating economic stimulus and jobs, Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene have announced. The grant for Waihōpai Rūnaka Inc to make improvements to Murihiku Marae comes from the $3 billion set ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
By Adi Briantika in Jakarta A group of Papuan students in front of the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Jakarta, who were planning to hold a protest action opposing the extension of Papuan Special Autonomy (Otsus), have been arrested and taken to the Metro Jaya regional police headquarters. “Around ...
By RNZ News The two new cases of covid-19 confirmed yesterday in New Zealand are the South African variant and initial results show they are connected to the Northland case at the Pullman Hotel. This morning the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, confirmed to Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Overhype can be a dead giveaway of under-confidence. When Anthony Albanese on Thursday compared his situation to that of Joe Biden, it sounded rather desperate. Some journalists, he said, had predicted a certain Trump win. ...
The New Zealand public sector and judiciary has again been ranked the least corrupt in the world. The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by global anti-corruption organization Transparency International ranks New Zealand first equal ...
New Zealand is again ranked first equal with Denmark in the Transparency International annual index of perceived levels of public sector corruption. Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has welcomed New Zealand’s position in the 2020 index. He says New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Kaufman, Research Fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute The federal government’s A$23.9 million COVID-19 vaccination information campaign, launchedyesterday, aims to reassure the public about vaccine safety and effectiveness. It will also provide information about the vaccine rollout. We’ve ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Hongi Luo, brand director at TikTok.In terms of cultural reach and impact, the ...
After Covid devastated its 2020, Basement Theatre comes roaring into 2021 with its Summer Season. Here’s the rundown of shows in-store, with some comments from programmer Nisha Madhan.Pre-FringeLust IslandWhen’s it on: February 2-6, 8pmWho’s involved: The women of improv troupe Hearthrobs (McKenzie’s Daughters, Salem Bitch Trials), including Brynley Stent, Alice ...
The whānau of Te Ahikaiata Turei supported by Māori and non-Māori staff at Unitec will take back a portrait of the Tūhoe leader who led the establishment of Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae and the values that brought the institute back from the brink of ...
A poll across the Early Childhood Education community found 93% in favour of pausing the ‘lunchbox rules’, or the Ministry of Education’s new Food Safety/choking changes to the Licensing Criteria, which came into effect on 25 January. “The message ...
Cycling advocates are calling for the transformation of urban transport, as New Zealand races to cut carbon. The Climate Change Commission will release its initial advice on Sunday 31 January. “Bikes and e-bikes are perfect for many local trips, ...
Three Ministers, led by the PM, joined in chorus today to warble about a bunch of measures aimed at helping to meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. Mind you, the measures mentioned seem to be more matters of decisions yet to be made ...
Michelle Kidd defines her role at Auckland’s specialist family violence court as te kaiwhakatere – the navigator. It’s a one-of-a-kind job, helping guide defendants through the court system. And there’s no one better suited to it than Whaea Michelle.First published November 24, 2020.Whaea Michelle is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sallie Yea, Associate professor & Principal Research Fellow, La Trobe University Each year, thousands of men and boys labour under extremely exploitative conditions on commercial fishing vessels owned by Taiwanese, Chinese and South Korean companies. The Taiwanese fleet, which operates in all ...
Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis believes the Crown should maintain responsibility for the care and protection of at-risk and vulnerable children, regardless of their race. Moreover, he is confident his all-Maori team of advisers will not be taking race into account as they help to improve Oranga Tamariki’s care and protection of ...
It’s easy to sacrifice John Banks. It’s a lot harder for brands, sports organisations and government to truly stop funding racism. Are they willing to try?Yesterday John Banks, the former Auckland mayor and MP, became subject to one of the fastest firings in media history when audio covering his approving ...
A community is outraged after Auckland Council granted consent for a row of trees planted by local kids to be removed along a revitalised waterway in South Auckland, reports Justin Latif. An Auckland Council decision to give contractors the all-clear to chop down 12 mānuka and kānuka trees shading Māngere’s Tararata ...
Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu hopes that the recent changes to Oranga Tamariki leadership present an opportunity for a long overdue paradigm shift that will place whānau at the heart of the child welfare sector. Pouārahi Helen Leahy says that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rice, Professor of Management, University of New England Elon Musk is now the world’s richest person, edging out previous title holder Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. His rocketing fortune is due to the booming share price of Tesla, the maker of electric vehicles ...
There are now three returnees who contracted the virus in the Auckland isolation facility then left into the community while positive. These are some of the questions that need to be resolved. At 10.20pm last night the Ministry of Health confirmed that the two cases they’d been treating as probable ...
Having a hard time remembering to scan in on the NZ Covid Tracer app when you’re out and about? Get this song stuck in your head and you’ll never forget again.Learn the lyrics:Aotearoa, it’s time to get scanning!I mean if you think about it, it never really wasn’t time we ...
We conclude our week-long examination of New Zealand writer Roderick Finlayson with a review of his stories by John Newton Roger Hickin’s Cold Hub Press is one of the small miracles of contemporary New Zealand publishing. Over the last decade, on what can only be a shoe-string budget, the ...
Thursday 28th January, AUCKLAND: Drive Electric, the not-for-profit with one mission – making electric vehicle uptake in New Zealand mainstream, welcomes the announcement by the Government today as a sign of what’s to come through 2021, and we are confident ...
The Government announced today key policy decisions on the proposed clean car policies. The MIA has stated on many occasions that we support well thought out and constructive policies that will lead to an increased rate in the reduction of CO2 emissions from ...
Get wild, get cultured, get fed and then get to bed: the essential guide to a perfect few days in the southern city. There’s one thing that preoccupies the staff of The Spinoff almost as much as arranging popular food items into arbitrary lists, and that’s Dunedin. A quite remarkable ...
John Banks’ racist exchange with a Magic Talk listener on Tuesday was the latest in nearly 50 years of talkback controversies. Donna Chisholm has the receipts.John Banks axed over Māori ‘stone age culture’ comments on Magic Talk1972: On Radio I, sports talkback host Tim Bickerstaff launches a “Punch a Pom ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission.Two new community Covid-19 cases have been identified as the more infectious South African variant, but Auckland Mayor Phil Goff sayit would be "premature to go into lockdown now". The two new cases of Covid-19 identified in the ...
Today, for the second time in two months Dunedin climate protectors have locked themselves to the railway tracks outside the Dunedin Railway station to stop the KiwiRail coal train from Bathurst Resources’ Takitimu mine in Southland to Fonterra’s ...
