There are many similarities of what is happening in the USA presently, to that what occurred in Germany 1936-1945. The great unwashed in both countries are/were easily manipulated, partly due to a poor education system. Lies are easily converted and swallowed up as facts. Assessing Trump’s past behaviour towards those possessing less power, I am very worried about the demise of America.
“There are many similarities of what is happening in the USA presently, to that what occurred in Germany 1936-1945. The great unwashed in both countries are/were easily manipulated”
If by “the great unwashed” you’re suggesting that the Poor / Unemployed / Working Class / Precariat disproportionately voted for Hitler and Trump then I’d have to disagree.
But, ironically enough, “the great unwashed” is precisely the sort of contemptuous elite rhetoric that encouraged a lot of ordinary Democrats to stay home on Election Day … and a crucial few to swing towards Trump in the Rust Belt swing states.
An elite DNC mindset reflected, of course, in an abysmally unprogressive record (that ordinary Americans were apparently supposed to enthusiastically embrace because … er … Trump …………… Precisely the same Trump that Hillary, the DNC and their chums in the media did everything to promote during the Primaries because they assumed an already woefully unpopular ‘Hills’ would have a better chance of beating him on Election Day).
Behind the media-manufactured facade of white working class men as the cackling villains who gave the country to Donald Trump, in other words, lies a reality far more in keeping with the complexities of American electoral politics: a ramshackle coalition of many different voting blocs and interest groups, each with its own assortment of reasons for voting for a candidate feared and despised by the US political establishment and the mainstream media. That coalition included a very large majority of the US working class in general, and while white working class voters of both genders were disproportionately more likely to have voted for Trump than their nonwhite equivalents, it wasn’t simply a matter of whiteness, or for that matter maleness.
It was, however, to a very great extent a matter of social class. This isn’t just because so large a fraction of working class voters generally backed Trump; it’s also because Trump saw this from the beginning, and aimed his campaign squarely at the working class vote. His signature red ball cap was part of that—can you imagine Hillary Clinton wearing so proletarian a garment without absurdity?—but, as I pointed out a year ago, so was his deliberate strategy of saying (and tweeting) things that would get the liberal punditocracy to denounce him. The tones of sneering contempt and condescension they directed at him were all too familiar to his working class audiences, who have been treated to the same tones unceasingly by their soi-disant betters for decades now.
Entirely agree with him on the elite’s sneering contempt and class bigotry towards American workers.
But I think he’s smuggling in a few too many assumptions when he confidently asserts that Trump’s “ramshackle coalition” notably included “a very large majority of the US working class” and that Trump’s victory was hence “to a very great extent a matter of social class”.
He seems to assume that having: No (or only some) University Education automatically equals Working Class.
The Exit Polls certainly suggested that the less formally educated were more likely to vote Trump (especially among White voters). But that group actually includes a huge number of both affluent and middle income business owners (more than 25 million if you include spouses), senior managers and supervisors, insurance and real-estate agents (another 20 mill, including spouse), as well as various other members of that sector of society so often considered inherently conservative – the so-called “Petite Bourgeoisie”
Some will, no doubt, possess a degree, but clearly that still leaves tens of millions of non-working-class people in the US who are included in the lack advanced formal education category, and who are more likely to (1) get out and vote and (2) be traditional / frequent Republican voters than a majority of blue-collar workers.
Exit polls, while prone to error and by no means definitive, do suggest that, though disaffected, economically insecure white blue-collar voters no doubt helped Trump win the key “battleground” Rust Belt states, they can’t explain his performance nationwide … middle-class and wealthy suburban whites came out in droves for Trump and made up a larger part of his coalition.
Certainly was a white working class swing to Trump (albeit dwarfed by significant numbers among the Democrats’ traditional core constituencies – so disenchanted with Clinton – boosting the already huge number of poorer non-voters), but his victory was disproportionately a middle-class, upper-income phenomenon
To swordfish:
“If by “the great unwashed” you’re suggesting that the Poor / Unemployed / Working Class / Precariat disproportionately voted for Hitler and Trump then I’d have to disagree.”
The great unwashed refers, as I mentioned above as those who can be easily manipulated, nothing less, nothing more. If you like to falsely interpret what I have said then take that responsibility.
an offensive or humorous word for people from low social classes.
From Urban Dictionary:
Coined by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, “the great unwashed” refers to the lower classes. The common people.
From The Phrase Finder UK
The common, lower classes; the hoi polloi..
From Wiktionary
the populace: hoi polloi, unwashed masses.
From Wikipedia
Synonyms for hoi polloi, which also express the same or similar distaste for the common people felt by those who believe themselves to be superior, include “the great unwashed”, “the plebeians” or “plebs”, “the rabble”, “the masses”,”the dregs of society”, “riffraff”, “the herd”, “the canaille”, “the proles” (proletariat), “sheeple”, and “peons”.
.Although, to be scrupulously fair, Johan , you may be adopting more of a Humpty Dumpty approach:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” … “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
Another term of contempt for working people is “redneck”. The use of that putdown became particularly virulent in the late 1960s and early ’70s, as sniffy East Coast Democratic Party elites—I won’t call them “liberals” because they weren’t then and aren’t now—sought to abuse working people who they blamed for Nixon’s victory.
I’ve repeatedly taken Martyn Bradbury to task over his thoughtless reiteration of the term. And, sadly, some people on this fine site sometimes lapse into using it….
Sorry Morrissey but I think you’re wrong. The term redneck is used to describe someone (usually male) who has ultra sexist/racist attitudes. They invariably have low IQs… are poorly educated and vote along conservative lines. Trump’s more virulent supporters could be described as such including Trump himself. While they are to be found among working people it is certainly not a term to describe working people as such. Many workers – including those on low incomes – are a damm sight more intelligent than their ‘superiors’ and you won’t find rednecks among them.
