Here is probably one of the most insightful, balanced and nuanced overviews on the War in the Ukraine that I have come across…if you have any real interest in this conflict and you are getting sick of all the straight up propaganda being shoved down your throat from all sides, then you owe it to yourself to give it a listen…i..
“Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. on what provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine, what motivates Putin, and where it might all go”
Zelenskyy's complaints concerning lack of support from the West seems to underline the ambiguity of the saying: "with friends like that, who needs enemies."
The Quincy Institute’s mission is to move U.S. foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace. Like all of our work, our approach to the Russia-Ukraine war is guided by this priority and the basic tenets of the international relations theories of realism and restraint. This framework leads us to the following conclusions:
We categorically condemn Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and support U.S. assistance for Ukraine’s self-defense.
A protracted war will inflict grave damage on the people of Ukraine, while also harming our NATO allies, and the world as a whole, including Americans.
Direct conflict between the United States and Russia risks potential nuclear weapons use and avoiding it therefore must be America’s top priority.
In light of these realities, the United States should play an active role in seeking a negotiated peace that preserves Ukrainian sovereignty and independence.
U.S. diplomatic efforts should recognize Ukraine’s critical role in negotiations, but should also recognize that as the most powerful nation on earth and the largest supporter of the Ukrainian war effort, the U.S. has a major role to play in seeking peace.
This U.S. role, and the damage to the U.S., European and global economies stemming from the war, also give the U.S. administration critical cause to play a part in seeking a peace settlement.
The United States should avoid advancing maximalist war aims such as regime change in Russia, which cuts off possibilities for compromise or ending the war through diplomacy.
While compromise is difficult in light of Putin’s actions, the costs and risks of an extended war are even greater.
All reasonable points, but the last bullet however understates the matter dramatically. Just this week Russia signs up to a formal agreement to allow shipment of Ukrainian grain out of Odessa and then within 24hrs bombards port facilities and grain silos in that city.
The only possible conclusion you can draw from this egresious act of duplicity is that literally nothing the Kremlin signs up to is worth a tin of shit. You cannot negotiate peace with someone who does not want it.
As the Germans, French, Turks and Israelis have already discovered.
Thank you Francesca. Photos shown seem to support military targets only, and no civilian ships damaged either. Usual propaganda job by big drama queens?
The West does itself no good with such obvious bias in the news media.
There is a certain irony Israel getting involved in the peace talks as it has attacked and murdered Arabs for many decades stealing their land in the process.
Yes the Israeli's literally get away with murder….as we can all quite plainly see, you can when you are protected by the biggest gang boss on the planet.
Israel has no need for protection from the USA – I am confident that they would happily use some of their ample supply of nuclear weapons if they felt a need to.
The USA has certainly been captured by the American Israeli Lobby AIPAC has funneled fuck knows how many tens of millions of dollars to committed pro-Israeli politicians in both Democratic and Republican parties. There is no balance to be had.
"You cannot negotiate peace with someone who does not want it"…Red Logix projecting as usual.
Red really is the text book example of the modern Liberals seamless shift into becoming the most aggressive War Hawks on the planet…nicely put into it’s historical context by Matt Taibbi about half way into this excellent interview….
So just to be clear, I assume you are saying that any political voice going on Tucker Carlson instantly negates them from any political discourse, because of some of Carlson's political views that you (and I) disagree with…
…however I am sure that you are quite OK with anyone going on, lets say…The Guardian, even though they openly attacked and undermined and in no small way helped bring down the most progressive Left Wing politician that the UK has been offered for a couple of generations…. https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/04/24/the-bbc-admits-it-spent-
…probably OK with the BBC too I bet…even though they admitted themselves that they worked for decades with M15 to actively to discredit any serious progressive movement in the UK….and also actively and openly used it's platform to undermine Corbyn…
…no doubt you are Ok with MSNBC and CNN as well….even though it is public knowledge that they worked relentless with the DNC to destroy Bernie Sanders in two election cycles…
Your "anti vax nonsense" is another's actual journalism. You know, using critical thinking and asking some of the hard questions like, why is a potential covid treatment being censored? like journos used to do. Perhaps you're more used to watching TV One news and getting your pandemic information spoonfed and dictated to you.
I'm sorry that you feel the need to cling to nonsense that has been debunked countless times. Nothing has been censored but apparently the simple have to be warned away from abusing inappropriate medications.
"Journalism" is usually grounded in facts, not logical fallacies and conspiracy biases. Why is the broad consensus of the medical and relevant scientific "wrong" but hucksters that play to your personal worldview "right"?
Nothing has been censored but apparently the simple have to be warned away from abusing inappropriate medications.
You're not being specific…but I'm guessing one of those "inappropriate medications" is Ivermectin.
We're all living in very strange times, and we really need to have set standards on what we can accept as 'journalism grounded in facts'.
Just as I have chosen to dismiss as 'lazy and poorly- grounded- in -actual -reality' any article that refers to "pregnant people" or "people with cervixes", so do I automatically discard (with growing and irretrievable contempt) any piece that uses the term "horse de- wormer" when discussing Ivermectin.
Now most of the intelligent folk hanging around these pages will choose not to click on the link provided…just in case you are exposed to the dreaded mis/dis or mal information you have been conditioned to avoid…like the proverbial plague. By the aforenamed journalists.
However…the article is from 2015…pre- pandemic and pre-'fact checking' (censorship by another name) and celebrates the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (not, you will note, Veterinary Science) to the two scientists who discovered and developed this chemical…
… catalogued by the World Health Organisation as an essential medicine and is regarded by many as a "magic bullet" for global health.
Two years ago, before the advent of the Magical Injections That Will Save Us All, this was one of many articles that would pop up when one googled "ivermectin". Usually in the first page.
Barely six months later, even a date specified search would failed to throw up this…and a number of pre-2019 papers… until 10 or so google pages.
A year ago…I abandoned the same search after 20 pages failed to deliver any paper that pre dated 2019, and none that described Ivermectin in the glowing terms that this 2015 paper does.
And to add to the intrigue….the linked to article was first published in 2015. It disappeared, and has now popped up again but this time with Covid 19 messaging embedded.
I guess it is understandable for the majority of MSM readers and believers to fall for the 'horse de-wormer' line if they were ignorant of the existence of this very safe and clearly multi-faceted drug before it hit the headlines as a possible tool in the fight against Covid 19.
In the case on Ivermectin, all clinical trials aside from one in Brazil that was pulled for bad methodology and undeclared conflicts of interest, have shown no evidence that it does anything useful for Covid.
Similarly studies on Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine have shown little prophylactic benefit for treating Covid.
However these are still potent medications and can have profound side-effects, particularly when used outside of very controlled environments under very specific circumstances, which is why best practice is not to use them.
No he said exactly what I have said all along…The Russians (Putin or any other future Russian leader) will never leave the Ukraine unless either defeated militarily, which is not going to happen (except in the fantasies of some uniformed virtual realities created for especially War Hawks) or the Russian state collapses, which is also unlikely…so a negotiated end is inevitable, the only thing unknown is when that will happen…unlike you I hope it is sooner than later.
You know RL, I am beginning to believe that you are the most fanatical ideologue I have ever actually encountered in my entire life…you are as scary as any Right Wing Hawk I have ever met that is for sure….
Invading in Ukrainian winter without sufficient winter uniforms and incurring losses to frostbite.
Invading in winter heading to spring Putin claims to be a student of history. Did he forget the "Rasputitsa" aka "General Mud"?
Having a 40 kilometer long convoy stuck due to being unable to adequately plan and execute the bridge captures necessary
Sending troops to occupy the "Red Forrest" at Chernobyl
Doing a Hitler…
Hitler ate The Saar, Austria, Sudetenland and then the rest of Czechoslovakia – and he was totally surprised that when he invaded Poland the world had got the shits with him and it's war
Putin ate pieces of Georgia, Armenia, Romania and a fat chunk of Ukraine in 2014 – and he was totally surprised that when he invaded Ukraine again the world had got the shits with him and is arming the Ukraine more and more.( and they aren't going to stop)
I could keep going but frankly it seems that Putin has already demonstrated prodigious hubris, narcissism and has rapidly become a world class example of Dunning-Kruger
Interestingly Putin apparently does not use the internet personally. Worse still virtually all the people he interacts within the Kremlin will come from a security services background, and as with all dictators nobody wants to bring him bad news.
If you think Western elites tend to be insular and isolated from the consequences of their actions – Russia's leader is an order of magnitude worse.
I think perhaps Putin is more perceptive than any of us. I think he foresees that sooner or later Russia will find itself in a defensive war against NATO. This invasion is probably a preemptive strike against NATO advancing up to the Russian border.
There isn't any 3D chess in conducting a war predicted to take about three days, and failing to bring it to a conclusion in over 5 months.
Putin failed to calculate the lack of appeal to ordinary Ukrainians, of being made second class citizens in their own country.
Nor is it a preemptive strike – Putin's belligerence has galvanized NATO, and drawn neutrals like Finland, Sweden and even Switzerland into alliance against him.
Russia is now at risk of collapse and partition, which, prior to his most recent error, was not a proximate goal of NATO.
It is not merely the military failure, nor economic consequences that have been costly however. Prior to this adventure, Putin was taken somewhat seriously by the policy makers of other nations. He has blown that credibility, and together with Lavrov has reduced his status to the level of Ahmadinejad – a man who would say absolutely anything without regard for truth.
Show me where it says in the NATO charter that they can attack a sovereign state unprovoked? Russia already has NATO states on its borders – 754 miles across northern Norway, eastern Latvia and Estonia, Poland and Lithuania, and all around the Kaliningrad oblast, so why now?
The situation in Ukraine was somewhat different: there was the fascist takeover in 2014, coupled with the unconstitutional ousting of Yanukovich – accepting an economic assistance deal from Russia does not constitute grounds for dismissing a president, where the normal remedy if the country doesn't approve of it would be to vote him out at the nest election. (Yanukovich offered an immediate election but that wasn't good enough for the fascists, who probably feared that he would just be reelected.) This was then followed by a virtual civil war in the East. The Easterners were merely seeking the introduction of a federal system, which would have given the greater autonomy within the Ukranian state. On top of that, Ukraine's joining NATO would have left Crimea, a territory which had long been an important part of the Eastern block's defensive setup, vulnerable to an invasion by Ukraine, for the benefit of the USA.
I think you know full well that it's going to be horrific for Ukrainians either way but you don't care, otherwise you wouldn't be posturing off their suffering like the second coming of Gandhi – who, by the way, didn't give two sh*ts how many Indians died passively resisting the British either, so why shouldn't they fight?
I have no idea what your comment means…."posturing off their suffering"..what do mean by that?