KiwiRail STOP Hauling COAL Today, for the second time in two months Dunedin climate protectors have locked themselves to the railway tracks outside the Dunedin Railway station to stop the KiwiRail coal train from Bathurst Resources’ Takitimu mine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Dunn, Associate professor, University of Sydney The government is rolling out a new public information campaign this week to reassure the public about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, which one expert has said “couldn’t be more crucial” to people actually getting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese O’Sullivan, Associate Professor, Edith Cowan University The COVID vaccine rollout has placed the issue of vaccination firmly in the spotlight. A successful rollout will depend on a variety of factors, one of which is vaccine acceptance. One potential hurdle to vaccine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bernard Walker, Associate Professor in Organisations and Leadership, University of Canterbury Kiwis know what it’s like when life throws curveballs. We’ve had major quakes, floods, fires, an eruption, a terrorist attack and now a pandemic. In those situations, it’s the ability to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Irwin, Emeritus professor, Murdoch University While we continue to be occupied with the COVID pandemic, another life-threatening disease has emerged in northern Australia, one that’s cause for considerable alarm for the millions of dog owners around the country. This disease — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cath Ferguson, Academic, Edith Cowan University Almost half of Australian adults struggle with reading. Similar levels of struggling readers are reported in the United Kingdom and United States. This does not mean all struggling readers are illiterate. It means they often struggle ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abbas Shieh, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Design, Islamic Azad University The industrial revolution transformed cities, resulting in places of residence and work becoming more distant than ever before. This spatial segregation is still largely embedded in the design of our ...
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Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 28, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tourism suffers in the shadow of Covid-19, two new positive cases in Auckland confirmed, and National will contest the Māori electorates.The front page of the January 4 Greymouth Star carried grim tidings for several of the glacier towns on the ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Two people who left managed isolation on January 15 have been confirmed as positive Covid-19 cases, with the Ministry of Health urging anyone who visited the same locations during the same time period as the infected pair in Auckland to ...
The watchlist of 'offensive or unreasonable' babies' names is to be reviewed, to include more names from other languages. Generations of the Īhaka family have played a meaningful role in bringing Te Reo and stories of Māori to our wider community. Archdeacon Sir Kīngi Matutaera Īhaka (Te Aupōuri, 1921-93) was known as the orator of ...
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At 5am today, cock’s crow, the embargo lifted on the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlist. Here are the books in the race, followed by thoughts from poetry editor Chris Tse and books editor Catherine Woulfe. A shortlist of four books in each category will be announced March 3, with ...
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Patrick Gower making a complete fool of him self on TV the 1st minute was all about him .When will they sack the chump.
Paddy performs as expected and is valued by the DP movers and shakers as the attack dog with a national tv soapbox. Sacked ! ha more likely just some firm directions on toning it down to appear considered and suck more sheeple in.
The size of his ego is unbelievable I reackon a paul henry/Paul Holmes type offensive outburst is the best chance of seeing the back of the fool.
That’s what I thought, all about him. A very pissy item from Gower.
State of the Nation speeches aren’t supposed to be for the entertainment of journalists. They mark a serious start to the serious year of politics.
Maybe Gower should take a longer holiday if that’s the best he can do. Awful.
The whole current crop of so called journalists can go, im so sick of them telling us their views of the news instead of just reporting the news, Gower is the worst that pillock will burst a blood vessel one day while he is glorifying in somebody elses misfortune
how is it possible for labour under little to ‘move further away from social-policies’..
..when in 2014 they offered beneficiaries..nothing..
..so you wd think there was nowhere for them to ‘move’ to..
..what will they do in ’17…?
..promise to cut benefits..?
I don’t believe it ! Yesterday the Herald had a column which commented favourably on Andrew Little’s state of nation speech, this morning there is another one PLUS an editorial which states :
“Mr Little has the luxury of time to produce more definitive solutions to the issues still facing the country, Mr Key does not. He urgently needs to give his Government new themes and impetus. This time last year he announced an imaginative education initiative, yesterday was an opportunity lost. ”
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
one editorial-chastisement of key – does not a labour govt make….
Are things finally starting to look up for Labour ? ?
That’s how it looks. There’s a long way to go but up looks an attainable direction now.
There’s evidence too that opponents see Little as a threat that they are not sure how to deal with.
Key competing on the same day is one indication.
And Slater has been running a long and frequent series of attempted hits on Little (at least five posts yesterday alone), including repeated digs at Little’s appearance and his temperament. It looks like flailing around trying to seed something to attack with. It’s not working.
Another promising step along the way for Little yesterday. A lot still to do but it looks like the beginning of a recovery and rebuild, at last.
Fearfax Media spin it differently.
‘Key trumps Little’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/65525196/key-trumps-little-on-speech-day
About FJK: “Key confirmed plans to sell 1000 to 2000 state houses in the next year to community housing providers and up to 8000 over the next four years.
Housing New Zealand would remain the biggest provider of social housing with at last 60,000 properties by 2017 against 68,000 now.”
It doesn’t take advanced mathematics to see that the have stopped building state houses altogether. Did FJK actually mention that?
+1.
Well said, Pete.
: roll :
Good comment Jenny but don’t hold your breath, my guess is that they will swing back to the right ,hope I am wrong.
The print version of the Herald has a half page devoted to rating the Key and Little speeches. The result according to them?
8/10 for Key and 4/10 for Little. So, no, I am afraid there is no change of tack in that right wing rag.
Darn it ! thought for a brief moment there, might have been a change of tack ……
obviously someone other than mr roughan wrote today’s editorial !
i wouldn’t give little more than 4/10 for that speech..
..that is quite a generous mark..
While driving about half an hour ago, I heard Chtis Trotter and Rodney Hide on roadio live analysing the speeches of key and Little.
Both praised Little for the points he made in his speech and were luke worm about Key’s speech.
Hide had NZH were wrong and pretty stupid in their two scores and said he would reverse that and give Little 7/10 and key, 4/10.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Audio.aspx
Listen in from 2 pm onwards today (Click on January 29, Thursday, 14:00)
The first 8 minutes is news.
Squalid right wing rag.
FIFY 😈
The odd pat on the head for Little means nothing unless they take Key to task instead of sheltering him from scrutiny.
Right at the moment they will be lining Little-Labour up in the business hearld with something stupid like “former Union Boss buckles to his union mates demands to abolish 90 day trial” (fire at will bill).
Where is the attack on bullshit artist Key over selling state housing, something he lied about in his pre election campaign ‘no further assets sales’.
How about, what exactly do you mean by part of the proceeds of state housing sales goes for capital infrastructure, what paying for roading projects?
Or, won’t you be paper shuffling and applying colorful accounting, referring to the sale of state houses to balance (fudge) the books?