The term redneck is used to describe someone (usually male) who has ultra sexist/racist attitudes.
Then why not just call them peasants? It’s an equivalent term of contempt, and just as accurate—in other words, it’s totally inaccurate.
The proper term for people with ultra sexist/racist attitudes is “bigot”. The worst bigots in our country are not working people but privileged people who hold white collar jobs and/or do little or no hard work: Leighton Smith, Mike Hosking, John Ansell, Cameron Slater, John Banks, John “Hone the Dole Bludger” Carter, Sir Robert Jones. The only two notorious bigots I can think of who might deserve the term “redneck” are the S.S. Trust’s Grand Dragon Garth “The Knife” McVicar and Sir Peter “Mad Butcher” Leitch.
Trump is not a redneck; he hasn’t done a day’s work in his worthless life.
For people interested, here is a pretty good conversation, at times debate, on the dysfunctional DNC, with some interesting pointers to possible ways forward…
Just got sent this little vid from Joe Carolan, Socialist candidate for the Auckland electorate of Mt Albert, really refreshing to see a NZ politician actually talking about some real and viable solutions for long term housing security for working and poor people…. used to be that the Labour party would defend and talk on behalf of the working class and the poor, now they are far more interested in defending and talking to the middle class.
I was reading that Fisher & Pykel are thinking about bringing some of their manufacturing back to NZ if Trump goes ahead with his 20% tariff on Mexican goods.
Ummmm… Wouldn’t that be a good thing for New Zealand workers?
That is the Trump problem. So entrenched are the zombie economics of neoliberalism amongst the liberal elite that the real problem isn’t that Trump will fail – it is that enough of his economic policies will succeed to utterly consign them to the dustbin of history forever – and they may take the actual left with them.
Not many unemployed workers will care much about the rights of migrants or a free press if Trump can take the credit when a factory re-opens nearby that pays a decent wage and gives them healthcare.
Also, I spent the day with a bunch of 60 something Americans from Virginia last week, parents of a friend visiting NZ. They voted Trump, I didn’t bring it up directly (a good host does not discuss politics with his guests) but listening to them gave me an interesting insight into how they thought, at least. Generally, they HATED illegal immigrants and voted entirely on the issue of immigration. But their reasoning was fascinating, and way tied up with the general brainwashing the US population has about how the USA is the greatest country ever in the history of the world, and a general comment on a country where collective social security has never happened.
They reasoned that living in and being a citizen of the greatest nation on earth is a privilege that has to be earned. Sneaking in illegally is a form of freeloading on that privilege. Not only are they not deserving to live in that great land, but they use resources that the more deserving should have first call on. And being American is strictly interpreted as how white Americans like them see the country, there was no sense of be able to be American in any other way. So failure to integrate and assimilate – by people who snuck in anyway – is just the last straw. They really do just want mass deportations of these undeserving and sneaky foreigners.
I’m fairly confident your group of 60somethings don’t appreciate what jobs undocumented immigrants generally do. It’s the shitty, very low-paid ones that American citizens generally don’t want to do. But exploitation of undocumented workers is a key part of keeping the price of many things low in the US, food in particular.
Interesting comment, I think you are quite right in your reasoning that the ‘ liberal elite’ are so blinded by their own neo liberal ideology that they are in danger of being dust binned, not that I have a problem with that.
On Cory Booker, New Yorker 2012…
“I don’t think there could be a finer young rising star in urban politics than Cory Booker. His policies go far beyond Democratic-Republican. There has to be a new way of thinking about poverty. Cory understands that private enterprise is not the enemy of the urban poor.”
Yes it looks like they are prepared to drive off the cliff screaming…See I told you the free market works………
Nah, I’m not going to copy and paste…read it for yourself. 🙂
So far the ferals have refrained from slagging this couple in the comments section, and all comments so far are overwhelmingly in support of them.
FFS, even the Missing on Disability Issues seems to think they should at least have home help…she’s wrong…but hey…she’s interested.
“Subsidised support services for disabled people were not determined by a person’s income alone, Wagner said.
“It wouldn’t matter if you were a multi-millionaire, if you had cerebral palsy and you need people to look after you we would give you that disability service.”
This is bullshit…but never mind…there is means and asset testing for personal care…it’s just couched in terms of “natural support”.
As one of the commenters says…these rules have been in place since before National….yes, Labour did this.
Too much to ask that these issues attract cross party non political policies?
Damn right.
The Green’s Mojo Mathers comments for the article, but Labour is MIA.
I don’t even know who Labour’s spokesperson is for disability issues….
….and I generally keep up with shit like that…..
Come on Labour…stop the posing and step up…the tide of public opinion is rising in favour of people in this situation….
Oh good, I was just about to see if you were around so I could check some things (might put this up as a post). I can’t tell if her homehelp and personal cares were coming from the MoH or the DHB. Would it matter, or are both means/asset tested despite what the Minister says?
Personal cares are (in this couple’s case) assessed and funded through their local Miserly of Health Disability Support Services’ agency the NASC.
assessment is done, hours allocated and funding is through either a provider or through IF. The assessment is supposed to be on need…but it is very closely tied to “natural supports” (that is who you live with and what support they can unreasonably be expected to provide at no cost.)
In the case of this couple…clearly (to any sighted, rational human being) neither can be expected to provide personal care support to the other.
Home help…IS means tested and can only be funded (through MSD )if you have a community services card and no “natural supports” to do the work.