I have said from the start that there needs to be a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible…"it's going to be horrific for Ukrainians either way but you don't care"….I can't really see how living in the Ukraine (or Russia) with a negotiated peace deal has any sort of 'horrific' comparison at all with being ripped into chunks of meat in some artillery barrage in an unwinnable war?…but maybe you can enlighten me.
Putin is no fool. He will get what he is strong enough to get. I will wait and see. I am rather surprised by so many omniscient armchair gamesters here, pretending to know it all.
Putin's plans versus his results. I think that Russia is very close to it's zenith in this war. They did well in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk but the HIMARS stuffing their ammo dumps has cut them to a crawl. The next big one to watch is of course is Kherson – I anticipate a very heavy and embarrassing casualty toll for Russia there as well as enormous civilian casualties. Russia I believe will lose Kherson allowing Ukraine an easy defensive line using the Dnieper River. Ukraine will then switch to cutting the "land brisge" between the Donbass and the Crimea – that's my armchair reckons
Please dial back the personal attacks. This has been explained to you so many times, it's hard to understand why you don't get it. If you don't like the arguments and can't respond with one of your own, take a step back for a while and then come back to it later.
I tend to support Russia in this particular conflict rather than Putin himself. It seems to be be accepted that this is a proxy war between the USA and Russia. It is also an open secret that USA is attempting to become the hegemon in a unipolar world that it is hoping to bring about. I find strange that you should be supporting the USA in this endeavor.
Russia is rapidly running low on cannonfodder. I'm sure they'd be delighted if you volunteered. That would be a more practical way of supporting them rather than playing armchair apparatchik.
You cannot negotiate peace with someone who does not want it.
Zelenskyy says that there will be no peace treaty that does not include the return of territories gained by Russia. As Russia will, rightly in my opinion given the war that has been going on in the east since 2014, want to hold on to those territories. I think we would have to say that it's Ukraine that that is holding up peace negotiations.
It's my opinion the Ukrainian nationalists have been spoiling for a fight right from the beginning; which of course would not exonerate Russia but, as they say, it takes two to tango.
Zelenskyy says that there will be no peace treaty that does not include the return of territories gained by Russia.
Interesting you should choose to whitewash Russian invasion as 'territory gained'.
As Russia will, rightly in my opinion given the war that has been going on in the east since 2014, want to hold on to those territories
Well that makes it pretty clear – you are fully supporting Putin's invasion judging by your use of language here. It seems pretty unequivocal to my reading, but maybe I am wrong.
I think we would have to say that it's Ukraine that that is holding up peace negotiations.
Your demand that Ukraine should surrender clearly places you on the Russian side of this war. Which is fine – it's your choice to enable a fascist, revanchist imperial war. This will not be forgotten.
Why do you demand that? I myself am highly ambivalent about the obviously one-sided propaganda we are fed, but I see no reason why that proves that I must therefore be a supporter of that most vile and hated enemy..
Ukraine has been a major supplier of grain to the poorer parts of Africa, and to the aid agencies that sometimes assist them. Maintaining relationships with steady customers ought not to be difficult to understand – even when it involves advising them that due to force majeure, supplies may be shorter than usual.
A rep for NOVA Ukraine, a nonprofit that spreads awareness of the war while providing aid to Ukrainians, tells TMZ the article was "brilliantly written" … wondering if the people criticizing the story even read it.
Your demand that Ukraine should surrender clearly places you on the Russian side of this war. Which is fine – it's your choice to enable a fascist, revanchist imperial war. This will not be forgotten.
I see Russia conducting a defensive war against NATO imperialism. You don't see things that way, but that's your problem.
Yet you can never come up with a convincing explanation as to what aspect of "Nato imperialism™" Russia is actually defending itself from? This is nothing to do with Nato, which, as apparently has to be repeated ad nauseum, a defence pact that the US has a lot less control over than you would like to believe. And even if that were the case, since when has Nato or even the US launched an unprovoked attack on a nuclear power? Hint, never, because even the most blinkered narcissist of the US Military-Industrial Complex™ fervently believes in MAD. And in any case there is no moral justification for a pre-emptive attack where there is no evidence of an attack to pre-empt. Surely that much is obvious to even the most logically and morally challenged?
“Yet you can never come up with a convincing explanation as to what aspect of "Nato imperialism™"
I'm picking Comrade Putin has observed the Eastward movement of NATO and formed a view as to what this advance means for Russia. Such a view would appear likely to differ from yours. Are you confident enough, or arrogant enough, to say that your view would be right, and Putin's view wrong. After all Putin is embroiled in the thick of things, while you are merely a distant observer.
Gosh I can't imagine why countries near Russia, land of hugs and rainbows, led by President Carebear could possibly want to join a defense pact… Yes, Putin's view likely does differ from mine because I'm not an expansionist imperialist warmonger. Imperialism is bs regardless of who engages in it. Let it be known that I do not, and never will, be a cheerleader for fascists and imperialist aggressors.
NATO moved nowhere – it is not a kind of moveable, mechanised beast lumbering across the Great Northern European Plains like something impossible out of Mortal Engines.
It is in fact an alliance of sovereign nations that choose to be it's members – and in every instance where they had an unfettered choice between a prosperous, liberal Europe and Putin's kleptocracy they voted for the former.
That this made Putin anxious is a matter of his insecurities, not Europe's.
NATO moved nowhere – it is not a kind of moveable, mechanised beast lumbering across the Great Northern European Plains like something impossible out of Mortal Engines.
This seems a pretty disingenuous thing to say. However, since you cannot really deny NATO's advance Eastward, I guess there’s not much else you can say.
Your denial of multiple European nations agency in choosing to become members of NATO is the disingenuous act here. NATO did not move anywhere, it did not invade them, it did not force them to subsume their sovereignty, it made none a puppet or client state.
That this provoked Putin's paranoid insecurities is Russia's problem, not Europe's.
That this provoked Putin's paranoid insecurities is Russia's problem, not Europe's.
It looks as if Putin's "paranoia" is everybody's problem, given his reaction to the Ukranian threat. But, as I said in another comment on this post, "fools walk in where wise men fear to tread".
Your demand that Ukraine should surrender clearly places you on the Russian side of this war. Which is fine – it's your choice to enable a fascist, revanchist imperial war. This will not be forgotten.
It's curious that you should equate peace talks with surrender.
If countries bordering Russia want to be safe, it would seem sensible not to join NATO, but rather, to observe a strict neutrality, particularly if Ukraine's experience is anything to go by, . However, they say "fools walk in where wise men fear to tread".
PS to moderator: sorry about the username blunder. It has now been corrected.
Putin's Russia has attacked and occupied parts of non-NATO members.
Putin's Russia has gone out of its way not to attack NATO members.
Ergo: there is something wrong with your logic.
Henry Kissinger seems to agree with me, going by remarks made by him at a recent conference. He was more than likely thinking of the damage being done to the world economy, but he is of the opinion that Ukraine should sue for peace and cede territory to Russia.
Would you say that Kissinger is some sort of Russophile.
He is also of the opinion that countries in between Russia and Europe should maintain a politically neutral stance.
I would say Kissinger is some sort of pseudo-realist war criminal and well-known Putin advisor and confidant. If that's the gutter you want to lie down in, feel free.
I think you need to get your facts straight. Kissinger was an American diplomat, and an adviser to presidents He seemed to have a talent for brokering peace deals. It's a pity he was not around when Biden learned of Russia's impending invasion.
Kissinger certainly got lots done. For a war criminal.
He helped Nixon sabotage Vietnamese peace talks for his own political gain, expanded the Vietnam war into Laos and Cambodia and approved every single one of the nearly 4K US bombing raids on Cambodia that dropped 110K tons of munitions and killed between 150,000 and 500,000 civilians.
Kissinger championed Pakistan in its war against Bangladesh despite ample evidence of war crimes and he was knee-deep in organising the violent coup that ousted the Allende government and installed Pinochet's neocon Junta.
And in 1975 he tacitly supported Suharto, a mass murderer responsible for deaths of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians and the bloody conquest of East Timor.
Even so, I don't think he was an advisor to Putin, which was the point I was making. I also think he is shrewd political observer who should be listened to, even if his advice concerning the Ukraine situation, doesn't seem to be in America's interests.
I think you need to get your facts straight. Kissinger was an American diplomat, and an adviser to presidents He seemed to have a talent for brokering peace deals. It's a pity he was not around when Biden learned of Russia's impending invasion.
Dude, lol. Is this your standup routine? It's definitely the best laugh I've had in ages. I think you need to read Christopher Hitchens' The Trial of Henry Kissinger (2001) just for starters. Kissinger is easily one of the worst ('alleged' if you insist) war criminals of the 20th century! His machinations directly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in South East Asia! It's a rare conflict in the second half of last century he didn't have his bloody fingers in. And Kissinger being friendly with Putin seems to be one thing the international left and the Q-Anon nutters agree on.
In 2007, Kissinger and Primakov were appointed by Putin to co-chair a bilateral "working group" of Russian and American political insiders to tackle issues such as global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear threats.
I imagine that Clarke has had the advantage of a high-priced lawyer to get the apology he did out the media group NZME. Most people don't have that advantage and can do very little if their reputation is smeared.
Perhaps he could try and get his partner to come out with an apology to the much lower income young lady who was humiliated and had her reputation trashed by the PM back in the very early days of the Covid 19 outbreak.
Would it really hurt the PM to admit that her attack on a young KFC worker may have been unfair? Why do so many of our politicians find it impossible to admit that, even if they may have had the best of intentions, they have made a mistake?
"A Facebook post by the official Unite against COVID-19 website – run by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – backs up Case L's claims, saying she and her sister were "not required to isolate" at the time they went to work. "
Clarke has got his apology for having been defamed. Can't he see if he can get the same type of apology from his partner to Case L?
alwyn, at my fav sports club I have tolerated mumblings among right-wingers about rumours about Clarke for weeks on end. It is relevant and now. And it stinks.
I don't think I will hear them mumbling any more. They won't want it mentioned!
The rumours were vile dirty politics, once again from the Right.
Your exaggerated concern about an unknown and largely unaffected KFC worker who has been forgotten by almost everyone (including, probably, the worker herself) will be of effect only if you can get that worker to sue for compensation.
Go for it alwyn – I will respect you if you can make something of it.
I see. Just one of the common people so we don't have to worry.
"will be of effect only if you can get that worker to sue for compensation."
That is the problem. Someone in her position cannot possibly afford to take on the full financial weight of the state. That is why she just has to tolerate the remarks.
Regardless of what you may think about the current political party funding legislation – the NZF case appears to have highlighted a massive hole in enabling secret donations to be channelled to political parties.