Q. How is an ‘endorsement’ from the NZH a positive for Little ?
A pat on the head for a status quo speech i would say
+ 1..
It’s no longer the Media – It’s “The Ministry of Truth”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Truth
Kiaora Jenny
I thought the focus of Andrew’s speech excellent. Small and medium business are the heart and blood of this bilateral nation. A labour government focussed on job creation through improving conditions for small business is a vote winner.
Positive and practical messaging and policies to increase the volume of money flowing through communities clogged by unemployment and impoverishment is a vote winner.
The biggest and immediate issue confronting Māori communities is the lack of jobs. Young people are rotting on unemployment and many are not on benefits.
Job creation should be the primary focus of any Labour Government otherwise it should relabel itself as Non-Labour Government.
National Party values in the news.
h/t Tracey.
Conflict of interest much? How is this Key’s call?
Just heard the very good justice lawyer and friend Kelly Ellis rubbing Sabin’s nose into the dirt. Love that lady’s witty style. Yip what an ebarrasment Sabin is by pushing for the removal of a right to silence, and choosing silence himself, oh the hypocrisy makes me laugh.
Maybe John Key will ‘break the silence’ and force Sabin into retirement from politics.
My experience has been more along the lines of “However, we as police work on the principle innocent until bashed sufficiently to confess, or until we can do a deal with some jailhouse informant, or until we can fabricate sufficient evidence.”
Gower is an example of a TV presenter who believe they are more important than the message. Or worse maybe he is so deluded he thinks that people enjoy some rantings of a brown nosed National simpleton, with a brain smaller than his large teeth that he bares in some hideous attempt at entertainment. Again the Rugby thicko TV execs don’t notice that people are watching TV less and less in particular news …. I wonder why?
We shouldn’t criticise Gower for his teeth….hmm, ok, maybe just the front ones. He reminds me of a rat looking around for some easy food.
What is it with these political commentators/radio hosts, listened to that muppet Duncan (gotcha) Garner with his “epic fail” comment r.e Littles speach yesterday, at least hes consistant as he pulls the same crap with everyone, he is nothing but a sound bite merchant but that sound bite is now being replayed every hour, and he tries to make out he left political life because of all the nastiness well i say that trait has a bit more to do with him than his previous job
Rant over
Yes, he’s incredibly thick and doesn’t present well – I’ve often wondered how he’s survived at all – are they that hard up?
The Germans again come up with a novel way to deal with intolerance and simplistic political debate.
This time, giving out stickers and banners to anti-Islam marchers that direct people to a website that go over concerns with considered information and practical actions that are non-divisive.
Yes I saw that too Molly – very good work there and both subtle and direct.
heh
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2015/01/26/anti-islam-san-francisco-muni-ads-defaced-with-messages-of-love/
I can’t believe those ads were allowed on the side of public transport buses. Wtf?
Anything goes in the land of the free.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/19/pamela-geller-new-york-buses-subways-islam-james-foley
“the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AMDI)”
yeah, because the freedoms of US citizens are under threat from Muslims not the US govt, bankers and corporations.
The link to the news item is pay-walled but apparently local government have blocked a development so the addled have decided to do something for their friendly corporate.
Joe Sonka @joesonka
A prayer circle for Walmart
New demands on the justice system requiring restorative justice talks even when the victirm doesn’t want it, are meaning three times the appearances for one very minor offence when only one was used to be needed. The system is grinding to a halt.
Ideological not practical or pragmatic. In 2012 submissions were made against this.
Perhaps we should call it the Bazley effect. Minister Amy Adams (not the celebrity) is looking at it. But it was pushed through by the previous Minimal of Justice so being new on the Block she might not have any authority. Has she the perspicacity?
This regime is fast gaining a deserved reputation for ignoring all expert on-the-ground advice in various areas and running solely on their own ideology.
Third-termitis
@ vto
Let’s make it third-terminalitis!
After all balloons filled with hot air and helium only stay out of reach at the ceiling for a time. What goes up must come down.
Considering that they were doing that right from the start I don’t think Third-termitis applies. Just pure arrogance and hubris.
As I listened to the talk about selling off, hiving off, our social housing I thought of a subtitle for our country – New Zealand/Aotearoa, the Islands of Reduced Circumstances.
We are like the elderly ladies in many Brit stories I have read who have been living on Father’s legacy or annuity which has dwindled as they have got older, and gradually they have been forced to sell heirlooms and treasured family belongings. Poor old lady NZ reduced to poverty in the land of much milk and less honey, and suffering the kind attentions of loan sharks, hucksters and high rollers.
edited
+111
@ grey
..+ 1
Follow your convictions – this could be the end of the politics of fear
And that’s just a small taste. There is so much more in that article that can be directly transferred to NZ.
DTB
Great link. Thanx.
hence parties, espesh our Nat party, spend time and money manipulating the populace towant what isn’t actually good for them but to believe it is.
The head of the US military has had to launch an essay competition to find someone to write something nice about the brutal ruler who John Key honoured this week by ordering the lowering of the New Zealand flag to half mast.
Maybe General Martin Dempsey, Chair of the US Joint heads of staff could have saved himself the effort, and just instead asked the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to tell the world what he personally admired about the late King Addullah of Saudi Arabia.
Maybe JK could wax lyrical about the multiply beheadings and dismemberments, and the jailing of government critics, or possibly the lack of civil rights for women. Or the Saudi Government’s legal sanction of child abuse, paternal rape and murder, or the flogging and jailing of bloggers and writers critical of the government. (Lynn Prentice, Eleanor Catton take note).
I am certain that an essay written by John Key on these subjects as well as creating an international sensation would easily win US Chief of Staff General Dempsey’s prize. (As well as winning the approval of the US State Department and President Obama’s office, something John Key has always been mindful of.)
Let us celebrate, moderate beheadings
What with New Zealand being peacefully settled, you never know what previously unknown pearls of wisdom Key will come out with.
He had more important threats to democracy to deal with, A Man Booker Prize winner for starters.
I guess sometimes the truth hurts. I particularly liked this quote:
“It has to belong to everybody or the country really doesn’t want to know about it.”
It irritates me that the politicians and the wealthy in this country are very quick to celebrate their own achievements, which clearly result from their hard work, but if someone else does something worth of recognition it suddenly becomes “we did,” not “he did,” or “she did.” Even the phrase “New Zealand’s own…” suggests ownership.
Why not suggest support, instead? My degree contributed nothing toward her success, nor did anything else I’ve done in the last year. Perhaps a few cents from my taxes did, in some small way, but it was her talents that won her the award, not my taxes or even her nationality.