Obviously, ( heavy long drawn out sigh), in the case of this couple, community services card or not, no reasonable person would expect either of them to be able to perform all the tasks required to keep their home clean to a standard slightly above squalid. Pete will be knackered at the end of his working day…having to do housework on top of that will likely send him to an early grave.
Likewise having to pay from their actually quite limited income for a cleaner… (bet they don’t live in the Paratai Drive equivalent in Christchurch)…will cause significant stress, which would also increase his chances of an early demise.
Unless of course…and no joking or sarcasm here…that is the intended purpose.
Bear in mind those of you who do not have a wheelchair user in the family…floors become dirtier quickly as as yet the techos have not invented the wheelchair with interchangeable tyres twixt the outdoor and in.
Some fuckwit bureaucratic with megalomaniacal tendencies has has taken the rule book and used it to punish this couple for having the sheer audacity to think that when they say “go live and ordinary life disabled person…we will support you to do this” they actually mean’t it.
What this couple should have done…is simply not told anyone they were a couple.
Hidden their relationship.
The system…set up under Labour…always left plenty of room for the exploiting of loopholes.
….and speaking of shit, so far it seems that Farrar’s Ferals haven’t started in on Amy and Peter yet. David Garrett is usually up for a spot of cripple bashing of a morning….
Thanks Rosemary. I understand how the NASC works, and good to have it clarified that home help is means/asset tested. I wasn’t sure from her diagnosis if she would go through the MoH disability funding or the DHB chronic illness funding (can’t remember if that has the same CSC criteria). Just had a quick look online and the MoH sites are saying go to the DHB sites, but I can’t find anything on them.
I wanted to put the article out to people on TS who wax lyrical about a UBI and then state that supplementary income benefits can be paid via Health because it’s so much better than WINZ. I’d like them to see that Health is often just as fucked up as Welfare, but people don’t like hearing that.
“…via Health because it’s so much better than WINZ.”
TBH….I have found staff at WINZ who are positively kind compared with NASC staff and their MOH:DSS overlords.
We doooooo have a system here in Godzone that does take an holistic approach to disability supports and living allowances, has a rights and entitlement based protocol and a complaints and review mechanism….
….we call it ACC…and if I remember rightly Labour actually ran the idea of extending it to all with permanent impairments up the flagpole to see if it fluttered…what came of that????
Tracey is covered by ACC…so why the hell aren’t they paying for her and her family to stay in a motel?
Ye gods and little fishes…is being a fuckwit a prequisite for working for Housing NZ, WINZ, ACC and MOH:DSS et al?
The Auckland Spinal Rehab Unit has small one bedroom accessible units available….file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Auckland%20Spinal%20Unit%20Patient%20booklet%202016.pdf
….if Tracey has a pressure sore she should be in the ASRU having it treated, and her husband and daughter should be put up in one of these on site units.
How hard is this…
I couldn’t agree more, Labour are MIA or tacit at best on nearly all issues concerning the disenfranchised, working and poor..except when it comes to policing them it seems, then they have that centrist shill Nash breathing fire…what about Little showing us some fire in his belly for the citizens who have little or no voice, isn’t that what Labour exists for?…well it should.
Ah! But the disabled DO have “voices”…advocacy groups (funded by the Government 😉 ) to speak on behalf of ALL disabled people.
Again…Labour did it too. (Though admittedly National, with the help of traitor Turia, ensured that ONLY these government funded groups get to speak out officially on disability issues.)
Absolutely typical of how Social Welfare operates, and not one jot of a legal basis for it. Then when there’s publicity they burst into action.
How many other people are on the receiving end of treatment like this? If it’s a “rule” that not being able to show you’ve been looking for a private rental results in being chucked out of emergency motel accommodation (regardless of how fair or correct or legal that “rule” might be) then you can bet your house on it there’s a whole bunch more.
It is silly to have people find their own housing, given that they wouldnt have been going to MSD for emergency housing if they wernt looking because they would have found a place to live.
There really needs to be some sort of matching program for rentals in place, rather than telling people to bugger off and find their own place.
And if a tetraplegic woman who cannot control her own bowel movements is left to rot in a van, then what hope do the rest of us have if we find ourselves needing stable housing?
And good on her man for sticking by her through all this. A lesser man would have slung his hook for the first bimbo that waved her legs at him.
“And good on her man for sticking by her through all this. A lesser man would have slung his hook for the first bimbo that waved her legs at her.”
There is so much wrong with what you’re saying here that even gabby old me can’t think where to start.
Don’t, please don’t comment on a person’s relationship in these terms again. Ever.
Prentice will probably ban me for a couple of weeks for that comment. He banned me for 2 months for a comment I made about that gay bar massacre last year that was more tamer than that.
So I had better float my idea of DHB’s and ACC running their own social housing for clients such as her. There is a case for it.
[lprent: The most common reason for a banning is because a commenter trying to start fires rather than debates. I can’t remember what I banned you for because I simply don’t bother remembering details. If I need to I can always look them up. However I do have mental notes on your typical behaviours gained over any years. You :-
1. Often try to enhance a debate that is proceeding reasonably well by trying to pour petrol on it.
2. Will proceed to personally abuse anyone who pulls you up on it and generally act like a idiotic libertarian.
So I have a canned response as a result. If you start acting like a pyromaniac arsehole – I douse you immediately without any hesitation. Don’t whine about it. But perhaps you should consider your own behaviour that built that reaction. ]
I mean individuals having their own flats, but modified, etc. Having disabled people flat together isnt a really good idea, given the informaton that comes out of those care homes every so often.