The two defendants were found 'not guilty' — not on the matter of substance – the Judge found “comprehensive evidence [the defendants] deployed the dishonest scheme in order to deceive the party and party secretary” — but rather an apparent loophole in the legislation – "payments are donations only if they are given directly to a political party or to people engaged “in the administration of the affairs of the party”. Because the defendants were not involved in NZ First’s day-to-day running, the payments were deemed not to be party donations, and there was no obligation to disclose them."
Not a lawyer, here – but this seems like a perverse interpretation of the law IMHO.
In any case, I would hope that the government would be moving very swiftly to close the loophole (whether perceived or actual) before the end of the year – and certainly before the heavy fundraising campaigns that arise in election year.
I, as a NZ citizen, absolutely want to know exactly who is making substantial donations to any political party. And, in addition, I think that any foundation or trust funnelling donations to a Party should have to disclose the source of that money.
This can only be seen as a deliberate (and clearly successful) attempt to evade Electoral donations legislation. And needs to be very firmly addressed.
Given the ever-present potential for money to buy political favours, this openness is an essential means by which a democracy’s integrity is maintained.
The government has just introduced a bill to require names for donors with a lower-than-current level of donation, and to require annual accounts published. It would be an easy task to include provisions to make all donations which benefit a Political party or campaign (regardless of source) required to be disclosed according to the Act; and to put some serious penalties in place for those attempting to evade the law.
“New Justice Minister Kiri Allan has asked officials to look at this urgently. Some fear the rush to close the loophole before next year’s election will lead to bad law. But that is surely a much smaller risk than the risk of doing nothing at all, and thus giving undisclosed money free reign.”
The government has just introduced a bill to require names for donors with a lower-than-current level of donation, and to require annual accounts published. It would be an easy task to include provisions to make all donations which benefit a Political party or campaign (regardless of source) required to be disclosed according to the Act; and to put some serious penalties in place for those attempting to evade the law.
This might sound like a reasonable way to go, but I don't think it would work in practice. It does not take human nature into account. There are many historical accounts of people who were bullied, intimidated and lost their jobs (some were never able to get another job) because they were politically linked to the Labour Party. There is no guarantee it would not happen again.
Thousands of people make donations to political parties but many would not do so if they thought their $50 per annum donation was going to end up on a publicly available list.
It is the big financial donors who are the problem. There is plenty of evidence that big money brings access to, and power over the recipient political party. These big donors by and large don't want their identities to be known and hence the growth of these Ponzi schemes whereby they can donate as much as they like in the names of other persons – or through some sort of trust – without revealing who they are.
Its been going on for decades. The first political party to operate this latest swindle was ACT, starting in the 1990s. At the time the level of disclosure was $10,000. This piece of information came direct to me from the horses mouth.
That's certainly a level I can live with (both for the protection of individuals, and for the administrative burden that declaring $5 would put on the party concerned).
What I *don't* want to see is large sums being donated secretly – either filtered through 'trusts' or broken up into just under $5K segments.
And this should be relatively easy for a change in legislation to address (or at least *attempt* to address)
And the penalties for electoral fraud need to be seriously increased – this is not a minor crime, but cuts directly to the protection of democracy.
An obvious automatic penalty is confiscation – although we want to go after corrupt persons perverting the democratic process, potential loss of donations will make parties inclined to keep good records of who donated what.
A second obvious rule is to require that donors be registered voters. If someone cannot legally vote, then there is no reason they should be allowed to influence the process.
Very difficult to require donors to be registered voters for the small sums. And I can see advantages to collating smaller sums into trust or organizational bank accounts (e.g. the local Labour Party running a raffle or a fundraising event).
Organizations have also historically make donations on behalf of their members or their owners (the big trade unions come into this category, as well as individual businesses – who often donate equal sums to both main parties).
What I would like to see is that each organization making a donation over $5K have to sign a statutory declaration that either no individual has donated more than 5K that year, or that those individuals or organizations are listed. An anonymous trust would have to declare which individuals made the donation.
I agree that loss of the money is one penalty, however, I'd like to see actual financial and criminal penalties for donors and parties failing to declare donations, or obviously gaming the system to try and avoid having to make a declaration. Much like the crime of tax evasion.
Unions of course have large membership lists – and these days usually require membership permission to donate. There would be little difficulty collecting numbers of voters to validate a donation.
Trusts are purpose built for tax evasion and similar nefarious purposes – if rules don't capture them then the rules will be evaded.
It specifies people would have to be registered as born female to participate as players (it is not possible for the transgender to change their birth certificate ID in the UK).
The review and consultation concluded that detailed peer-reviewed research provides evidence that there are physical differences between those people whose sex originally recorded as male and those as female at birth, and advantages in strength, stamina and physique brought about by testosterone and male puberty are significant and retained even after testosterone suppression.”
Trans identified males who represent as women are 'banned' from playing rugby with and against the non males aka women for safety reasons.
Trans identified females who present as men are not banned from playing rugby with and against the no n males aka women. (however Testesterone levels might be checked as it is a banned substance and falls under doping)
Trans Identified Men can continue to play rugby with males.
And i guess this game here last year had something to do with that ruling.
The BBC reports one biological male who plays on a women's team after transitioning from male to female is hurting his own teammates. The team captain recalls one time when she folded an opponent "like a deckchair."
The team's coach even told the television network, "She's going to be a good, good player for the next few years, as long as we can stop her injuring players in training."
Personally i do hope that they start creating their own leagues as clearly there is a need and thus a market.
But they have only been 'banned' from playing against women, not from playing rugby altogether, or from playing rugby on an international level. They just have to play within their own sex category, which is that of males.
However as Trans Rights Activists now claim entire male without hormone replacement therapy and sex re-assignement surgery are considered Transwomen.
Maybe we should have our non male rugby players play against our male rugby players to assure ourselves of course that there would be no physical difference and that of course the non males would smoke the males, cause there is no physical difference, and no non male would ever be hurt in a tackle by a male.
Shaw has received an endorsement from former Greens MP Kevin Hague, who was with the party from 2008 to 2016.
Hague came second to Shaw in a leadership contest in 2015 after former Greens co-leader Russel Norman vacated the role.
You know, some people might be surprised to hear me say it but I think James absolutely is the right person to be the leader, and he has my support," Hague told host Simon Shepherd.
"I think he's actually done a really good job of taking the party into Government and achieving things while in Government. I think he's been a good minister."
But Hague said Shaw had achieved some "really difficult things" when it came to climate change. "He's been able to achieve some things that are really difficult to achieve, such as the consensus of parties around climate change and establishing the Climate Change Commission," Hague said.
"That's really necessary architecture for the kind of climate response that we need to make as a country and it's really James, who deserves the credit for that.
"He has actually achieved more as minister than every previous minister, every previous Government put together before him."
"I know a lot of people who will find this hard to believe but he's the sanest amongst them by far
Which is kind of sweet, so on behalf of the Greens I'd like to say that Brooke Olivia van Velden is by far the sanest of the ACT party caucus and they should consider promoting her to co-leader.
Back during the Kevin Rudd era the ALP had gotten a sufficient support for a carbon tax regime across the Australian Federal Parliament – but at the last minute the AGP pulled the rug out from the deal 'because it wasn't good enough'.
In the resulting fallout Australia spent a decade politically tearing itself apart and failing to make progress.
The inclusion of a carbon tax/tariff in international trade is one of the best ways to incentivise action by corporates (and include all nations in taking action).
Same thing is happening right now in Australia, and the Greens are indeed responsible on two key votes for a decade of inaction in Australia on climate change.
As the immediate past CEO of Forest and Bird with its 80,000plus members, getting Hague's endorsement is very powerful. That is more members than Labour, National and the Greens put together.
James Shaw should also be credited with implementing carbon trading for New Zealand as a binding cross-Parliamentary plan.
He ought be justifiably proud of taking climate change mitigation out of political contest essentially forever.
Whether the plan was Green Party policy or not is quite immaterial despite the usual purist fools complaining.
Here he is outlining the full plan himself just two months ago.
I am hoping that the Green Party morons who would prefer to fall apart rather than celebrate the wins they have, could look again at Shaw's actual political and environmental achievement. As a Forest and Bird member for decades Shaw together with Hague's endorsement is the only reason I would consider switching to voting GReen.
I'm no fan of Shaw, he's not that sort of political leader, but he is effective in the parliamentary orbit as a "technocrat". And at least one of the Greens co-leaders needs to have this capability within their skill-set.
If Labour has 6 more in Cabinet as good as James Shaw we would get some shit done. In the end end that alone is what we elect people into government to do.
Agree. I can't see it in the current configuration, but in saying that i can also see this current configuration break, if comments from relatives in Germany are anything to go by.
Yes, that is what i expect from the german industry, politics, education and so on and so forth.
a. change needs to come, now it is forced.
b. what can we keep, what must we replace and how to.
c. nuclear is one option.
the germans will do what the germans do, innovate, co-ordinate with others – this is something we will see in industry happening, and in the end hopefully come up with something that is marketable and sellable. New Technology.
However, unless you curb energy demands you will never create enough energy. Again as i said yesterday, this does not only affect Germany, see the tweet up top that i posted this morning about England which forcasts a double in Energy prices for pretty much any and every household in England. Lol. Also as i posted yesterday, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, etc. This is going to be a european wide issue, and i would assume a world wide issue.
So yes, they should discussing using Nuclear Power, and all sorts of other measures until they can safely get any nuclear reactors back running in Germany.
Italy,Spain,and Greece have reduced reliance on Russian gas,and are using north african,so have limited exposure to direct shock.The UK also has limited exposure to Russian gas,as it come from Norway and the N/S ( a limited amount feedsback from Europe on the interconnected loop).
The indirect risk is that gas is a commodity,and tradeable hence demand for LNG and gas effects all Europe as there is a substantive inter connection in pipelines in northern europe,and electricity across the continent.
Germany/Holland/ so called renewable sources are problematic with Biomass for example,the reduction in peakload power stations to maintain frequency levels (the sustainable peakers being a change from Nuc to gas over the last 20 years) it is only when a system is stress tested,do we find the reality.
There is no energy source that will not be a detriment to nature. It does not matter if you cut a tree to burn it, damn a river, or put up a windmill made from cut trees.
What should be considered is however do we continue to escalate our energy need and learn to live to a life where electricity will cost so much that most of us can't afford it. Or are we going to slow down our own usage immediatly, apply passive measures to reduce our electricty usage.
Like a Junkie will do everything for the next fix, will we do the same?
If the supply of Gas is the real issue for the world wide escalating energy prices then it was a totally avoidable crisis and the leaders of our world should have done their citizens a better deal then what they are offering.
Or the availability of gas in both holland and germany,which has been curtailed due to sensitivity with fracking,which is not sensitive when you use US fracked LNG.
this current crisis is a man made crisis. it need not be.
you however need to ask yourself if you like the people in europe could afford to heat your house if prices were to get to that point here, and what could you do to minimize the damage when this man made crisis hits us.