I’m disgusted by the behaviour of the media toward Miss Catton, but I can’t find a suitable word to describe my feelings for the Prime Minister, a man who brags that he had the support of the taxpayer as a child and made his way unaided after that, forgetting his free degree, and he now deserves his wealth and power.
When do we get our slice of the fortune our taxes created for him?
Oh, I forgot. He achieved that on his own.
In NZ I notice that any time the UNACTS want to smear goo on a policy they label it Green. The worst sort of thing that could be imagined. They must huddle together at parties and down their alcohol in buckets while they shiver fearfully at some gory story about the frightening Greens, the new vampires.
Not directly relevant to us, but the Koch brothers are preparing to spend $889 million on the next election.
Is that the going rate?
$889 p.r.o.i. (political return on ‘investment’)
Political candidates on sale and to be bought by the 0.1%!
Maybe we could all chip in a few coins and buy ourselves a US politician to lobby for us.
🙂 chump change
i inadvertently left out the ‘m’ (millions) but, yah, big money buys big politicians.
On 4 July 2014 USA population given as 318,881,992. How much average per person of Koch $889,000,000?
In NZ the 2014 popuation was 4,500,000. How much if this is multipled by USA individual
amount?
And think of the spending and influence power of just one uber-rich group.
$2.79 per person.
$12.5 million equivalent in Aotearoa. Much more than Dotcom spent.
And Koch is giving that money to media and PR firms who already have all the infrastructure and staff in place and are ready to roll. So the $$$ will go much further.
I do so enjoy reading leftist excuses for failed policies. This one about Venezuela takes the prize for most bizarre rant.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/27/revolution-counter-revolution-and-the-economic-war-in-venezuela/
“The government position is that basic commodity shortages are being caused by elements of the private sector that control the importation, production and distribution of food and other products and criminal speculators and smugglers who are sometimes allied with this sector. These actors are allegedly responsible or complicit in the illegal stockpiling of products in warehouses aimed at bringing about artificial shortages. There is empirical evidence for such claims. Thousands of tons of products, including subsidized items, have been diverted from the marketplace for sale in Colombia in 2014. Warehouses full of goods that ought to be on store shelves are frequently discovered by the authorities. Subsidized food items are often purchased by speculators for resale at higher prices in the domestic market. Some importers have been buying products at the subsidized currency exchange rate but then selling those products as though they were purchased at the much higher parallel rate. Fictitious “importers” are also blamed for massive amounts of currency fraud by obtaining divisas (dollars) at the preferential exchange rate under pretext of importing priority goods and then selling those dollars on the parallel market or holding on to them in expectation of further devaluation of the bolivar, a practice that suggests the corruption of some public servants as well. What are we to make of these observations about scarcity?”
Wow! Who would have thought that distorting the economy by providing subsidies or imposing price controls would lead to people taking advantage of these to make money?
The solution seems obvious. You remove the distortions and then the people won’t sell subsidised goods in neighbouring countries.
Also I love how some leftists think they can just dictate problems away.
“For Maduro, the game is up for the economic coup being waged by the political opposition and its allied collaborators in the private sector. He has delivered an ultimatum to food distributors to cooperate with efforts to overcome food shortages…”
What a complete moron.
Replying to your own posts now Gossy?
Sheesh, must be a lonely world your in…
Goostepper i do so like pointing out that you have only used parts of your own link that suits your agenda.
Trying to dictate what we think and say.
But your own link points out that the right wing in Venezuela are trying to undermine a democratically elected govt the same way as the CIA did in Chile underming Allende and installing a murdurous Dictator.
South America is littered with the mass graves of American foreign Policy of keeping corrupt murderous dictators and drug lords in power!
+ 1..
Q. Can you use “I do so enjoy” more often ?
Not convinced you have completely overused it just yet
Thankfully we live in a capatlist society where the free market allows people to operate in an honest and open way never taking advantage of the lack of regulation and controls. In our great system people making huge amounts off speculation alone would never create a situation that endangers the economy of the enitre world for their own profit.
Stupid socialists identifying people breaking their laws designed to try and help people. They should totally do things the way we do.
If you think you can construct laws that solve problems of economic distribution and supply you are very, very wrong. Attempting to legislate prices at a level below what people are willing to pay for them will just lead to exactly the problem the Venezuelan government is facing now. People will stop producing and/or sell the items on the black market or across the border in places where they can get higher prices. You may try to claim this behaviour is unethical or immoral but then many people always try to blame others for problems they themselves have caused.
Gooseman you have only chosen selected parts of the story gooseman.
The reason why food shortages are occuring is because the right wing are using the same tactics as the CIA used to overthrow a democratically elected Allende and installing a murderous fascist dictator!
Fascist Murderous Dictators were installed in just about every South American country one stage or another.
Maduro was elected the right wing are deliberately with the collusion of the CIA underming democracy.
Don’t get me started on the war on drugs in South America.
Fact is South America is littered with mass graves as a direct result of American nihilistic foreign policy.
Democracy freedoms have been undermined!
Yes, it’s funny how the most freedom for the market seems to require the least freedom for workers and the strongest state apparatus.
A good example was the military dictatorship in Chile, the students of Milton Friedman economics.
Apparently you can’t tell the market what to do, but the state required by the ‘free’ market can not only tell you what to do but lock you up, torture you and kill you if you don’t obey.
Phil
How exactly is the right wing doing this? They seem terribly effective if they are as well. the economy is close to collapse. Perhaps it is best not to start a fight with them.
Actually, I figure it’s best to finish the fight with them by the simple expedient of enforcing the law.
+1
La grand pared para ellos!
You mean like illicit drugs aren’t prevalent in society because of law enforcement?
Of course you could try prosecuting the corrupt public servants. We could set an example by prosecuting those who handed out SFC assets to Key’s neighbour, for cents in the dollar.
But yeah Gooseman, you are right on one point. Capitalist scum like yourself cannot be trusted not to enrich themselves at the cost of the rest of us. You lot are criminals and should be treated as such. Funny that you are all willing to trot out the traitor label for someone who makes some mild criticisms.
I was told by a good source that Waiariki Institute of Technology is charging Indian Students $20k to do its Agricultural course, which is fine (nothing like exploiting people who are desperate to get out of their country)
BUT
Farmers can employ these students between May and November (busy calving time) for $200 per week. This needs to be investigated because these students are being exploited, its displacing local people and there is no way that this falls within minimum pay rates legislation.
Right up Winston’s alley.
what are they charge other overseas students?
and is that per annum or whole course?