“If all of the theoretical hundred thousand or so of new social houses are NOT based on Universal Design…then they really are a bunch of fwits.”
No guarantees there, across the parties. Other nations like the UK manage to make the basic universal access features like level entrances and wider doorways compulsory in new *private* housing but our backwoods clowns can’t yet manage it in all public stock.
Just watch the panic as the boomer population surge arrives at that lifestage where such things are no longer optional.
War with the US under Donald Trump is “not just a slogan” and becoming a “practical reality”, a senior Chinese military official has said.
The remarks were published on the People’s Liberation Army website, apparently in response to the aggressive rhetoric towards China from America’s new administration.
They communicated a view from inside the Central Military Commission, which has overall authority of China’s armed forces.
Seymour doesn’t want to be “inconsistent” and he can’t condemn every silly (!) thing that has happened in the world – not that he was asked – so he does exactly nothing. If he had kept his mouth shut (on Twitter) he would have been more consistent and would be looking less like a political weakling. Show some guts, David!
With the ascension of President-elect Donald Trump, Republicans see an opportunity to roll back the Endangered Species Act, which has become one of the government’s most powerful conservation tools. The GOP contends the act has been used by wildlife advocates to block economic development and to hinder drilling, logging and other activities. Over the past eight years, Republican lawmakers have sponsored dozens of measures aimed at curtailing the landmark law. Almost all were blocked by Democrats and the White House or lawsuits from environmentalists.
So it wasn’t necessarily an affectionate holding of hands after all.
[…]
But Government sources in Washington DC were suggesting that the hand-holding was not as a result of a deep and lasting friendship after all.
The insider said that Mr Trump is known to have an aversion to slopes or stairs, and said this could have been the reason for the president’s decision to grasp the Prime Minister’s hand.
Such a fear is a recognised condition – called bathmophobia.
and then they might get an idea who Pence is, Ryan, Haley and all the others that want to bring “god” back to the US, and only do ‘gods work’ and be ‘godly’ and such.
i also suggest that when you have done so you have available lots of chocolate and a furry beast for cuddles. Cause…..reasons.
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
Legislation to enable new water service delivery models that will drive critical investment in infrastructure has passed its first reading in Parliament, marking a significant step towards the delivery of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly say.“Councils and voters ...
New Zealand is one step closer to reaping the benefits of gene technology with the passing of the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. "This legislation will end New Zealand's near 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab and is ...
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
Christmas and its buildup are often lonely, hard and full of unreasonable expectations. Here’s how to make it to Jesus’s birthday and find the little bit of joy we all deserve. Have you found this year relentless? Has the latest Apple update “fucked up your life”? Have you lost two ...
Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...
Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...
The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...
Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...
It’s a little under two months since the White Ferns shocked the cricketing world, deservedly taking home the T20 World Cup. Since then the trophy has had a tour around the country, five of the squad have played in the WBBL in Australia while most others have returned to domestic ...
Comment: If we say the word ‘dementia’, many will picture an older person struggling to remember the names of their loved ones, maybe a grandparent living out their final years in an aged care facility. Dementia can also occur in people younger than 65, but it can take time before ...
Piracy is a reality of modern life – but copyright law has struggled to play catch-up for as long as the entertainment industry has existed. As far back as 1988, the House of Lords criticised copyright law’s conflict with the reality of human behaviour in the context of burning cassette ...
MONDAY“Merry Xmas, and praise the Lord,” said Sheriff Luxon, and smiled for the camera. There was a flash of smoke when the shutter pressed down on the magnesium powder. The sheriff had arranged for a photographer from the Dodge Gazette to attend a ceremony where he handed out food parcels to ...
As he makes a surprise return to Shortland Street, actor Craig Parker takes us through his life in television. Craig Parker has been a fixture on television in Aotearoa for nearly four decades. He had starring roles in iconic local series like Gloss, Mercy Peak and Diplomatic Immunity, featured in ...
The Ōtautahi musician shares the 10 tracks he loves to spin, including the folk classic that cured him of a ‘case of the give-ups’. When singer-songwriter Adam McGrath returns to Kumeu’s Auckland Folk Festival from January 24-27, he’s not planning on simply idling his way through – he wants the late ...
Alex Casey spends an afternoon on the job with River, the rescue dog on a mission to spread joy to Ōtautahi rest homes.Almost everyone says it is never enough time. But River the rescue dog, a jet black huntaway border collie cross, has to keep a tight pace to ...
Asia Pacific Report Fiji activists have recreated the nativity scene at a solidarity for Palestine gathering in Fiji’s capital Suva just days before Christmas. The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network recreated the scene at the FWCC compound — a baby Jesus figurine lies amidst the ...
By 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and 1News reporters A number of Kiwis have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake shook the Pacific island nation earlier this week. The death toll was still unclear, though at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Scully, Professor in Modern History, University of New England Bunker.Image courtesy of Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-SA Michael Leunig – who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” – was the ...
The House - On Parliament's last day of the year, there was the rare occurrence of a personal (conscience) vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. While it didn't have the numbers to pass, it was a chance to get a rare glimpse of the fact ...
A new poem by Holly Fletcher. bejeweled log i was dreaming about wasps / wee darlings that followed me / ducking under objects / that i was fated to pickup / my fingers seeking / and meeting with tiny proboscis’s / but instead / i wake up / roll sideways ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Versta/Shutterstock Australians are exposed to some of the highest levels of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the world. While we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation, University of Sydney Michael von Aichberger/Shutterstock Even if you’ve no idea how the business model underpinning franchises works, there’s a good chance you’ve spent money at one. Franchising is essentially a strategy for cloning ...