"What we wanted to see and what we needed to see from these guys was a plan to keep a lid on inflation.
"I'm not sure there's anyone out there who thinks that this is going to make a difference."
Stanford doesn't believe it's enough.
Brilliant, opposes it as inflationary, she supports the focus on limiting inflation but ALSO wants more money to go to people to spend.
On Monday, about 2.1 million Kiwis will see the first portion of the payment arrive in their bank accounts. The $350 payment is split across three months, with New Zealanders who earn $70,000 or less and who aren't entitled to the Winter Energy Payment eligible.
A study out this week found one-in-four Kiwis are struggling to make ends meet at least once a month.
Wood on Friday said the payment is a "good news story".
"It's targeted at people on lower and middle incomes," he said. "We do know those pressures are there and this is a targeted, practical thing that we can do just to take a little bit of pressure off."
Inland Revenue (IRD) published advice about the payment given to ministers on May 4. It showed Treasury "recommended against progressing a broad-based payment" and that IRD believed administering it would have "critical operational impacts" and "compromise" its "already stretched workforce".
Anyone who wants the payment only needs to supply their bank account to IRD so they can process it (any tax refunds can only be paid if someone has supplied their bank account to IRD – so some will get more money than this payment if they do this).
ps
National's main proposal is to index tax thresholds to inflation, which would in effect raise the thresholds and mean New Zealanders have to pay less in tax. Criticism of that has centred on the suggestion it would mean the Government would have less revenue to spend on public services.
There is no economic difference in inflationary impact between spending by government or taxpayers.
But one of the two results in a reduction in the capacity to achieve for the common good – such as a better resourced health system and investment in infrastructure (water and housing).
"There is no economic difference in inflationary impact between spending by government or taxpayers."
That depends on where the money came from, and how you define spending.
Borrowed or printed money spent by the government is most certainly inflationary. Additional money put into the hands of wage earners via tax cuts and then used to, for example, pay debt, is not.
There is also the philosophical issue of who should spend the money and on what. This government has massively increased the numbers of civil servants, with poor outcomes in health, housing and other areas. More spending doesn't, ipso facto, lead to better results. I would argue it is preferable to return more money to individuals pockets, reduce government spending, and allow those individuals to decide where they spend their own money.
No, because that would qualify under the 'where the money comes from' criteria. Printing money can result in higher inflation, and almost always so when an economy is at capacity, as ours has been given labour/immigration/supply constraints.
Borrowed or printed money spent by the government is most certainly inflationary. Additional money put into the hands of wage earners via tax cuts and then used to, for example, pay debt, is not.
That's it. An individual paying debt is not inflationary. Of course some economists argue paying off debt in times of high inflation is not a good strategy, but that's a whole different topic.
Russia’s population shrank by a record average of 86,000 people a month between January and May, state statistics agency Rosstat has said.
The decline surpasses the previous record contraction of 57,000 people a month in 2002, when Russia’s population shrank to 145.3 million from nearly 146 million the previous year.
Russia’s population has fallen to 145.1 million after a decline of 430,000 people, according to Rosstat’s latest demographic report.
The rate of Russia’s population decline has almost doubled since 2021 and nearly tripled since 2020, according to The Moscow Times’ Russian service.
Russia claimed that Ukraine's military used multiple US-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People's Republic. Separatist authorities and Russian officials said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded another 75.
A Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson, Lt General Igor Konashenkov, described the strike as a “bloody provocation” aimed at discouraging Ukrainian soldiers from surrendering.
The state RIA Novosti agency reported that fragments of US-supplied precision High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rockets were found at the site.
The Ukraine military denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka, and it accused the Russians of shelling the prison to cover up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called for a “strict investigation” into the attack and urged the United Nations and other international organisations to condemn it. He said the Russians had transferred some Ukrainian prisoners to the barrack that was hit just a few days before the strike, suggesting that it was planned.
“The purpose – to discredit Ukraine in front of our partners and disrupt weapons supply,” he tweeted.
Ukraine’s security agency, the SBU, said it had intercepted phone calls “in which the occupiers confirm that Russian troops are to blame for this tragedy”.
The intercepted conversations indicate that the Russians may have placed explosives in the prison, the agency said in a statement. “In particular, none of the eyewitnesses heard any missile”
In addition, online video footage showed that the windows remained whole in some rooms of the facility, according to the SBU. That "indicates that the epicentre of the explosion was inside the destroyed building, and its walls took the hit from the blast waves, protecting some of the neighbouring rooms”.
Maybe some of us are tired of getting 100% favourable to Ukraine, 9-yr-old-reading-level propaganda served up day after day and being expected to drink it all in?
Lord forbid that we should be given even a brief glimpse of an alternative view?
There is no alternative view of the documented incidences of rape, child rape, mutilation, murder, torture, abduction, destruction, looting and pillaging by Russian forces.
They're war crimes. It's what the Russian army does and has always done.
So go fuck yourself with your alternative view, you POS.
I doubt you'd be able to recognize propaganda if it lept up an bit you on the arse joe ..hate to rain on your parade but even msm is starting to question the official narrative 7.5 k comments on this vid since yest and the collective amazement at a reporter actually telling the truth is palpable !!
Well this is an interesting game? What's the "alternative view™" to war crimes against civilians and an invasion off the back of no discernable sign of reasonable threat?
NATO encirclement is a nonsense – a miniscule % of Russia's borders, and, and as new generation weapons are demonstrating, his 19th century view of distance or 'strategic depth' is less important every day.
Putin was merely pining for the days when Europe up to the wall in Germany was under his boot. Well, he's not getting it back.
Yes, of course I have, and none of it makes any justifiable sense.
Is Russia encircled by NATO? No. The world is round. You could just as easily argue that NATO is encircled by Russia because it covers a fifth of the planet surface. Not that it matters anyway because ICBMs aren't geographically constrained.
Is NATO suddenly on Russia's border? No. Russia has shared borders with NATO states since NATO was first created. Again it's irrelevant because you don't have to share a border to send a bomber, an ICBM or even an aircraft carrier.
Can NATO attack Russia unprovoked? No. That would be explicitly against NATO's charter.
So really Russia's only issue is loss of geopolitical influence over a former territory that is now a sovereign state. This is what you are defending as a justification for war.
So really Russia's only issue is loss of geopolitical influence over a former territory that is now a sovereign state.
Expanding on your comment – Peter Zeihan outlines the classic geopolitical reasoning for Russia's deep strategic desire for defense in depth – and why they perceive need to expand their region of control up to the borders of the Soviet empire.
Crucially this argument is made from the Russian perspective, and explains at a geopolitical and historic level the paranoia that is so evident in their current actions. These are deep cultural sensibilities that are not easily set aside, no matter how irrational they are in the moment.
Secondly there are roughly 240m people in the list of nations that Russia would have to absorb in order to placate this paranoia. The idea these people and nations should be forever subservient to a kleptocratic Putinocracy is utterly bogus.
The clip is less than 4 min and was made 5 years ago. Decently prescient.
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki is facing a careless driving charge after allegedly crossing the centre line and smashing into a car with two elderly people inside.
The summary alleges Tamaki's entire vehicle was in the opposing lane in the path of the oncoming vehicle.
Monty Henry, who lives nearby, told the Rotorua Daily Post Weekend this week that he and his fellow neighbour rushed to help when they heard the crash.
Henry said Tamaki mentioned he was driving his brother-in-law's vehicle and his brother-in-law was in the passenger seat.
Henry said he instantly knew who he was when he saw him.
"I said 'what are you up to numb nuts?' And I said 'oh you're lucky God is on your side'."
Their message was delivered and heard. The Gases of Discontent have been vented. Some non-lethal battle-hardening won't be wasted. The Greens are more self-aware and stress-tested than before. All is well.
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
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Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
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The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
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The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Here is probably one of the most insightful, balanced and nuanced overviews on the War in the Ukraine that I have come across…if you have any real interest in this conflict and you are getting sick of all the straight up propaganda being shoved down your throat from all sides, then you owe it to yourself to give it a listen…i..
“Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. on what provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine, what motivates Putin, and where it might all go”
https://kpfa.org/episode/behind-the-news-march-3-2022/
Zelenskyy's complaints concerning lack of support from the West seems to underline the ambiguity of the saying: "with friends like that, who needs enemies."
You might have done better to have gone directly to the source:
Red
I seem to have read that no grain silos were hit,only military targets
Please link to reports of grain silos hit.
The agreement refers to civilian assets ,not military
Thank you Francesca. Photos shown seem to support military targets only, and no civilian ships damaged either. Usual propaganda job by big drama queens?
The West does itself no good with such obvious bias in the news media.
There is a certain irony Israel getting involved in the peace talks as it has attacked and murdered Arabs for many decades stealing their land in the process.
Yes the Israeli's literally get away with murder….as we can all quite plainly see, you can when you are protected by the biggest gang boss on the planet.
Two thoughts pop to mind.
Israel has no need for protection from the USA – I am confident that they would happily use some of their ample supply of nuclear weapons if they felt a need to.
The USA has certainly been captured by the American Israeli Lobby AIPAC has funneled fuck knows how many tens of millions of dollars to committed pro-Israeli politicians in both Democratic and Republican parties. There is no balance to be had.
"You cannot negotiate peace with someone who does not want it"…Red Logix projecting as usual.
Red really is the text book example of the modern Liberals seamless shift into becoming the most aggressive War Hawks on the planet…nicely put into it’s historical context by Matt Taibbi about half way into this excellent interview….
I'm surprised he finds time in between shilling anti-vax nonsense and polishing Tucker Carlson's shoes.
So just to be clear, I assume you are saying that any political voice going on Tucker Carlson instantly negates them from any political discourse, because of some of Carlson's political views that you (and I) disagree with…
…however I am sure that you are quite OK with anyone going on, lets say…The Guardian, even though they openly attacked and undermined and in no small way helped bring down the most progressive Left Wing politician that the UK has been offered for a couple of generations….