Re the $200/wk, is that true for students who are residents too? Indian students only? i.e is this via immigration or via tertiary practice of making these deals.
cos i know that full time students from overseas at unis and polys pay about 15k per year
Wouldn’t it depend on teh course?
edit,
http://www.waiariki.ac.nz/international-students/international-student-tuition-fees
Yes, I was referring to full time courses such as Diploma or bachelor courses, being 8 papers a year
Yes, but I was meaning across the same degree, that cost would depend on the subject of the course.
How many hours are they expected to do for the $200.
and are they getting accommodation etc as part of that?
Need to do some more work on this…but understood that they would be full time. Most farm jobs include accommodation.
One of the union people from round here should get on to this .
There has always been a good amount of farm owners treating there workers like dirt but they seem to get away with it Out sight out of mind I guess.
Dirty politics, yet again.
Look who is on the team at the Taxpayer’s Union…
If you want to know who was behind Jordan Williams’s attack on Eleanor Catton yesterday, look no further than David Farrar: http://www.taxpayers.org.nz/who_we_are
The Taxpayers Union is just a thinly disguised recruiting tool for National Party members.
Danyl at Dimpost pointing out the two tracks is up and running again,
There are lots of good pieces on the Eleanor Catton contretemps – Morgan Godfrey, Brian Easton, Gordon Campbell, Andrew Geddis, Simon Wilson – all focusing on issues around intellectuals and criticism and New Zealand attitudes towards same, which are all valid points. But what’s also meaningful, I think, is that this is a reprise of National’s two-track communications strategy we spent so much time talking about last year. Sean Plunket isn’t just a talk-radio dofus: he’s very close to the National government and, just like his mate Cameron Slater, Plunket is there to smear and bully and intimidate anyone who speaks out against John Key or National, so that National themselves don’t have to.
If – like most of the country – you haven’t heard anything from Plunket since he left Morning Report a few years back then his attack on Catton probably seemed very strange. But if you listened to him during the 2014 election campaign, most of which he spent in a state of flat-out hysteria ranting about terrorists and traitors, culminating in Plunket phoning Paddy Gower live on air and accusing him of being involved in a conspiracy against the government because he was reporting on Dirty Politics, it’s easier to see that abusing critics of the National Party – real or imaginary – is pretty much just his day to day role.
https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/back-to-two-track/
is it a fact that Plunkett is a friend of Slater (junior)?
Much as I dislike mocking people for there last names, one guy there has the last name Craven. Pretty fitting really.
The past year has seen a massive upsurge of working class communities in the south of Ireland against the attempt of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to impose a household water tax. This follows on the household tax itself, cuts in social welfare payments, the raising of the retirement age and other anti-working class measures.
In a rake of working class communities people are physically preventing the installation of meters and sabotaging them where the state-capitalist water company, Irish Water, does manage to install them.
This is all very different from New Zealand, where workers remain almost obdurately passive in the face of the whittling away of rights and conditions and living standards by the bosses and by successive National and Labour governments.
Why is the NZ working class so passive compared to workers in Ireland?
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/dublin-working-class-communities-show-how-resistance-is-done/
Phil
“..Why is the NZ working class so passive..”
this has long puzzled me..
..and the example of this passivity (amongst working class leadership esp.) that could not be more potent..
..was the rightwing revolution in the 80’s..
..in australia the union movement stood up and said: ‘no yer fucken not..!..’
..here they pulled down their pants..bent over..and then went and waited to get their rewards..knighthood/seats on company boards..etc..
..and today..?..we have a low-wage economy..australia doesn’t..
..the union-leadership from that time are/were traitors..
..both to those they purported to represent..
..and to the country as a whole..
We’ve tentatively explored the question a few times on Redline, but we need to do a lot more work on it.
I agree with you about the 1980s (and early 1990s).
But even at its most militant, the labour movement in NZ wasn’t really all that militant.
Take, for instance, 1913. In NZ workers fought for a few weeks. (And, in terms of workers involved, this was the most significant labour dispute in NZ history). At the same time the most significant industrial dispute in Irish history was taking place. Impoverished Dublin workers fought for *six months*.
When Massey’s Cossacks clubbed workers here, they complained about it. When the police in Dublin clubbed workers, the workers formed a workers militia, got armed, and paraded around Dublin streets tooled up; the cops kept their distance.
Those workers, the Irish Citizen Army, went on to be the driving force of the 1916 Rebellion. A number of their officers and a section of the ranks were women.
One reason I’ve become sympathetic to the idea of Australia and NZ merging is that the Aussies are much more Bolshie in defending their rights and we need some damn thing to harden up the working class here.
I think if I was young and had kids, I’d emigrate. I just couldn’t bear my kids growing up in a society where workers are so supine; I wouldn’t want my kids thinking that eating shit sandwiches is normal. I’d go to Oz or to Ireland.
Phil
“..I think if I was young and had kids, I’d emigrate…”
..+ 1..
..and i hafta say..littles’ speech i found quite depressing..
..as there is little/no sign of any changes from the neo-lib paradigm..
..just more of the same old fucken same old..
..i am just holding out hope that the sight of a leftwing with some balls..in greece..and spain/scotland etc..
..a leftwing really/actually doing the job they are meant to do..
..i am hoping there will be some contagion down here..
..but i’m not holding my breath..
..the right is fully in control..in both national and labour..
..and i think little will get quite a soft-ride from the media..
..as their bosses don’t see him as anyway a ‘threat’ to their sweet-rides/the current paradigm…
..and at a time when we are screaming out for ‘threats to the current paradigm’…
maybe cos we have tended to lead the world, our work force swallow the oft fed line “you are not as badly off as xxx,”, with its implication to not seem ungrateful… we tend to be a polite and deferential lot
8 hour day
40 hour week
women voting
labour govts
ACC
health and safety
maybe then..but not now…
..rightwingers in labour/national have ensured that..
every day someone tells the poor or the workers of New Zealand how grateful they should be, they just use different and more nasty words. Kiwis apparently dont like to stick out from the crowd to be seen to be making a fuss, not risk-takers our fellow average kiwis.
For some reason, this country is infested with the idea of “I’ve got mine, screw you.” Everyone thinks they’re on their way up, through their own hard work, but nobody else is.
Anecdotes:
My brother overheard some (highly paid) managers at the last election time, saying that they were going to vote National because Labour were just going to give money to poor people, and why should they get something for nothing?
(Funny. I recall working long days and getting bitchy emails from my manager, telling me that I wasn’t working enough unpaid hours. He got a lot of something for nothing.)
I hear that kind of thing a lot. Before he retired, one of my father’s co-workers said that he worked 40 years to get whatever his wage was, he doesn’t see why he should help anybody else.