If something big is going to happen in Ferndale, it’s going to happen at Christmas. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If there’s one episode of Shortland Street you should watch each year, it’s the annual Christmas cliffhanger. The final episode of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William A. Stoltz, Lecturer and expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University US President-elect Donald Trump has named most of the members of his proposed cabinet. However, he’s yet to reveal key appointees to America’s powerful cyber warfare and intelligence institutions. ...
Announcing the top 10 books of the the year at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37) The phenomenal Irish writer is the unsurprising chart topper for 2024 with her fourth novel that, much like her first ...
The government has confirmed its plan to break up Te Pūkenga / New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and re-establish independent polytechnics. ...
Trump is the fastest moving president ever. It’s both impressive and frightening.
They are re-using executive decrees written for the 2012 election.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FRbBDRcjQ
Toast. I wish I could afford a stash of gold and a secret lair.
What happens when you point out that a
Fox News presenter has told a lie? (On his show)
Yeh loved that one…” ok you are clearly obfuscating the truth time and time again through this segment.”
America burns…. A lot of other countries are going to catch light also.
There are many similarities of what is happening in the USA presently, to that what occurred in Germany 1936-1945. The great unwashed in both countries are/were easily manipulated, partly due to a poor education system. Lies are easily converted and swallowed up as facts. Assessing Trump’s past behaviour towards those possessing less power, I am very worried about the demise of America.
As well as their education maybe their monocultural diet….
France’s wild hamsters being turned into ‘crazed cannibals’ by diet of corn
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/28/frances-wild-hamsters-being-turned-into-crazed-cannibals-by-diet-of-corn
Another example of how our mono-cropping destroys life rather than supporting it.
“There are many similarities of what is happening in the USA presently, to that what occurred in Germany 1936-1945. The great unwashed in both countries are/were easily manipulated”
If by “the great unwashed” you’re suggesting that the Poor / Unemployed / Working Class / Precariat disproportionately voted for Hitler and Trump then I’d have to disagree.
But, ironically enough, “the great unwashed” is precisely the sort of contemptuous elite rhetoric that encouraged a lot of ordinary Democrats to stay home on Election Day … and a crucial few to swing towards Trump in the Rust Belt swing states.
An elite DNC mindset reflected, of course, in an abysmally unprogressive record (that ordinary Americans were apparently supposed to enthusiastically embrace because … er … Trump …………… Precisely the same Trump that Hillary, the DNC and their chums in the media did everything to promote during the Primaries because they assumed an already woefully unpopular ‘Hills’ would have a better chance of beating him on Election Day).
precisely the sort of contemptuous elite rhetoric
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.ca/2017/01/the-hate-that-dare-not-speak-its-name.html
Cheers, RedLogix.
Entirely agree with him on the elite’s sneering contempt and class bigotry towards American workers.
But I think he’s smuggling in a few too many assumptions when he confidently asserts that Trump’s “ramshackle coalition” notably included “a very large majority of the US working class” and that Trump’s victory was hence “to a very great extent a matter of social class”.
He seems to assume that having: No (or only some) University Education automatically equals Working Class.
The Exit Polls certainly suggested that the less formally educated were more likely to vote Trump (especially among White voters). But that group actually includes a huge number of both affluent and middle income business owners (more than 25 million if you include spouses), senior managers and supervisors, insurance and real-estate agents (another 20 mill, including spouse), as well as various other members of that sector of society so often considered inherently conservative – the so-called “Petite Bourgeoisie”
Some will, no doubt, possess a degree, but clearly that still leaves tens of millions of non-working-class people in the US who are included in the lack advanced formal education category, and who are more likely to (1) get out and vote and (2) be traditional / frequent Republican voters than a majority of blue-collar workers.
Exit polls, while prone to error and by no means definitive, do suggest that, though disaffected, economically insecure white blue-collar voters no doubt helped Trump win the key “battleground” Rust Belt states, they can’t explain his performance nationwide … middle-class and wealthy suburban whites came out in droves for Trump and made up a larger part of his coalition.
Certainly was a white working class swing to Trump (albeit dwarfed by significant numbers among the Democrats’ traditional core constituencies – so disenchanted with Clinton – boosting the already huge number of poorer non-voters), but his victory was disproportionately a middle-class, upper-income phenomenon
To swordfish:
“If by “the great unwashed” you’re suggesting that the Poor / Unemployed / Working Class / Precariat disproportionately voted for Hitler and Trump then I’d have to disagree.”
The great unwashed refers, as I mentioned above as those who can be easily manipulated, nothing less, nothing more. If you like to falsely interpret what I have said then take that responsibility.
.
“the great unwashed”
.
From MacMillan Dictionary
From Urban Dictionary:
From The Phrase Finder UK
From Wiktionary
From Wikipedia
.Although, to be scrupulously fair, Johan , you may be adopting more of a Humpty Dumpty approach:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” … “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
Another term of contempt for working people is “redneck”. The use of that putdown became particularly virulent in the late 1960s and early ’70s, as sniffy East Coast Democratic Party elites—I won’t call them “liberals” because they weren’t then and aren’t now—sought to abuse working people who they blamed for Nixon’s victory.
I’ve repeatedly taken Martyn Bradbury to task over his thoughtless reiteration of the term. And, sadly, some people on this fine site sometimes lapse into using it….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21032013/#comment-607424
Sorry Morrissey but I think you’re wrong. The term redneck is used to describe someone (usually male) who has ultra sexist/racist attitudes. They invariably have low IQs… are poorly educated and vote along conservative lines. Trump’s more virulent supporters could be described as such including Trump himself. While they are to be found among working people it is certainly not a term to describe working people as such. Many workers – including those on low incomes – are a damm sight more intelligent than their ‘superiors’ and you won’t find rednecks among them.