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/04/24/the-bbc-admits-it-spent-
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2008/S00085/how-the-guardian-betrayed-not-only-corbyn-but-the-last-vestiges-of-british-democracy.htm
https://monthlyreview.org/2022/02/01/anatomy-of-a-propaganda-campaign-jeremy-corbyns-political-assassination/
https://novaramedia.com/2017/01/08/how-the-guardian-changed-tack-on-corbyn-despite-its-readers/
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/jul/19/yes-jeremy-corbyn-has-suffered-a-bad-press-but-wheres-the-harm
…probably OK with the BBC too I bet…even though they admitted themselves that they worked for decades with M15 to actively to discredit any serious progressive movement in the UK….and also actively and openly used it's platform to undermine Corbyn…
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/04/24/the-bbc-admits-it-spent-decades-conspiring-with-mi5-to-stop-a-left-wing-uk-government/
https://inforrm.org/2017/01/27/media-bias-against-jeremy-corbyn-shows-how-politicised-reporting-has-become-tom-mills/
…no doubt you are Ok with MSNBC and CNN as well….even though it is public knowledge that they worked relentless with the DNC to destroy Bernie Sanders in two election cycles…
https://inthesetimes.com/press-releases/breaking-investigation-finds-bias-in-msnbcs-democratic-primary-coverage
FOX HAS BEEN “MORE FAIR”: WHY BERNIE’S TEAM HAS HAD IT WITH MSNBC
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/fox-has-been-more-fair-why-bernies-team-has-had-it-with-msnbc
https://www.thewrap.com/hillary-clinton-donna-brazile-debate-cnn/
Your lack of political insight comes as no surprise….at all.
Your "anti vax nonsense" is another's actual journalism. You know, using critical thinking and asking some of the hard questions like, why is a potential covid treatment being censored? like journos used to do. Perhaps you're more used to watching TV One news and getting your pandemic information spoonfed and dictated to you.
I'm sorry that you feel the need to cling to nonsense that has been debunked countless times. Nothing has been censored but apparently the simple have to be warned away from abusing inappropriate medications.
"Journalism" is usually grounded in facts, not logical fallacies and conspiracy biases. Why is the broad consensus of the medical and relevant scientific "wrong" but hucksters that play to your personal worldview "right"?
Nothing has been censored but apparently the simple have to be warned away from abusing inappropriate medications.
You're not being specific…but I'm guessing one of those "inappropriate medications" is Ivermectin.
We're all living in very strange times, and we really need to have set standards on what we can accept as 'journalism grounded in facts'.
Just as I have chosen to dismiss as 'lazy and poorly- grounded- in -actual -reality' any article that refers to "pregnant people" or "people with cervixes", so do I automatically discard (with growing and irretrievable contempt) any piece that uses the term "horse de- wormer" when discussing Ivermectin.
https://www.isglobal.org/en/healthisglobal/-/custom-blog-portlet/ivermectina-un-medicamento-de-nobel-pero-poco-accesible/91127/0
https://elpais-com.translate.goog/elpais/2015/10/09/planeta_futuro/1444409075_981919.html?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
Now most of the intelligent folk hanging around these pages will choose not to click on the link provided…just in case you are exposed to the dreaded mis/dis or mal information you have been conditioned to avoid…like the proverbial plague. By the aforenamed journalists.
However…the article is from 2015…pre- pandemic and pre-'fact checking' (censorship by another name) and celebrates the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (not, you will note, Veterinary Science) to the two scientists who discovered and developed this chemical…
… catalogued by the World Health Organisation as an essential medicine and is regarded by many as a "magic bullet" for global health.
Two years ago, before the advent of the Magical Injections That Will Save Us All, this was one of many articles that would pop up when one googled "ivermectin". Usually in the first page.
Barely six months later, even a date specified search would failed to throw up this…and a number of pre-2019 papers… until 10 or so google pages.
A year ago…I abandoned the same search after 20 pages failed to deliver any paper that pre dated 2019, and none that described Ivermectin in the glowing terms that this 2015 paper does.
And to add to the intrigue….the linked to article was first published in 2015. It disappeared, and has now popped up again but this time with Covid 19 messaging embedded.
I guess it is understandable for the majority of MSM readers and believers to fall for the 'horse de-wormer' line if they were ignorant of the existence of this very safe and clearly multi-faceted drug before it hit the headlines as a possible tool in the fight against Covid 19.
In the case on Ivermectin, all clinical trials aside from one in Brazil that was pulled for bad methodology and undeclared conflicts of interest, have shown no evidence that it does anything useful for Covid.
Similarly studies on Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine have shown little prophylactic benefit for treating Covid.
However these are still potent medications and can have profound side-effects, particularly when used outside of very controlled environments under very specific circumstances, which is why best practice is not to use them.
You got busted because I did some basic homework and showed that your source didn't really say what you wanted it to.
And in response you throw a tanty. And quit with fake neutrality, you are not fooling anyone.
No he said exactly what I have said all along…The Russians (Putin or any other future Russian leader) will never leave the Ukraine unless either defeated militarily, which is not going to happen (except in the fantasies of some uniformed virtual realities created for especially War Hawks) or the Russian state collapses, which is also unlikely…so a negotiated end is inevitable, the only thing unknown is when that will happen…unlike you I hope it is sooner than later.
You know RL, I am beginning to believe that you are the most fanatical ideologue I have ever actually encountered in my entire life…you are as scary as any Right Wing Hawk I have ever met that is for sure….
The Russians will never leave the Ukraine unless either defeated militarily,
well it's going to make Tsushima Strait look like a skirmish
which is not going to happen
It's happening already.
or the Russian state collapses,
History suggests that the defeat will collapse the Putin version of the Russian state. That was the outcome of the loss of Rozhestvensky's fleet.
I fear that your comparison may prove to be tendentious, Stuart.
Do you really believe that Putin is as stupid as the Tsar of the time?
Stupid?
Invading in Ukrainian winter without sufficient winter uniforms and incurring losses to frostbite.
Invading in winter heading to spring Putin claims to be a student of history. Did he forget the "Rasputitsa" aka "General Mud"?
Having a 40 kilometer long convoy stuck due to being unable to adequately plan and execute the bridge captures necessary
Sending troops to occupy the "Red Forrest" at Chernobyl
Doing a Hitler…
Hitler ate The Saar, Austria, Sudetenland and then the rest of Czechoslovakia – and he was totally surprised that when he invaded Poland the world had got the shits with him and it's war
Putin ate pieces of Georgia, Armenia, Romania and a fat chunk of Ukraine in 2014 – and he was totally surprised that when he invaded Ukraine again the world had got the shits with him and is arming the Ukraine more and more.( and they aren't going to stop)
I could keep going but frankly it seems that Putin has already demonstrated prodigious hubris, narcissism and has rapidly become a world class example of Dunning-Kruger
Well, he should be plunged into retreat any moment, shouldn't he?
Interestingly Putin apparently does not use the internet personally. Worse still virtually all the people he interacts within the Kremlin will come from a security services background, and as with all dictators nobody wants to bring him bad news.
If you think Western elites tend to be insular and isolated from the consequences of their actions – Russia's leader is an order of magnitude worse.
It is less stupidity than foolishness that we see in Putin – he's a clever man, sure – but not wise.
His military victories to date have in general been the result of escalating conflicts against much smaller states – his first was Chechnya.
Overwhelming force is an appealing substitute for strategy. ~ Kez Maefele
It doesn't work so well when you struggle to achieve it, or when your opponent, the dirty dog, has plans of his own.
"… he's a clever man, sure – but not wise."
That's what you can expect from a narcissistic sociopath. His counter-part in the USA is Trump of course. No wonder they liked each other.
I wonder what would have happened if Trump had been re-elected. It hardly bears thinking about.
I think perhaps Putin is more perceptive than any of us. I think he foresees that sooner or later Russia will find itself in a defensive war against NATO. This invasion is probably a preemptive strike against NATO advancing up to the Russian border.
Putin is merely more perceptive than you.
There isn't any 3D chess in conducting a war predicted to take about three days, and failing to bring it to a conclusion in over 5 months.
Putin failed to calculate the lack of appeal to ordinary Ukrainians, of being made second class citizens in their own country.
Nor is it a preemptive strike – Putin's belligerence has galvanized NATO, and drawn neutrals like Finland, Sweden and even Switzerland into alliance against him.
Russia is now at risk of collapse and partition, which, prior to his most recent error, was not a proximate goal of NATO.
It is not merely the military failure, nor economic consequences that have been costly however. Prior to this adventure, Putin was taken somewhat seriously by the policy makers of other nations. He has blown that credibility, and together with Lavrov has reduced his status to the level of Ahmadinejad – a man who would say absolutely anything without regard for truth.
Show me where it says in the NATO charter that they can attack a sovereign state unprovoked? Russia already has NATO states on its borders – 754 miles across northern Norway, eastern Latvia and Estonia, Poland and Lithuania, and all around the Kaliningrad oblast, so why now?
Russia already has NATO states on its borders
The situation in Ukraine was somewhat different: there was the fascist takeover in 2014, coupled with the unconstitutional ousting of Yanukovich – accepting an economic assistance deal from Russia does not constitute grounds for dismissing a president, where the normal remedy if the country doesn't approve of it would be to vote him out at the nest election. (Yanukovich offered an immediate election but that wasn't good enough for the fascists, who probably feared that he would just be reelected.) This was then followed by a virtual civil war in the East. The Easterners were merely seeking the introduction of a federal system, which would have given the greater autonomy within the Ukranian state. On top of that, Ukraine's joining NATO would have left Crimea, a territory which had long been an important part of the Eastern block's defensive setup, vulnerable to an invasion by Ukraine, for the benefit of the USA.
I think you know full well that it's going to be horrific for Ukrainians either way but you don't care, otherwise you wouldn't be posturing off their suffering like the second coming of Gandhi – who, by the way, didn't give two sh*ts how many Indians died passively resisting the British either, so why shouldn't they fight?
I have no idea what your comment means…."posturing off their suffering"..what do mean by that?
I have said from the start that there needs to be a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible…"it's going to be horrific for Ukrainians either way but you don't care"….I can't really see how living in the Ukraine (or Russia) with a negotiated peace deal has any sort of 'horrific' comparison at all with being ripped into chunks of meat in some artillery barrage in an unwinnable war?…but maybe you can enlighten me.
Whether or not I care is beside the point. I suggest leave off the the ad hominem arguments (if indeed you can call them arguments).
Odd though how the outcomes you promote always serve Putin's interests.
God you are one dimensional…a flat piece of paper would have more contours than the thinking you bring to this topic.
A flat piece of paper? Like a map of Eurasia with a clearly demarked border between Russia and Ukraine?
Putin is no fool. He will get what he is strong enough to get. I will wait and see. I am rather surprised by so many omniscient armchair gamesters here, pretending to know it all.
Putin's plans versus his results. I think that Russia is very close to it's zenith in this war. They did well in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk but the HIMARS stuffing their ammo dumps has cut them to a crawl. The next big one to watch is of course is Kherson – I anticipate a very heavy and embarrassing casualty toll for Russia there as well as enormous civilian casualties. Russia I believe will lose Kherson allowing Ukraine an easy defensive line using the Dnieper River. Ukraine will then switch to cutting the "land brisge" between the Donbass and the Crimea – that's my armchair reckons
Please dial back the personal attacks. This has been explained to you so many times, it's hard to understand why you don't get it. If you don't like the arguments and can't respond with one of your own, take a step back for a while and then come back to it later.