Many of us pride ourselves on our charity and thoughtfulness toward others, most especially Christians, but so very many of us seem to act contrary to that.
Then there’s the whole ideal that if a manager gets a pay increase, they deserve it for working hard, but if I want more than minimum wage I’m just being greedy.
Three or four years ago, one of the guys who worked with me was getting $15/hour. He was senior staff, and asked for a pay increase. I heard our boss tell him that if he wants a pay increase then he’d better upskill and become more valuable to the company.
I can do everything that other guy did with a single exception, and a whole lot more than he ever learned. I get minimum wage and there are no pay increases. According to my boss the only guy who gets a pay increase (and a Christmas bonus) is the CEO. The rest of us munters are just out of luck.
I’ve tried organising. Supporting my initial statements, one guy doesn’t care, he’s just funding his studies while another feels that he’ll be recognised as a true talent any day now, either promoted or hired somewhere else, and this is just his investment in his career.
These are only symptoms of the issue, though. I don’t know what’s causing it, or why we think we’re special and everyone else is lazy. I do know that it makes us easy prey for reducing our rights, and creating a low-wage economy.
Definitely worth a discussion.
Kiwis grow up in a culture that says you should have your own business and your own house to be a success. We really are Napoleon’s nation of shopkeepers and never developed a deeply entrenched sense of class. Even Bomber, a supposed left wing mouthpiece, carries on about rubbish like generational differences and almost never gives an analysis in terms of class. I wish it was different.
With regard to Oz, there is also the important factor that the ostensibly Labour government of Lange was the one that achieved a tko on its supporters. The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. In Oz it was a Liberal government that tried most of it on, and the unions instinctively fought back, even if only to protect their relationship with the Labor Party.
But don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s much better over here. You might find militant class warriors marching in support of “Stop the Boats” or complaining about Kiwis taking their jobs. It’s no proletarian paradise, comrade.
“The union bureaucrats were busy agreeing with Douglas rather than building resistance. ”
They got big fat redundancy payouts for themselves and their members. Then they could set their own businesses, contract back to the SOE’s, and pole vault themselves into the middle bourgeois class.
30 odd years later, National has a new layer of voters.
I’ve been bouncing back in time, thse past few days, when I click on comments and even the “feeds”.
Oddly, usually to the same two places, one a blog from 2014. I’m starting to feel like my computer, or ths site has some misguided Hal* which is trying to bring something to my attention.
* as in ‘2001 a space odyssey’.
Wikipedia tell us: “The Imitation Game was both a critical and commercial success. The film was included in both the National Board of Review’s and American Film Institute’s “Top 10 Films of 2014″. At the 87th Academy Awards, it has been nominated in eight categories including Best Picture, Best Director for Tyldum, Best Actor for Cumberbatch and Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley. It also garnered five nominations in the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and was nominated in three categories at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In addition, it received nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations including Best Film and Outstanding British Film.”
Alan Turing, the person the film is mainly about, was the guy mainly responsible for cracking the Nazis’ ‘enigma code’ during WW2. In 1952, however, Turing was convicted of ‘gross indecency’, the usual name for male homosexual acts.
Last August the British queen announced a royal pardon of Turing.
An interesting indication of the changes in capitalism and in bourgeois ideology in recent decades:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/alan-turing-capitalism-and-the-changes-in-bourgeois-ideology/
and he possibly committed suicide when a nation turned on him because of who he loved…
“Turing was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when such behaviour was still criminalised in the UK. He accepted treatment with oestrogen injections (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death a suicide; his mother and some others believed it was accidental.[9] In 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated”. Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.[10][11][12]”
The Brits did a pretty good job of taking hate on the road too when they colonised…
I’m not sure Turing was the guy mainly responsible. The effort began with the Polish military and mathematicians even before WW2. Commandos and Royal Marines also played an important role, as well as spies and French intelligence. Turing played a crucial role and it would have taken longer without him, but others were important as well. There is an interesting book:
Conspicuously missing: the Labour party.
I keep waiting for someone (anyone?) to lay into these dogs who think they are running our country.
Housing: The governments action is a lie. Bald faced. In your face: yeah we said we wouldn’t. We are. Waddaya gunna do?
Where is the damn opposition?
Sabin: Yeah he can have power over the people who are investigating him. So what.
Opposition?
Stupid greeny hippy know nothing writer; sure, gut the RMA: more cows; less welfare…
Has anyone said anything about the Greek election.
Opposition where?
“..Where is the damn opposition?..”
parliament re-opens soon..
..then we will see if they intend to sleepwalk for the next few yrs..
..or if they will get off their arses..(literally)..
..and do what they are paid/voted in to do..
..them and the greens..
‘Controlled Opposition’ is the phrase you are seeking
Little had some good digs at the current government in his speech and all we get is bull shit from the press about lack of policy when Little said he wasn’t doing policy .
Reporters are either thick as pigshit or owned.
Ross, the NZLP was in the news all day yesterday and again today. The party (mainly Andrew Little) got some decent coverage on their own initiatives, National’s housing fail and Sabin’s case. It’s not compulsory to watch the TV news or read the papers, but it’s a good idea before you make comments like that to do some prep, lest you look like a bridge dweller.
TRP. Unfortunately, I no longer live in my own country. I wish I could. I subscribe to feeds and get my thrills through TS. What you say is, no doubt, correct. But I do the research I can. That research, for now, reveals almost zero penetration of the fog by Labour or any opposition. I often get more news about NZ from the Guardian than I do through Stuff. That’s a comment about the media. An opposition’s job is to find a way around that. Why doesn’t a Labour MP get a shovel and dig a spud patch on the front lawn at parliament? Why? To feed our starving kids! Why doesn’t one of the useless fools order a truck load of concrete sewerage pipes to be dumped alongside the potato patch? Why? To house our homeless!
My question remains, where?
Here one for you and for everyone that opposes these Key’s State house sell off:
Take a look, make a stand and sign the petition now.
This is the email message I received from Phil Twyford.
“Key finally admitted his plans to sell off thousands of our state houses over the next two and a bit years.
Now he’s fronted the policy, it raises the stakes. He’ll want to push the sell-off through as soon as possible as he’ll be scared of losing face if his plans fall through.
It means if we’re going to have a chance to stop the sell-off, we need to move quickly. In our tens of thousands. But it also means John Key is vulnerable.
The first step of this campaign is proving the levels of public opposition to the sell-off. Already, nearly 22,000 of us have signed a petition against it.