The term redneck is used to describe someone (usually male) who has ultra sexist/racist attitudes.
Then why not just call them peasants? It’s an equivalent term of contempt, and just as accurate—in other words, it’s totally inaccurate.
The proper term for people with ultra sexist/racist attitudes is “bigot”. The worst bigots in our country are not working people but privileged people who hold white collar jobs and/or do little or no hard work: Leighton Smith, Mike Hosking, John Ansell, Cameron Slater, John Banks, John “Hone the Dole Bludger” Carter, Sir Robert Jones. The only two notorious bigots I can think of who might deserve the term “redneck” are the S.S. Trust’s Grand Dragon Garth “The Knife” McVicar and Sir Peter “Mad Butcher” Leitch.
Trump is not a redneck; he hasn’t done a day’s work in his worthless life.
Nice to see that you have so much free time on your hands. lol
Well, you know, I was in the mood. 🙂
That reminds me of something….
For people interested, here is a pretty good conversation, at times debate, on the dysfunctional DNC, with some interesting pointers to possible ways forward…
Corruption in education in a country patting itself on the back for being without corruption:
https://networkonnet.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/parents-teachers-and-community-of-rangiora-high-school-get-a-load-of-this/
Thank you repateet. I had heard snippets of this but you have put it very well. What a debacle, and shame on Parata.
Test.
Bill’s out of the office …you should be fine.
Just got sent this little vid from Joe Carolan, Socialist candidate for the Auckland electorate of Mt Albert, really refreshing to see a NZ politician actually talking about some real and viable solutions for long term housing security for working and poor people…. used to be that the Labour party would defend and talk on behalf of the working class and the poor, now they are far more interested in defending and talking to the middle class.
https://www.facebook.com/solidarityjoe/videos/10154121963567601/?pnref=story
I was reading that Fisher & Pykel are thinking about bringing some of their manufacturing back to NZ if Trump goes ahead with his 20% tariff on Mexican goods.
Ummmm… Wouldn’t that be a good thing for New Zealand workers?
That is the Trump problem. So entrenched are the zombie economics of neoliberalism amongst the liberal elite that the real problem isn’t that Trump will fail – it is that enough of his economic policies will succeed to utterly consign them to the dustbin of history forever – and they may take the actual left with them.
Not many unemployed workers will care much about the rights of migrants or a free press if Trump can take the credit when a factory re-opens nearby that pays a decent wage and gives them healthcare.
Also, I spent the day with a bunch of 60 something Americans from Virginia last week, parents of a friend visiting NZ. They voted Trump, I didn’t bring it up directly (a good host does not discuss politics with his guests) but listening to them gave me an interesting insight into how they thought, at least. Generally, they HATED illegal immigrants and voted entirely on the issue of immigration. But their reasoning was fascinating, and way tied up with the general brainwashing the US population has about how the USA is the greatest country ever in the history of the world, and a general comment on a country where collective social security has never happened.
They reasoned that living in and being a citizen of the greatest nation on earth is a privilege that has to be earned. Sneaking in illegally is a form of freeloading on that privilege. Not only are they not deserving to live in that great land, but they use resources that the more deserving should have first call on. And being American is strictly interpreted as how white Americans like them see the country, there was no sense of be able to be American in any other way. So failure to integrate and assimilate – by people who snuck in anyway – is just the last straw. They really do just want mass deportations of these undeserving and sneaky foreigners.
I’m fairly confident your group of 60somethings don’t appreciate what jobs undocumented immigrants generally do. It’s the shitty, very low-paid ones that American citizens generally don’t want to do. But exploitation of undocumented workers is a key part of keeping the price of many things low in the US, food in particular.
Interesting comment, I think you are quite right in your reasoning that the ‘ liberal elite’ are so blinded by their own neo liberal ideology that they are in danger of being dust binned, not that I have a problem with that.
I commented yesterday, they are already positioning Cory Booker for 2020, the guy who while being in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry, just voted down Sanders affordable medicine bill,
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/12/cory-booker-joins-senate-republicans-to-kill-measure-to-import-cheaper-medicine-from-canada/
http://maplight.org/us-congress/interest/H4300
On Cory Booker, New Yorker 2012…
“I don’t think there could be a finer young rising star in urban politics than Cory Booker. His policies go far beyond Democratic-Republican. There has to be a new way of thinking about poverty. Cory understands that private enterprise is not the enemy of the urban poor.”
Yes it looks like they are prepared to drive off the cliff screaming…See I told you the free market works………
Stuff this morning…http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/88515678/Punished-for-love-Disabled-couple-lose-home-help
Nah, I’m not going to copy and paste…read it for yourself. 🙂
So far the ferals have refrained from slagging this couple in the comments section, and all comments so far are overwhelmingly in support of them.
FFS, even the Missing on Disability Issues seems to think they should at least have home help…she’s wrong…but hey…she’s interested.
“Subsidised support services for disabled people were not determined by a person’s income alone, Wagner said.
“It wouldn’t matter if you were a multi-millionaire, if you had cerebral palsy and you need people to look after you we would give you that disability service.”
This is bullshit…but never mind…there is means and asset testing for personal care…it’s just couched in terms of “natural support”.
As one of the commenters says…these rules have been in place since before National….yes, Labour did this.
Too much to ask that these issues attract cross party non political policies?
Damn right.
The Green’s Mojo Mathers comments for the article, but Labour is MIA.
I don’t even know who Labour’s spokesperson is for disability issues….
….and I generally keep up with shit like that…..