Thanks Weka – I value your role in this area.
Debates on this topic on TDB have rapidly descended into volleys of 9-yr-old insults, and participation has become all but pointless.
Curious, to my mind, that this topic above all arouses the faux patriotic beasts.
I tend to support Russia in this particular conflict rather than Putin himself. It seems to be be accepted that this is a proxy war between the USA and Russia. It is also an open secret that USA is attempting to become the hegemon in a unipolar world that it is hoping to bring about. I find strange that you should be supporting the USA in this endeavor.
Russia is rapidly running low on cannonfodder. I'm sure they'd be delighted if you volunteered. That would be a more practical way of supporting them rather than playing armchair apparatchik.
I'm pretty sure Russia can do without my assistance. However, you seem unable to do without the use of ad hominem arguments.
Well mikesh in the grand scheme of things ad hominem is less offensive than cheering on slaughter.
You cannot negotiate peace with someone who does not want it.
Zelenskyy says that there will be no peace treaty that does not include the return of territories gained by Russia. As Russia will, rightly in my opinion given the war that has been going on in the east since 2014, want to hold on to those territories. I think we would have to say that it's Ukraine that that is holding up peace negotiations.
It's my opinion the Ukrainian nationalists have been spoiling for a fight right from the beginning; which of course would not exonerate Russia but, as they say, it takes two to tango.
Zelenskyy says that there will be no peace treaty that does not include the return of territories gained by Russia.
Interesting you should choose to whitewash Russian invasion as 'territory gained'.
As Russia will, rightly in my opinion given the war that has been going on in the east since 2014, want to hold on to those territories
Well that makes it pretty clear – you are fully supporting Putin's invasion judging by your use of language here. It seems pretty unequivocal to my reading, but maybe I am wrong.
I think we would have to say that it's Ukraine that that is holding up peace negotiations.
Your demand that Ukraine should surrender clearly places you on the Russian side of this war. Which is fine – it's your choice to enable a fascist, revanchist imperial war. This will not be forgotten.
Are you putting us down in your notebook, Redlogix?
Bookmarking will do.
I wouldn't mind so much if mikesh just came out and honestly declared his support for Putin.
Why do you demand that? I myself am highly ambivalent about the obviously one-sided propaganda we are fed, but I see no reason why that proves that I must therefore be a supporter of that most vile and hated enemy..
What is driving you?
A justified nausea at what Russia is doing in Ukraine probably.
Zelensky and his wifes latest Vogue photo shoot was quite nauseating imo.
And what to make of his zoom call to African leaders,which was basically ignored by most of them.
Ukraine has been a major supplier of grain to the poorer parts of Africa, and to the aid agencies that sometimes assist them. Maintaining relationships with steady customers ought not to be difficult to understand – even when it involves advising them that due to force majeure, supplies may be shorter than usual.
https://www.tmz.com/2022/07/29/president-zelensky-vogue-cover-shoot-defend-ukraine-organization/
Meh. Annie Leibovitz only has one way of taking photographs. You should have spent more time reading the article.
Your demand that Ukraine should surrender clearly places you on the Russian side of this war. Which is fine – it's your choice to enable a fascist, revanchist imperial war. This will not be forgotten.
I see Russia conducting a defensive war against NATO imperialism. You don't see things that way, but that's your problem.
Just so – a defensive war conducted by invading a peaceful neighbour.
At least mikesh contents himself with butchering the English language.
Peaceful neighbour???
Yes, a peaceful neighbour.
Ukraine did not fund an insurgency into Russia – the boot is on the other foot.
The so called "peaceful neighbor" had been bombing the Donbas area since 2014.
So about the same length of time as Russia has been funding insurgents in Donbass? How strange.
Yet you can never come up with a convincing explanation as to what aspect of "Nato imperialism™" Russia is actually defending itself from? This is nothing to do with Nato, which, as apparently has to be repeated ad nauseum, a defence pact that the US has a lot less control over than you would like to believe. And even if that were the case, since when has Nato or even the US launched an unprovoked attack on a nuclear power? Hint, never, because even the most blinkered narcissist of the US Military-Industrial Complex™ fervently believes in MAD. And in any case there is no moral justification for a pre-emptive attack where there is no evidence of an attack to pre-empt. Surely that much is obvious to even the most logically and morally challenged?
“Yet you can never come up with a convincing explanation as to what aspect of "Nato imperialism™"
I'm picking Comrade Putin has observed the Eastward movement of NATO and formed a view as to what this advance means for Russia. Such a view would appear likely to differ from yours. Are you confident enough, or arrogant enough, to say that your view would be right, and Putin's view wrong. After all Putin is embroiled in the thick of things, while you are merely a distant observer.
Gosh I can't imagine why countries near Russia, land of hugs and rainbows, led by President Carebear could possibly want to join a defense pact… Yes, Putin's view likely does differ from mine because I'm not an expansionist imperialist warmonger. Imperialism is bs regardless of who engages in it. Let it be known that I do not, and never will, be a cheerleader for fascists and imperialist aggressors.
NATO moved nowhere – it is not a kind of moveable, mechanised beast lumbering across the Great Northern European Plains like something impossible out of Mortal Engines.
It is in fact an alliance of sovereign nations that choose to be it's members – and in every instance where they had an unfettered choice between a prosperous, liberal Europe and Putin's kleptocracy they voted for the former.
That this made Putin anxious is a matter of his insecurities, not Europe's.
Otherwise what pop said.
NATO moved nowhere – it is not a kind of moveable, mechanised beast lumbering across the Great Northern European Plains like something impossible out of Mortal Engines.
This seems a pretty disingenuous thing to say. However, since you cannot really deny NATO's advance Eastward, I guess there’s not much else you can say.
Your denial of multiple European nations agency in choosing to become members of NATO is the disingenuous act here. NATO did not move anywhere, it did not invade them, it did not force them to subsume their sovereignty, it made none a puppet or client state.
That this provoked Putin's paranoid insecurities is Russia's problem, not Europe's.
That this provoked Putin's paranoid insecurities is Russia's problem, not Europe's.
It looks as if Putin's "paranoia" is everybody's problem, given his reaction to the Ukranian threat. But, as I said in another comment on this post, "fools walk in where wise men fear to tread".
Actually it's more like former Soviet satellites moving westward, metaphorically speaking.
Your demand that Ukraine should surrender clearly places you on the Russian side of this war. Which is fine – it's your choice to enable a fascist, revanchist imperial war. This will not be forgotten.
It's curious that you should equate peace talks with surrender.
Because the Kremlin has made their terms very clear. How on earth do you get any thinking done in something that small?
If countries bordering Russia want to be safe, it would seem sensible not to join NATO, but rather, to observe a strict neutrality, particularly if Ukraine's experience is anything to go by, . However, they say "fools walk in where wise men fear to tread".
PS to moderator: sorry about the username blunder. It has now been corrected.
Putin's Russia has attacked and occupied parts of non-NATO members.
Putin's Russia has gone out of its way not to attack NATO members.
Ergo: there is something wrong with your logic.
Henry Kissinger seems to agree with me, going by remarks made by him at a recent conference. He was more than likely thinking of the damage being done to the world economy, but he is of the opinion that Ukraine should sue for peace and cede territory to Russia.
Would you say that Kissinger is some sort of Russophile.
He is also of the opinion that countries in between Russia and Europe should maintain a politically neutral stance.
What is that even supposed to mean for an independent autonomic sovereign country? It cannot form economic ties with nations from either side?
If such country smiles to the left it’ll be invaded by/from the right and vice versa if it winks to the right it’ll cop if by/from the left?
You may want to link to good ole Henry’s speech.
You may want to link to good ole Henry’s speech.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/world/europe/henry-kissinger-ukraine-russia-davos.html
PS: I think we all know what neutrality really means
I cannot read the article, but thanks anyway.
So, what does it mean, according to you? Are we playing Scrabble or mind games here?
I would say Kissinger is some sort of pseudo-realist war criminal and well-known Putin advisor and confidant. If that's the gutter you want to lie down in, feel free.
I think you need to get your facts straight. Kissinger was an American diplomat, and an adviser to presidents He seemed to have a talent for brokering peace deals. It's a pity he was not around when Biden learned of Russia's impending invasion.
Kissinger certainly got lots done. For a war criminal.
He helped Nixon sabotage Vietnamese peace talks for his own political gain, expanded the Vietnam war into Laos and Cambodia and approved every single one of the nearly 4K US bombing raids on Cambodia that dropped 110K tons of munitions and killed between 150,000 and 500,000 civilians.
Kissinger championed Pakistan in its war against Bangladesh despite ample evidence of war crimes and he was knee-deep in organising the violent coup that ousted the Allende government and installed Pinochet's neocon Junta.
And in 1975 he tacitly supported Suharto, a mass murderer responsible for deaths of hundreds of thousands of Indonesians and the bloody conquest of East Timor.
/
Are you quite as simultaneously bemused and scandalised as I am?
More bilious than bemused. And disgusted.
Even so, I don't think he was an advisor to Putin, which was the point I was making. I also think he is shrewd political observer who should be listened to, even if his advice concerning the Ukraine situation, doesn't seem to be in America's interests.
Dude, lol. Is this your standup routine? It's definitely the best laugh I've had in ages. I think you need to read Christopher Hitchens' The Trial of Henry Kissinger (2001) just for starters. Kissinger is easily one of the worst ('alleged' if you insist) war criminals of the 20th century! His machinations directly resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in South East Asia! It's a rare conflict in the second half of last century he didn't have his bloody fingers in. And Kissinger being friendly with Putin seems to be one thing the international left and the Q-Anon nutters agree on.
In 2007, Kissinger and Primakov were appointed by Putin to co-chair a bilateral "working group" of Russian and American political insiders to tackle issues such as global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear threats.
https://thenewamerican.com/kissinger-putin-and-the-new-world-order/
So?
New York Times – Putin's 'old friend' Kissinger in 2013
Henry Kissinger to Meet With Vladimir Putin in Russia – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Or knowing you, you may prefer RT
Putin meets ‘old friend’ Kissinger visiting Russia — RT World News
So?
Ouch.
https://twitter.com/bankaudits1/status/1552972531694534658
Mate Centrica Gas only made 1.3 billions pounds profit think of all those share dividends that will benefit the 'worthy' /sarc
I think they call it 'disaster capitalism' and we are in the midst of it, and they are feeding of us.
I am pleased both cases have been settled.
Clark Gayford has had lies and innuendo to deal with, no case to answer and the liars are charged.
Young Nat who redirected Effeso Collins Face book to his rival has been out.
Some one more tech savy than I am might like to post those two items.