We need thousands more. If you’ve not yet added your name, time is running out to act – so please add your name today”
http://action.labour.org.nz/save-our-state-houses
You may also donate to fund the campaign
https://contribute-nzlabour.nationbuilder.com/housing_campaign_thanks?utm_campaign=150128_sotn_k&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nzlabour
Once your name’s on the petition, please forward this email to your friends and family – every name on the petition will make our campaign stronger.
Next week, we’ll be in touch with an exciting plan to use our huge petition to make sure the Government can’t just force this issue through without the rest of New Zealand being made aware of their plans. But first, we need to work together to get as many people to sign the petition as possible.
Please take a minute to sign the petition and forward it on to other people you know who will be concerned about John Key’s state house sell-off.
Thanks,
Phil Twyford
Labour Housing Spokesperson
Done and done. Thanks.
(one for labour and greens to read..learn..and inwardly digest..)
“..‘Hope begins today was their mantra’: the inside story of Syriza’s rise to power..
..Ten years ago – Syriza scraped just 4% of the vote in Greek elections.
This week – the leftwing party took control under the charismatic leadership of Alexis Tsipras.
How did it do it?
For 22 days Paul Mason followed the party’s campaign trail –
– and saw an anti-austerity message delivered with youthful plausibility –
– win over a nation..”
(cont..)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/greek-people-wrote-history-how-syriza-rose-to-power
(maybe northshoredoc..or anyone else..can tell us if this goes on in nz..)
“..Doctors in the dock: Scandal of GPs who get cash from healthcare firms for patient referrals..
..Investigation shows healthcare companies offer inducements to send patients to their hospitals –
– leading to calls for financial interests of all UK practitioners to be made public..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/doctors-in-the-dock-scandal-of-gps-who-get-cash-from-healthcare-firms-for-patient-referrals-10009380.html
@Phil not that I know of and i would think it is very very unlikely that this occurs in NZ.
The larger issue in NZ is the continuing limiting of registration of certain medical specialties to ensure a large enough practice and waiting lists – although to some extent for example in orthopaedics this is a function of limited theatre space.
That implies the limitations are more demographic than political?
Or do you find evidence of the crime that the National Party is often accused of: deliberately running public health down for money.
“Or do you find evidence of the crime that the National Party is often accused of: deliberately running public health down for money.”
No evidence of that whatsoever.
Health services in NZ are generally speaking of a very high quality and from memory the money going into vote health has been rising year on year for quite some time – as i’m sure you understand we could put our entire GDP into health and there’d still be unmet demand for services.
at first glance i thought we wd not have the critical mass of private hospitals etc..
..for there to be such competition/opportunity for corruption….
..but if looking..you wd throw the rock in the water in epsom..
..and see if there are any surprising patterns in gp’s referrals there….
which specialties is that prevalent in..?
The Urologists and ophthalmologists used to limit the numbers admitted into their particular specialties to make sure there were enough population per surgeon to ensure a good patient stream in public and private.
There are other surgical specialties which tend to do the same.
(how could u not want one of these..?..video..)
“..Tesla’s ‘Insane’ Button – Totally Freaks People Out..
..What kind of car would come with an ‘insane mode?
A Tesla – specifically a Tesla Model S P85D- the $120,000 electric speedster with a 221-horsepower front motor and a 470-horsepower rear motor.
Hitting the ‘insane’ button engages both at the same time –
– allowing you to reach 60 mph in just over 3 seconds –
– and scare the pants off friends and family members –
– if you use it without warning..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/tesla-insane-button-video_n_6560170.html
A rocket!
Definitely better than a 91 subaru legacy wagon for sure!
By the way, any update on the theft? How are you managing?
the cops have been told..not much else to do..
Oh, this is going to hurt:
Why does the minister even have access to that money?
Uber’s Business Model Could Change Your Work
Contrary to many Leftists I’m actually cautiously optimistic about this but it does, IMO, show that these types of services need to be run through government servers. Running it through government servers will get rid of the capitalist bludgers that are making millions from other people being paid minimum wage or less. The government will just be getting the taxes and so the dead-weight loss of profit will be removed from the equation.
Also shows the needs for a UBI for two reasons. Firstly if you don’t get enough work you’ll still have enough to get by on with out dropping into poverty or having the risk of losing everything. Secondly it would remove the need to ‘have a job’. Essentially you could tell your employer to fuck off and still have work. Again, it helps remove the dead-weight loss of profit.
It’ll be the one thing that National and employers really hate – an actual free and flexible labour market. How do I know that they hate it? Because that’s what an unemployment benefit allows and National always undermines that.
Yeah, ain’t it great how capital can use apps and smartphones to wring profits from the desperation of the unemployed/underemployed.
/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-gets-uber-valuation-of-18-2-billion-1402073876
That’s what capitalism is designed to do. Now how do we change it and get rid of the bludgers?
who are the ‘bludgers’..?
..the disrupters..or..(as in the case with taxis in ak..some of the most expensive in the world..) the current exploiters..?
..and lots of professionals should be very nervous..
..low-hanging fruit wd have to be those lawyers who make a nice income from clipping the ticket on property-transactions…
..either an uber-model..or a decent app..will render them redundant..
If Russia killed a UN peacekeeper,
it would be headline news for days on the BBC
And of course, Israel can strike Syria without the UN batting an eyelid. Says it all about the state of of international law in at the present time. One law for official enemies, and quite another for us.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1422491513.html
Draw cartoons mocking Muslims = freedom of speech.
Draw cartoons mocking Jews = fired, fined, court appearance.
Colonial Rawshark, why did you make that comment? It has nothing to do with the item I posted.
Also, I do not believe it is legitimate to “mock Jews”. Of course it’s perfectly legitimate to mock war criminals and sanctimonious, murderous hypocrites—including Israeli ones. But it’s their criminality, sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy that should be attacked, not their Jewishness.
Leave the crude race-baiting to the likes of David Rankin, Leighton Smith, Larry “Lackwit” Williams and Nevil “Breivik” Gibson.
Seems to be an identical message to me Morrisey. A law for them, a law for us. How do you get CR mocking Jews out of that post?
I don’t think CR was mocking Jews. I don’t think he’s either that depraved or that foolish. I just think he needs to be careful how he expresses his ideas.
In other words, abusing or mocking Jews as Jews is as unacceptable as the Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.
My comment paralleled the point you made about how Israel can act and attack with absolute impunity and immunity from criticism.
Don’t get weak kneed about it now.
BTW Jews are not a “race” therefore you cannot “race bait” by commenting on cartoons depicting Jews.
Careful, Rawshark, you are treading a very dodgy line.