Come on Labour…stop the posing and step up…the tide of public opinion is rising in favour of people in this situation….
Oh good, I was just about to see if you were around so I could check some things (might put this up as a post). I can’t tell if her homehelp and personal cares were coming from the MoH or the DHB. Would it matter, or are both means/asset tested despite what the Minister says?
Personal cares are (in this couple’s case) assessed and funded through their local Miserly of Health Disability Support Services’ agency the NASC.
assessment is done, hours allocated and funding is through either a provider or through IF. The assessment is supposed to be on need…but it is very closely tied to “natural supports” (that is who you live with and what support they can unreasonably be expected to provide at no cost.)
In the case of this couple…clearly (to any sighted, rational human being) neither can be expected to provide personal care support to the other.
Home help…IS means tested and can only be funded (through MSD )if you have a community services card and no “natural supports” to do the work.
Obviously, ( heavy long drawn out sigh), in the case of this couple, community services card or not, no reasonable person would expect either of them to be able to perform all the tasks required to keep their home clean to a standard slightly above squalid. Pete will be knackered at the end of his working day…having to do housework on top of that will likely send him to an early grave.
Likewise having to pay from their actually quite limited income for a cleaner… (bet they don’t live in the Paratai Drive equivalent in Christchurch)…will cause significant stress, which would also increase his chances of an early demise.
Unless of course…and no joking or sarcasm here…that is the intended purpose.
Bear in mind those of you who do not have a wheelchair user in the family…floors become dirtier quickly as as yet the techos have not invented the wheelchair with interchangeable tyres twixt the outdoor and in.
Some fuckwit bureaucratic with megalomaniacal tendencies has has taken the rule book and used it to punish this couple for having the sheer audacity to think that when they say “go live and ordinary life disabled person…we will support you to do this” they actually mean’t it.
What this couple should have done…is simply not told anyone they were a couple.
Hidden their relationship.
The system…set up under Labour…always left plenty of room for the exploiting of loopholes.
Right..back to emptying the shit tanks on my Bus.
….and speaking of shit, so far it seems that Farrar’s Ferals haven’t started in on Amy and Peter yet. David Garrett is usually up for a spot of cripple bashing of a morning….
Thanks Rosemary. I understand how the NASC works, and good to have it clarified that home help is means/asset tested. I wasn’t sure from her diagnosis if she would go through the MoH disability funding or the DHB chronic illness funding (can’t remember if that has the same CSC criteria). Just had a quick look online and the MoH sites are saying go to the DHB sites, but I can’t find anything on them.
I wanted to put the article out to people on TS who wax lyrical about a UBI and then state that supplementary income benefits can be paid via Health because it’s so much better than WINZ. I’d like them to see that Health is often just as fucked up as Welfare, but people don’t like hearing that.
“…via Health because it’s so much better than WINZ.”
TBH….I have found staff at WINZ who are positively kind compared with NASC staff and their MOH:DSS overlords.
We doooooo have a system here in Godzone that does take an holistic approach to disability supports and living allowances, has a rights and entitlement based protocol and a complaints and review mechanism….
….we call it ACC…and if I remember rightly Labour actually ran the idea of extending it to all with permanent impairments up the flagpole to see if it fluttered…what came of that????
The words had no sooner left my fingertips when Stuff post this…http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/88811571/tetraplegic-mum-her-partner-and-4yearold-live-in-a-van
Tracey is covered by ACC…so why the hell aren’t they paying for her and her family to stay in a motel?
Ye gods and little fishes…is being a fuckwit a prequisite for working for Housing NZ, WINZ, ACC and MOH:DSS et al?
The Auckland Spinal Rehab Unit has small one bedroom accessible units available….file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Auckland%20Spinal%20Unit%20Patient%20booklet%202016.pdf
….if Tracey has a pressure sore she should be in the ASRU having it treated, and her husband and daughter should be put up in one of these on site units.
How hard is this…
Also, there is TASC… http://tasc.org.nz/ theoretically “peer support”.
I couldn’t agree more, Labour are MIA or tacit at best on nearly all issues concerning the disenfranchised, working and poor..except when it comes to policing them it seems, then they have that centrist shill Nash breathing fire…what about Little showing us some fire in his belly for the citizens who have little or no voice, isn’t that what Labour exists for?…well it should.
“…for the citizens who have little or no voice,”
Ah! But the disabled DO have “voices”…advocacy groups (funded by the Government 😉 ) to speak on behalf of ALL disabled people.
Again…Labour did it too. (Though admittedly National, with the help of traitor Turia, ensured that ONLY these government funded groups get to speak out officially on disability issues.)
Trump (greatest president since Reagan): America gets back it’s borders.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824407390674157568
This family was kicked out a motel because they “couldn’t show they’d been looking for a private rental”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/88811571/tetraplegic-mum-her-partner-and-4yearold-live-in-a-van
Absolutely typical of how Social Welfare operates, and not one jot of a legal basis for it. Then when there’s publicity they burst into action.
How many other people are on the receiving end of treatment like this? If it’s a “rule” that not being able to show you’ve been looking for a private rental results in being chucked out of emergency motel accommodation (regardless of how fair or correct or legal that “rule” might be) then you can bet your house on it there’s a whole bunch more.
Tens of thousands.
It is silly to have people find their own housing, given that they wouldnt have been going to MSD for emergency housing if they wernt looking because they would have found a place to live.
There really needs to be some sort of matching program for rentals in place, rather than telling people to bugger off and find their own place.
And if a tetraplegic woman who cannot control her own bowel movements is left to rot in a van, then what hope do the rest of us have if we find ourselves needing stable housing?