They follow in the footsteps a of Andrea Vance's book. imo
Here you go, Patricia
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300649590/clarke-gayford-receives-apology-and-settlement-for-broadcast-of-baseless-lies
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-mayoralty-young-nat-tristram-speedy-confirms-link-to-fake-efeso-collins-website-address/HCZMXWHNJII25MLUI2RLOQN3C4/
Thank you Belladonna.
correction' Efeso.'
I imagine that Clarke has had the advantage of a high-priced lawyer to get the apology he did out the media group NZME. Most people don't have that advantage and can do very little if their reputation is smeared.
Perhaps he could try and get his partner to come out with an apology to the much lower income young lady who was humiliated and had her reputation trashed by the PM back in the very early days of the Covid 19 outbreak.
Would it really hurt the PM to admit that her attack on a young KFC worker may have been unfair? Why do so many of our politicians find it impossible to admit that, even if they may have had the best of intentions, they have made a mistake?
"A Facebook post by the official Unite against COVID-19 website – run by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – backs up Case L's claims, saying she and her sister were "not required to isolate" at the time they went to work. "
Clarke has got his apology for having been defamed. Can't he see if he can get the same type of apology from his partner to Case L?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/03/growing-calls-for-an-apology-after-unite-against-covid-19-post-contradicts-jacinda-ardern.html
https://www.teaomaori.news/sorry-word-case-l-may-never-hear-government
alwyn, at my fav sports club I have tolerated mumblings among right-wingers about rumours about Clarke for weeks on end. It is relevant and now. And it stinks.
I don't think I will hear them mumbling any more. They won't want it mentioned!
The rumours were vile dirty politics, once again from the Right.
Your exaggerated concern about an unknown and largely unaffected KFC worker who has been forgotten by almost everyone (including, probably, the worker herself) will be of effect only if you can get that worker to sue for compensation.
Go for it alwyn – I will respect you if you can make something of it.
"an unknown and largely unaffected KFC worker".
I see. Just one of the common people so we don't have to worry.
"will be of effect only if you can get that worker to sue for compensation."
That is the problem. Someone in her position cannot possibly afford to take on the full financial weight of the state. That is why she just has to tolerate the remarks.
alwyn
Your touching concern for the underdog is noted and appreciated.
It's great to see the national party's managed to create such a strong succession plan.
Regardless of what you may think about the current political party funding legislation – the NZF case appears to have highlighted a massive hole in enabling secret donations to be channelled to political parties.
The two defendants were found 'not guilty' — not on the matter of substance – the Judge found “comprehensive evidence [the defendants] deployed the dishonest scheme in order to deceive the party and party secretary” — but rather an apparent loophole in the legislation – "payments are donations only if they are given directly to a political party or to people engaged “in the administration of the affairs of the party”. Because the defendants were not involved in NZ First’s day-to-day running, the payments were deemed not to be party donations, and there was no obligation to disclose them."
Not a lawyer, here – but this seems like a perverse interpretation of the law IMHO.
In any case, I would hope that the government would be moving very swiftly to close the loophole (whether perceived or actual) before the end of the year – and certainly before the heavy fundraising campaigns that arise in election year.
I, as a NZ citizen, absolutely want to know exactly who is making substantial donations to any political party. And, in addition, I think that any foundation or trust funnelling donations to a Party should have to disclose the source of that money.
This can only be seen as a deliberate (and clearly successful) attempt to evade Electoral donations legislation. And needs to be very firmly addressed.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/129418361/max-rashbrooke-undisclosed-money-threatens-next-election
The government has just introduced a bill to require names for donors with a lower-than-current level of donation, and to require annual accounts published. It would be an easy task to include provisions to make all donations which benefit a Political party or campaign (regardless of source) required to be disclosed according to the Act; and to put some serious penalties in place for those attempting to evade the law.
“New Justice Minister Kiri Allan has asked officials to look at this urgently. Some fear the rush to close the loophole before next year’s election will lead to bad law. But that is surely a much smaller risk than the risk of doing nothing at all, and thus giving undisclosed money free reign.”
This might sound like a reasonable way to go, but I don't think it would work in practice. It does not take human nature into account. There are many historical accounts of people who were bullied, intimidated and lost their jobs (some were never able to get another job) because they were politically linked to the Labour Party. There is no guarantee it would not happen again.
Thousands of people make donations to political parties but many would not do so if they thought their $50 per annum donation was going to end up on a publicly available list.
It is the big financial donors who are the problem. There is plenty of evidence that big money brings access to, and power over the recipient political party. These big donors by and large don't want their identities to be known and hence the growth of these Ponzi schemes whereby they can donate as much as they like in the names of other persons – or through some sort of trust – without revealing who they are.
Its been going on for decades. The first political party to operate this latest swindle was ACT, starting in the 1990s. At the time the level of disclosure was $10,000. This piece of information came direct to me from the horses mouth.
"came direct to me from the horses mouth."
I asked the horse whether it had told you this and it says "neigh".
I was told this little gem by a highly placed ACT activist who later became the Party leader.
I should have put a after it.
I believe the latest threshold for donations to be declared is $5,000.
https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/policy/political-donations-over-5k-to-require-declaration
That's certainly a level I can live with (both for the protection of individuals, and for the administrative burden that declaring $5 would put on the party concerned).
What I *don't* want to see is large sums being donated secretly – either filtered through 'trusts' or broken up into just under $5K segments.
And this should be relatively easy for a change in legislation to address (or at least *attempt* to address)
And the penalties for electoral fraud need to be seriously increased – this is not a minor crime, but cuts directly to the protection of democracy.
An obvious automatic penalty is confiscation – although we want to go after corrupt persons perverting the democratic process, potential loss of donations will make parties inclined to keep good records of who donated what.
A second obvious rule is to require that donors be registered voters. If someone cannot legally vote, then there is no reason they should be allowed to influence the process.
Very difficult to require donors to be registered voters for the small sums. And I can see advantages to collating smaller sums into trust or organizational bank accounts (e.g. the local Labour Party running a raffle or a fundraising event).
Organizations have also historically make donations on behalf of their members or their owners (the big trade unions come into this category, as well as individual businesses – who often donate equal sums to both main parties).
What I would like to see is that each organization making a donation over $5K have to sign a statutory declaration that either no individual has donated more than 5K that year, or that those individuals or organizations are listed. An anonymous trust would have to declare which individuals made the donation.
I agree that loss of the money is one penalty, however, I'd like to see actual financial and criminal penalties for donors and parties failing to declare donations, or obviously gaming the system to try and avoid having to make a declaration. Much like the crime of tax evasion.
Unions of course have large membership lists – and these days usually require membership permission to donate. There would be little difficulty collecting numbers of voters to validate a donation.
Trusts are purpose built for tax evasion and similar nefarious purposes – if rules don't capture them then the rules will be evaded.
I too would like to see the crooks punished – most tax evaders escape too however – by design I imagine.
England has extended the ban on transgender from the womens game from the elite level to all levels.
The vote was 33-26.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2022/07/england-s-rugby-and-rugby-league-bodies-ban-transgender-players-from-women-s-game.html
It specifies people would have to be registered as born female to participate as players (it is not possible for the transgender to change their birth certificate ID in the UK).
https://www.planetrugby.com/england-rfu-bans-trans-women-from-playing-womens-rugby/
Trans identified males who represent as women are 'banned' from playing rugby with and against the non males aka women for safety reasons.
Trans identified females who present as men are not banned from playing rugby with and against the no n males aka women. (however Testesterone levels might be checked as it is a banned substance and falls under doping)
Trans Identified Men can continue to play rugby with males.
And i guess this game here last year had something to do with that ruling.
https://calfkicker.com/transgender-rugby-player-injures-three-female-rugby-players/
this here from 2019
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2019/october/broken-bones-vs-hurt-feelings-uk-rugby-refs-quitting-after-bearded-transgender-women-hurt-female-players
Personally i do hope that they start creating their own leagues as clearly there is a need and thus a market.
But they have only been 'banned' from playing against women, not from playing rugby altogether, or from playing rugby on an international level. They just have to play within their own sex category, which is that of males.
and yes you can change your birth certificate :
You cannot change your legal gender or the gender on your birth certificate in the UK without a Gender Recognition Certificate.
https://www.gendergp.com/how-to-change-your-gender-marker-with-your-gp/#:~:text=You%20cannot%20change%20your%20legal,licence%2C%20and%20most%20other%20documents.
and yes it is done
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gender-recognition-certificate-applications-and-outcomes/gender-recognition-certificate-applications-and-outcomes
However as Trans Rights Activists now claim entire male without hormone replacement therapy and sex re-assignement surgery are considered Transwomen.
Maybe we should have our non male rugby players play against our male rugby players to assure ourselves of course that there would be no physical difference and that of course the non males would smoke the males, cause there is no physical difference, and no non male would ever be hurt in a tackle by a male.
As Sabine points out they are not 'banned'.
They are included – without bias – like everyone else, to participate/ compete in their biological sex category.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/07/former-greens-mp-kevin-hague-backs-james-shaw-says-he-s-achieved-more-on-climate-than-every-previous-minister-government.html
Which is kind of sweet, so on behalf of the Greens I'd like to say that Brooke Olivia van Velden is by far the sanest of the ACT party caucus and they should consider promoting her to co-leader.
Back during the Kevin Rudd era the ALP had gotten a sufficient support for a carbon tax regime across the Australian Federal Parliament – but at the last minute the AGP pulled the rug out from the deal 'because it wasn't good enough'.
In the resulting fallout Australia spent a decade politically tearing itself apart and failing to make progress.
The inclusion of a carbon tax/tariff in international trade is one of the best ways to incentivise action by corporates (and include all nations in taking action).
Same thing is happening right now in Australia, and the Greens are indeed responsible on two key votes for a decade of inaction in Australia on climate change.
. Anthony Albanese blames Greens for a decade of climate policy inaction (smh.com.au)
This week Albanese is having to rework his key climate change bill just to secure the support of the Greens before it goes to debate in the House.
Australia Begins Fight for Tougher Climate Legislation to Win Greens Support – Bloomberg
Albanese will need the support of all 12 Green Senators to get this done, as this bit of political analysis shows:
Historic alliance beckons if Greens can work with Australia's Albanese – Nikkei Asia
On their record the Australian Green Party just isn't up to it.
They have a week to prove otherwise. Maybe they should pick up the phone to James Shaw.
Sounds like the Greens are doing the right thing in Australia to me. They are going for an agreement with teeth….with meaning.
Put away your anti Green goggles for a moment Ad and you might see this
The only lens one ever needs is that which measures delivery.
Now is the Greens' chance.
The Greens have little power in this government…it is Labour ruling alone.
If the Greens get 10% and Labour 38% next year (ojala) that is when the Greens could and should deliver.
As the immediate past CEO of Forest and Bird with its 80,000plus members, getting Hague's endorsement is very powerful. That is more members than Labour, National and the Greens put together.