The fact is: if you poke fun at Jews for being Jews you are in Paul Holmes territory. I advise you to think carefully before you go down that path.
you’re the one who stated that Israel’s ability to act with impunity and with immunity to criticism was a sign of international degradation.
Yes, that is correct. I’m interested in serious analysis, not in crude ethnic or religious stereotyping. If you want to indulge in that dismal nonsense, ring Kerre McIvor on NewstalkZB.
Or Sean Plunket.
And exactly which of my replies above do you see as constituting “crude ethnic or religious stereotyping”???
Fuck you, you self aggrandising “Serious Analysis R Us” dick.
“… Charlie Hebdo speciality of mocking and antagonizing Algerians.”
Yeah, I’m totally sure you’ve got a cite for that, Moz. And CV, splitting hairs is pretty sad. Bigotry is bigotry. Anti-semitism is pathetic, whatever the specific religion turns out to be.
Those cartoons were aimed at insulting, humiliating and antagonizing French Muslims—most of whom are Algerian. It’s an old tactic of the extreme right, made no more acceptable by the fact it has been taken up by people who like to think of themselves as liberals.
Marine Le Pen knew perfectly well what the Charlie Hebdo folk were up to, and endorsed them completely. As did such liberal heroes as Binyamin Netanyahu and David Cameron.
So not aimed at Algerians, but at Muslims in general. Glad we cleared that up.
It’s a French magazine. It attacked Muslims. It sells in France. Most Muslims in France are Algerians. French people would tend to identify Muslims in France as Algerians.
You haven’t cleared anything up.
Really? You think that French people can’t recognise different ethnicities? Perhaps zay all look ze same to zem, non?
Algerians are not the majority in the Muslim religious demographic. Some folk might think that only a racist would think they were, but I’m sure that’s not the case with you, Murray.
CH attacks Muslims does not equal CH attacks Algerians. Moz was wrong.
You’re trying to suggest I am racist, even though you’re sure that’s not the case. Fairly typical of your debating style.
There are more than 5 million Algerians in France. The majority of these are Sunni Muslim. There are estimated to be something like 6 million Muslims in France. Who are the majority?
I think Morrisey is correct on this one.
Nice try saying the French can recognise different ethnicities, followed by some stupid imitation of Franglais. Who said they couldn’t?
Your numbers are wrong, Murray. Algerians make up around a third of the ‘immigrant’ Muslim population of France. That is, about 1.5 million people. In fact, they are about half of the population that hails from the Maghreb.
So, if you want to avoid looking dodgy, check your facts before opining and don’t conflate one ethnic group with others.
I did check my numbers and I am not conflating one ethnic group with another. Any further accusations, font of all that is true and righteous? Where does your figure of 1.5 million come from?
By the way, I couldn’t give a fuck if you think I look dodgy. Your life would have no meaning without the opportunity to try and look superior on a blog. You make a habit of it.
So now, stating facts = splitting hairs?
I stated what had actually happened at Charlie Hebdo. A cartoonist got fired in 2009 and threatened with charges for something which was interpreted as being anti-Jewish. So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.
Again I stated that fact plain and simple, and contrasted to bring the hypocrisy in to distinct relief. Not my problem if you don’t like the illustration I used.
“So now, stating facts = splitting hairs?”
Yes, that’s one way of looking at it. Taking a semantic approach to an issue instead of recognising the wider truth. Yep, a good definition of splitting hairs.
The cartoonist that got fired all those years ago appealed the sacking and won. I’m sure the folk at CH learned a valuable lesson. Your bigotry is not based on anything substantial, CV, just word wankery.
Ps: “So much for the freedom of speech argument that Charlie Hebdo would later frequently use whenever they published things interpreted as being anti-Muslim.”
They never actually used that defence, because they didn’t need a defence. They were defiantly proud of being anti-religion.
Q. Are you an actor ?
Q. Do you believe in your own hype ?
Q. Are interactions ‘challenging’ for those who have to engage with you ?
Watch a daring monKEY.
Kind of how Key is teasing the people of this country with his harmful callous policies.
The Petulant Entitlement Syndrome of Journalists
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Intercept, 29 January 2015
As intended, Jonathan Chait’s denunciation of the “PC language police” – a trite note of self-victimization he’s been sounding for decades – provoked intense reaction: much criticism from liberals and praise from conservatives (with plenty of exceptions both ways). I have all sorts of points I could make about his argument – beginning with how he tellingly focuses on the pseudo-oppression of still-influential people like himself and his journalist-friends while steadfastly ignoring the much more serious ways that people with views Chait dislikes are penalized and repressed – but I’ll instead point to commentary from Alex Pareene, Amanda Marcotte and Jessica Valenti as worthwhile responses. In sum, I fundamentally agree with Jill Filipovic’s reaction: “There is a good and thoughtful piece to be written about language policing & ‘PC’ culture online and in academia. That was not it.” I instead want to focus on one specific point about the depressingly abundant genre of journalists writing grievances about how they’re victimized by online hordes, of which Chait’s article is a very representative sample….
Read more…..
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/28/petulant-entitlement-syndrome-journalists/
I’ll have to remember to put my robe on next time I victimise paddy gower.
You might like to ask Garth “The Knife” McVicar to lend you his.
I wish you hadn’t said that I’ve got a very visual mind ,Mcvicar in a robe ,not a sight I needed just before my bed time. 🙂
Records about to be broken for driest January on record in Auckland and Wellington.
Yet Fairfax media fails to mention climate change once in this article.
You do wonder who is in control of the conversation at these organisations.
A mining magnate by the name of Julia Reinhard?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/65544122/areas-on-track-for-driest-january-on-record
Pu is on the mark. I detest his prescription but he is correct labour is little more than national lite, tweaking at the boundaries, why change, barring if your of that persuasion the greens get their hands on the lever of powers. Labours dilemma at every election, no matter who their leader is
Syriza! Wet your pants.
The sky won’t fall in Greece, and then, Chicken Little, you get to choke on it.
If Syriza is the answer it must have been a pretty stupid question
Castro Cuba. Chavez Venezuela all hard left lefties that led their county to nirvana why is Syria different little red riding hood ( to stay on the fairy tail theme been your realm of reality)
Sure Greece is exactly like Cubazuela. Your first instinct is to run your mouth before your brain. Slow down, get an amygdalectomy, whatever it takes.
Or choke on it. No-one will notice or even care.
settle OAB. We just have difference of opinion, nothing more, like I said gotta go sleep well
Just think, while you’re asleep, you might even have an evidence based thought process.
Re delusional The govenor of the Bank of England disagrees with you to redelusion.
Syrizia has gone into coalition with ACT type party of the far right.
So re delusional your argument is!