And good on her man for sticking by her through all this. A lesser man would have slung his hook for the first bimbo that waved her legs at him.
“And good on her man for sticking by her through all this. A lesser man would have slung his hook for the first bimbo that waved her legs at her.”
There is so much wrong with what you’re saying here that even gabby old me can’t think where to start.
Don’t, please don’t comment on a person’s relationship in these terms again. Ever.
The rest of your comment is ok. 🙂
Prentice will probably ban me for a couple of weeks for that comment. He banned me for 2 months for a comment I made about that gay bar massacre last year that was more tamer than that.
So I had better float my idea of DHB’s and ACC running their own social housing for clients such as her. There is a case for it.
[lprent: The most common reason for a banning is because a commenter trying to start fires rather than debates. I can’t remember what I banned you for because I simply don’t bother remembering details. If I need to I can always look them up. However I do have mental notes on your typical behaviours gained over any years. You :-
1. Often try to enhance a debate that is proceeding reasonably well by trying to pour petrol on it.
2. Will proceed to personally abuse anyone who pulls you up on it and generally act like a idiotic libertarian.
So I have a canned response as a result. If you start acting like a pyromaniac arsehole – I douse you immediately without any hesitation. Don’t whine about it. But perhaps you should consider your own behaviour that built that reaction. ]
Prentice should do some re-programming….apologies for my snipe, it’s only manners to offer some education when someone’s inadvertently stuffed up….so here…http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachelle-friedman/10-things-you-shouldnt-say_b_4334039.html kinda basic, but you’ll get the drift.
“So I had better float my idea of DHB’s and ACC running their own social housing for clients such as her. There is a case for it.”
Oh dear…and you’re trying so hard!
Disabled people don’t want to live with other disabled people just because they are disabled. If that makes sense?
All houses should be built with accessible features. This is not hard. The traditional Kiwi single story house can very easily be built as an accessible home. Piece of piss really, and I’ve no idea why they make such a fuss about it.
Its an actual ‘thing’….http://www.superseniors.msd.govt.nz/finance-planning/choosing-where-you-live/universal-design.html
If all of the theoretical hundred thousand or so of new social houses are NOT based on Universal Design…then they really are a bunch of fwits.
I mean individuals having their own flats, but modified, etc. Having disabled people flat together isnt a really good idea, given the informaton that comes out of those care homes every so often.
“If all of the theoretical hundred thousand or so of new social houses are NOT based on Universal Design…then they really are a bunch of fwits.”
No guarantees there, across the parties. Other nations like the UK manage to make the basic universal access features like level entrances and wider doorways compulsory in new *private* housing but our backwoods clowns can’t yet manage it in all public stock.
Just watch the panic as the boomer population surge arrives at that lifestage where such things are no longer optional.
The peace dividend.
/
War with the US under Donald Trump is “not just a slogan” and becoming a “practical reality”, a senior Chinese military official has said.
The remarks were published on the People’s Liberation Army website, apparently in response to the aggressive rhetoric towards China from America’s new administration.
They communicated a view from inside the Central Military Commission, which has overall authority of China’s armed forces.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-donald-trump-war-us-military-official-practical-reality-president-latest-a7550601.html
A twitter thread about Trump with David Seymour:
Seymour doesn’t want to be “inconsistent” and he can’t condemn every silly (!) thing that has happened in the world – not that he was asked – so he does exactly nothing. If he had kept his mouth shut (on Twitter) he would have been more consistent and would be looking less like a political weakling. Show some guts, David!
David Seymour is one of the silly things that has happened in the world.
Nice but dim.
“There you are, that’s the quality of celebrity that Trump has behind him.”
Angelina Jolie’s moronic old man can’t handle being questioned over his support for Twitler….
eric and junior will be delighted
/
With the ascension of President-elect Donald Trump, Republicans see an opportunity to roll back the Endangered Species Act, which has become one of the government’s most powerful conservation tools. The GOP contends the act has been used by wildlife advocates to block economic development and to hinder drilling, logging and other activities. Over the past eight years, Republican lawmakers have sponsored dozens of measures aimed at curtailing the landmark law. Almost all were blocked by Democrats and the White House or lawsuits from environmentalists.
https://www.yahoo.com/digest/20170117/gop-makes-plans-invalidate-endangered-species-act-00837573
This guy Mike Malloy can be a very riveting commentator if one likes his style – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4emO2sOC50o
Donald Trump is afraid of stairs.
So it wasn’t necessarily an affectionate holding of hands after all.
[…]
But Government sources in Washington DC were suggesting that the hand-holding was not as a result of a deep and lasting friendship after all.
The insider said that Mr Trump is known to have an aversion to slopes or stairs, and said this could have been the reason for the president’s decision to grasp the Prime Minister’s hand.
Such a fear is a recognised condition – called bathmophobia.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/28/revealed-real-reason-donald-trump-theresa-may-held-hands-not/
Jeez, his hands look even smaller than hers!
Just in case you missed it, it seems war mongering is now official USA policy. Be afraid be very afraid.
Whatever problems there are in the U.S., one thing’s for sure:
that “certifiable lunatic” Alex Jones is NOT the answer.
This is a 2013 clip featuring Jeremy Scahill….
I suggest that People have a bit of fun with this movie here – on youtube
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/second_civil_war/
but not before they watch this
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/
and they might want to read this
https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/
and then they might get an idea who Pence is, Ryan, Haley and all the others that want to bring “god” back to the US, and only do ‘gods work’ and be ‘godly’ and such.
i also suggest that when you have done so you have available lots of chocolate and a furry beast for cuddles. Cause…..reasons.