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.
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
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Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
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My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
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Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee 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 One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 29 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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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….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar448_fTd8w
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 !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEPWgMXut_8
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.