James Shaw should also be credited with implementing carbon trading for New Zealand as a binding cross-Parliamentary plan.
He ought be justifiably proud of taking climate change mitigation out of political contest essentially forever.
Whether the plan was Green Party policy or not is quite immaterial despite the usual purist fools complaining.
Here he is outlining the full plan himself just two months ago.
(143) Climate Change Minister James Shaw announces emissions reduction plan measures | Stuff.co.nz – YouTube
I am hoping that the Green Party morons who would prefer to fall apart rather than celebrate the wins they have, could look again at Shaw's actual political and environmental achievement. As a Forest and Bird member for decades Shaw together with Hague's endorsement is the only reason I would consider switching to voting GReen.
I'm no fan of Shaw, he's not that sort of political leader, but he is effective in the parliamentary orbit as a "technocrat". And at least one of the Greens co-leaders needs to have this capability within their skill-set.
If Labour has 6 more in Cabinet as good as James Shaw we would get some shit done. In the end end that alone is what we elect people into government to do.
Shaw's retention of the co leadership was never in doubt.
Except when his job was re-advertised a week ago.
I'll make a prediction, Germany will make a step to return to nuclear power (either the current coalition or the CD in opposition) by 2024.
Agree. I can't see it in the current configuration, but in saying that i can also see this current configuration break, if comments from relatives in Germany are anything to go by.
The German Federal coalition partners agree with returning to nuclear energy, including the Greens.
Germany rethinks nuclear power exit due to threat of winter energy crunch | Financial Times (ft.com)
rethinking and implementing are two different pair of shoes.
Aye
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nord-stream-gas-row-deepens-gazprom-airs-new-complaints-turbine-2022-07-29/
let's invest in nuclear energy, everything else would be total failure.
All options being explored.
https://twitter.com/BreakoutPoint/status/1551951408689291272?cxt=HHwWkIC9-azl0YkrAAAA
Hmmm…would have thought fireplaces/log burners would be a rare thing in Germany these days….firewood not much good unless you have one.
Yes, that is what i expect from the german industry, politics, education and so on and so forth.
a. change needs to come, now it is forced.
b. what can we keep, what must we replace and how to.
c. nuclear is one option.
the germans will do what the germans do, innovate, co-ordinate with others – this is something we will see in industry happening, and in the end hopefully come up with something that is marketable and sellable. New Technology.
However, unless you curb energy demands you will never create enough energy. Again as i said yesterday, this does not only affect Germany, see the tweet up top that i posted this morning about England which forcasts a double in Energy prices for pretty much any and every household in England. Lol. Also as i posted yesterday, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, etc. This is going to be a european wide issue, and i would assume a world wide issue.
So yes, they should discussing using Nuclear Power, and all sorts of other measures until they can safely get any nuclear reactors back running in Germany.
Italy,Spain,and Greece have reduced reliance on Russian gas,and are using north african,so have limited exposure to direct shock.The UK also has limited exposure to Russian gas,as it come from Norway and the N/S ( a limited amount feedsback from Europe on the interconnected loop).
The indirect risk is that gas is a commodity,and tradeable hence demand for LNG and gas effects all Europe as there is a substantive inter connection in pipelines in northern europe,and electricity across the continent.
Germany/Holland/ so called renewable sources are problematic with Biomass for example,the reduction in peakload power stations to maintain frequency levels (the sustainable peakers being a change from Nuc to gas over the last 20 years) it is only when a system is stress tested,do we find the reality.
There is no energy source that will not be a detriment to nature. It does not matter if you cut a tree to burn it, damn a river, or put up a windmill made from cut trees.
What should be considered is however do we continue to escalate our energy need and learn to live to a life where electricity will cost so much that most of us can't afford it. Or are we going to slow down our own usage immediatly, apply passive measures to reduce our electricty usage.
Like a Junkie will do everything for the next fix, will we do the same?
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nord-stream-gas-row-deepens-gazprom-airs-new-complaints-turbine-2022-07-29/
If the supply of Gas is the real issue for the world wide escalating energy prices then it was a totally avoidable crisis and the leaders of our world should have done their citizens a better deal then what they are offering.
There is a big difference in how you source biomass and how you use it.Or more significantly how it is subsidized (capital) or carbon credits.
It is obviously not sailing across the Atlantic on a full masted clipper.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2021/07/us/american-south-biomass-energy-invs/
Or the availability of gas in both holland and germany,which has been curtailed due to sensitivity with fracking,which is not sensitive when you use US fracked LNG.
this current crisis is a man made crisis. it need not be.
you however need to ask yourself if you like the people in europe could afford to heat your house if prices were to get to that point here, and what could you do to minimize the damage when this man made crisis hits us.
Words of wisdom, Sabine. Sadly, the sort that few humans listen to.
Your middle name wouldn't be Cassandra, would it?
A future National Party leader?
Brilliant, opposes it as inflationary, she supports the focus on limiting inflation but ALSO wants more money to go to people to spend.
Anyone who wants the payment only needs to supply their bank account to IRD so they can process it (any tax refunds can only be paid if someone has supplied their bank account to IRD – so some will get more money than this payment if they do this).
ps
There is no economic difference in inflationary impact between spending by government or taxpayers.
But one of the two results in a reduction in the capacity to achieve for the common good – such as a better resourced health system and investment in infrastructure (water and housing).
"There is no economic difference in inflationary impact between spending by government or taxpayers."
That depends on where the money came from, and how you define spending.
Borrowed or printed money spent by the government is most certainly inflationary. Additional money put into the hands of wage earners via tax cuts and then used to, for example, pay debt, is not.
There is also the philosophical issue of who should spend the money and on what. This government has massively increased the numbers of civil servants, with poor outcomes in health, housing and other areas. More spending doesn't, ipso facto, lead to better results. I would argue it is preferable to return more money to individuals pockets, reduce government spending, and allow those individuals to decide where they spend their own money.
By that logic if the government printed money and paid off debt that would not be inflationary either …
No, because that would qualify under the 'where the money comes from' criteria. Printing money can result in higher inflation, and almost always so when an economy is at capacity, as ours has been given labour/immigration/supply constraints.
That's it. An individual paying debt is not inflationary. Of course some economists argue paying off debt in times of high inflation is not a good strategy, but that's a whole different topic.
What to do when your demographics are imploding?
You kidnap Ukrainian children, of course.
//
Russia’s population shrank by a record average of 86,000 people a month between January and May, state statistics agency Rosstat has said.
The decline surpasses the previous record contraction of 57,000 people a month in 2002, when Russia’s population shrank to 145.3 million from nearly 146 million the previous year.
Russia’s population has fallen to 145.1 million after a decline of 430,000 people, according to Rosstat’s latest demographic report.
The rate of Russia’s population decline has almost doubled since 2021 and nearly tripled since 2020, according to The Moscow Times’ Russian service.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/07/29/russias-population-decline-hits-record-rate-a78437
War, as practiced off the battlefield.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/300649822/russia-and-ukraine-trade-blame-for-deadly-attack-on-pow-prison
Torture chambers, bound bodies of executed men lying in the street, gang rape, child rape, and most recently, the discovery of a video of a Russian soldier using a hobby blade to castrate a bound POW.
But we're expected to believe the criminals version of their most recent crimes?
Really, Joe?
Maybe some of us are tired of getting 100% favourable to Ukraine, 9-yr-old-reading-level propaganda served up day after day and being expected to drink it all in?
Lord forbid that we should be given even a brief glimpse of an alternative view?
There is no alternative view of the documented incidences of rape, child rape, mutilation, murder, torture, abduction, destruction, looting and pillaging by Russian forces.
They're war crimes. It's what the Russian army does and has always done.
So go fuck yourself with your alternative view, you POS.
Yeah, right, believe the lot with no questions.
Silence is tacit support. Tacit support is support. Support is collaboration.
Collaboration enables perpetrators. Enablers share the guilt of perpetrators
Hey there, war criminal.
//
Hi, Super-überlogicman.
I doubt you'd be able to recognize propaganda if it lept up an bit you on the arse joe ..hate to rain on your parade but even msm is starting to question the official narrative 7.5 k comments on this vid since yest and the collective amazement at a reporter actually telling the truth is palpable !!
Well this is an interesting game? What's the "alternative view™" to war crimes against civilians and an invasion off the back of no discernable sign of reasonable threat?
Have you actually tied looking into what Russia saw as a threat?
Sorry – that tied was meant to be 'tried'.
We all have.
NATO encirclement is a nonsense – a miniscule % of Russia's borders, and, and as new generation weapons are demonstrating, his 19th century view of distance or 'strategic depth' is less important every day.
Putin was merely pining for the days when Europe up to the wall in Germany was under his boot. Well, he's not getting it back.
Yes, of course I have, and none of it makes any justifiable sense.
So really Russia's only issue is loss of geopolitical influence over a former territory that is now a sovereign state. This is what you are defending as a justification for war.
So really Russia's only issue is loss of geopolitical influence over a former territory that is now a sovereign state.
Expanding on your comment – Peter Zeihan outlines the classic geopolitical reasoning for Russia's deep strategic desire for defense in depth – and why they perceive need to expand their region of control up to the borders of the Soviet empire.
Crucially this argument is made from the Russian perspective, and explains at a geopolitical and historic level the paranoia that is so evident in their current actions. These are deep cultural sensibilities that are not easily set aside, no matter how irrational they are in the moment.
Secondly there are roughly 240m people in the list of nations that Russia would have to absorb in order to placate this paranoia. The idea these people and nations should be forever subservient to a kleptocratic Putinocracy is utterly bogus.
The clip is less than 4 min and was made 5 years ago. Decently prescient.
The link below represents the headline @ TVNZ news online.
The thing is … Congress includes the Senate …
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/07/30/us-congress-passes-bill-banning-certain-semi-automatic-guns/
“numb nuts” !…I like. Thankfully the 2 People “numb nuts” hit seemingly ok..
The eftpostle must be in reduced circumstances tooling around in a Foton, thought he had higher tastes.
Eftpostle, lol.
"Eftpostle" : ) Well thats going straight to the Memory storage unit !
And yea maybe he was on a look see…..low spec. Bish on a Mish?
Could have been quite different he'd been on his tracto….harley ! : )
Wow only "Careless Driving"? Is the prosecutor a destiny Church member?
Yea got to wonder. There's Careless, Dangerous and Reckless.
Certainly sounded Dangerous?
Tuiono not in the running.
Green MP Teanau Tuiono not running for co-leader (1news.co.nz)
Those anti-Shaw delegates got their asses handed to them.
Their message was delivered and heard. The Gases of Discontent have been vented. Some non-lethal battle-hardening won't be wasted. The Greens are more self-aware and stress-tested than before. All is well.